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Around
the Nation

Posted Dec. 30, 2004

Avoiding
the bubble

When we asked UW-Oshkosh women’s head coach Pam Ruder how long it had been since her team last qualified for the NCAA Tournament, she didn’t need to reply with the number of years.

“Too long,” said Ruder, head coach of a team that is 12-0 and ranked No. 3 nationally heading into a Thursday game at Rockford.

In each of the last four seasons, Oshkosh has ended its season on the NCAA bubble, which it has seen burst in each instance.

In 2001, the Titans were 19-2, but lost their last three games of the regular season, and their playoff opener, leaving them with nothing but a regular season title. In 2002, the Titans went 21-7, but lost in the finals to a UW-Stout team that they beat by 28 during the regular season. UW-Stevens Point earned a Pool C bid and went on to win the national title. In 2003, Oshkosh was 22-6, and didn’t lose a non-conference game. Three of the losses, including one in the title game were to eventual Final Four participant UW-Eau Claire. In 2004, Oshkosh was again 22-6 and finished tied for the conference title, but a late season loss to Stevens Point cost them homecourt in the WIAC title game (which they lost to Stevens Point) and an earlier loss to Millikin cost them an at-large selection.

This season, the Titans might even be in good shape for Pool C if you want to look down the road a little bit. While their non-conference schedule included only one home game, the Titans caught a couple of teams in down years (and got to play St. Norbert twice) on the way to this 11-0 start. But Ruder has no interest in leaving things up to the selection committee. Oshkosh has come up short via that route enough times before.

“We know what we have to do,” said Ruder, now in her ninth season as head coach (she was an assistant on the 1996 NCAA champion Oshkosh squad). “We have to get that automatic qualifier.”

The good thing for Oshkosh, is that while every other team in the WIAC has hit a speed bump already, the Titans, even having graduated top scorer Kay Mikolajczak (the Jostens Trophy winner, now playing professionally in Denmark) are just as good as they have been, if not better. The addition of junior guard Shannon Eggers who started last season at Division II Nebraska-Omaha and transferred because of an interest in Oshkosh’s TV/film program has helped significantly.

While the last two Final Four teams from the WIAC were heavily reliant on an All-American forward (Eau Claire with Kristi Channing and Stevens Point with Amanda Nechuta), the Titans have spread out their scoring more. Eggers (11.9 points per game) and Brittany Herrick (11.8 points per game), both juniors, lead the squad in scoring and five different players paced the team in points through the first five games. No player is averaging double figures in shot attempts, but five shoot better than 50% from the field. Three seniors — Laurie Turtenwald, Michelle Rosicky, and Abby Holler give the team an experienced starting lineup.

“We take a lot of pride in our passing and getting good scoring opportunities,” said Ruder, whose team should again end up near the top of the NCAA rankings in field goal percentage and 3-point shooting. “We have a good inside game that we can go to, and our posts make very good decisions. We have a wide variety of subs. There’s no drop off. We try to control the tempo on the defensive end. (In a two-point win against Eau Claire in which Oshkosh didn’t lead until the final seconds), we didn’t let the game get out of hand even when we didn’t shoot well. We got some big stops when we needed them.”

No clear-cut challenger for Oshkosh has emerged yet. Eau Claire and Stevens Point have already lost twice in league play. Stout has played well recently in upsetting DePauw over the winter break, but is behind the eight-ball with three WIAC defeats. But we’ve seen the teams in this league enough to know that it is one of the best in the country. Oshkosh’s talent level, and simply the fact that it’s due for a season like this, may win out.

“This team has gamers,” Ruder said. “We haven’t had a letdown in a game situation yet. It’s a long season, but we know that our most important game is the next one.”

COMING OF AGE: The Division III game is full of late-bloomer types that fit in well at this level, and case in point, is Wartburg senior captain Jordan Atchison.

Coming out of high school, Jordan Atchison (right) thought his basketball days were over. At 5-11, he knew that if he went to a local school, like Wartburg, that he wouldn’t get to play, so he went to a local school, Hawkeye Community College and did not play basketball. After two years, Atchison, two inches taller and 25 pounds heaver, decided he still had the itch to play, so he transferred to Kirkwood Junior College, made the team at a tryout and came off the bench for a very solid team, playing with the likes of current Iowa starting center Erek Hanson and backing up Drake-bound guard Pete Eggers. Last season, he transferred to Wartburg for his junior year and made an immediate contribution. This season, he’s a little older and a little wiser at 23, serves as team captain and ranks second on the team in scoring at 14.1 points per game.

