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Posted Dec. 9, 2004

So close, far from upset

Robert Harris was up until 6 a.m. the day after his Shenandoah men’s team lost at Division I Liberty in overtime this past Saturday. Harris had played on a Shenandoah team that lost to Georgetown by upwards of 70 points more than a decade ago, and coached a pair of lopsided losses against upper-level schools in year’s past, so he understands the significance of competing, let alone winning one of those games. The Hornets had already beaten a Division II team, nearby rival Shepherd by 17 earlier in the week and came very, very close to pulling off a second out-of-division win against a team that went to the NCAA Tournament last season.

“Our kids played inspired,” Harris said, repeating that last word throughout the conversation. “I think our kids were a little dejected afterwards because they knew they they had a chance to do something special.”

Shenandoah rallied from nine points down with six minutes to play, had the last shot in regulation, in a tie game, and ran the offensive set Harris called exactly how it wanted, but senior guard Kenny Purnell missed a 20-footer that hit both the front and back rim, and didn’t go down, in the closing seconds. Give a Division I team a second life and they’ll take advantage, which Liberty did, canning a pair of early 3-pointers to go up six points and eventually hang on for the win.

“As coaches, we sit and replay plays and motions,” said Harris, also ruing his squad’s 16-for-28 showing at the foul line. “I replayed that last shot over and over, wondering if I should have done something different. We got a really good look, but now I wonder whether we could have gotten a higher percentage shot.”

Harris said that his team would neither relish the moral victory or lament the tough defeat for long. The characteristic of his team with which he is most pleased so far, even after a 1-2 week, is tenacity. The Hornets are small — they start three players 6-1 or smaller, and power forward Onyie Onunaku is listed at 6-5, 185 pounds — but tough. Onunaku may be undersized, but he’s averaging 13 rebounds per game. The first player Harris mentioned when asked to name his standouts was his fourth leading scorer, senior guard Chris Jenkins, because of his defensive play. Small forward Chris Rhone and Purnell are the two leading scorers, combining for 31 points per game.

“We’ve done a lot of the little things this year,” Harris said. “We’ve executed our defensive scouting reports to a T. We play with a lot of confidence. We may not shoot the ball well every night, but we play hard.”

One of the benefits of playing a Division I foe was that it helped finance a trip to Florida for a tournament at Embry-Riddle next month, which precedes the beginning of play in the USA South, a league in which the Hornets hope to contend for the top spot, and their first NCAA bid since 1996.

“Boy, it would be nice to make it again,” Harris said wistfully, coming up with one way in which that sleepless night could be made worthwhile

PAIR OF ACES: There seem to be motivating forces at work for the basketball teams at Oswego State, who are among only four Division III schools in the nation to have both men’s and women’s basketball teams that are undefeated. The school has never sent a basketball team to the Division III tournament, but both will contend to go there this season.

In the case of the Lakers men’s squad, that is playing the kind of basketball that netted them a second-place finish in the SUNYAC last season, not that which led to their first-round defeat in both the conference tournament and ECACs. The commitment to defense has increased. Last season through six games, Oswego had allowed 73 points per game. This year’s squad is yielding slightly less than 56 per game. The team has four players scoring in double figures, led by 5-9 sophomore guard Nick Perioli (14.7 points per game, 55% from 3-point range)

“Our players understood last year that they didn’t play like a championship level team defensively in the playoffs, and we learned from that,” said men’s coach Kevin Broderick. “Last year, down the stretch, we just weren’t good enough.”

The powers may be more personal on the women’s side, where fifth-year coach Michelle Collins has recruited much of her roster from the Albany area (2½ hours from campus). At 6-0, the Lakers have already doubled their previous mark for best start to a season, and knocked off perennially strong local rival Ithaca. Defense has been a key as well (the team averages almost 16 steals per game), keyed by 2004 All-SUNYAC first team selection, point guard Kelly Mraz, and the leading scorer has been an unexpected source, sophomore forward Jessica Tremblay (13 points per game).

Tremblay got the sense last season, with a strong recruiting class coming in, that she might need something extra to maintain her role on the squad, so she spent the offseason working three times a week with a personal trainer, whom she plans to revisit during the three-week Christmas break. The improvements have been significant both for her and the team, which is the deepest and hardest working under Collins’ tenure. Last season’s squad was one of the best in school history, going 22-7 and finishing third in the SUNYAC. This year’s will try to match or better that.

“Going into the season, would I have thought we’d be 6-0?” Collins said. “Definitely not. But beating Ithaca really sold me on our team. It’s definitely (realistic) with the team that we have that we’ll be in the running to have one of the best teams in the league.”

BACK ON THE HARDWOOD: When former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Milt Sunde was on his high school basketball team, upwards of four decades ago, he was the type of player whose skills were best suited for playing in his driveway.

