Complete Game Notes

The Mavericks will enter the final week of the regular season looking to hold onto their third-place finish in the MIAA. They will also be looking for two more wins to help their NCAA tournament resume.

Nebraska-Omaha (18-7, 11-7 MIAA) can finish no higher than its current third-place standing but the Mavericks can be caught by the three teams that enter the week a game behind them. UNO, sixth in the NCAA South Central Region entering the week, hosts Missouri Southern Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Sapp Fieldhouse and then wraps up the regular season Saturday at 3:30 p.m. against Pittsburg State at John Lance Arena.

Missouri Southern is one of those teams a game behind the Mavs in a two-way tie for fifth place. The Lions are 16-9 overall and 10-8 in the league. Pittsburg State is last in the conference and eliminated from postseason play with an 8-17 overall record and 2-16 league mark.

UNO's junior guard Tyler Bullock earned MIAA athlete of the week honor on Tuesday after he averaged 29.5 points a game last week. He moved into second in the conference in scoring, now averaging 18.8 points a game. He's eighth in the conference shooting 50 percent from the field and ninth shooting 84 percent from the free throw line.

Senior guard Andrew Bridger, already near the top in many career categories, moved to second in career assists last week and now has 468.

Following The Mavericks
Thursday's game against Missouri Southern will be broadcast on 90.7 KVNO FM and online at omavs.com/KVNO. Saturday's game at Pittsburg State will be broadcast on 90.7-2 KVNO HD and online at omavs.com/kvnoHD2. Fans can find a link to live video for both games at omavs.com/LiveVideo and fans can find free live stats at omavs.com/LiveStats for Thursday' game and at pittstategorillas.com for Saturday's game.

Most games throughout the year will be available through 90.7 KVNO FM or 90.7-2 KVNO HD. Live stats and will be available for the remainder of the regular season and the MIAA tournament. Fans can find links to all live video, audio and stats through omavs.com/wbb on the schedule page.

The Coaches
UNO head coach Derrin Hansen is in his fifth year at Nebraska-Omaha and overall as a head coach. He is 87-57 with a .604 winning percentage. His winning percentage ranks fourth all-time among UNO coaches with at least four years at the school. Hansen served as the assistant coach at UNO from 1998-2005 before taking over for the 2005-06 season.

Missouri Southern coach Robert Corn is in his 21st season with a 326-268 (.549) record. He led the Lions to the NCAA Elite Eight with an MIAA title in 1999-00 and he was named national coach of the year that season. Corn graduate from Missouri Southern in 1978 and he helped lead the Lions to the NAIA quarterfinal. He coached at Alabama-Birmingham for 10 years as an assistant before coming to MSSU.

Pittsburg State coach Gene Iba is in his 15th and final season with a 260-171 (.603) record in 15 years. He will retire at the end of this season. In 30 years overall as a coach, he's 486-374 (.565). Prior to coming to PSU, he led Baylor to a 98-107 record in seven seasons and he coached Houston Baptist to a 128-96 record in eight years. He's a 1963 graduate of Tulsa and he worked for his uncle, Henry Hank Iba at Oklahoma State while working on his master's.

Hansen Two Wins From Catching McKenna for Third
With 87 wins at UNO, head coach Derrin Hansen is two wins away from catching his predecessor, Kevin McKenna for the second most wins in school history. McKenna coached the Mavs for four seasons and had an 89-33 record from 2001-02 through 2004-05. Bob Hanson is UNO's all-time leader in wins with 382 in 25 seasons from 1969-1994.

The Series
- Missouri Southern's win in Joplin evened the all-time series with UNO at 2-2. Each team has won its home game so far MIAA contests.
- The two also met 1989-90 in a UNO win.
- Pittsburg State leads the series with the Mavericks, 21-15.
- The Mavericks won earlier this year in Omaha, 83-59.
- Nebraska-Omaha topped PSU, 86-78 in the regular season finale last year but the Gorillas beat UNO, 88-86 in overtime earlier in the year.
- Prior to last year, the two hadn't met since 1994-95. The series began in 1954-55.

Bullock Named MIAA Athlete of the Week
Maverick junior guard Tyler Bullock was named the MIAA athlete of the week after he averaged nearly 30 points a game in two big contests last week. He became the first Nebraska-Omaha player to win the award this year.

In perhaps the two biggest games of the season against two of the top teams in the MIAA and the region, Bullock averaged 29.5 points a game and shot 48 percent from the field.

At Central Missouri, ranked No. 3 in the nation and No. 1 in the MIAA and region, Bullock scored 27 points and added five rebounds. He went 11 for 20 from the field and 4 for 4 from the free throw line. Against SBU, tied with UNO at the time for third in the league, he scored 32 points to tie his season high. UNO's go-to player at the end of games, he hit a layup near the end of regulation to help send the game to overtime and in the extra period, he scored eight points. Overall, he went 10 for 24 from the field and he hit a season-high three 3-pointers. Bullock shot 9 of 11 from the free throw line and added six assists and five steals.

In the two games, he averaged 4.5 assists, 4.0 rebounds and 2.5 steals while shooting 87 percent from the line.

