Freshman Jaeschke will lend Northwestern a big hand

By making a 3-pointer in her much-anticipated collegiate debut last week, Northwestern freshman Amy Jaeschke showed impressive range for a 6-foot-5 center.

She also showed that pain doesn't seem to faze her.

Unbeknownst to her coaches and teammates, Jaeschke hit the long-range shot in Northwestern's season-opening win over Dayton with a broken hand.

Actually, she didn't know her hand was broken at the time. She just knew that it hurt.

"There was a timeout after that, and when I looked down at my hand, I didn't have knuckles anymore," said Jaeschke, whose (non-shooting) left hand collided with the forearm of a Dayton player as she tried to block a shot a few plays prior to shooting the 3-pointer. "They were like in the wrong place. At that point, I kind of freaked out."

Now, all of the Wildcats have reason to be freaking out.

Jaeschke is just the latest in a long line of Northwestern players to be sidelined with an injury, and the season is only four games old.

The Wildcats are also without Julie Bielawski (back), Kristin Cartwright (knee), Lakhiyia Hicks (hip) and Beth Marshall (femoral stress fracture).

That leaves Northwestern with just eight healthy players, which, well, hurts.

But the loss of Jaeschke is particularly painful. A prep All-American from New Trier, she is the best recruit Northwestern has landed in years. She was being touted by some as the savior who could finally pull the Wildcats out of the funk that has ruled the program for almost a decade.

Since the 1999-2000 season, Northwestern not only has never had a winning record, it's also never reached double digits in victories.

But perhaps change really is on the way. In the first game Jaeschke played, the Wildcats won. And in just 25 minutes, she had 19 points and 3 blocks.

"It almost makes this more of a blow because Amy had that kind of impact in her first game," said Northwestern coach Beth Combs. "Maybe if she had come out and shown the freshman jitters and struggled a bit, maybe this would be easier to take.

"Now, it's like we definitely know what we're missing."

Jaeschke will be missing for another 4-6 weeks. It was determined that multiple bones in her hand were broken. She underwent surgery Thursday so doctors could insert a plate in her hand.

"I'll definitely be back for our first Big Ten game (Dec. 27 against Illinois in Evanston)," said Jaeschke, amazingly chipper. "Of course, this is disappointing, but I'm going to be out only six or seven games. I'm just at the beginning. I still have four years here. I'm going to be fine."

Welcome back: One player who will need to rev up her production while Amy Jaeschke is gone is former Carmel star Jenny Eckhart.

The sophomore guard transferred to Northwestern from Syracuse in 2006 and didn't find out until just recently that she would be eligible for the start of the season.

Under transfer rules, she technically could have had to sit out until December, which would mark a full calendar year since she began taking classes at Northwestern.

But Northwestern appealed to the NCAA and won, and Eckhart was immediately inserted into the starting lineup.

"I found out like two hours before we left last week on our trip (to New Mexico for a tournament)," Eckhart said. "It's been an adjustment for me because I never really practiced (with the starters) during the preseason since we all had to assume that I wouldn't be available until December. So I'm still working on getting a feel for playing with certain people.

"But I'm excited. I'm excited to be playing again and I'm excited to be here. I was briefly recruited by Northwestern in high school, but I already had my mind made up. Maybe (hindsight) really is 20/20."

Kickin' it: Three area teams made the women's soccer NCAA Tournament. But that number is shrinking fast.

Fourth-seeded Notre Dame, which was the national runner-up to North Carolina last season, open with Loyola on Friday in South Bend, Ind.

Notre Dame was 15-4-2 and had won an NCAA-best 12 straight games. Loyola (14-8-1) was coming off its second consecutive Horizon League tournament championship.

Illinois (12-6-2) kicked off with a 1-0 victory over Louisville in South Bend prior to the Notre Dame-Loyola game. The Illini made the tournament field for the fifth straight year.

The Illini meet either Notre Dame or Loyola on Sunday in South Bend.

Coach Rodman? We've seen former Bulls star Dennis Rodman dress like a woman. Now, he wants to coach women.

Rodman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently he is interested in a WNBA coaching job. The WNBA announced last month that an expansion team will begin playing in Atlanta next summer.

"I love the city of Atlanta," Rodman said. "Atlanta would be the ideal situation, starting from scratch."

Not so fast. Atlanta owner Ron Terwilliger said that while the idea of Rodman coaching in the WNBA is intriguing, he would prefer to have a woman coach his new team.

"My own view is that I don't think he's currently qualified to be a head coach," Terwilliger. "We need someone who knows the league, knows how it works, knows the players and knows the college talent coming up."

Watch it: Fresh off its big, nationally televised win over No. 8 Oklahoma on Thursday, top-ranked and defending national champion Tennessee will again get prime-time tube time.

The Lady Vols, led by former Naperville Central star Candace Parker, will take on No. 22 Texas at 2 p.m. Sunday on ESPN2.

During the broadcast, Tennessee will raise its seventh national championship banner to the rafters.

Later Sunday (7 p.m.), ESPNU will televise No. 7 Rutgers, the team that lost to Tennessee in last year's title game, at No. 12 George Washington.