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Posted Jan. 23, 2009

Growing
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Wells athletics The Wells Express has gotten off to a decent start as first-year programs go.

A couple months ago, a few hours after the first win in the history of the Wells men's basketball program, against Hilbert, the team bus was headed back to campus. Wells, in Aurora, N.Y., is structured such that there are two rather steep hills that must be passed to get to the school gym. A snowfall made the second hill a tough pass, and the bus slowly started to slide back down, much to the dismay of its driver. Fortunately, the bus was able to come to rest on a grassy area alongside the road.

Now, when Wells boards for a road trip, the players have to walk half a mile to meet up with the bus, since the charter company won't allow its drivers to deal with that sort of obstacle again.

"They don't mess with the hill anymore," said Wells coach Joe Wojtylko.

Trying to push a bus up a hill may be a good metaphor for what life has been like for the Express this season. Wells is in its first year as a full-fledged Division III basketball program and is eligible for both the Northeast Athletic Conference playoffs and the NCAA Tournament. This is the school's fourth year with men after a long history as a women's school. The women's basketball team starts next season.

Wells is a respectable 8-9 after an 85-69 win on Thursday against Penn State-Berks, and its non-league wins include Hobart, where Wojtylko formerly coached, and Elmira. The team started 1-5, got to 7-7, then lost two in a row before its win Thursday.

Wells has had a few other issues besides its bus troubles, but has battled through them. A roster that started with 18 kids has dwindled to eight due primarily to academic issues, though three are appealing and hoping to return. The one benefit as Wojtylko points out to recruits and their families: "We know that study halls will be taken seriously now."

Wells athletics Darrell Bullock averages 18.7 points per game for Wells, while Juan Paulino averages a double-double.

The school's gym, Frances Tarlton Farenthold Field House needs $200,000 worth of improvements (an additional door and a fire shade) to pass fire code regulations for allowing student crowds into the facility. As a result, the team has played only two home games out of 17 games (and won‘t play any more the rest of the season), with fans watching from the lobby on a closed-circuit video feed.

"The guys have been mentally tough to not let things like that affect them," Wojtylko said.

Wojtylko went with the approach of trying to procure a mix of transfers and freshmen to fill this initial team and spent a full year recruiting players. He was able to go beyond New York in trying to find student-athletes which made it easier to compete against the many Division III programs in his area. The result was a geographically diverse roster that included a group of players both from Virginia and from Chicago.
 
"The tone of our recruiting was to tell players that they could come here and create a program, that they're going to make history regardless of what happens," Wojtylko said. "We told the freshman that they would have a chance to play right away. For the transfers, we told them we'd need experienced kids who wouldn't be shell-shocked when they came on the floor. We tried to get some kids who had played together before. That worked out pretty well."

One of those combinations were junior forwards Jarrell Williams and Juan Paulino, who were teammates at Finger Lakes Community College. Paulino, at 6-6, 260 pounds, had been at West Virginia Tech but transferred in and became eligible to play earlier this month. He's put up some ridiculous numbers through nine games, averaging 17.4 points and 14.9 rebounds on 77 percent shooting, including a 26-point, 26-rebound effort in a 105-103 overtime loss at Cazenovia.

The change in personnel has resulted in the Express becoming a significantly different team in the second semester, with the emphasis shifting to Paulino. Others, like freshman guard Andre Sawyers, have impressed at times, as well.

"Juan commands a lot of attention," Wojtylko said. "He's a very good passer who sees the floor well. We went from being a guard-oriented team to post-oriented because he just doesn‘t miss. Andre is someone who has stepped up his level of play, which bodes well for the future of the program."
           
Paulino, for his part, is optimistic that even with the struggles in keeping the team together, that things will fall into place.

"We have a lot of freshmen who are looking to me for guidance and leadership," Paulino said. "We're playing together. People thought it would take a year or so, but we're playing as one unit. I think we can get to a conference championship. We have the players, skills, and coaches to get it done."

Because the NEAC added the University of Dallas for this season, a team which won't play any regular-season NEAC games, the entire conference will make the NEAC tournament. The winner of that three-game event gets the automatic bid.

DEEP IN THE HEART: It's not a crosstown rivalry. But when teams have crossed paths as many times as these two have, it gains that kind of stature.

McMurry hosts Howard Payne in a key American Southwest Conference women's basketball game Saturday afternoon. McMurry enters the game in the midst of a six-game winning streak, while Howard Payne, the defending national champion, has gone 1-3 over its last four contests.

A win by McMurry would keep it in first place, while a Yellow Jackets victory means at least a tie for the ASC-West Division lead. McMurry is in the hunt for its first victory over Howard Payne since a one-point home win on Jan. 27, 2007.

