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Posted Feb. 13, 2009

UST has own history in sight

Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com B.J. Viau is part of the Tommies' starting lineup, but averages just 24 minutes per game. Only one player averages more than 25 on a team that goes 10-12 deep.

History in the making is still alive for the St. Thomas men's basketball team, albeit barely.

St. Thomas survived an extraordinarily close call at having its unbeaten run come to an end against Bethel on Wednesday night. The Tommies' status as Division III's lone unbeaten men's team hung precariously, as St. Thomas had to overcome a 17-point deficit, and needed a 16-3 game-ending run to edge Bethel, 75-72.

The top-ranked team is 22-0, 17-0 in the MIAC, heading into a Saturday matchup at Gustavus Adolphus (12-10, 11-6). With three league games remaining (including two at home, where they‘ve won 42 consecutive league games), the Tommies have already clinched the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

St. Thomas has had a run like this before, on one occasion. In 1994-95, the year after making the Final Four, the Tommies started 27-0, and are the only team to go 20-0 in the MIAC since the schedule expanded to 20 games in 1983. It took a Herculean effort and 66 percent shooting from Nebraska Wesleyan to beat St. Thomas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament that year. This year's squad is hoping for a better fate in what is the 100th season of Tommies basketball.

The one neat connection from that team to the current squad is St. Thomas psychology professor Johnny Tauer, who averaged 15.1 points in 1995, and now serves as the team's top assistant to coach Steve Fritz. The common thread between the two teams: Each had four seniors who were integral to the success and were unselfish players. St. Thomas has only one player ranked in the top 19 in the league in scoring and nobody ranked higher than 15th in rebounding. Tauer points with a strong degree of pride to the current team's 1.5 assist-to-turnover ratio, which ranks fourth nationally. The senior's assist/turnover rate is even greater, better than 2-to-1, necessary since the team is a little bit on the small side.

Senior forward B.J. Viau (pronounced 'view'), second to Joe Scott in scoring at 10.4 points, shoots 58 percent from the field, scoring on a variety of slashes to the basket. Senior guard Lonnie Robinson is the big winner of the group. He's played eight collegiate seasons, split between baseball and basketball, and has won a league title in every one. He also pitches for the independent baseball team, the St. Paul Saints. Six-foot-three, 250-pound  senior center Alex McCoy shoots 68 percent from the field and averages 8.4 points. He's a rare center, both sizewise and skillwise, with an assist-to-turnover rate of better than 2-to-1. Backup point guard Brett Tuma has filled in ably, and Tauer said he's "sacrificed minutes for the good of the team."

"The 1995 team was predicated on executing in the half court and minimizing mistakes," Tauer said. "They averaged fewer than 10 turnovers a game. Our philosophy was always take good shots and don't have a bad possession. While every team says that, our senior leaders on this team exemplify that philosophy."

"There is so much trust in everbody," Viau said, "that no matter what the lead is, someone is going to hit the big shot for us. I would trust any one of our guys to take a shot down the stretch, no matter what kind of shot it is."

The St. Thomas seniors are aware of the storied past and know what's in store for them these next few weeks. Those who arrive as freshmen see how the seniors work and the lessons are passed along from one class to the next.

The 1995 team thrived on its comeback ability, posting 10 second-half comeback wins. This team has gotten a few tastes of those kinds of challenges, though Wednesday's was by far the biggest yet. They could sense the murmurs of the fans who had been texting and calling, letting them know that the team's win streak was a big deal. Even Viau admitted to being alarmed by the large deficit, but the team kept its composure.

Some of the pressure has been taken off by nights of playing Halo.

"But when we're on the court, it's not about Halo," Viau said. "It's about hoops."

Some of the pressure has been taken off them because of the way they play -- fast-paced.

"One of the best things about our (up-tempo) style is you don't have a lot of time to think about what you're supposed to do," Tauer said. "The less you think the better off you are. We want them not to think, we just want them to do it."

Tauer, whom we remind you is a psychology professor, has tried to help minimize the distractions that come from being favorites in the local media. Minnesota coach Tubby Smith even stopped by practice on Thursday to check out the team.

