Notables

By David Collinge
For D3sports.com

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Ohio -- This was supposed to happen a year ago.

Guilford came into the 2007-08 season filled with confidence, buoyed by preseason No. 4 ranking and the presence of the reigning D3hoops.com national Player of the Year, Ben Strong. They had made a deep run in the 2007 NCAA tournament, outlasting Lincoln 128-127 in an epic three-overtime game, then falling to defending champions, conference rival Virginia Wesleyan, in the quarterfinals. They were deep, talented, experienced, and poised to restore the glory not seen since Lloyd "World B." Free and M.L. Carr were pounding the hardwoods in Greensboro.

And then the Quakers went one-and-out.

"Last year, we felt like we had a really good team," Guilford coach Tom Palombo explained. The Quakers coasted to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) regular season and tournament championships, and entered the NCAA tournament with a sparkling 24-4 record and No. 8 national ranking. They were a great team with playoff experience that was led by a great player. With 16 straight wins, they were peaking at the right time, and they had earned the right to host a regional on their own floor. "I think some guys, and maybe coaches too, were thinking ‘Hey -- this is a team that can get to the Final Four,' " recalled Palombo. "Well, we forgot to play the first round game."

Upstart St. Mary's blindsided the Quakers 89-77 in that game, and with shocking suddenness, Guilford's dream season was but a memory. So was Ben Strong's career in Greensboro, leaving a huge hole for Palombo to try to fill. Strong, a two-time D3Hoops.com All American, accounted for more than 30% of his team's offense in 2006-08, leading Guilford in scoring in 47 of 58 games those two seasons. Palombo did have Clay Henson, the second-leading scorer at 12.9 ppg, returning, along with promising center Tyler Sanborn, who had averaged 6.8 points and 6.9 rebounds backing up Strong. But it seemed that Guilford may have fumbled its best chance for a championship since Free led the 1973 Quakers to the NAIA title.

Picked to finish third in the ODAC and absent from the D3hoops.com Top 25, Guilford started the season without the pressure of high expectations. They started the season with three wins before running into a 64-48 buzzsaw at Texas-Dallas. Guilford regrouped after that Texas trip, winning ten of its next 12 games and re-entering the Top 25 in week 10. The Quakers went on to capture a second straight ODAC championship (shared with preseason favorite Randolph-Macon) and the top seed in the ODAC tournament, held at the Salem Civic Center.

And then it happened again, this time at the hands of lightly regarded Washington and Lee.

When asked whether having played recently at the site of the Final Four provided an advantage for the Quakers, Palombo joked "you know, we were only there for about 15 minutes in our conference tournament. Actually, we went double overtime, so we were there about 25 minutes."

At the end of that second overtime, the Generals were advancing to the semifinals, leaving Guilford to regroup one more time.

Sent on the road to Centre College, Guilford opened the NCAA tournament against nearby Transylvania, the champions of the Heartland Conference. Leading for most of the second half, the Quakers saw a late six-point lead slip away and were forced into an overtime session with the Pioneers, when Rhett Bonner took charge. The junior guard single-handedly outscored Transylvania, pouring in 10 of his 22 points, including hitting eight of nine free throws. In the second round, the Quakers met up with Averett, an upset victor over host Centre. As they had in a November matchup, Guilford came away with a ten-point victory behind by Bonner's 27 points.

The next obstacle on Guilford's road (back) to Salem was a trip to tenth-ranked John Carroll, the Ohio Athletic Conference champions who hadn't lost a game at home in over a calendar year. Once again, Bonner and Sanborn were up to the challenge, with Bonner tossing in 21 points and Sanborn recording a monster 23-point, 19-rebound game. With the Blue Streaks vanquished by a 78-73 count, Guilford found themselves once again facing Texas-Dallas, the same team that had thumped them in November.

Against the Comets, things started poorly for the Quakers and quickly got worse. "We played so bad, we couldn't do anything right, especially in the first half," lamented Palombo. "We didn't play defense the way we're supposed to, [and] we didn't do anything right offensively. Going into halftime, we felt really good only being down six." The Comets soon extended that lead to an even dozen and seemed in firm control of the game. With 5:27 left and UT-Dallas still leading by 12, Guilford finally shook off the cobwebs and went on a 9-0 run keyed by a switch to a full-court trapping defense that forced three quick turnovers. "We're not a real big pressing team, but we do have it," Palombo explained. "We brought it out, and I thought it changed the tempo. It got us a couple turnovers, and I think [Texas-Dallas] got a little tentative against it."

After a three-pointer by UT-D's Brandon Greene restored the margin to six, Clay Henson connected on the first Guilford trey of the night with just 1:01 left. After Greene missed the front end of a one-and-one, Sanborn's putback with 0:11 on the clock cut the lead to just one. Scott Rodgers gave the Comets a three-point edge with two free throws, but Henson followed with an acrobatic off-balance trey from the top of the key with 0:00.8 left to force overtime.

Although Guilford never led the game in regulation, they had all the momentum a game-ending 17-5 run can provide, and when Bonner opened the overtime with a three-pointer, the Quakers never trailed again. Despite playing below his expectations for much of the contest, Palombo is upbeat about his team's chances next week. "The good thing is, it's March and we're going to the Final Four, and we can still get a lot better. We've got a lot to work on in practice."

