Maybe there’s a NY Times Curse?
After their nice piece on Kansas powerhouse Emporia State, boom, they drop to #3 in the DII polls after a one-point loss against Central Missouri. It’s especially painful ’cause they were outscored 9-1 in the closing minutes of the game.
Lewis University (Ill) moves into first, Pittsburg State University (Kan) second. The Pitt State Gorillas. How can you not cheer for a team like that!?!?!
Granted, it’s been a while since I’ve had an opportunity to indulge in some DII scanning (ain’t doing laundry grand!), but it’s interesting to see that all but two teams have one loss.
Before last Tuesday night, I had never heard the name Scott Cacciola.
Twenty-four hours later, I’m not certain that I could have been any more excited at the notion of meeting him. Cacciola is in his second year of covering the New York Knicks basketball franchise for the New York Times.
Due to the Knicks’ dismal start (OK, with a 5-35 record at the moment and having won only once in their past 26 games, perhaps atrocious would be more appropriate), the NYT sports editors decided to have mercy on their beat writer and send him around the country to view winning basketball. They fielded hundreds of suggestions from readers and, through a collaboration of sorts, are picking each trip one game at a time.
So, for the next couple of months, he’s become a modern sports version of “On the Road” with Charles Kuralt.
And he started with the nation’s top-ranked program in NCAA Division II.
In the DIII poll, last year’s champeens, Farleigh Dickinson U – Florham (N.J) are going strong at 13-0. Wonder if their governor knows they exist? Perennial top-position teams lurk below: Thomas More College (KY) (love their headline, “Tomas Uses Big Second Half Run to Veto Presidents.” And forcing 43 turnovers against Thief college? Love it.), Amherst College, Washington University – St. Louis and University of St. Thomas, (MN). Lots and lots of familiar names fill out the ranks.
As Saturday’s game approached against its archrival, Williams College, Amherst’s winning streak at LeFrak Gymnasium had swelled to 105 games over nearly six years — a women’s N.C.A.A. record surpassed only by the Kentucky men’s team that won 129 straight at home from 1943 to 1955.
Amherst carries the same ambition in Division III as the powerhouse Connecticut women do in Division I — to win every game, to end every season with a national championship.
Graham wonders: Should UConn be No. 1 in the top-25 polls?
During the first full week of January one year ago, teams ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll went 16-2. One of those losses was at the hands of another top-10 team (Kentucky losing to South Carolina, which might sound familiar), and the other teams that won did so by an average of 24.6 points per game. Not until the final day of that week did any challenger come within double digits of a top-10 team, capped by Vanderbilt’s upset of Tennessee.
The first full week of 2015 was a little different in a season that has itself been a little different than the norm.
Half of the top 10 lost a game this week. Eight of those teams trailed in the final 10 minutes of a game, with Baylor, Louisville and Tennessee needing weekend comebacks on the road to avoid making it eight losers.
So where do things stand in a top 10 that needs some revision? Here’s one attempt at putting them in some semblance of order.
No, says I, ’cause South Carolina hasn’t lost. The folks who vote in these polls are busy. They don’t have time to look at strength of schedule, RPI or any other metrics that are out there. And playing the “Well, if Team A beat team B by 20 and team C beat team A by 5, but then team B beat team C…” just makes you crazy.
Ahead 31-17 deep into the first half, the Blue Devils appeared poised to run the Seminoles out of their own gym.
Yet once again, Duke learned the importance of sustaining a strong 40-minute effort.
The Iowa State women’s basketball players rushed the floor as the buzzer sounded on Saturday’s 59-57 win over then-No. 3 Texas, plunging into a sea of hugs and jersey-popping hysteria.
After coach Bill Fennelly wiped tears from his eyes and entered the locker room, he had a message for his players. Enjoy this special moment, however early in the Big 12 season it may be.
For most teams, the season is already half over.
The second half – especially of women’s basketball in the Southeastern Conference – is tougher than anywhere else because every team (almost) can beat any other team on a given night.
Already, the angling is under way to get to one of two NCAA Regionals.
Greensboro is where South Carolina is likely to be the top seed, based on NCAA history of rewarding the top teams with sites closest to their home court.
And ouch: Freshman wing Daneesha Provo has left the Clemson women’s basketball program and withrawn from school due to personal reasons, Head Coach Audra Smith announced Monday.
Much ado about an almost ouch? Notre Dame forward Taya Reimer is back, but are the Irish?
Taya’s back, the Irish won by 46, and more than 9,000 fans went home with Big Mac coupons.
Just like the old days for the Notre Dame women’s basketball program.
The 104-58 Irish mauling of Boston College, a team that has only one victory over a school west of the Hudson this season, was hardly enough to soothe what was a really rough week.
Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw has said all along that there were going to be some growing pains with this group. But what appears to have been a near-defection by 6-foot-3 post Taya Reimer, and a loss to unranked Miami – which left the Irish “shattered,” according to McGraw – might have been a bit more than anyone expected.
Serious ouch: Kentucky women’s basketball starting point guard Janee Thompson suffered a dislocated left ankle which resulted in a broken fibula against top-ranked South Carolina on Sunday in Columbia, S.C., and will miss the remainder of the season. Surgery is scheduled for Monday morning at the UK Hospital in Lexington, Ky.
Devanei Hampton sits at home with her 19-month-old son, Marcus, juggling a phone call and keeping a watchful eye on her toddler, who is watching Elmo on TV while pressing buttons on a nearby Xbox controller. Hold on for a minute, she says, making sure he’s not getting into any trouble.
Hampton seems far from her college days at Cal. Being a mom to an active, sometimes mischievous little boy might as well be a million miles from when she was one of the most physical, aggressive basketball talents in the country, not to mention a headstrong kid who struggled to stay on the same page as her coach and on a path to graduation. But Hampton really isn’t very far at all.
After five tumultuous years that included 14 trips to western Africa, where expectations would rise only to fall again, Joanne Boyle learned that it takes a village, literally, to adopt a child from Senegal.
Lawyers, political leaders, family friends from Senegal’s capital city (Dakar), a Richmond pastor, athletic director Craig Littlepage and several kindhearted Senegalese locals all played a role in fulfilling a dream the University of Virginia women’s basketball coach envisioned for more than 30 years.
First the WNBL finals and then the world – Canberra Capitals star Abby Bishop says she has unfinished business in the WNBA and is preparing for stints in Europe and the United States to take her career to a new level.
But before she begins an around-the-world tour to test herself against the best international players, Bishop is focused on keeping Canberra’s WNBL finals hopes alive and ending a play-off drought.
From SI: WNBA superstars Sue Bird, Skylar Diggins and Elena Delle Donne discuss what traits help separate their games from the rest of the league.
Christine Simmons has been named president and chief operations officer.
Simmons joins the Sparks as president and chief operations officer after most recently serving as executive vice president for Magic Johnson Enterprises. Among her leadership duties with MJE, she led the Sparks day-to-day operations during the first season under the ownership group led by Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Mark R. Walter.
In her new role, Simmons will lead all aspects of the Sparks business operations including marketing, ticket and sponsorship sales and service, game operations, finance, community relations and communications.
Former UL women’s basketball coach Ross Cook remembers the national signing day that Kim Perrot committed to play for the Ragin’ Cajuns very well.
He arrived at her home early that morning with all the official NCAA papers. There was no fanfare. No big party. It was simply Cook and Perrot discussing her future.
You see, Cook was already convinced that Perrot was one of the best point guards in America … even though the nation, and nearly everyone in Lafayette, didn’t realize it yet.