"When you play at St. Thomas for Coach Fritz, you know the history," Tauer said. "They look at the past and know that they're not just playing for themselves. They're also playing for the legacy of the program. Sometimes you get a team where you cherish every game. This is one of those teams."

SENIOR SURVIVOR: It was the morning of Oct. 15, 2008 and the Cabrini Cavaliers were scheduled to open the new men's basketball season with practice later that day. But senior Ryan Oxley wasn't sure if he would attend. He didn't know if he wanted to start all over again. Another new coach. Another new system. It would be the third new beginning for the Cavaliers and Oxley in just four years.

It wasn't that Oxley was afraid of change. When he visited Cabrini for the first time in 2005, he learned that the program's long-time coach John Dzik was leaving after the season. Assistant Saleem Brown, who has survived all the changes the past four seasons, explained the situation to Oxley. It couldn't have been an easy sales pitch for Brown, trying to explain how the coach who defined the program, who won 483 games at Cabrini, was parting ways with the college because of a rift between him and the administration. Whatever Brown said, it was enough. Oxley fell in love with the campus and came to a program that didn't know who its next coach was.

That new coach was Matthew Macciocca, an assistant at Merchant Marine Academy. Whatever changes Macciocca made, Oxley had adjustments of his own. "For me it was kind of adapting and trying to figure out what needed to be done to get some playing time."

In the 2006-07 season Oxley played in all 24 games and started four as a sophomore, but the team only won five games. It was the first time Cabrini had failed to reach double-digit victories. Macciocca's contract was not renewed and Greg Herenda took over the program.

Herenda only stayed one season but Oxley credits him with sowing the seeds for future success. "Coach Herenda was great for us and pushed us harder." The Cavaliers responded by improving to 12-14 and making the conference playoffs where they lost to Gwynedd-Mercy in the first round. Oxley continued to develop, playing in all 26 games and finishing third on the team in scoring (7.3 ppg).

Last spring Herenda left to become head coach at Division II Mass-Lowell. Oxley headed into the summer before his senior season much like he did the summer before his freshman season, waiting to find out who the new coach would be. Only this time he was also thinking about life after college. "It was a combination of things," Oxley says of his reluctance to return for his senior season. "Realizing that I had to get readjusted to a new coach and a new system. Also I was thinking about getting ready for the real world and going out and looking for a job."

Photo by Lou Rabito for D3sports.com Ryan Oxley and Cabrini are mutually happy he's still playing. More photos like this.

Oxley thought about that decision up until the day practice began. "He wasn't sure he was going to play this year," current Cabrini coach Marcus Kahn recalls. "I thought, 'Well, I understand it, being a senior, being through it, here comes another guy.' He and I had a long talk early in the year, the morning of Oct. 15. I said, "Well, if I see you at practice, I'll see you at practice."

Oxley decided to give it one more try and came back for his third head coach in four seasons as the only senior on the team. "I still love playing and I know my time is limited playing competitively," Oxley says of his decision.

Needless to say, Oxley is enjoying this season much more than the previous three. Entering Thursday the Cavaliers are 16-5, 9-3 in the Colonial States Athletic Conference. They are having their best season since 2002-03. And with an impressive 95-87 victory over Gywnedd-Mercy on Saturday, Cabrini took over first place, where they stood until losing to Centenary on Thursday night.

While the success is nice, it didn't take a big win to convince Oxley that he made the right decision. He knew that when he attended the first practice. "Getting back out there with the team kind of brought it all back, all the things I love about playing basketball."

On the court Oxley gives Kahn and the Cavaliers one of several options to extend defenses by shooting the three. Entering Thursday's game, he hit 36 percent of his three point shots. Defenses have to respect that threat and can't completely focus on the team's leading scorers, Kevin Misevicius and Glenn Washington.

Misevicius is a long, quick forward with a great outside shooting touch and quick hands. At 6-6 he is the Cavaliers' tallest player, which forces him to defend in the post against the opponents' big man on occasion. He uses his physical quickness and court knowledge to anticipate the opponents' pass and steal it away before his relative lack of size can be exploited. Against Gwynedd-Mercy on Saturday Misevicius scored 30 points and made six steals, sealing the victory with his play at both ends late in the game.

