« Women’s Basketball 2007-08

Jackie McFarland

School
University of Colorado
Position
Forward
Ht
6'3
PPG
18.4
RPG
8.2
APG
2.6

Classroom

McFarland is an accounting major at Colorado and is working on a concurrent degree program in the school of business which will allow her to earn her MBA while completing her undergraduate accounting degree. She is a two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America University Division Women’s Basketball second team selection, earning honors in 2006 and 2007, and in the process becoming the first CU women’s basketball player to earn Academic All-America honors twice and the first overall CU student-athlete since former cross country/track & field standout Jon Severy was cited in 2003 and 2005. Sporting a team-best 3.89 GPA, McFarland won CU’s Scholar-Athlete Award in the spring of 2007 for having the highest GPA in her class. She is a four-time member of the Dean’s List and earned the CU Athletic Department’s Academic Excellence Award in the fall of 2004 with a perfect 4.0 GPA. McFarland is also a two-time ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District VII first team member as well as a two-time Academic All-Big 12 Conference first team honoree. She is a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma fraternity for the top 7% of business students as well as a member of the Beta Alpha Psi organization.

Character

McFarland has been a captain of the Colorado Buffaloes since her sophomore season. Her dedication and commitment to her coaches and teammates is second-to-none. She has an extremely strong work ethic that translates to both the court and the classroom. She never takes a play off in games or in practice. In fact her coaches have commented that they have difficulty pulling her out of drills during practice, when they simply want to give her a rest—she led the Big 12 in minutes played last year among her other statistical achievements. Some tough early seasons at CU—the team was only 18-40 her first two seasons—created the necessity that young players step up and she was clearly at the lead. She has topped the team in scoring since she has been on campus and will graduate as one of the most prolific players in team history. Colorado improved to 13-17 her junior year and the goals are set higher her senior season. Her teammates have made it a goal this season to get to the NCAA tournament, for Jackie, for all she has done for the program, that’s final thing she is missing from her collegiate athletics experience.

Community

McFarland is a team representative for the Student Athlete-Advisory Committee, a group that is dedicated to ensure that student-athletes are not only involved in the general campus community, but the Denver-Boulder community as a whole. For the past three years she has been active in all of CU Athletics’ community outreach programs including Read With the Buffs, Trick or Treat Street, Healthy Kids Day, Buffalo Hugs, and with the Boulder Parks and Recreation Department. Read With the Buffs puts student-athletes in elementary calssrooms with the goal of the program to emphasize the importance of reading to youth in our community. Buffalo Hugs is an annual event where student-athletes visit Denver’s Children’s Hospital to visit with the patients and distribute stuffed buffaloes. Healthy Kids Day is an annual event in the spring where student-athletes reach out to kids ages 6 to 13 with the purpose of promoting/educating on the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and how sports can contribute to this goal. In the summer of 2007, she was part of the U.S. Jones Cup Team that played a six-game tournament in Taiwan. Sponsored by Athletes in Action, McFarland and her team not only won the bronze medal, but they spent a portion of their free time volunteering at a local orphanage in Taiwan.

Competition

An Associated Press honorable mention All-American in 2007, McFarland was also first team All-Big 12 Conference selection, becoming just the second CU player to earn that distinction in the 11-year history of the league (Tera Bjorklund was a two-time first team pick). She paced the Big 12 and ranked third in the NCAA in field-goal percentage with a .605 mark (181-of-299), which is also the sixth-best single-season percentage in team history. McFarland ranked second in the Big 12 in scoring and rebounding, registering the season double-double numbers of 17.8 points and 10.8 rebounds per game. Her 533 points rank as the seventh-best single-season total in team history and she is just one of three CU players to ever record back-to-back 500 point seasons. Just the second different player in team history to score 500 points and grab 300 rebounds in one season (Lisa Van Goor did it twice, 1980-81 and 1981-82), her 17.8 points per game average is the sixth-best on the team single-season charts. McFarland scored at least 10 points in 28 of 30 games and hit the 20-point mark on 10 occasions, including a season-best 32 points against Texas Tech (3/6) in the opening round of the 2007 Big 12 Championship. Her 32-point output set a Big 12 Championship record for a first round game and it equaled the school’s best Big 12 Championship performance as Tera Bjorklund also had 32 against Oklahoma in a 2003 quarterfinal game. In the game against Texas Tech, McFarland tied a school record by making 14 free throws, on 16 attempts, and in the process also became CU’s single-season leader in free throws made with 161. Her 76.3 percent efficiency from the charity stripe ranked 13th in the Big 12 and was second on the team behind Jasmina Ilic (86.5 percent). As for her rebounding exploits, few Buffaloes had a finer season than McFarland in 2006-07. Her 325 rebounds marked the most by a junior in team history and overall ranked as the fifth-best total in team history. Her 10.8 rebounds per game average ranked 11th in the nation in 2007 and was the third-best mark on the team single-season charts. Combining her scoring and rebounding efforts from the past season, it’s no surprise that McFarland ranked second in the Big 12 last season with 18 double-doubles, tying Lisa Van Goor (1982-83) for third best single-season output in team history. Her 18 double-doubles were equal to or more than the totals of 10 of the 12 Big 12 teams in 2007 and she missed five other double-double opportunities by either a single point or rebound. McFarland is tied for second with Erin Scholz (1993-97) on CU’s career list with 37 double-doubles and her 38 double-digit rebounding games are third on the CU charts behind Scholz (43) and Van Goor (63). McFarland secured Big 12 Player of the Week honors on Nov. 13 after averaging 22 points, 12 rebounds and shooting 71 percent from the field (17-of-24) during the opening weekend of the 2006-07 season. She led the conference in minutes played at 36.8 per game, and also ranked 10th in the Big 12 in blocked shots (1.2 bpg). McFarland was selected as a member of the bronze medal winning United States William Jones Cup team which competed in Taipei, Taiwan, July 11-17, 2007. She led Team USA in field-goal percentage during the six-game event at 57.1 percent (20-of-35). McFarland averaged 9.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game during the tournament including a 22-point, 9-rebound effort to lead the U.S. to a 114-94 win over Japan. This year Jackie has continued her success on the court by being named to the mid-season Naismith Award candidates list.