Nordgaard Presents Handful for UCLA

Should be a busy late Saturday night at the Dairy Queen in Dawson, Minn.

That’s where the kids will be, talking about Chari Nordgaard’s game against UCLA, win or lose.

Dawson (pop. 1,600) is in southwest Minnesota, about 20 miles from the South Dakota line.

There isn’t much to do there, reports Nordgaard, whose Wisconsin Green Bay team plays UCLA on Saturday at 9 p.m. in a first-round NCAA tournament game at Pauley Pavilion.

“There isn’t even a movie theater,” Nordgaard said. “You have to drive 20 miles to see a movie.

“The high school has only about 400 kids. There were 62 in my graduating class. It’s a busy little sports town, though, with lots of night softball and basketball leagues.

“Other than that, the only thing to do is hang out at the Dairy Queen.”

“You can hang out at the Co-Op [gas station] too,” said Chari’s older sister, Julie. “They have Cokes and candy bars there.”

Nordgaard may be a small-town girl, but she’s a big-time player, a 6-foot-2 center who scores 22.4 points a game (12th best in the NCAA) and shoots 64.2% from the floor (sixth in the NCAA). She has averaged double-digit points for three seasons at Wisconsin Green Bay.

“I didn’t really get a lot of recruiting attention from major schools because I played in a small schools’ league,” she said.

“Illinois talked to me, halfheartedly, and that was about it.

“I decided on Wisconsin Green Bay because I liked the campus, the players and the fact they always were competitive in their conference.”

The University of Minnesota learned last season not to ignore small-town girls any more. Nordgaard scored 29 and led her team to a victory over the Gophers.

The WNBA certainly won’t overlook her. The Minnesota Lynx have scouted her.

Containing Nordgaard is a priority for Kathy Olivier’s team Saturday. And fouling Nordgaard won’t help. She shoots 83% from the line.

Wisconsin Green Bay basketball is a family affair for John and Eleanor Nordgaard, Chari’s parents. For seven seasons, they have made the eight-hour drive to the school, first to watch their son Jeff play there, and now Chari, who will graduate in June.

Jeff Nordgaard scored 1,000 points at Wisconsin Green Bay-- (so has Chari), was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks and now is playing in Italy.

Chari’s team is 19-9 and has won 15 in a row, three of those in a sweep through the Midwestern Collegiate Conference tournament.

‘We’re not intimidated by UCLA,” she said.

“They’re a good team, but we’ve played good teams before. Our team strength is shooting. We’re just under 50% for the year. And we take care of the ball and pass well--we have three players with positive turnovers-to-assists ratios.”

Julie says Chari was inspired by her big brother.

“When Jeff started to be an exceptional player, you could see Chari wanted to do that too,” she said.

Of course, maybe all this was inevitable.

Both of Chari Nordgaard’s grandfathers were college athletes. Father John was a football-track athlete in college. Younger sister Kami is a South Carolina volleyball player.

Tournament Notes

Three-game reserved, lower-level tickets for the March 20-22 NCAA West Regional women’s tournament at the Sports Arena are available for $30 through the USC ticket office. Upper level seats are $25. Single-game tickets are $18. . . . Bernadette Mattox, coach of the Kentucky team that plays Nebraska in the first game Saturday night, was an assistant coach for the men’s team under Rick Pitino. She’s in her fourth year as the Kentucky women’s coach. . . . Nebraska assistant coach Brook Meadows is a former USC assistant.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s First Round

Women’s Games

All times Pacific

EAST REGIONAL

At Old Dominion Fieldhouse, Norfolk, Va.

* Stanford (18-11) vs. Maine (23-6) 2:30 p.m.

* Tennessee Tech (21-8) vs. Old Dominion (26-3) 30 minutes after first game

MIDEAST REGIONAL

At Gampel Pavilion, Storrs, Conn.

* St. Francis, Pa. (18-11) vs. Connecticut (27-4) 3 p.m.

* Xavier (23-8) vs. Florida International (23-6) 30 minutes after first game

At Hilton Coliseum, Ames, Iowa

* Oregon (24-5) vs. Cincinnati (22-8) 4 p.m.

* Santa Clara (22-6) vs. Iowa State (22-7) 30 minutes after first game

At Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson, S.C.

* Illinois (18-11) vs. Louisville (21-10) 2:30 p.m.

* Florida A&M; (18-11) vs. Clemson (24-5) 30 minutes after first game

MIDWEST REGIONAL

At Carmichael Auditorium, Chapel Hill, N.C.

* Alabama (19-10) vs. Grambling (25-4) 3 p.m.

* Northeastern (22-7) vs. North Carolina (26-7) 30 minutes after first game

At Louis Brown Athletic Center, Piscataway, N.J.

* Arizona (17-10) vs. Florida (19-13) 3 p.m.

* Dartmouth (19-8) vs. Rutgers (26-5) 30 minutes after first game

WEST REGIONAL

At Thomas Assembly Center, Ruston, La.

* Penn State (21-7) vs. Virginia (20-8) 4 p.m.

* Central Florida (20-9) vs. Louisiana Tech (26-2) 30 minutes after first game

At Moby Arena, Fort Collins, Colo.

* Southwest Missouri State (24-6) vs. UC Santa Barbara (26-3) 6:15 p.m.

* Cal State Northridge (21-7) vs. Colorado State (31-2) 9 p.m.