Brian Centella hit the game-winner for Loras against Coe as part of the Duhawks' road run. |
By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com
Sometimes we go about trying to find a common thread in those teams we write about each week. The one thing that stood out from this week's column was that we couldn't recall ever writing about any of these teams in the past. They've given us reason to write this week, mostly due in part to their fine play, and so we introduce some squads you may not be familiar with.
We write about the Loras men because this could be the best team the school has had in more than five decades. The Duhawks are 13-5 and 9-0 in Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play for the first time since the 1952-53 squad was 10-0. Loras hasn't won a league championship since 1950-51, after which it competed, not in the NCAAs, but in the NCI, in which it lost to St. Francis (Iowa).
Finding a way to win a championship would be a nice way to close down Loras Fieldhouse. This will be the final season for that facility, which opened in 1925. The team will move into a new gym this summer, but will get a chance to determine its regular-season fate on its home floor. Loras finishes with five of its last seven league games at home.
Ricky Kolze scores 13.0 points per game, one of five players between 9.8 and 13.0. |
Loras has held its opponent below its season scoring average in each of its nine IIAC wins. The Duhawks have improved significantly, with the turning point coming after they allowed 99 points to Aurora in a loss just before Christmas break. Loras split two games in Phoenix over break, returned home and committed to playing better basketball.
"This team has improved on defense more than any other I've coached," said coach Chad Walthall.
And it's not like he's had bad squads, as the team won 68% of its games in his first four seasons, got Top 25 votes in 2003-04 and 2005-06 and had an 11-game win streak last season. "I thought we would improve because we're a young team (three sophomores and two juniors start), but we've improved more dramatically than I thought we would. We don't have a large margin for error, so for us to get it done, we have to be really good on that end. It's not really pretty, but it's working."
The Duhawks win without what Walthall calls "superstar power." Sophomore Ricky Kolze, who played in only six games last season, leads the team in scoring at just over 13 points per game. Kolze, point guard Brian Centella, and forwards Jake Oeth and Luke Slater also get to the foul line with regularity, something of which Loras has taken full advantage. The Duhawks have made more free throws than their foes have attempted.
Loras has specialized in winning on the road and eking out narrow victories. The Duhawks won at Coe by one, Buena Vista by six and Luther by two. (Check out this audio clip by Loras SID Tim Calderwood of the finish of the Loras-Luther game.)
"We may be undefeated in the league, but we're a couple of bounces away from three losses," Walthall said. "We know who we are."
'TITAN'IC ACHIEVEMENT: We write about Illinois Wesleyan's women's squad because we pay much attention to the men's squad that it's about time we gave the women's team its due.
The Titans are 16-1, 6-0 in the CCIW and slowly creeping up the D3hoops.com Top 25 to their current No. 16 position.
"I definitely think we're worthy of our national ranking," IWU head coach Mia Smith said. "Right now, our athleticism is creating the havoc to make us worthy of that."
The Titans altered their strategy entering the season out of necessity. In the second game, freshman center Christina Solari came off the bench and scored 15 points and 16 rebounds in an upset of No. 3 DePauw. Solari only played one more game before tearing her ACL, the second such injury suffered by an IWU post player to that point in the year.
"That really meant we were small," Smith said, "so we changed things around."
Already starting four guards and heavily reliant on 3-pointers, the Titans added a few presses to the defensive mix and the results have been very good for a team that has no seniors. A commitment to defense resulted in wins over Millikin (which it held to 44 points) and preseason league favorite Wheaton. Though the nation's top 3-point shooting team (nearly 10 a game) hasn't shot the ball as well recently, it is still winning at the same rate.
And when the Titans shooters do get going, look out. Sarah Bull, Claire Sheehan and Mallory Heydorn all shoot 3-pointers at 40% or better and make the team very tough to defend, as it was when it made a team-record 19 3-pointers in a holiday break win over Emory.
"I would like to have had their jump shots," Smith said. "All three can dribble-drive and get to the basket too. With Claire, we call it the 'Sheehan Shimmy,' where she can slide between two people. I don't know how she does it. With Sarah Bull, she's automatic. If she's open, it's in. Molly Heydorn has range beyond the 3-point line. She may be open six feet behind the line and I'll holler at her to take the shot."
Not only are the Titans having success shooting the 3-pointer, they also defend it very well. Opponents are only hitting 27% from long distance and seem to get frustrated by IWU's style rather easily. While frustrating opponents, the Titans have gained an increase in fan support from a school that heavily supports its men's squad.
"Teams are trying to match up with us, rather than us having to match up with them," Smith said. "We may be extremely small, but once that ball goes up, we're an exciting team to watch."
