Santa Clara

When Santa Clara's Steve Nash is one of the first point guards taken in the NBA draft next June, it will give him one more chance to tweak the major conference schools that wouldn't risk a scholarship on him.Four years ago, the powers that be weren't interested in Nash, even though he had shown his athleticism in a variety of sports, was 6 feet 3 and had excellent range on his jumper. Nash grew up a two-hour drive from the site of last season's Final Four, but across the Canadian border, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

FRIDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS NASCAR Sprint Cup Las Vegas, Qualifying SPEED6:30 MLB exh. Toronto@Orioles (T) MASN10 a.m. St. Louis@Washington MASN1 WBC First Rd., Pool D: Canada vs. Italy MLB2:30 First Rd., Pool C: Spain vs. Puerto Rico MLB5:30 First Rd., Pool D: Mexico vs. U.S. MLB9 Second Rd., Pool 1: teams TBA MLB5 a.m. M. bask. Kent State@Akron ESPN27 Ohio Valley tourn.: Belmont vs. TBA ESPNU7 Rutgers@Seton Hall MASN27 W. Coast Tourn., Santa Clara vs. TBA ESPNU9 West Coast Tourn., BYU vs. TBA ESPNU11 NBA Washington@Brooklyn CSN7:30 Atlanta@Boston ESPN8 Houston@Golden State ESPN10:30 Boxing Friday Night Fights: Cayo vs. Taylor ESPN29 ShoBox: Centeno Jr. vs. Leatherwood SHOW11 PGA WGC Cadillac, Second Round GOLF2 M. hockey Boston University@Northeastern CBSSN7:30 Massachusetts@Merrimack FCS7:30 Maine@New Hampshire NBCSP7:30 Minnesota@Bemidji State FCS10 NHL Chicago@Colorado NHL9 M. lacrosse UMBC@Johns Hopkins ESPNU5 M. soccer A-Lg.: Sydney vs. Central Coast FOXSOC1:30 a.m. RADIO HIGHLIGHT MLB exh. Orioles@Pittsburgh 1090 AM7 Women's college basketball listed separately

What: First round, NCAA West RegionalWhere: Arizona State University Activity Center, Tempe, Ariz.When: Today, 2: 38 p.m.TV/Radio: Chs. 13, 9/WBAL (1090 AM)How they got here: Maryland got an at-large bid with an RPI power rating of 30. The Terps are coming off a semifinal loss to Georgia Tech in the ACC tournament. Santa Clara got an at-large bid with an RPI rating of 31, despite getting upset at home in the West Coast Conference tourney opener by Pepperdine.Conference record: Maryland went 8-8 in the ACC to tie Duke for fourth place.

SANTA CLARA - Boil out the flimsiest, fuzziest story lines and this Super Bowl is supremely easy to summarize in less than 25 words. The 49ers are a little better at the best things the Ravens do and a lot better at the things the Ravens do worst. There you have it. Simple, crisp, lean, complete ... and almost nothing like any of the food I plan to consume in the French Quarter next week. OK, a little more: The 49ers have the more dynamic quarterback, the more varied offense and the stronger, younger defense, which are all the tangible pieces that mark a team as an eventual Super Bowl champion.

Michael Phelps will get the opportunity to avenge his only losses of 2003 at the 37th annual Santa Clara (Calif.) International Invitational on May 22, when Ian Crocker and Aaron Peirsol will join him at one of the most prestigious meets on the American swimming calendar. Phelps, the 18-year-old sensation from the North Baltimore Aquatic Club who is expected to play a major role at the 2004 Olympics, will tangle with Crocker in the 100-meter butterfly, then challenge Peirsol in the 200 backstroke.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Eighth-seeded Indiana showed why most polls had it ranked No. 2 all season.Aleksey Korol scored two goals as the Hoosiers routed Santa Clara, 4-0, yesterday in a national semifinal game at Richmond Stadium.Indiana (22-2) advances to the national championship game for the sixth time and will be in search of its first national title since 1988. Santa Clara (15-5-2), which lost for the first time since Oct. 30, didn't put a shot on goal."This is one of the best games we've played this season," Indiana coach Jerry Yeagley said.

Just real lucky.That is how Santa Clara's Dick Davey feels about starting as head coach of the Broncos in 1992 with freshman Steve Nash as his designated floor leader.With Davey designing the plays and Nash executing the offense, Santa Clara has a 72-41 record the past four years and qualified three times for the NCAA tournament. Tomorrow in Tempe, Ariz., the Broncos (19-8) face Maryland in the opening round of the West Region."It was just real fortunate for us that he fell through the cracks," Davey said of the lanky 6-foot-3 Nash, now considered by pro scouts to be the best pure point guard in the country and a possible low lottery pick.

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Justin Holbrook's 16 points led four double-digit scorers as Santa Clara handed Mount St. Mary's its worst regular-season defeat in four years, 82-53, yesterday.Gregory Harris led the Mount with 17 points, and Tony Hayden added 14.Darrell Teat added 14, Nathan Fast 13 and Alex Lopez 11 for Santa Clara.The Broncos (1-2) held a 19-10 lead with 9: 14 to play in the first half before Mount St. Mary's (1-1) cut the gap to three with a 12-6 run.With the score 25-22 and five minutes left in the half, the Broncos started a 17-2 run that finished the first half.

