Middlebury done with the one-and-done

There's nothing in college basketball more painful than a promising regular season followed by a one-and-done exit from the NCAA Tournament. All that practice, all that preparation, all that hard work -- and for what?

It's a long offseason, and no one wants to spend the eight months between March and the next November dwelling on what could have been. But for two coaches, that was the case this past summer, and they're eager not to let it happen again.

Williams athletics photo by Kris DuFour Leading shot blocker Andrew Locke scored the first six points of the second half in the NESCAC semifinals against Colby, including an alley-oop slam. He scored just seven points in last year's NCAA Tournament loss.

The first is Jeff Brown, whose Middlebury Panther men went 24-3 and won the NESCAC championship last season for the first time in program history. Then, disaster struck -- the Panthers fell victim to an upset in their first tournament game, blowing a second-half lead against visiting Bridgewater State and losing, 78-76, on their own home floor.

"The second-round loss to Bridgewater was disappointing, especially in terms of being at home and having a lead late in the contest," Brown said. "But it's something that we really don't dwell on, or even talk about a whole lot. This year is a brand new opportunity, and it's to this team's credit that we're able to have three teams travel up to Middlebury this weekend."

This year, the Panthers have an identical 24-3 record heading into NCAAs. And while they don't have the NESCAC title banner up in the rafters at Pepin Gym, they'll still get to play host to three visitors -- Gordon, Rhode Island College and Rutgers-Newark -- for the tournament's opening weekend.

First up are the Fighting Scots from Gordon, and while the Panthers haven't gotten a chance to see the Scots up close and personal, they're starting to do their homework now.

"The films are just beginning to arrive," Brown said earlier this week. "We haven't really had a chance to dissect them at this point, but obviously being 24-4 and being the champions of the Commonwealth Coast Conference, they're a quality team. And they're a team that's really senior-dominated -- they have a lot of maturity and a lot of experience in their lineup. The job for us in the next couple of days is to go through them thoroughly and be prepared for this coming weekend."

The Panthers have all the motivation in the world to get it done this weekend. They've been to the tournament twice before now -- their captains, seniors Tim Edwards and Kevin Kelleher, were both around when the team went one-and-done in 2008 and then again last year. This is their third NCAA berth, and they've yet to get a win.

If they can finally break through this March, they'll find themselves in the regional semifinals against a strong slate of Northeastern teams including Plattsburgh State, St. John Fisher and national power Williams. Those Ephs have been a thorn in the Panthers' sides this season, beating them first in the regular season at Middlebury on Jan. 30 and then again in the NESCAC title game last weekend in Williamstown.

Down the road, we could see a possible rematch between the two New England titans in the Elite Eight.

"We would love to have that opportunity, because that would mean we're making a deep run into the tournament," Brown said. "We have three losses this season, and two of them have been to Williams. So we would love to have the opportunity to play against them down the road, at their place. But obviously our focus right now is on this weekend. It's on Gordon."

Getting that first win would be a good first step. It's a step that's eluded them twice before.

ALSO LIVING ONE DOWN: In the other corner, you've got the DePauw women, who won 22 games in the regular season last year but were bounced early from both the SCAC Tournament and the NCAAs.

It was a difficult loss to stomach for Kris Huffman, the veteran head coach at DePauw who guided the Tigers to a national championship in 2007 and another deep run in '08. She gave the program a taste of success, but the team underperformed down the stretch last spring, failing to Trinity in the SCAC semifinal and UW-Eau Claire to open NCAA play.

DePauw athletics photo Lauren Goff is one of six DePauw players averaging between 6.8 and 9.7 points per game.

Last year's team was a young one. After taking a hard hit from graduation, Huffman was forced to use a lot of freshmen and sophomores in her rotation last season, and that let to an inexperienced playoff team last season. But this year's team brings back everyone a year older, including a pair of senior leaders who still remember what it's like to go deep in March.

"We've got a couple of players on our team with tournament experience, Emily Marshall and Jenna Fernandez," Huffman said. "There's not a lot of tournament experience on the team, though. But they're excited to be playing right now, no doubt."

With a more veteran-laden team than before, the Tigers are sure to be a threat. And with their results over the past three months, you'd have to be crazy to bet against them. Huffman's crew started off the season 4-3; since then, they've won 21 straight games in absolutely steamrolled their conference tournament. They beat Southwestern by 38, Rhodes by 27 and Centre by 26 to play their way into NCAAs. They made it look easy, but they never lost their focus for a second.

"You know, the conference tournament is tough," Huffman said. "We just played three games in three days, and we beat a good Centre team. But a lot of that is fatigue after three tough days. We will never be overconfident for anyone we play, and we prepare exactly the same way for every opponent we face."

Their next opponent might be even tougher -- the Tigers next travel to Hope to take on the Lakeland Muskies for a neutral-site tournament opener. The Muskies have won six in a row themselves, and they're no slouches heading into NCAA action. And that's even before they might face Hope. Huffman has made sure to get her team prepared.

"We're watching as many tapes as we can," Huffman said. "And we see a really talented team. They've got a great group of seniors."

"We really have to slow down K.C. Blahnik. She's their guard-slash-forward, about five-nine, averaging 15 points. She's just really active offensively -- she can post you up, she can shoot the three, she can take you off the dribble. So we've got to slow her down, and also their point guard Mary Dennewitz, who's looked really good. It's those two that make them go, but it's not just them -- they're 10 deep."

If they get past round one, the Tigers can start to look ahead to rest of the tournament. But Huffman has had it both ways -- both the ultimate win and the early exit -- and she knows not to get too hasty.

"Our immediate goal is to get a win Friday night vs. Lakeland," Huffman said. "That's not an easy task, and we're going to have to be pretty darn good. But we'd like to extend our season as long as we possibly can. This has been a great group of girls for me to coach, and we're not ready for this year to end."

No one ever is. But for the Tigers, there'll be a little bit of extra motivation this March.

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