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Around
the Nation

Posted Jan. 25, 2005

The last left
unblemished

And then there were two.

There are only a pair of unbeaten teams remaining in men’s basketball — No. 7 St. John Fisher and No. 13 Potsdam State, both based in upstate New York, and both 15-0. St. John Fisher, which has played most of its schedule on its home floor, has to travel to five straight Empire 8 league games, with Alfred first on the agenda on Tuesday. Potsdam is facing the toughest part of the SUNYAC schedule, playing at 11-4 Plattsburgh on Tuesday, than visiting 14-2 Oswego State on Saturday. The road an unbeaten team travels is a tough one, in the case of these two schools, who are separated by about a four-hour drive, in more ways than one.

“I think it’s good pressure,” said Potsdam head coach Sherry Dobbs, who added with a laugh “0-and-15. That would be negative pressure.”

Aside from the home state and the unbeaten record, what the teams share is the lack of a superstar scorer. Eight different Bears have been the high points man in a game this season and six have done so for the Cardinals. Potsdam’s best are Evril Clayton (11.9 points per game), Edane Barton (11.0) and Eldon Harris (10.9), three of the team’s six seniors in what is a go-for-it type season after last year’s 19-11 squad surprisingly won the league tournament title, then hung in with Wooster before losing by 14 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Cardinals have been in a good position before, with nearly two decades of winning seasons in a row, having made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last two seasons, only to lose to Hamilton and Rochester, and start a lineup with big-game experience, particularly senior swingman Jeff Sidney, junior forward Nick Bennett, who have started throughout their collegiate career. This is head coach Rob Kornaker’s first team composed entirely of his recruits and he termed them “hard to scout” since eight players average at least five points per game, paced by Sidney’s 14.5 and point guard Sean O’Brien’s 13.9. Sidney has been draining jumpers more consistently this season and is considered a difficult matchup for most in that league.

St. John Fisher would be even deeper, were it not for a broken wrist suffered by starting senior shooting guard Raymie Auman, who shot 71% from the field in his first three games, but will now likely take a medical redshirt and return next season. The team has made the necessary adjustments to that and is hitting its shots at 49% from the floor (helped by many easy looks in transition) and 43% from 3-point range. Besides his shooting ability, O’Brien brings a scowl to the floor that is symbolic of the team’s mental approach.

“When things aren’t going our way, we get tougher,” said Konaker, whose team hasn’t been tested often, and whose best win was on the road at Springfield, which had just beaten Williams and Trinity (Conn.).

Potsdam has that same thought process on the floor. The Bears haven’t been tested often this season, but have responded when needed. They overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to beat Ithaca in overtime leading into winter break, in a game in which they never led until the final two minutes. Then, coming out of break, they rallied from five points down with 30 seconds remaining in overtime to defeat Hamilton on a last-second three-pointer by senior Christian Turner.

“We never stop competing,” said Dobbs, whose squad’s motion offense has been helped by its winning the rebounding battle virtually every night.

The respective campuses have taken notice. Kornaker said he noticed the ‘buzz’ during the school’s football season. Potsdam’s pep band is playing at games for the first time in as long as most at the school can remember. Both coaches admitted to being surprised at being unbeaten to this point in the season, noting how difficult it is to string together that many quality performances in a row. Neither seemed too concerned with speculation about whether they deserved to be ranked higher, or as some may believe, lower.

“We have the opportunity to prove ourselves as the season goes on,” said Dobbs, speaking of his own squad, though he could easily have been talking about both. “Our region needs to win some (big) games to the perceptions will change. We need to start showing that there is some very good basketball in this region.

Two unbeaten teams will have to do until March, when we’ll find out the rest.

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT? So here we are at the end of January, and the UAA has placed four women’s teams in the Top 10 of the D3hoops.com at various points this season, yet none can stake claim to holding the top spot in the league.

Go figure, but it’s the undersized, young and scrappy squad at the University of Chicago that is in first place at 12-4, 5-0 heading into a very difficult next four games. The Maroons visit NYU and Brandeis this weekend, than get those same teams back to back at home a week later.

“It took us a few games to figure out what we had,” said interim head coach Aaron Roussell, who originally was hired from Division II Minnesota State-Mankato as an assistant, then was quickly promoted within a few weeks when Jennifer Kroll left to take the head coaching position at St. Lawrence. “We’re undersized, but we play hard and we play well together. We preach playing tough. We’ve felt that if we can play tough, that would minimize the other team’s height advantages.”

Chicago started 3-4, and the losses included .500 squads like Lake Forest and Hanover but Roussell had seen enough good things, particularly in a loss to Trinity (Texas) in the second game of the season, and a win against Thomas More, that he thought they were capable of hanging with the top teams in league play.

“I don’t know if they believed me,” Roussell said.

