Shooting for Some Records

Two of college basketball’s shooting records are being challenged as the season winds down.

Brendan Haywood of North Carolina went 7-for-7 from the field against Florida State this week to improve his season shooting percentage to 74.5 (143-of-192). That’s just off the record of 74.6 (235-of-315) set by Steve Johnson of Oregon State in 1980-81.

Only five players have broken 70 percent since Johnson set the mark, the last being Oliver Miller of Arkansas at 70.4 in 1990-91.

Clay McKnight of Pacific has missed just three of 75 free throws this season, or 96 percent. That would beat the 95.9 (94-of-98) of Craig Collins of Penn State in 1984-85.

The closest anyone has come since was the 94.4 (84-of-89) by Danny Basile of Marist in 1993-94.

CONFERENCE RECORDS: Last season three teams finished with perfect conference marks (Duke in the Atlantic Coast Conference, College of Charleston in the Southern Conference, Utah in the Western Athletic Conference).

Entering this weekend the same number of schools are working on undefeated league records: Cincinnati in Conference USA, Utah State in the Big West and Penn in the Ivy League.

The number of winless teams could be a lot higher than last season.

In 1998-99, Liberty in the Big South, Baylor in the Big 12 and Lehigh in the Patriot League were the only schools to go winless in league play.

PRECOCIOUS SCORER: George Washington’s SirValiant Brown, who leads the nation in scoring at 25.0 points a game, is trying to become the first freshman ever to finish on top of the annual scoring list.

The top freshman scorer last season was Erik Brown of Morehead State who finished 40th at 19.3.

Leading the Atlantic 10 as a freshman would be old hat, however. That’s happened two of the last three seasons--Donnie Carr of La Salle in 1996-97 and Bevon Robin of Fordham in 1997-98.

SOONER REST: Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson says he may have to change his approach with Eduardo Najera as March approaches.

Najera, the Sooners’ leading scorer, has been banged up all season and lately has looked tired. He scored just 10 points at Nebraska on Feb. 14, and followed that with eight points in a loss at Kansas on Feb. 19.

Sampson said after the Kansas game that Najera simply didn’t play well.

“Being tired may have had something to do with that, also,” Sampson said. “It’s a long season. Teams that have depth usually use depth at positions that aren’t real key. Eduardo’s not a guy you can rest a lot, and I’ve got to do a little better job of doing that.”

Najera has averaged 34 minutes a game, 36 minutes in conference games. Sampson said all the off-the-court demands on Najera have taken a toll, but so have the injuries.

“Running down his list of injuries would be like a waiver wire before the NFL season started,” he said. “I wouldn’t know where to start.”