OF MAJOR IMPORTANCE: We write about the Millsaps men's team because, lo and behold, the Majors find themselves playing a couple of important regular-season games at home against the teams with which they're tied for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference lead -- DePauw and Centre.
These games are meaningful more for conference tournament seeding than anything else, since with those games taking place at Rhodes, none of the three will have home court.
Photo by Pat Coleman, D3hoops.com Tim Wise draws up a play before the closing seconds of Millsaps' game at Trinity (Texas). |
"Our season comes down to those three games," said coach Tim Wise, "and winning those games."
Millsaps has a nice edge in its bid for a regular-season crown in that it only plays these schools once and doesn't have to travel to face them. The Majors don't have quite the resume of DePauw and Centre, but they've done what they had to do to get to this point, beat up on everyone else in the league. Millsaps survived a string of 11 straight games away from home, albeit spaced out over five weeks, winning four of five league road games.
The Majors may not overwhelm you, but they win, with a lineup featuring four native Mississippians and Houston born forward Rodney Rogan, who trails only 6-6 forward Edrick Montgomery in scoring. The two juniors combine for an average of 30 points a night. The four-man junior class is comprised of players with significant starting experience but Millsaps' lack of seniors may be one reason why it isn't necessarily considered up with the best-of-the-best in the league, yet.
"We're definitely the underdog," Wise said. "Those schools played in the finals last year (DePauw won on Austin Brown's 60-foot buzzer-beater) Their personnel has proven that they're the best two teams. (With us) when you go on the road, and you're not just competing, but winning -- that shows you're making progress."
PIONEERS OF THE GAME: We write about William Paterson's women's squad because 15 straight wins and a 17-2 mark merits mention, reminding D3hoops staffers of the time when they were college students in the early 1990s and the Pioneers were battling annually with Rowan for New Jersey Athletic Conference dominance.
William Paterson had a nice run for nearly a decade, advancing as far as the Elite 8 in 1995 and 1998, but hasn't had the same magic the last few seasons, with challenges halted by likes of The College of New Jersey and Richard Stockton.
The Pioneers have established themselves as one of the two dominant teams in the NJAC this season and they'll clash with the other unbeaten division leader, Kean, at home on Saturday. Since the teams only meet once in the regular season, the winner would hold a one-game lead and the tiebreaker in the race for homecourt edge in the conference tournament. William Paterson picked up nice wins recently against Rutgers-Newark and TCNJ (ending a 12-game losing streak vs. the latter) and now is looking to complete that trifecta.
"It's been a quiet, productive year," said 14th-year William Paterson head coach Erin Monahan, who recently earned her 250th career win. "Last year, we'd lose games in the last couple of minutes. This year, we're doing the opposite of that."
The Pioneers haven't lost since falling to then-No. 1 Bowdoin, 69-55, on Nov. 25. That game was a turning point as William Paterson hung even with the Polar Bears for the first 26 minutes and Bowdoin coach Stefanie Pemper complimented the Pioneers' pressure defense in a conversation with Monahan after the game.
"I was preparing my speech (for a loss) before the game, but a couple minutes into the game, I turned to my assistant and said 'Hey, we can do this,'" Monahan said. "It opened our eyes and made our kids believe. Little things have been happening all season that go our way and in return, our kids are working their butts off."
William Paterson is able to survive 35% shooting from the field and 63% shooting from the free throw line because it racks up steals (almost 15 per game) and offensive rebounds (almost 21 per game). This year's team is deeper than those in the recent past, has survived injuries (only one player lost to an ACL this season as compared to four last year) and it has two players who have developed into major scorers -- guards Luci Custis, a senior, and junior Michelle Pellichero, who each tally 14 points a game.
"(Michelle) has become a heck of a player because she has a backup (Julie Haledjian) who really pushes her in practice," Monahan said. "If she plays as hard on defense as hard as she plays on offense, she'll be an All-American."
Custis is the reigning NJAC Defensive Player of the Year and is tied for the team lead with 53 steals. Her twin sister Lori, a junior who originally played at Division II Caldwell, also starts at forward and is among the team's top rebounders.
"I still can't figure out who's who," Monahan said with a laugh. "They're tough kids and they never complain. We've worked with Luci to let her know she doesn't have to put everything on her shoulders this year. Lori has worked hard to earn her spot."
When we were picking "Super Sleepers" prior to the season, we got votes for Montclair State and TCNJ and eventually chose the latter. Right now, it looks like we should have looked elsewhere. The Pioneers haven't made the NCAA Tournament since 1998, but Monahan is seeing some similarities between those teams and her current squad.
