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the Nation

Posted Feb. 26, 2002

Some thoughts on how to fill out
your brackets
Welcome to Bracketville, at least on the women's side, where the pickings are plenty and the opinions are flying everywhere. In trying to size up the matchups, we relied on some of the success we had in the past. Two seasons ago this columnist went 4-for-4 in identifying the Final Four squads and last season, Pat Coleman correctly told us that Emmanuel was the sleeper choice of the tournament. With that in mind, we put our heads together, thought about some of the conventional wisdom and identified teams with elements that we liked in previous Final Fours.

PICK ...
THE TEAM WITH SENIOR GUARDS: The line of thinking here is that you need experienced veterans, who can remained composed in the do-or-die situations that develop throughout the game and the NCAA Tournament — a key for Catholic in its men's NCAA title run last season. The hope for Hope is that it has that also in Becky Sutton, left, and Jodi Boom, right.

Sutton, who played three seasons at point guard, moved to shooting guard this season to accomodate Boom's talents. They give the Flying Dutch a pair of capable backcourt ballhandlers on a team that has faced eight of the 50 teams in the NCAAs at some point in the past two seasons, going 6-2 in that stretch.

"There aren't many things that those two haven't seen,'' said Hope coach Brian Morehouse, whose squad is finally close to healthy after a midseason injury to top scorer and post presence Amanda Kerkstra threatened their run at the MIAA title. "They call a lot of our plays on the floor. They know when I like to change things. Jodi is the glue that holds us together. She has a good mid-range jumper and is very good at shooting off the dribble as well. Becky can shoot the 3-pointer and get to the rim. She passes like a point guard, since she used to be done, but she's been more aggressive this year in looking for her shot. It's like I have two more coaches with them out there."

There's plenty of experience on Hope's bench as well, as Morehouse gets help from assistants Lisa Schoonveld and Wayne Tanis, as well as his father Dean, who recently retired as a high school coach but couldn't pass up a seat next to his son.

"It's been great having him,'' Brian Morehouse said. "It really allows us to re-emphasize that this team is a family."

THE TEAM THAT'S SURPRISED YOU BEFORE: Our expectations weren't high for Bowdoin last season but that's a team that showed us that we weren't as knowledgable as we thought — first beating Eastern Connecticut, then Salem State before a crazy sectional semifinal with NYU in which the Polar Bears rallied from a 16-point second-half deficit to go ahead by five points with 2:55 remaining, only to lose 64-60.

"We gave serious lip service early to the fact that we wouldn't talk about last year,'' said Bowdoin head coach Stefanie Pemper. "But we took all the good stuff from it and really picked up where we left off."

Bowdoin's first matchup will be with the winner of the Emmanuel-Southern Maine game, a matchup of national semifinalists the previous two seasons. The Polar Bears got a good look at both teams last season, watching Emmanuel in its sectional semi and beating Southern Maine, which it has done each of the two previous seasons.

The Polar Bears get their points from the trio of Lora Trenkle (last season's NESCAC Rookie of the Year), Kristi Royer (51% from the field and 35% from 3-point range), and Jesse Mayol (team-high 108 assists). Mayol is the team's only senior.

"She's really matured as a leader this season,'' Pemper said. "She's our most competitive player in practices and games. She's been here four years and been to the NCAAs three times, so she's a winner."

The key to the season for the Polar Bears has been a defense that holds opponents to 34% shooting and less than 50 points per game, figures that rank among the best in the nation. In the last two NESCAC Finals, their opponents have combined for 27 first-half points.

Difficult opposition is nothing new for Pemper. Consider that when she was an assistant coach at Harvard, the 16th-seeded Crimson shocked No. 1 seed Stanford in the opening round of the NCAA Division I Tournament a few seasons ago.

"I go into every game,'' Pemper said, "believing that we're going to win it."

THE TEAM THAT'S FACED THE CHAMPS: We were burned on this theory two seasons ago when we tabbed Scranton as a team with a chance to beat Washington U., only to watch them get pummeled in Danbury. We'll try it again with a UW-Stout squad that was humbled by the Bears 101-47 in their previous meeting this season.