Add Misevicius to Washington, last year's conference rookie of the year, and Cabrini has a potent combination. Washington doesn't need much space to unleash a three-pointer, something he has done with 46 percent accuracy this year. His three-pointer with five seconds left in overtime on Monday night helped the Cavaliers force double-overtime where they beat rival Eastern 92-88.

But, like Coach Kahn, those two players are relatively new to the program. Washington is just a sophomore and Misevicius is in his first year at Cabrini after Herenda and his assistants recruited him to come from Lehigh Carbon Community College. As Misevicius told Around the Nation in December, "I didn't know [Kahn when I arrived], so I didn't know what to expect. Ever since I met him, everything's been good."

It's certainly been better for Cabrini and for Oxley, its lone senior. Other than Brown, he is the only person on the team to survive all the changes the past three seasons.

That's where Oxley comes in. He is the only senior on the team and, along with Saleem Brown, is the only person -- player or coach -- who has been on the team the last three seasons. "[He's a] a good kid," Kahn says of Oxley. "I am happy for him with the success that we're having."

And now when this year's recruits come to campus and talk to him about their college decision, the marketing major will have a unique story and a compelling sales pitch. After all the bumps along the way, Oxley would encourage recruits to make the decision he did as a senior and give this new beginning a try. "[The recruit] will probably enjoy it here because of Coach Kahn. Getting to meet the guys on the team, I made some really great friends."

On Saturday afternoon, the Wittenberg and Wooster women’s basketball teams will serve as the first game of a day-night doubleheader with the men’s game to be played at 7:30. But while the men’s game often takes center stage, this weekend things may be a little different.

In addition to conference positioning being on the line for the postseason tournament, Wittenberg and Wooster will come together to face another foe, breast cancer.

Wittenberg athletics photo Sarah Jurewicz replaced Pam Evans Smith as coach after her death from breast cancer.

As a way to honor former Wittenberg coach Pam Evans Smith and North Carolina State women’s basketball coach Kay Yow, the Tigers are hosting a Pink Zone event, part of the WBCA's fight against breast cancer. While gate receipts will be donated to the Pam Evans-Smith Memorial Fund, the event will also help raise awareness about breast cancer and early detection. T-shirts can be purchased during the game.

“It is special to have it around a game that is a rivalry game,” Wittenberg coach Sarah Jurewicz said. “It adds to the energy and excitement that a college basketball atmosphere naturally provides. It’s a game that has much more public awareness to it. We’re glad we can use something that draws a large crowd from the community as an avenue to support an effort we really believe in as a team and a program.

“One of our players’ parents hand-made a quilt, a breast cancer awareness quilt,” added Jurewicz. “We’re silent auctioning that off where the proceeds are going to go to the Pam Smith Memorial Fund. We’re tying pink ribbons on a leafless tree. The pink ribbons are going to be symbolic of those people who have battled breast cancer and have survived. Those ribbons will be put on by the players and anybody who comes to our game.”

Even though the programs spend many hours battling each other in games and recruiting, both sides are happy to participate in an event to raise awareness about breast cancer while honoring Smith at the same time.

“It puts a name to a face,” said Wooster coach Lisa Campanell Komara. “Pam and I had a great rivalry relationship and to do something that signifies her memory, I think it’s a good thing. They value the relationship that we have in our rivalry.

“For them, it’s an emotional game,” Campanell Komara added. “Our players are aware of the fact. When they set their dates against Wooster, it’s there intentionally for them to get more emotionally charged up. We’ll be down there in our pink stuff too. It’s a good thing in terms of awareness for everybody, especially our young athletes.”

Smith gave 21 years of her life to the Wittenberg women’s basketball program. During much of that time, she bravely fought breast cancer. It was not uncommon for Smith to receive treatment in the morning and make it to afternoon practice.

Basketball was important to Smith. She wanted to be with the team and her players. That love she gave to the program was returned in many ways. Some of the last season’s seniors touched an empty chair at the end of the bench that was left open as a reminder of Smith.

