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Posted Jan. 9, 2009

Reason to rave about Anderson

Anderson let potential wins against two of the teams to have been No. 1 in the nation slip away, but the reward has been significant in terms of both recognition and future success.

Anderson University athletics Mike Russell is averaging a hair below 20 points per game and averaged three three-pointers a contest for the Ravens.

Three strong non-conference showings against Top-7 ranked teams, including an 83-77 home win over Elmhurst on Jan. 3, have opened peoples' eyes about Anderson, which cracked the Top 25 for the first time in school history last week.

Anderson led then-No. 7 UW-Platteville by 15 before losing by two on Nov. 25, and led then-No. 1 Washington University by 11 points four days later, before again losing by a basket. From that, they figured out how to properly close out an opponent, and when the opportunity to do so came against Elmhurst, the Ravens came through for their biggest non-conference win of the year.

 The 10-3 Ravens have won seven consecutive games heading into a Saturday showdown against last year’s regular-season champ, Defiance, who knocked the Ravens out of last year’s NCAA Tournament. Anderson and Defiance are each 3-1 in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play, tied with Bluffton for second behind 5-0 Franklin. Anderson lost to Franklin earlier this season.

One of the benefits of playing some of the nation’s elite programs was that it gave Anderson a chance to figure out how to go against big men, like UW-Platteville’s Jeff Skemp and Elmhurst’s Brent Ruch, good practice for facing HCAC Player of the Year Anthony Pettway of Defiance. But the biggest key for the Ravens has actually been the smallest guy on the floor, senior guard Mike Russell, who leads the team in scoring at 19.9 points and has made 39 three-pointers in 13 games.

“I’ve seen three or four All-Americans come into the gym this year, but I haven’t seen anybody close to Mike Russell,” said Anderson coach Tom Slyder of the Dec. 14 D3hoops.com Team of the Week selection, averaging 27 points in league play. “He is extremely elusive, so it‘s hard for people to stay in front of him. He’s a streaky shooter who wants the ball when the game is on the line.

“He’s a much more complete player this year. Last season he’d throw up shots where you would think the clock was always running out when he shot. This year, he’s figured out the good decisions on his own. In the last six or seven games, he hasn’t taken a shot that I didn’t think was a good one for him.”

Slyder poked fun at Russell’s lack of success on the defensive end last season, but Russell has taken the matter seriously.

“I believe I can score with the best of them,” said Russell, who transferred in from Ancilla Community College, where he ranked seventh in junior college's Division II in scoring two years ago, “but if my defense isn’t there, it’s pointless.

The defense was there against Elmhurst, as Anderson held its opponent to three scores on its final 10 possessions down the stretch.

“We had mental lapses against Platteville and Washington, and gave up some easy buckets late,“ Russell said. “But against Elmhurst, we knuckled down. The defensive end is what allowed us to win that game.”

Anderson University athletics Ryan Fultz scored 16 against UW-Platteville and 14 against Wash U, two of the three teams to be No. 1 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 this season.

A quality supporting cast helps, though it’s one that hasn’t yet played altogether healthy. Junior forward Rodney Holliday, who led the team in scoring through 15 games his freshman year before getting hurt, is the No. 2 scorer and his “slashability” (Slyder’s term) has given opponents a lot of trouble. Junior guard Ty Riddle, in his first year on the team after three years away from basketball, made his name known with nine 3-pointers in a win over Howard Payne, when the Ravens went to Texas over winter break. The Ravens win with a pressure defense and the ability to get to the free throw line. In the three games against ranked foes, Anderson has attempted 29 more free throws than its opponents.

Anderson has the benefit of having played together over the summer, thanks to a five-game Canadian road swing, in which the Ravens went 4-1 as they bused through the neighboring nation to the north. They hit 14 three-pointers to beat Queen’s University by 19, impressive considering that Queen’s subsequently beat Division I South Alabama in an exhibition. In all, a 4-1 jaunt set the tone for what has followed.

“We have an extremely deep, athletic team, and we’re not even fully healthy yet,” Slyder said, noting that sophomore forward Jordan Wiseman, a regular contributor last season, has been out with a torn ligament in his foot. All-Conference junior forward Ryan Fultz has missed a pair of games due to injury, and multiple players have played through a flu bug, including Russell, who when sick scored 38 points in a win against Mount St. Joseph. “I think we’re more athletic than a lot of Division III teams. Hopefully in about a week or two, we’ll be at full strength."