The reason we like the Devils is because they are so balanced. No player averages 10 or more points per game, yet five average between 9.3 and 9.5, explaining why the team led the WIAC in scoring.

Stout, which has won 13 consecutive games, comes at its opponents in waves, subbing five players at a time frequently and utilizing as many as 15 players. The substitution pattern has even been adopted by Stout's men's team.

"That's our style," Stout head coach Mark Thomas told Pat Coleman after a mid-January romp over UW-Stevens Point, "to use our depth every night, get some transition baskets and put some wear and tear on them."

In their one meeting, in the championship game of the McWilliams Classic, Washington shot 60% from the field, 10-for-19 from 3-point range, and made all of its free throws. It's hard to imagine them being any better, or for the Devils, who emptied the bench early, to be any worse. So with that in mind, why not them?

THE TEAM THAT'S HOT: There's been no better team at defying the conventional wisdom than Western Maryland. Consider that the Green Terror were picked to place fourth among the five teams in the Centennial Conference West Division, have not been ranked in the Mid-Atlantic region all season, and never got within eight spots of cracking the D3hoops.com Top 25.

"We've learned to believe in ourselves and not pay attention to polls,'' said WMC coach Becky Martin, whose team has twice beaten Centennial West regular season champ Muhlenberg and MAC Commonwealth regular season champ Lebanon Valley. "I don't think we're a sleeper. People have misjudged our talent all year. My team will leave everything emotionally and physically on the court.''

Whether that will be enough in a brutally tough bracket on the road against Scranton, and then Messiah, and then who knows, remains to be seen.

The Green Terror are used to the pressure, having won their last seven games in situations in which one defeat would have eliminated them any chance at the first NCAA bid under Martin's 19-season reign. They're young and hungry, with the freshman Kelly Cramp and sophomore Toby McIntire forming a backcourt that should be among the best in the nation the next three seasons.

Their efforts support top scorer Jen Piccolomini, who averages 13 points per game. WMC plays a fast-paced style and is 10-0 when scoring 70 or more points.

"When you get to this stage, you're in great company with some very successful teams'' Martin said. "If both teams are having great games, it will be a very exciting 40 minutes for everyone."

FUN WITH NUMBERS: The Wilmington women are 25-1 and rank second in the country in rebounding margin, yet doesn't have a player over 6 feet tall ... Although Simpson made it to the IIAC Tournament finals and had a 19-9 record, the Storm could just have easily ended the regular season 27-1. The eight losses that Simpson suffered at the hands of NCAA Division III opponents were by a combined 27 points and in four of the contests (both Central, first game against Luther, and second game against Cornell) the opponent won the game on the last shot of the game or in overtime.

MILESTONES: The DePauw men's team had two players reach quadruple figures in points this season. Mike Howland reached 1,000 points Nov. 26 at Wabash and Joe Ringger did so Feb. 14 at Rose-Hulman. With Joe Nixon at nearly 1,500 points, it marks the first time in team history that three teammates are over 1,000... Andrea Collesidis became the all-time leading scorer at Eastern
University this season. The 5-10 senior forward also led the Lady Eagles to
the best record in team history at 17-10... Junior tri-captain Steve Zieja cracked the career 1,000-point and 500-rebound plateaus and is rapidly climbing Amherst's all-time scoring list. His 1,173 career points (through Sunday) are 11th all-time at Amherst, with the school record of 1,550 career points — set by Jamal Wilson '97 — well within his reach. ... Wartburg had 20-20 vision this season as both its men's and women's teams won 20 games. It marked the first time the men's program had seen back-to-back 20-win or more seasons since 1972-73 and 1973-74. The victory was the 20th of the season for the Knights, marking the first time since 1992-93 and 1993-94 that Wartburg has reached back-to-back 20-win or more campaigns.

Notes for Around the Nation are compiled with the help of sports information directors across the country. If you have suggestions or information for this column, please send it to mark@d3hoops.com.

2008-09 columns
Nov. 21: Augie gets some delp
Nov. 13: Is repeat possible?

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