Last season, Santa Clara launched its Cable Car Classic with a thrilling one-point victory over UMBC when Kyle Bailey did not see a signal for a timeout and instead banked in the winning shot with 1.1 seconds left. Last night, the Broncos found another way to hand the Retrievers a heartbreaking loss when center Jim Howell blocked Kareem Washington's game-winning attempt at the buzzer to secure a 55-54 decision before 2,213 at RAC Arena. In its first game in Maryland, Santa Clara escaped while playing without the injured Bailey, an all-West Coast Conference guard and the team's leading scorer.

TEMPE, Ariz. - When the other shoe dropped for Santa Clara, it dropped right on Steve Nash.The Broncos' brilliant point guard went from guiding light to black hole, from 28 points to seven, and from hero to goat yesterday.The same player who throttled Maryland on Friday was throttled 24 hours later by Kansas in a West subregional.A 76-51 rout advanced the second-seeded Jayhawks (28-4) to the Sweet 16 against Arizona next Friday in Denver, and Maryland can be happy it didn't have to endure this humiliation.

SANTA CLARA - Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio credited "great quarterbacks, great receivers" for opponents' ability to rack up yards against the 49ers in the playoffs. If Joe Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens' receivers can do the same against the 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII, they'll surely be considered great, too. Fangio has been a fan of Flacco since serving as a Ravens assistant during Flacco's first two seasons. "I remember his first (offseason training) sessions as a rookie, I said to (coach)

Basketball Tucker's 7 steals help U.S. to U-16 women's gold medal New Town guard Jannah Tucker broke a U.S. record with seven steals as the Americans won the FIBA Americas U-16 women's gold medal late Saturday night with a 73-40 rout of Brazil in Merida, Mexico. "It is surreal," Tucker, a rising junior, said of winning gold. "It's a great accomplishment, and I'm just proud to represent the USA. " Tucker finished with 11 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Swimming Phelps wins 100 fly, takes 2nd in 100 free at Santa Clara Michael Phelps won the gold in the 100-meter butterfly final Friday night at the Santa Clara International Grand Prix in Santa Clara, Calif., the seventh and final stop of the 2010-2011 USA Swimming Grand Prix Series. Phelps, of Fells Point, also took silver in the 100 freestyle final. Phelps recorded a time of 52.41 seconds in the butterfly final, touching the wall ahead of Australian Nicholas D'Arcy , who posted a 53.34.

COLLEGE PARK - It took only 1:32 for Maryland's men's soccer team to make Sunday's offensive goose egg as distant as the field where it was laid. Senior forward Jason Garey converted on that chance early, and the No. 14-ranked Terps tacked on two more first-half goals to run away from No. 4 Santa Clara, 3-1, in front of 2,827 at Ludwig Field. At the start of the week, the Terps fell at UCLA, then ranked No. 9, and didn't register a shot on net. But in yesterday's home opener, the Terps got some redemption against another highly ranked California team.

On May 2, 2005 LOIS BRIDGET OSMER loving wife of William Lawrence; daughter of the late Frank and Noreen Osmer; sister of Phillip, Jerry, Denis, and Neil Osmer of Watsonville, CA. Also survived by many cherished nieces and nephews. The family will receive friends in the Lemmon Funeral Home of Dulaney Valley, Inc., 10 W. Padonia Road (at York Road) Timonium-Cockeysville on Saturday May 7 from 11:30 to 3:30 p.m. Interment private. Contributions may be made in the memory of Lois Osmer Class of '66 to University of Santa Clara Alumni Assn.

It was one of the most memorable recruiting trips Dick Davey has experienced at Santa Clara. In March 2001, he already had a letter of intent from Kyle Bailey but went on the road to get a firsthand update on the progress of the guard prospect. "I was in a restaurant, having breakfast the morning of his game," Davey said. "I look outside and see a moose. That was an interesting experience." The dean of West Coast Conference coaches, Davey is in his 13th season as head coach and 28th overall at Santa Clara, an hour south of San Francisco.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Four years ago, Steve Nash failed to get Maryland's attention when he was a wanna-be point guard trying to break into big-time college basketball.xTC Today, the all-time assist leader at Santa Clara will command as much attention as Maryland can muster in the first round of the NCAA West Regional."He's the main thrust of their offense," Maryland's Exree Hipp said yesterday. "If we can confuse him a little bit for the first 20 minutes, we can create a whole different tempo in the game."

The silver lining to the Loyola men's basketball team's 2-5 start was that the Greyhounds had been in virtually every game. But at really no time during the 81-56 nonconference loss to Santa Clara yesterday at Reitz Arena did the Greyhounds give coach Scott Hicks any reason to believe his team would end the 2002 portion of its schedule with a win. Finishing off a two-game Baltimore swing, which included a 55-54 victory over UMBC on Friday, the Broncos...

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - When admissions officers for Santa Clara University recruit new freshmen, they do their best to reach the kind of students they would like to see more of on the Silicon Valley campus: boys. "We make a special pitch to them to talk about the benefits of Santa Clara, as we do for other underrepresented groups," Charles Nolan, Santa Clara's vice provost for admissions, said of the school's efforts to boost male applicants. It's a startling development to anyone who remembers that Santa Clara was all men until 1960.