Tyler Sanborn, named the most outstanding player of the sectional tournament, comes to Salem having recorded double-doubles in each of his last seven games, and is averaging 19.8 points and 15.3 rebounds per tournament game. Rhett Bonner has averaged 21 points in his four tournament outings, and has connected on 25 of 28 free throw attempts.

Both are juniors, as is leading scorer Clay Henson (18.7 points per game for the season, 15 per game in the tournament), leading one to wonder if the team that was supposed to be here last year but got here this year just might come back next year, too.

By D3sports.com

AMHERST, Mass. – You would think on a roster in which the overwhelming majority of those who get playing time are freshmen and sophomores, that the pressure of the goal to win a national championship would wear a team down.

But the Amherst women’s basketball team, which faces Washington University in the national semifinals Friday, has done just the opposite. If anything, the situation at hand has made them better.

“We’ve had it in our heads to make it to where we are right now,” said Lord Jeffs freshman point guard Shannon Finucaine (Fih-NEW-kin). “We don’t think of it as pressure. I don’t think you should come in thinking of playing for anything less than a national championship. That’s always been a state of mind in my family, and I like to surround myself with people who think like that as well.”

With the 5-foot-3 Finucaine, a native of Cortland, N.Y., leading the way, Amherst dominated against both NYU in the round of 16 and Brandeis in the national quarterfinals. The traits that stood out most from their play were the team’s poise, the ability of players to play bigger than their size, and the gimmick-free man-to-man defense that frustrated one of the top players in the country (NYU’s 3-time league player of the year Jessica McEntee) and one of the best guards in the University Athletic Association (Brandeis junior Jessica Chapin).

Over two days, the Lord Jeffs played nearly mistake-free basketball, almost never making an unforced mistake. They always seemed to be in the right spot on the floor at the right time. When we interviewed coach G.P. Gromacki before the round of 16 began, he repeated several times that his team was playing its best basketball of the season. It’s hard to imagine them playing any better than they have in their four NCAA wins, which have come by an average of 24.8 points.

Finucaine had 18 points and eight assists in the 74-51 win against NYU, then had a career-best 22 points and five assists in the 68-54 win over Brandeis, a game in which she went 10-for-10 from the free throw line. The 40 points in two games raised her scoring average to 8.6 points per game, which ranks fourth on the team behind forwards Jaci Daignault, Sarah Leyman and Lem Atanga McCormick, all of whom have had starring roles during the NCAA Tournament as well.

Finucaine’s performance in the NCAA Tournament was quite a turnaround from the NESCAC semifinals and finals, in which she missed 17 of 20 shots and had 10 turnovers in the two games, the last of which was a loss to Bowdoin in the conference championship. Gromacki said that the best characteristic of his team was its fearlessness. Finucaine’s knack for playing fearlessly in the big moment has come through the past two weekends, but especially in the last two rounds.

“Shannon has become a great leader both on and off the court,” Gromacki said. “I can’t say enough about her decision making. We couldn’t ask for more from her, and it’s been tremendous to see her grow throughout the season.”

With a starting lineup now comprised entirely of freshmen and sophomores, Finucaine is not shy about taking on a leadership role. There have been multiple instances this season in which she has pulled her teammates into a huddle instructing them to pick up their play, or reminding them that they could use a timeout if they had any trouble.

Having that kind of a player at that position allows Gromacki, for the most part, to sit back and watch, and let his players work through trouble.

“I don’t look at my age, or being a freshman,” Finucaine said.

“I’ve been a point guard my whole life. This is my team and this is my job. The job of the point guard is to keep the team together as the coach on the floor. My teammates have made it easy for me. At Amherst, there’s an intelligence level here, that everyone understands their role and the game so well. Everyone is comfortable with everyone else. We’re all friends. It‘s easy to be able to give advice and share your opinions with each other. They’re smart players. They know what’s at stake.”

Wheaton (Ill.) head men’s basketball coach Bill Harris has announced his retirement, effective at the conclusion of the 2008-09 school year. Harris has served 18 seasons as the head coach at Wheaton, compiling a record of 320-148, with a .684 winning percentage and a 157-97 (.618) record in CCIW play. His 157 league wins are sixth in conference history.

During his 24-year career as a collegiate head coach, Harris has compiled a record of 447-209 for a .681 career winning percentage. Harris guided Wheaton to 26-4 record this season and an 11-3 record in CCIW play. The Thunder won its ninth CCIW championship in school history and its third conference crown under Harris. Wheaton also picked up its first-ever CCIW tournament championship this year.

Harris said of his decision: “The time is right to do this. As it says in Ecclesiastes, ‘To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun’.” Harris added, "I have been blessed to be able work with so many wonderful people and so many outstanding Christian athletes."

Harris has recorded more 20-win seasons than any coach in Wheaton history, with seven. His 320 wins is the second-highest total ever for a Wheaton men’s basketball coach, behind Lee Pfund’s 361 career wins at the school. Under Harris' leadership, Wheaton has appeared in the Division III NCAA Tournament six times. The program has produced 10 All-American selections and has had a player recognized as the CCIW’s most outstanding player six times under his guidance.