D3hoops.com: Notables

So last year, it was around this time that we got a note from Oglethorpe women's basketball coach Ron Sattele saying that he was considering a drive up to Springfield, Mass., to watch the Final Four.

In a response, we told him the story of Eastern Connecticut All-American forward Allison Coleman, who drove from the Nutmeg State to Terre Haute, Ind. in 2002 because she wanted to see what it took to get that far. The next year, she came back (by plane), and brought the rest of her team along on a Cinderella run to the national championship game.

"Come on up," we encouraged, "and then maybe next year, it'll be your turn."

So Sattele, father of four, grandfather of 10, got in his Porsche (he and his son like racecars) and did the 1,000 mile jaunt (without using the interstate) solo, meeting us at a Pizzeria Uno for lunch, a short walk from the Basketball Hall of Fame, just as a New England Nor'easter that dumped huge amounts of snow on the area was approaching.

After our hour-long chat, at which we reiterated the idea that this could happen for his team in the not-so-distant future, Sattele checked out the games between DePauw and Mary Washington as well as NYU and Washington U., then was back the next day for the consolation contest and title game between DePauw and Washington, darting from the arena just a few moments after the confetti reigned down on the new titleholders.

He noticed what he thought was the most important attribute that made DePauw (his team's SCAC rival) a champion.

The Tigers won, in his opinion, on the strength of their mental toughness.

"We made them mentally tough, because they beat us (in the 2007 conference title game), so I'll take credit for that," Satelle said with a laugh before praising DePauw coach Kris Huffman, whose Tigers beat his squad three times this season as well. "Mental toughness is just so important at this level."

So after returning to Atlanta, Sattele and his staff (assistants Liz Campbell, Cindy Vaios and Ashley Sharpton) went to work at making sure his players were in the right frame of mind to make this kind of a run. In the preseason, he told them that if they won the national championship, they could shave off the Santa Claus-esque beard he's had since before his 38-year-old daughter was born, at center court.

"They're all over me about that now," Sattele said.

Sattele's coaching style is such that he comes up with the game plan, sits back and just watches his players go to work, figuring if he stays calm, they will as well. That worked to the tune of 23 wins, a second-place finish in the SCAC and an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

You don't see this out of Oglethorpe coach Ron Sattele very often.

Another coach commented they were a bit taken aback seeing Sattele sitting back so calmly, as Oglethorpe battled Kean in the quarterfinal game. On paper, that coach figured the Cougars would have a major edge in size and speed (as well as homecourt advantage). But once he saw the Petrels play, he realized where they had their edge -- mental toughness.

Kean's size advantage (the Cougars won the jump ball when Oglethorpe's 5-8 center retreated to the paint, instead of jumping) resulted in 10 shot blocks, but the Stormy Petrels just
kept on coming.

"They never got scared," the onlooker said.

It didn't hurt that junior Anna Findley, the team's No. 2 scorer, morphed into Michael Jordan for a day, going 8-for-10 from 3-point range en route to a 44-point game in the 98-86 victory.

"She hadn't been shooting well, but holy mackerel," Sattele said. "The basket must've looked four feet wide to her. She looked at me at one point, and I just said ‘Keep shooting.' "

Everything seems to have gone right over the last few weeks for the Stormy Petrels, whom Sattele jokingly referred to as "the Stormy Pigeons," the "Angry Seagulls" and "the Mighty Mites" during our conversation (we also read a reference to "Snowy Petrels" from earlier in the NCAA Tournament when the team won at previously unbeaten Thomas More a few hours after getting into a snowball fight with their coach).

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They've won despite their not having a true point guard (they have a "committee" of guards, and not having a regular bigger than 5-9 (that would be Hannah Brooks, who like almost every other player on the roster, is listed as a guard).

"Our 5-8 center, Tina Grace (nickname: Tenacious), thinks she's actually 6-2," Sattele said with a laugh.

Normally the Petrels apply heavy defensive pressure in the backcourt, but abandoned that against Kean, choosing instead to focus on making life tough on the Cougars shooters, and on boxing out. All the kids can put the ball on the floor and drive or shoot it from long distance.

The team, as Sattelle described, is "a year ahead of schedule," with one senior, eight juniors, one sophomore and freshmen. Their usual top scorer is junior guard Katie Kulavic, who averages 17.4 points and shoots 59.5 percent from the field.

"She's a very smart basketball player who also happens to be tough as nails," Sattele said. "I like to say about our opponents: ‘We have Katie and they don't."

They're also in the Final Four, while many of their bigger, faster, stronger opponents are not. They're two wins away from a national championship and a clean-shaven head coach.

"Everyone keeps expecting us to lose," Sattele said, "I think even we were expecting to lose, but we just keep on winning."