They believed after Chicago rallied from a double-digit deficit (one of three times it has done that and won) for an eye-catching overtime win over Washington U., the first time since 1989 that the Maroons beat the Bears. That was the fourth triumph in a nine-game win streak that matched a team record, with the most recent win coming in overtime against a Rochester squad that missed a game-winning free throw with a second left in regulation.

The Maroons might have been overlooked because they are a young squad, with only one senior, a walk-on who has only played in five games, on its roster. But Chicago’s top five scorers do include the last two UAA Rookie of the Year winners in sophomore guard Korry Schwanz (15.0 points per game, 41% from three-point range) and junior forward Susie Gutowski. (13.8 points, 7.8 rebounds per game), a defensive standout in junior point guard Janae Winner, and potential Rookie of the Year candidates in freshman Nofi Mojidi (11.8 points per game, 45 steals), and Nicaya Rapier (whose average of 6.9 rebounds in 17.9 minutes per game have led Roussell to dub her “Barkley-esque”).

“I wouldn’t trade the kids we have for anything,” Roussell said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to be known for more than just one win.”

ALL WELL FOR CHURCHWELL: Oglethorpe, a school of just under 800 full-time undergrads, is small enough such that those that like to be involved do everything, according to senior forward Ross Churchwell. Churchwell is case in point. Now a fifth-year senior with a degree in biology, and another coming in art, Churchwell has both run the gamut, and run the floor, on the basketball court and in other places. Churchwell has been a team captain, a class president, a dorm resident advisor, and along with his teammates, a community volunteer with disabled children and for the local Boys & Girls Club.

“You have a lot of free time when you’re in college,” Churchwell said with a laugh. “I’ve certainly used it.”

Last week he became the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference’s all-time leading scorer with 1,676 career points. This week he should become its rebounding leader, as his 742 is 19 shy of the top mark. In between games over the next two weeks, he’ll interview at four potential medical schools.

“It’s strenuous, but I’ve learned time management.” Churchwell said. “Basketball teaches you the self-discipline to do the smart thing, and to do the right thing.”

The 6-5 senior is good with things in his hand, whether they be a drawing pencil, paintbrush, camera, dissection tools, or basketball. Churchwell led the SCAC in scoring and rebounding as a sophomore, missed a season with a knee injury, then came back and led the league in both categories again. This season, his scoring is down slightly to around 18 points per game, but the team’s win total has increased to a 9-6 mark (3-3 in league play), and the current four-game win streak has put the Petrels over .500 at this point in the season for the first time in Churchwell’s career there.

“I feel that I’ve been a consistent player,” said Churchwell, whose team got to the SCAC tournament finals as the No. 6 seed last season. “I think that my rebounding isn’t so much in skill, as in my working to try to get the ball, and my scoring is the same way. I think my coaches and my teammates have a lot of confidence in me.”

ATTENTION GRABBERS
The Worcester State women’s team has been a pleasant surprise, off to its best start in more than two decades at 13-3, 4-0 in the unusually wide-open MASCAC, and the squad has itself a new fan in Lily Elizabeth Grace Tessmer, the newborn daughter to head coach Grace Tessmer. Tessmer gave birth just over 24 hours after coaching the Lancers to an upset win at Eastern Connecticut State on Jan. 13. The team didn’t return from the game until 1 a.m. due to travel difficulties, and Tessmer was on her way to the hospital just four hours later.

Earlier this season, we believed Virginia Wesleyan was the men’s team to beat in the ODAC, but now the hottest squad, as one reader pointed out to us, is Bridgewater, winners of five straight and now in sole possession of first place in that league. Senior guard Ricky Easterling leads the Eagles in scoring at 20.4 points per game and the team, trying to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1997, is among the nation’s best from the field (49.4%) and 3-point range (43 percent).

The UW-Eau Claire women’s basketball team has a chance to put together a nice win streak, heading into February’s matchups with the class of the WIAC in Oshkosh, Stout, and Stevens Point. But there are no guarantees for the Blugolds this season. UWEC may have the toughest luck in the sport this season, as four times in league play it has given up a game-winning shot in the final eight seconds. That’s what separates an 11-7 mark from potentially being ranked and in first place rather than in sixth place and under .500 in league play at 4-5.

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.

2008-09 columns
Feb. 20: York (Pa.), no cliche
Feb. 13: St. Thomas writing history
Feb. 6: George Fox on hunt
Jan. 30: Brother, brother
Jan. 23: Growing a program
Jan. 16: Dudek's rare feat
Jan. 9: Ravin' about Anderson
Dec. 18: Chicago marooned at 0-9
Dec. 12: De Luca back on track
Dec. 4: Ithaca surprises
Nov. 21: Augie gets some delp
Nov. 13: Is repeat possible?

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