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Around
the Nation

Posted Feb. 3, 2005

It's not how
you start

Clarke men’s coach John Davison likened the basketball season to going for a layup.

“You have to be able to finish.”

Hiraman Byrd is the No. 2 scorer in the family and on the Clarke men's team.

Davison has 36 seasons of college basketball coaching experience, so he knows of what he speaks. We’re entering the home stretch of the season and it’s often at this time that the good are separated from the potentially great. Clarke is a team that is teetering on that brink, an intriguing story because this is the best season that the 19-year-old program has ever had.

“We still have some work left,” said Davison, whose team is 15-4 and leads the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference heading into a big weekend showdown at previously ranked foes Benedictine and Aurora, the former of whom already beat Clarke and the latter of whom is tied with Clarke for first place. “I like our chances because I like our character. It has been really cool to get a babe-in-the-woods program to this level.”

That process was helped last season by the arrival of brothers (though not twins) Joemi and Hiraman Byrd, who transferred from Division I Norfolk State after an assistant coach there who knew Davison recommended them to him. Joemi, a senior guard, is the teams and leagues scoring leader at 21.9 points per game on a squad that likes to push the ball up the floor. Hiraman is of the Charles Barkley build, a 6-3 senior forward who plays bigger than his size, averaging 18.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game, and serves as the team’s primary spokesman. Both will graduate this spring, then explore opportunities in the teaching profession, but for now they are serving as on-court leaders and difference makers.

Joemi Byrd is the No. 1 scorer.

“Last year we underachieved,” Hiraman said. “This year we’re achieving. This year we realized that we could win. The big thing this season was our conditioning. I don’t think we were well conditioned last year. Coach made sure that we got in shape this summer.”

“We realize that every game we have something to prove,” added Joemi. “This year’s team is good at forcing to do teams what they don’t want to do.”

Davison is of the belief that guards win games and big men win championships and feels that his team has a sufficient amount in both spots. Joemi is joined in the backcourt by senior point guard Chris Kolle, whose scoring average has more than doubled over the past season to 14.3. Loras transfer Chris Kilburg is the big man in the middle at 6-6, teaming with Hiraman and swingman Grant Cirks, the team’s defensive stopper. Keeping Kilburg in games (he has fouled out eight times this season) has been important, because without him, the team lacks in height. Joemi pointed out that when the team has played its best this season, it has rebounded the ball very well.

The team is playing its best right now, having won five consecutive games. They realize that most of those who follow the sport on a national level probably aren’t too familiar with a squad that has hovered around .500 up until now.

“People should look out for us,” Hiraman said. “We’re coming. And we’re looking forward to the challenge.”

WHEATON ALIVE: Wheaton’s women’s team has yet to crack the Top 25, but the Thunder are booming right now, with 13 straight wins and the No. 1 spot in Division III’s closest equivalent to the Ratings Power Index, the Massey Ratings.

Erin Wingerter has a few more shots on goal in this uniform than as a soccer player, and the Thunder have rolled since she rejoined the team.

Wheaton has won with the CCIW’s best low-post combination. Freshman Jill Trenz (13.8 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.5 blocks per game and 59% shooting from the field), the Cincinnati Hills League Player of the Year last season (as was her brother, also a Wheaton basketball player, a year before), whom head coach Beth Baker called her best freshman post in 19 years of coaching, joined senior Erin Wingerter (12.3 points per game and the squad’s leading scorer in its last three games), who missed the first four games of the season because she was playing for the national champion soccer team.

With two six-footers in the paint, Wheaton has been a difficult matchup for most opponents on both ends of the floor. The Thunder rank fourth nationally in scoring defense at 46.6 points per game. Wheaton’s two midseason losses came by a total of five points on a neutral floor against two of the best teams in the MIAA — Hope and Calvin. The 13 consecutive wins have positioned them nicely in the CCIW heading into a four-game road swing that began with a win at Illinois Wesleyan. Among what’s left is what should be an intense battle at Millikin on Feb. 8, particularly after Baker admitted she gave her opponents bulletin board material by saying that Trenz and Wingerter intimidated the opposing players. Baker chuckled about that, as she holds her team’s chief rival in very high regard

“I think it’s going to be a tremendous race (for the top spot),” Baker said. “We told our girls, ‘Don’t pat yourselves on the back just yet.’ If we can come back from the road with four more wins, than we’ll know we’re for real.”

SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM: With his team struggling offensively during a stretch of five losses in six games, Emory & Henry men’s coach Bob Johnson decided a week or so ago that it was time to try something radically different. So he decided, at least temporarily, to ‘Go Grinnell.’

“I thought we needed a shock,” said Johnson, the Wasps head coach since 1981. “You do a shock workout when your body plateaus. That’s what this was.”

E&H abandoned its usual style of play for the sub five-at-a-time, fullcourt press, three-point barrage that we saw Grinnell hosted Beloit on ESPN2 on Thursday night. The Wasps met all of their statistical goals in terms of shots taken, turnovers forced, and rebounds snatched, but lost each of their first two games, giving up 250 points combined to ODAC standouts Randolph-Macon and Virginia Wesleyan. Consider Johnson uncertain, but enthused as he tries to figure out what his team will do next (E&H appeared to play half a system game in its loss to Roanoke on Wednesday, which dropped it to 6-14, 3-10).

“It rejuvenated me,” Johnson said prior to the Roanoke game. “The kids liked it. I know you can’t play this halfway. I’m not convinced that this is something that we’re going to do. I’ve been on the edge, thinking about this for five years. I figured what the heck?

LETTING IT FLY: Guilford sophomore Jordan Snipes could throw a football 65 yards in his senior year of high school, so maybe the idea of him heaving a basketball 86 feet through a hoop isn’t as improbable as we’re led to believe.

“Yeah, but it’s harder to grip and control (a basketball),” said Snipes, whose in the midst of dealing with his 15 minutes of fame following his game-winning, likely ESPY-winning fullcourt shot against Randolph Macon on Monday night. “In the back of my mind, I knew I could throw it fullcourt, but it’s a real challenge throwing it straight. Our center, Ben Strong ducked, and my arm just went over his head. I knew it was online, but I didn’t know if it had the distance.”

Overshadowed the amazing play was that Snipes had an amazing game. He had scored 31 points in his last four games, including two in his previous contest, a loss to Virginia Wesleyan, but put up 34 in this game, nearly twice the total of his previous season high of 18. He was 9-for-12 from the field (6 for 7 from 3-point range) and 10 for 10 from the free throw line.

“Even when I missed, I felt my shot was on,” said Snipes, whose previous longest shot was one from the opposite foul line playing AAU basketball “Coach said we needed a game-changing play for this season, and I guess that the basketball gods were on our side for this one.”

Those who thought that this kind of shot had happened before at the Division III level were right. Cabrini’s Kareem Brunson scored in a similar manner to beat Alvernia in the 2001 PAC title game. The longest throw we’ve seen in person didn’t even count, as in the 2000 PAC title game, Alvernia’s Chad Kratzer (who had a game eerily similar to the ones Snipes had the other night) threw an inbounds pass an estimated 95 feet from underneath his own basket that swished through the net at the halftime buzzer. That didn’t win an ESPY, but it was named Most Unusual Play of the Year in a similar contest run by Compaq.

THE GREAT DEBATE: After hearing that Bates beat Bowdoin on Tuesday night, we realized that a potential quandary exists for our Top 25 poll voting pool. In the six-year history of the poll, we can’t remember a time in which the claim to the No. 1 spot was as up for debate as it has been over the last few weeks. In a span of about 15 minutes, we came up with 10 possibilities for the top slot. Some are logical choices. Others are a bit more farfetched, but not unreasonable considering recent history. With that in mind, Pat Coleman and I have engaged in a point-counterpoint to help the fans (and maybe the voters) through the process the next few days. Granted, some teams may rule themselves out of the mix by Monday morning’s vote, but it makes for a fun argument.

Point/Counterpoint
Bowdoin: 2-1 against the Maine gang
Right, with two wins at home and one loss on the road
Southern Maine: Unbeaten with full lineup in place
Has head-to-head losses to two other contenders
Bates: Only loss was at Bowdoin, where no one wins; dominated at home
Was held to 48 points in loss at Bowdoin
Scranton: Natural ascension from the No. 2 spot and no losses since opening night
Loss to Williams makes it tough to put them ahead of Bates, Bowdoin
Buena Vista: Unbeaten against Division III competition
No significant non-conference wins
New York University: Especially if Chicago/Washington road trip goes the way the homestand did
Non-conference schedule was barely better than its usual non-test
Trinity (Texas): Division I-caliber backcourt, an All-American center, a championship pedigree
Lost at Rhodes, struggled at home with Sewanee, has to play at DePauw yet
Randolph-Macon: A well-respected coach tells us that’s the best team they’ve seen
ODAC’s recent postseason history is unimpressive
UW-Stout: Late emerging darkhorse rolling through nation’s toughest league
Too many D-III losses to consider for the top spot
Wheaton (Ill.): No. 1 in Massey Ratings means something is going right
Back at Millikin in less than a week

Photo by Andrew Chan Coach Wooden enjoys an Occidental game.