END OF A LONG WEEK: New York University will welcome a tried group of Yellowjackets the Big Apple on Sunday when the University of Rochester heads east for a ‘Matinee in Manhattan.'

The Yellowjackets, off to a 9-0 start and ranked No. 1 in this week's D3hoops.com women's basketball poll, have three road games this week. They won 49-38 at Scranton on Tuesday and will travel to No. 5 Brandeis for a Friday night University Athletic Association contest before playing 13th ranked NYU (10-0).

"It's as difficult a three-game stretch as we'll have all year," said Rochester coach Jim Scheible. "In the UAA, there are certain road trips you kind of dread or look forward to the challenge, depending on how you're feeling as a team. Brandeis-NYU is always one of those really tough road trips.

"We haven't beaten Brandeis since 2000 at their place and we've only beaten NYU three times in the last 20 years," he added. "Based on history, you'd say that's an incredibly hard road trip for us. We also look at it as our chance to break through on the road and make a statement. We know there's two excellent teams waiting for us."

New York University athletics Yes, folks, Jessica McEntee is still around. She's a senior this season.

The Yellowjackets may be dealing with a tough part of the schedule, but NYU is not underestimating Rochester's abilities. With a No. 1 ranking attached to them, Rochester will get its opponents' best shots.

"We've been very focused," said NYU senior forward Jessica McEntee. "We're not looking past Carnegie Mellon, but we've been looking forward to playing the top UAA teams, especially Rochester, all season. We've been working on the areas we think we need to improve on. We're really excited to play on Sunday.

"We're expecting the typical Rochester team," she added. "We know that it's going to be a really tough game and could go down to the wire. It's going to take every ounce of effort that we could possibly give, but that's what's so exciting about our conference. A lot of games end up being like that. That's why so many teams do well in post-conference play in the tournament."

While Rochester is in the middle of a long week, the NYU Violets had a difficult beginning to the season. Since returning to campus this fall, the young women in the program have had three coaches.

Legendary coach Janice Quinn, who took NYU to the 1996-97 national championship, stepped down due to health reasons, while her first replacement left prior to the beginning of the season.

Stefano Trompeo was promoted to interim head coach on Nov. 14 and led the Violets to a 61-45 season-opening win at Mount Saint Mary they next day.

"Getting the first news of losing Janice Quinn was tough for everyone, including myself, the team, even the people around the university," Trompeo said. "Having the magnitude of someone that's done such a great job over 25 years of coaching was pretty significant. The group used that to pull themselves together even closer.

"They used that as an extra motivator to say, ‘We've put in a lot of work up to this point, we're not going to let this set us back. We're going to use this to push us even further,'" added Trompeo. "I didn't really have time to think or sulk about anything. It was more, ‘Okay, we've got to get ready for the first game of the season.' I've got to do my best to get the team where they want to be and that's the NCAA Tournament at the end of the season."

The Violets have looked like a team on a mission. They have had just two games decided by less than 12 points.

With team success comes individual attention. McEntee has been named UAA Player of the Week four times and Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III Metro Player of the Week three times this year. She leads the team with 20.3 points and 14.4 rebounds a game and is fourth with 12 steals.

In addition to scoring and rebound numbers, McEntee has a 1.15 assist-to-turnover ratio.

"She's a relentless worker," Trompeo said of McEntee. "At the same time, she's probably the most coachable kid that I've ever coached. You explain something to her or correct something and she makes that adjustment immediately on the very next repetition. It never goes back to the old habit. You might get one out of every thousand kids you coach that's special in that way.

"I tried to be more of a vocal leader and try to get to know my teammates a bit better," McEntee said. "My goal has been to be the more vocal one on the court instead of leading by example. Everyone on their own made the changes they needed to make. They got mentally tough and focused. That's why we're undefeated right now."

When the game begins Sunday afternoon, Trompeo and the Violets will need McEntee's vocal leadership and focus. Rochester has an inside-outside combination of Julie Marriott (12.4 points, 5.8 rebounds per game) and Melissa Alwardt (12.1 points per game, 41.3 percent three-point shooter) who account for nearly 36 percent of the offense.

"Julie is a culmination of getting better over four years," Scheible said. "She's really a talented athlete, but she's learned different ways to score inside. She's a 5-11 post and that might be a little bit small, but she runs the floor incredibly well. She does a lot in transition. For Melissa, she's our most talented overall guard who does a little bit of everything. Last year, she had a foot injury, so we could never get her in the starting line-up. We've been able to stretch her out and play more minutes.