Bridger Climbing Charts as Career Winds Down
Senior guard Andrew Bridger moved into second in career assists at UNO, entering the week with 468. Dwayne King is the school's leader with 558 from 1982-86.

Bridger became UNO's 31st member of the 1,000 point club with his fifth point on February 3 against Northwest Missouri, a free throw at 18:52 of the second half. He became just the third player to score 1,000 points with at least 400 assists and 100 steals. Dean Thompson (1980-84) and Calvin Kapels (2002-06) are the two other Mavs in the 1,000 points/400 assists/100 steals club.

Bridger is now 21st at UNO with 1,066 points and he's four away from moving into the top 20. He's tied for sixth in steals with 155 and one away from sixth. Bridger is also in the top 10 in 3-point field goals (sixth with 151).

Mavs Sixth in Region Entering Week
The Mavericks moved up a spot to No. 6 in last week's NCAA South Central Region ranking. They have gone 1-1 since then and another ranking is due this Wednesday.

The South Central Region is made up of the MIAA, Lone Star and Heartland conferences. Eight teams from the region advance to the NCAA tournament. The winners of each conference tournament receives an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament and the remaining five teams are selected from the regional ranking at the end of the regular season.

Bridger Leads MIAA in Assists
Andrew Bridger has six double-figure assist games this year and he leads the MIAA with 6.3 assists a game. His assists average was 12th best in the nation through January 21. The Mavericks are 6-0 when Bridger gets 10 or more assists. Bridger is second in the MIAA with a 1.9 assist/turnover ratio and he's only had more turnovers than assists twice this year.

Bridger is third on the team averaging 11.6 points a game. He's leading the team and he's eighth in the MIAA with an .837 free throw percentage. He's made 32 of 37 (.865) free throws in the final five minutes of games this year.

Bullock Near The Top In Shooting, Scoring
Senior guard Tyler Bullock moved to second in the MIAA in scoring, now with 18.8 points a game. He was third, trailing Southwest Baptist's Matt Rogers, but Rogers has missed recent games due to injury and he hasn't played enough games to qualify for the ranking.

Bullock is shooting .495 from the field, eighth best in the MIAA. Bullock has led UNO in scoring 17 times and he's reached double figures 21 times.

Bullock scored a team season-high 32 points twice this year. He did so last week against Southwest Baptist and he first did it on January 27 in an 82-80 loss to No. 3 Fort Hays State. He was UNO's first 30-point scorer since Michael Jenkins on February 4 in last year's win against Northwest Missouri State. The 32 points scored by by Bullock is the most for a Mav since Jenkins scored 35 on November 17, 2007 against Bemidji State.

Bullock has scored 20 or more points 12 times and seven of those times have come on the road. He averages 20.4 points a game and shoots 49 percent in UNO's road contests. In UNO's road opener at Rockhurst he was 12 for 13 from the field for 28 points and he scored 27 points at No. 3 Central Missouri last week.

Bain Strong Off the Boards and Strong to the Hoop
Junior forward Eugene Bain leads the team with 6.5 rebounds a game and he's fifth with 8.7 points a game. His rebounding average is sixth in the MIAA. Bain has six double-figure rebound games this year and five double-doubles.

Bain scored 12 points with 11 rebounds against Fort Hays State for his team-leading fifth double-double. He leads the team with a .561 field goal percentage but he hasn't attempted enough shots to rank in the MIAA standings.

Curry Scoring Big Inside For UNO
Senior forward Dion Curry scored in double figures in 11 of the first 13 games this year and was averaging 13.0 points a game at that time. Recently, he has scored in double figures in three straight games to average 14.7 a game.

Curry is fourth on the team with 11.3 points a game overall. He's second with 6.2 rebounds a game and he has five double-figure rebound games with four resulting in double-doubles.

Martin Continues Hot Shooting
Junior guard Jeff Martin enters the week with 76 3-pointers this year, the fourth highest single-season total at UNO. Three more make will move him into a tie for third to match Zac Robinson's 2005-06 total of 79.
Martin is first in the MIAA with 3.0 made 3-pointers a game and he's sixth in the conference shooting .422 from long range. Overall, Martin is averaging 12.6 points a game and shooting 43 percent from the field and 42 percent from 3-point range.

Martin opened the year by reaching double figures in scoring in each of the first five games. He's on another streak right now, reaching double figures in six of the last seven games. Overall, he  is second on the team lead with 19 double-figure scoring games.

Newman Strong Off the Boards and Strong Off the Bench
Senior forward Matt Newman has started five straight games and overall, he's averaging 9.5 points a game and 7.7 rebounds as a starter. Overall, he averages 8.4 points and 6.0 rebounds a game.

In his first start this year, Newman had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds against Nebraska-Kearney on December 18. He followed that with another double-double, this time off the bench against Emporia State.

Harris Strong Off The Bench and Strong On the Road
Junior guard Torrian Harris is averaging 7.0 points a game. He has seven total double-figure scoring games this year and five of them have come in MIAA games on the road. Overall, he's averaging 8.9 points a game on the road and shooting 57 percent.

Coming Up
The Mavericks will await their fate in the MIAA postseason tournament. UNO and most of the MIAA wrap up the regular season Saturday. Emporia State and Fort Hays State play Sunday and then the seedings and schedule for the tournament will be announced.