Those at the Occidental/Pomona-Pitzer junior varsity game on Jan. 28 were in for a treat as college basketball legend John Wooden was in attendance. Wooden, the former head coach of the UCLA men’s dynasty was on hand to watch his great-grandson, Occidental freshman John Impelman, and willingly obliged all autograph and photo requests from members of both teams. “We all know what kind of coach he was,” said Occidental coach Brian Newhall. “He is more impressive as a person. (Impleman has an) incredible passion, work ethic and hoop IQ. It runs in the family.”
We got hold of Worcester State coach Karen Tessmer, the coach who gave birth a couple of weeks ago, going into labor a few hours after coaching her team to a dramatic win over Eastern Connecticut. “We hit a 3-pointer to win it late,” Tessmer said. “Maybe it was the excitement from that (that pushed it along). The doctor had said that when it was ready, it would come.” Tessmer was quickly back on the bench, helping out her replacement Meredith Galena, baby in tow, as Worcester downed the MASCAC’s perennial champion, Salem State last Saturday, though a loss to Fitchburg State set up a three-way tie in one of the most wide-open league races in the country.
Methodist has emerged as one of the nation’s hottest teams, sporting a 11-game win streak heading into Wednesday night and entering a three-game homestand with plenty of momentum, hoping to clinch the USA South regular season title before ending things with three in a row on the road. Senior forward Sam Porter has been the recent catalyst, averaging 20.8 points and 13.8 rebounds in his last four games.
Montclair State is winning without its head coach, as Ted Fiore is out indefinitely following knee surgery. The Red Hawks have not designated an interim, instead relying on the team of Ed Ward, Daren Rowe, Bill Brooks, Al Pasquale and Ted Fiore Jr., and it has worked well with the Red Hawks taking five of seven and is in the hunt for one of the top spots in the NJAC, even after a loss to Ramapo on Wednesday.
Earlier this season, we referenced the flair for the dramatic of the Wesleyan men’s team (which is now 12-8, with 10 wins by five points or less, after a buzzer-beating win against Bates on Saturday). John Hopkins could give them a run for the money after January featured a roller-coaster ride of excitement that included a 35-footer at the buzzer to beat Ursinus by one, and baskets in the final 10 seconds to edge both Dickinson and Muhlenberg. The Blue Jays have hung in well in the Centennial Conference, at 12-6, 9-3 after beating Swarthmore (by 12, without the dramatics) on Wednesday.
Add the Mary Washington men and women to the list of surprise programs this season. Even after suffering a doubleheader sweep against Catholic on Wednesday, both Eagles teams are in the hunt in the CAC. The men, with five starters and no seniors after an Achilles’ injury sidelined Jon Hurd for the season, are 14-5, 6-2 and in second place in the league, thanks in large part to the nation’s third-most most prolific 3-point shooter, sophomore Mike Lee. The women are 14-5, and leading the CAC at 7-2 even after back-to-back losses. It will be the Eagles first winning season in five years and has also been accomplished with a young team, featuring only one senior.
Anyone paying attention to the scores of the women’s games at Kenyon? The Lords have perfected the idea of winning with defensive play, having held their top two NCAC rivals (Wittenberg and Denison) to 33 and 32 points, and have won five consecutive games. The key hasn’t just been holding opponents to a low percentage from the field (plenty of teams do that). Kenyon has succeeded in limiting shots, holding each of these last five opponents to fewer than 50 field goal attempts.

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
Feb. 20: York (Pa.), no cliche
Feb. 13: St. Thomas writing history
Feb. 6: George Fox on hunt
Jan. 30: Brother, brother
Jan. 23: Growing a program
Jan. 16: Dudek's rare feat
Jan. 9: Ravin' about Anderson
Dec. 18: Chicago marooned at 0-9
Dec. 12: De Luca back on track
Dec. 4: Ithaca surprises
Nov. 21: Augie gets some delp
Nov. 13: Is repeat possible?

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