"For us to be successful, we're going to have to put up points," concluded Scheible. "I don't think we'll get by Brandeis or NYU scoring 50 points. We're going to have get into the mid to high 60s. NYU is bent on getting rid of the memory of last year and asserting a much better year this year. They want to make a statement in UAA games right off the bat."

HOOPSVILLE STORY LINES: After a couple weeks off for the holidays, “Hoopsville” is gearing back up for an uninterrupted run towards the championships in March, here is a look at what we are looking forward to in the coming weeks:

No. 1 now doesn’t mean No. 1 later: For Wheaton (Ill.) and Rochester, sitting on top of the Top 25 polls has got to feel good. And while both teams are playing well, I hate to be blunt, but I don’t expect them to be there at the end of February or after the NCAA Tournament. There are many reasons to base this opinion on, but there are some basics:

On the men’s side, only once in the last nine Top 25 polls has the No. 1 team at the beginning of January won the national championship – Stevens Point in 2005 when they were the unanimous No. 1 at this time of year and the unanimous No. 1 at the end of the same season. And only three times has the team ranked No. 1 entered the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 1 as well (Williams in 2004 and Stevens Point in 2005 & 2007). So, you have to expect that despite Wheaton’s high ranking, they aren’t going to stay there. Of course the simple fact that Wheaton is in the CCIW could lead you to this expectation as well. If Wheaton gets through the CCIW schedule with as few as two losses will be a major accomplishment and give us all an idea of just how good they really are this season.

On the women’s side, no team ranked No. 1 at this time of the year has won the national title since the 2000-2001 season (Washington U.). Though if Rochester continues to play well, they have a chance to be the No. 1 team entering the NCAA Tournament; that has happened in the last three straight seasons and six times in the last nine years. However, Rochester has to get through a UAA schedule that includes Wash U., NYU, Chicago, and others – that is a tough road to pave when you are the No. 1 team in the country.

I am sure the Top 25 voters will have to reevaluate their top teams several times in the coming weeks as conference schedules complicate things further. But here are the teams I think might be No. 1 when we get to March: UW-Platteville (Men) and Hope (Women).

Centennial re-emerging? I realize for many people, basketball in the Mid-Atlantic Region hasn’t been in the spotlight for many seasons, especially during the regular season. One of the reasons, the disappearance of the Centennial Conference. Certainly there were many good teams on top every season, but the conference on a whole has slipped in recent years. However, this year I think this could be one of the most interesting conference races in the country.

Last season, Ursinus swept all 18 games of Centennial Conference regular season action on their way to the NCAA Championship Weekend in Salem, Va. That included four wins over Gettysburg, with wins in the conference championship game and Sectional Semifinals.

This season, it was expected to be these two teams battling for the conference crown. Ursinus, despite losing the likes of Nick Shattuck and Michael Shema, where picked to finished second by the coaches. The Bears came out on fire, easily handling Gettysburg, who returned pretty much everyone from last season, in the first game between to the two rivals, and looked like they still may be the team to beat. However, the great start for Ursinus is probably over. In a tough loss to Randolph-Macon, they lost second leading score and significant outside threat Matt Hilton for the rest of the season due to a rare-broken bone in his foot while landing on another player’s foot.

But Ursinus isn’t even the best team in the conference, right now. To find that team, you have to head southwest to a familiar school in Lancaster, Pa. There you will find Franklin & Marshall, which once dominated this conference and has reemerged with a young team under the guidance of Division III’s all-time winning coach, Glenn Robinson. They are undefeated at 10-0 right now and playing some of the best basketball the Diplomats have played in years.

In Baltimore at Johns Hopkins, coach Bill Nelson told me at the beginning of the season he thought the Centennial schedule alone would leave his team in the middle of the pack and a .500 record. The Blue Jays are 7-3 right now and just beat Ursinus this week.

And don’t forget about Gettysburg, who started well, then stumbled, and are now back on track with a 7-2 overall record. And they get another shot at Ursinus in just over week.

Which team is coming out of this conference? That is what I can’t wait to watch for the next two months. The depth alone is surprising right now, as well. Of the ten teams in the conference, eight of them have above .500 overall records, with only one team (Swarthmore) really struggling. I am not saying this conference is as good as the CCIW, UAA, WIAC, or even the ODAC, but for the first time in a few years it is as competitive as ever and it may be the beginning of a conference returning to the national scene.

Tune in to Hoopsville on Sundays during the basketball season, as Dave is joined by players, coaches, and regional reporters from around the nation.

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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