"We've tried to be really quiet about what we're doing," Monahan said, noting that's changed with a recent TV interview and our phone call. "These kids don't know anything about NCAA bids. They're just going out and having fun. That last NCAA team had a 15-game win streak too. The thing that was amazing about (those teams) was how close they were. I see that now and it's an amazing thing. As a head coach, you just pray that it keeps going."
NOTE OF THE WEEK: Six wins may not seem like much at this point in the season, but it means a heck of a lot to the women's basketball team at Chatham, which is why we're writing about them. Down to eight players (two sophomores and six freshmen) after injuries to two starters, Chatham set a school record for wins with six when it beat AWCC rival Wilson on Wednesday night.
The team has been boosted by Army transfer Allason Holt who is averaging nearly a double-double. Two-time player of the week Erica Bilski leads the team in scoring, ahead of another transfer Libby Soeder (who attended, but didn't play at Duquesne).
The victory gave Chatham 11 wins over the past two seasons for coach Mark Katarski. They say that's as many victories as the program had in the last 16 seasons combined. Chatham's win over Hood on Saturday snapped a 20-game losing streak to that squad.
THE OTHER NEW JERSEY DEVILS: D3hoops.com correspondent Matthew Florjancic writes about the FDU-Florham men's basketball team, because even from Ohio, he noticed that opposing teams are having a Devil of a time playing against them.
Like many leagues, the MAC Freedom has a team that is turning the frustration of a losing season in 2005-06 into motivation for this year.
FDU-Florham has struggled in men's basketball during its 45 years as a program. They have posted winning records in just 18 seasons. However, this year, the Devils are 13-5 after a seven-point, 70-63 victory at Wilkes on Wednesday night. They are in a second place tie with DeSales and King's, only one game behind Scranton.
"We take this one game at a time," second-year head coach Pete Marion said before the game. "Wilkes University (is) an extremely hard place to play. We know that if we go and play hard there tonight, maybe we could go get a 'W'."
Unfortunately for the Devils, three free throws in the waning seconds of their match-up with King's last weekend resulted in a 78-75 defeat. Marion knows the game slipped away at the end.
"Last week, we had a really tough game against King's. We lost a tough game against Hunter early on, where we didn't finish," said Marion. "We had a big lead and we kind of blew it at the end.
"I really think we have to learn how to finish teams off. If we have a good lead and play well, we just have to play well for 40 minutes; we can't play well for only 30 minutes."
Marion believes his upperclassmen are a huge reason for the rapid improvement and have the ability to be effective leaders.
"We have five seniors, and that really helps. They know how to win games," said Marion, who is 19-24 in his tenure at Florham. "They've been through some losing and as soon as they figured out how to win, it trickled down to the guys who haven't been here."
"Starting from last spring when we started to lift and run, getting into shape for next year, these guys focused in," he said. "We had a tough year last year."
The five seniors, all from New Jersey, keeping Florham on the winning track are guards Brian Dillon, Frank Emslie, and Cody Chalmers, as well as forward Pierre Schmitt and center Brian Rimol. Their first three years in the program have been rough as the team won a combined 27 games. As freshmen, their squad went 11-14, while they were 10-15 the next year. A season ago, they were just 6-19.
Marion feels a stand-out sophomore guard and his captains are supplying the energy for the entire team.
"As a sophomore, he (Ryan McPherson) has just played great the whole year so far for us," he said. "Frank Emslie and Brian Dillon are our captains and they just lead by example. They play hard every day. They really do a great job for us."
"The thing about our team is we play hard every day in practice and you really see it in the games," added Marion. "The guys just really buy into what we're talking about and they believe in each other. We still have a long way to go, but it's been really fun."
Emslie's 14.7 points-per-game average leads the team. In addition to his scoring ability, Emslie has handed out the second-most assists on the team. McPherson and Rimol also average in double figures in scoring.
Marion is pleased with the way his team handles the post work. With only one player taller than 6-5 (Rimol comes in at 6-8), limiting opponents to one or two looks at the basket is an important key.
"We think we're a good defensive team. It all starts with playing defense and stopping people," said Marion. "We run simple things. We try to execute our offense the best we can and we try to get five guys involved at all times."
"If you see our stats, we have four guys averaging double digits. With four guys averaging double-digits in points that means a lot of guys are contributing," he said.
FDU-Florham has an opportunity to avenge both of their conference losses. On Feb. 3, the Devils host Scranton. Thirteen days later, they end the regular season with a trip to King's for the rematch.
With a strong finish, the Devils could go to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. Marion has a simple, yet challenging goal for his team as they prepare for the stretch run.
"We just want to win every game," Marion said. "Our league is so tough, that we feel if we play hard every night, you never know what's going to happen."