Another reminder of Smith’s imprint on the program is the very building each home game is played. Wittenberg named the gymnasium the Pam Evans Smith Arena before last season’s game against Wooster, a 67-35 victory for the Tigers.

“There is a huge significance that it’s Wooster specifically,” said Jurewicz. “Any NCAC game, it would hold some significance. All the coaches here, except for a couple of them that are brand new, coached against Pam. They have a respect for her as one of their former colleagues in the NCAC as a women’s basketball coach.

“It’s great that as a conference, we’ve embraced the Pink Zone event,” Jurewicz added. “[We’ve] chosen as a conference to make sure all the schools celebrate the event and raise the awareness that needs to be raised about this disease.”

“I don’t think it could be any more fitting than it is,” Wittenberg junior forward Stephanie Boardman said of the event encompassing a basketball game. “With what our team’s been through and Coach Smith being with the program so long, it just seems fitting that it is surrounding a game because that’s what she would have wanted.”

Jurewicz and the Wittenberg community will not just be raising awareness about breast cancer and honoring Coach Evans Smith. They will also be paying tribute to Yow, who lost her battle with breast cancer after being diagnosed with the disease in 1987.

“I got to meet her at the Women’s Basketball Convention last spring,” Jurewicz said of Yow. “I got to meet her because I was asked to speak at the Kay Yow Breast Cancer Rollout event. They had identified our program and what we had gone through. The year before at the same National Convention, Yow and Smith had gotten to meet face-to-face.

 “They got to talk for quite an extended period of time about how similar their cancers were and what they went through,” Jurewicz said. “After I got done talking about Coach Smith, Coach Yow stood up and talked about Coach Smith. After the event was over, I got to talk to Coach Yow. It was encouraging to her that someone like Pam fought the disease as long as she had it and was able to stay in coaching.”

NOT ENOUGH SLOTS: It has certainly been a year with plenty of parity in NCAA Division III basketball. Not that many teams are rolling through their conferences and there are many who may already be nervous about Selection Sunday (or maybe Matchup Monday). I find it amazing every time I take a look at some of the conferences on the men's side of the equation: There are a number of conferences where two or more teams could make an argument (or the regional rankings are hinting at) to play in March. (This list is not an in-depth breakdown, just an initial look at each conference.)

WIAC (3), CCIW (3), UAA (3), NJAC (3), SCAC (3), Centennial (3), OAC (3), CSAS (2), Landmark (2), NESCAC (2), CCC (2), NEWMAC (2), MASCAC (2), LEC (2), Empire 8 (2), Skyline (2), Liberty (2), CUNYAC (2), ODAC (2), ASC (2), MIAA (2), NCAC (2), SCIAC (2), NWC (2)

That's 38 teams of the 60 bids. And that doesn't count the 16 conferences that will probably only have a team that wins the automatic bid participate or any independent or non-AQ conferences (except the Landmark). Hmm ... just six slots left. And that is considering there are no major upsets in those conference tournaments that could leave an easy favorite for the tournament needing an at-large bid. There are going to be a number of teams on the bubble come March 1 and 2.

Now, one conference that is certainly going to get just one team into the tournament on the men's side is the SUNYAC, but that doesn't make it any less exciting in the final two weeks. Of the 11 teams that are in the State University of New York Athletic Conference, seven of them are within 2 1/2 games of one another at the top of the conference. Geneseo State has the lead in the conference with a 9-3 record, Fredonia State is in seventh at 7-6. With a number of conference games remaining to be played by those seven teams, the race for not only the conference regular season crown and No. 1 seed, but also first-round home games is wide open.

And that isn't even the most incredible thing! Two of the usual favorites in the league might not make the conference tournament: Plattsburgh State and Brockport State. They aren't mathematically eliminated from the top eight, but it is close. But ask yourself this: At the beginning of the season, did you have the Plattsburgh State versus New Paltz State season finale circled as an important game for both teams? Probably not! But that could be a game to determine who is the eighth and final team in the SUNYAC tournament.

The SUNYAC has certainly already had an exciting season ... but it is just getting good!

If you have a tip or note, send it to atn@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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