The teams met twice during the regular season last year with Howard Payne taking both meetings, 58-46 at home and 56-51 on the road. The Yellow Jackets also took an ASC Tournament game over McMurry 77-55 and an NCAA Tournament contest 79-64.

"After the year last year where someone beats you as many times as they did, that frustration level sets in," McMurry coach Veronica Snow said. "We're probably the team that came the closest last year. We thought we had them here at home and a shot or two didn't fall. The girls will be very pumped."

"I've coached at the University of Oklahoma and a top-notch Division II program in Kentucky Wesleyan College," said HPU first-year coach Josh Prock. "As far as kids that work hard and truly want to win, I haven't been around kids like this. I coached on a Final Four staff at Oklahoma. They worked hard every day in practice, but these girls seem to get it. They've had to adapt to a new system, but they've hit it head-on. Last year, they led the conference in defense and we're doing it again this year."

Even newcomers like Prock and McMurry sophomore forward Anna Berthel know what the game means to each team and player on the floor Saturday.

"They don't like us and a rivalry game is always that way," Prock said. "It's going to be intense. It's going to be us against the world. We'll probably have a few parents and some fans, but they have a campus view day where they're bringing students in to see McMurry's campus. They're probably going to have a little extra."

"I've been hearing all season how they lost [four] times to Howard Payne and they can't do it again," said Berthel. "We're doing great right now and we're really excited about this game coming up. We know Howard Payne's a good team and coming off that great, great season last year. Mentally, we're ready for them."

McMurry could be catching Howard Payne at the right time. The Yellow Jackets had a 42-game home winning streak snapped against Mary Hardin-Baylor and lost at Hardin-Simmons in Abilene two days before playing McMurry.

"Everybody put it on us like you all need to keep building," said HPU junior forward Hope Hohertz. "We looked at it like we lost on our home court. The winning streak did matter to us, but losing was the whole deal to us. People get too hyped up about that stuff.

"We just took it as a loss on our home court," she added. "People don't want to lose on their home court. You protect your home court and we didn't do that this weekend. We didn't come to play 40 minutes. That game was on Saturday, it's over with. We got an ‘L' for that game. The only thing we can look for is the (next) game."

With a week to prepare for two games, both coaches are focused on being better than the previous day. Whether it is shooting better behind the three-point line or not turning the ball over, Howard Payne is ready to put in the work.

The Yellow Jackets committed 21 turnovers against Mary Hardin-Baylor and connected on 5 of 18 shots from beyond the arc.

"You don't ever want to lose a game, but they understand what they have to do after a loss," Prock said. "They haven't lost much. You're talking five games in the last three years of play. It does help that you've got two really big games coming up Thursday and Saturday. Hardin-Simmons has always been a bitter rival of Howard Payne and McMurry as well. It's probably our toughest road trip of the year having to go to both places. The focus is going to be there and because of that, we should have a good week of practice."

Conversely, McMurry has been able to play a lot of athletes in its past six games. With the depth they are starting to form, this group of young ladies could use the game as a benchmark for where they are and where they want to be.

"We feel like we're poised to get better," Snow said. "Practice [Tuesday] was probably one of the best we've had. They know after going through the grind of our East opponent schedule and part of our West, we're on still on top. They're just taking a deep breath and saying, ‘We can do this. Let's go.'

"You can actually say something and the kids listen because they're focused," added Snow. "We make some adjustments in how we communicate with our kids because of the noise level. We talk about keeping our emotions at a level where they can be sustained throughout the whole contest and not be a roller coaster. Anybody who is competitive thrives on that environment."

Competitive may be the perfect word to describe Hohertz and Berthel. Hohertz averages 10.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. She has a team-high 33 assists and is second on the Yellow Jackets with 30 steals.

Berthel scores 13.4 points per game. On the glass, she has been just as effective, collecting 7.3 rebounds per game against ASC competition. She hits 47.9 percent of her field goals and nearly 82 percent of her shots from the free throw line.

That competitive spirit is bound to show itself Saturday afternoon when these two ladies meet on the low block underneath each other's baskets.

"I transferred from West Texas A&M," Berthel said. "I met some of the girls and they were awesome. I already knew I wasn't going back to West Texas A&M, so it seemed like the perfect fit. They needed someone to step in at the post and play right away, so it was the perfect scenario for me.

"I really needed a lot of help developing before I was ready to play," added Berthel. "Here at McMurry, they really put a lot of effort into developing me in preseason and even now. They're still helping me develop my game."

"No matter if I'm on the court or off the court, I have to produce for these girls," Hohertz said. "If I come off to rest, it's my enthusiasm, showing these girls that I have all the support behind them on the bench to drive them on the court. Every day after practice, I'm going to stay and shoot or stay and run. I'm going to give it all my effort. I want the girls to know my heart is all in this for them, for our team and for them just to give me everything they have too."

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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