“I’ve been fortunate to get good shots this year,” Atchison said.

He is also one of the team’s better defenders and rebounders, saying that he has really learned how to do the little things well.

“I got stronger and taller, and got a better understanding for the game,” Atchison said of his time off. “Those two years really allowed me to step back and figure out what I want to do. I think it works better for some people this way.”

Wartburg is 6-3, having lost in bizarre fashion to Grinnell (130-128 in overtime, despite Atchison making 14 of 15 shots from the field), as well as Augustana and Calvin. Buena Vista is the usual favorite in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, but Wartburg figures to be among those pesky squads making a hunt for the top spot. Atchison said he feels his squad is good enough to be in the Top 25.

“It has been a team effort at both ends,” Atchison said. “The way we play is unselfish. Everyone does a good job at getting everyone else their opportunities.

DID THEIR HOMEWORK: Be warned that if you’re going to play the Baruch women’s basketball team, they’re going to come prepared. Bearcats first-year coach Machli Joseph and his staff saw NYU three times prior to their meeting on Dec. 15, which Baruch surprisingly won, 70-68, a score that resonates strongly throughout Division III even two weeks later. The Bearcats knew all of NYU’s tendencies, confused them by switching defenses repeatedly, and led by as many as 13 before holding off a late rally.

Keep an eye out for freshman dynamo Chiresse Paradise, a Chicago native, who is pacing the team at 21.9 points per game. NYU learned that and a few other opponents may as well.

“You have to pull out all your tricks against a team like that,” Joseph said. “If we played them 10 times, we might beat them only twice. But it wasn’t a fluke. The thing about this team is that we have a bunch of girls with a lot of heart and pride. If I told them to run through a wall for me, they would. You can’t ask for better than that.”

ONE PROGRAMMING NOTE: Hoopsville is retuning to the Internet airwaves this season. The Internet's only radio show devoted entirely to Division III basketball has been on hiatus since 2001 after the Internet economy went south, but we're able to help bring it back.

Starting in January, spend Tuesday nights with Dave McHugh and the gang from D3hoops as they break down the week in Division III basketball with interviews, highlights and opinions. Hoopsville airs from 8-10 Eastern, and will be linked from the D3hoops.com front page.

ATTENTION GRABBERS
The College of New Jersey is getting the most attention among men’s Atlantic Region teams, but William Paterson looms as a dark horse because of its strong defensive play. The Pioneers have held six straight opponents to 55 points or fewer (three straight to less than 50), lead the NJAC in points per game allowed (55.7), field-goal percentage (33.2) and 3-point field goal percentage defense (25.3). The Pioneers ranked eighth in Division III in scoring defense (59.3) and 12th in defensive field goal percentage (.388) last season.

Here’s a rarity: a Division III player transferring up, and playing on a team ranked in the Top 25. Liz Gilchrest (nee Smith) played basketball and rowed for three years at Washington College, earning All-Centennial Conference honors by averaging 14.1 points last season. After finishing the first part of a dual degree program in engineering last May, she enrolled at Maryland with a year of basketball eligibility remaining, and made the team as a walk-on. Gilchrest has scored five points in her first six games for the No. 17 ranked Terrapins.

It’s still relatively early in the season and the NCAA leader boards aren’t out yet, but some stats we’ve seen that we like: the free throw shooting of Whitworth’s women (81.2%); the 3-point shooting of Virginia Wesleyan men (45.8%, whom we’ll talk about more next week). The most deceptive stat may be the 5-4 won-loss record of the Trinity men’s squad. There has been a lot of talk about the Tigers, who only have one Division III loss, being unjustly dropped from the Top 25, and the team showed that it may belong with its late rally and win over Illinois Wesleyan

We haven’t gotten much feedback on our question of a few weeks ago — asking for the longest road winning streaks in Division III history, so we’ll put out the request again. At the moment, our leader is the UW-Platteville men, who won 20 straight road contests from Nov. 21, 1997 through Dec. 28, 1998.

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
2006-07 columns
2005-06 columns
2004-05 columns
2003-04 columns
2002-03 columns
2001-02 columns

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