“The coach said to me ‘Milt, don’t think about shooting much,’ so now I don’t do much shooting instruction,” said Sunde, in his first year as an assistant with the Augsburg women’s team, with a laugh.

Sunde’s skills, and 255-pound frame were better suited for the gridiron. He played at Minnesota, than was part of three NFC Championship teams in a career that included a Pro Bowl appearance and lasted from 1964 to 1974, and was an early beneficiary of weightlifting and other strength-training techniques that were frowned upon back then.

After retiring, Sunde’s focus went to the business of manufacturing (he has owned Body Power Training Equipment, and his family. His four daughters all wanted to play youth league basketball, so Sunde helped in coaching them (two eventually became Division III athletes). That triggered an interest in coaching high school basketball, and a position as head coach at Trinity High from 1996 to 2004. When he found out that Augsburg had a new head coach, Jennifer Britz, who was looking for assistants, he applied. He limits his actual playing to his backyard, but is now part of helping rebuild a squad that is off to an 0-5 start.

“I like coaching basketball because it has structure, and a lot of parts that have to come together to make it work,” Sunde said. “The (women) don’t jump as high as the guys do, but they do a lot of things well.

"We’re young. What this team needs is experience. I think we’ll be much better in the second half of the season.”

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Normally we wouldn’t direct you to a link off our site, but for those curious about former three-time All-NWC point guard O.J. Gulley of Linfield, you might want to check out the feature story on D3football.com.

ATTENTION GRABBERS
Redlands has overtaken Grinnell for this season as far as impressive offensive accomplishments go. The Bulldog mern have already scored more than 140 points five times this season (they did it three times last season), and it will be interesting to see how they fare in an SCIAC that may not have the dominance at the top that it has had the last few seasons.

Colorado College just completed what head coach Mike McCubbin called “The toughest stretch in Division III history.” Colorado, located 800 miles from its nearest Division III foe and with only a nine-man roster, played five games in eight days against four Division II opponents and Division I Air Force, dropping four. The Tigers scored only 30 points against Air Force, but were respectable against Regis (trailed by one with a minute left in a 5-point loss to a team that was 5-1) and Chadron State (a 12-point loss in a game that featured 23 lead changes), as senior Michael Reich (averaging 22 points) makes his climb towards the 2,000 point plateau.

Tuesday's 75-72 win over Hamilton had to be a particularly good one for the SUNYIT coaching staff. It marked the first contest for SUNYIT assistant Tom Murphy coaching against the squad he coached for 34 years. Murphy retired from working at Hamilton after 600-plus wins, but pursued other coaching opportunities (published reports indicated the decision to retire was the school's, not his) and eventually landed on staff with a former Hamilton star, SUNYIT coach Kevin Grimmer. SUNYIT is 2-4.

The NCAC may be more than a two-way fight this season on the women's side, as usually strong Wittenberg and Ohio Wesleyan may be tested by the likes of Denison (which won at Wittenberg in the league opener). Wittenberg, the two-time defending league champ, is 2-4, not a surprising start considering its non-league schedule, and is starting a considerably younger lineup than it had last season, with sophomores and freshmen atop the scoring column, trying to replace 2004 player of the year Haley Warden

After the Brooklyn women lost to NYC Tech and Kenyon fell to Notre Dame (Ohio) on Tuesday, the list of unlikely unbeatens is slim. Our pick of the moment, Fitchburg State, which is 6-0, and 5-0 away from its home floor after a 15-10 mark and a 6-6 finish in the MASCAC last season. The 6-0 start is the team’s best since 1997. Junior forward Jen Fontaine has been among the main reason’s why, leading the team in scoring and nabbing 29 steals in six games.

From the looks of it, the Gallaudet women’s team is much improved. The Bison have already topped last season’s total two wins and only lost to Salisbury by 11 (they fell to the Sea Gulls by 46 and 64 last season) and Marymount by nine. Freshman guards Jill Angney and Priscilla Biskupiak appear to have made an immediate impact, while junior Jovin Dinkel (who played in only six games last season) is averaging 16.6 points per game.

LASTLY, A QUESTION: With the Williams men breaking the all-time Division III home win streak last week, we wondered what the mark is for a streak of a different nature. So we’ll pose the query: What’s the longest active road win streak?

Notes for Around the Nation are compiled with the help of sports information directors across the country. If you have suggestions or information for this column, please send it to mark@d3hoops.com.

Previous columns
2007-08 columns
March 6: Faith restored
Feb. 27: John Jay, Cinderella
Feb. 21: No safety net
Feb. 14: Ursinus better enough
Feb. 8: Hope-TMC on collision course
Jan. 31: Plattsburgh's big shot
Jan. 24: UMD answers call
Jan. 18: Like Bosko, like son
Jan. 11: Keystone stakes
Dec. 13: Unstoppable
Dec. 7: UWW aiming deeper
Nov. 30: Coach's shadow lingers
Nov. 15: Strong duo
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