The Associated Press

Maric, who was named to the All-Big 12 second team by the conference coaches early Monday morning, was selected to the Associated Press All-Big 12 first team on Monday afternoon. He was also selected to the All-Big 12 second team by Rivals.com.

"I think that all of us here at Nebraska understand where we'd be without him," Sadler said of Maric. "It's great to see he's appreciated by the rest of the league's coaches.

"He's definitely worthy of it and again, I'm happy for him."

Maric is the first Husker to earn first-team all-conference accolades since Venson Hamilton was a first-team selection by the coaches and media, and was the league's player of the year in 1999. During the Big 12 era, only Hamilton and Tyronn Lue (1998) were selected to the coach's first team.

Only the sixth player in the Big 12 Conference to post 1,500 career points and 900 rebounds since the formation of the league, Maric is just 25 rebounds short of becoming only the second Husker ever to reach the 1,000-rebound plateau.

After being held scoreless at Kansas on Jan. 26, Maric has posted 11 double-doubles in the past 12 games and has raced to eighth in the NU career scoring chart with 1,576 points, one point behind Lue for seventh place.

Along with Maric, a pair of Nebraska newcomers earned honors Monday from the Associated Press. Junior guards Steve Harley and Ade Dagunduro were each named to the league's all-newcomer team in a vote of sportswriters who regularly cover the Big 12 Conference.

Harley, a two-time junior college All-American at South Plains (Texas) CC, is second on the team in scoring this season at 9.2 points per contest and is one of four Huskers with at least 40 assists and 30 steals on the year. After a slow start to non-conference play, Harley picked up the pace, scoring in double figures 10 times in 16 league games after posting at least 10 points twice in the first 13 games of the year. Harley was second on the squad in scoring during league play, averaging 11.2 points per game while hitting 45.6 percent from the floor, including 48 percent from 3-point range.

Dagunduro is fourth on the team in scoring (8.3 ppg) and third in rebounding (3.7 rpg) while also posting 47 assists, 27 steals and eight blocked shots. He has scored in double figures 12 times this season, including posting 15 points and seven rebounds in an upset of then-No. 16 Oregon in Omaha.

Maric enters the Big 12 tournament ranked sixth in the league in scoring, third in rebounding, second in field-goal percentage (57.3) and fourth in blocked shots (1.62).

While Sadler obviously would have liked to see Maric named to the first team, he said it's difficult to argue with the selections.

"I think there are so many players in this league that deserve it," Sadler said. "I'm sure there are other coaches that think their players deserve it, but when you're considered one of the top 10 players in this league, I think that says a lot."