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Posted March 2, 2005

Comets streak into playoffs

In an ideal world, the Texas-Dallas men’s team would’ve hopped on a bus to San Antonio on Sunday night, headed right to the basketball court and taken on the Trinity Tigers in their first-round NCAA matchup sometime around 1 or 2 a.m. You might scoff, but it would have fit the Comets just fine. Instead, they’ve gone back to the practice floor, trying to make sure that the good feelings from their Cinderella run through the ASC Tournament last Friday through Sunday don’t wear off.

Even off-balance, UT-Dallas' Martin Salinas was getting shots to go down in the ASC final.

“The momentum we had was just phenomenal,” said UT-Dallas head coach Terry Butterfield. “It took on a life of its own. I stood there watching (in the championship-game rout of Mississippi College) and saying to myself ‘I can’t believe this is our group.’ It was just incredible. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, and I can’t remember a more magical week than this.”

Texas-Dallas was somewhat of an afterthought in talk about the ASC throughout much of the season. The Comets had high expectations and were picked second in the East Division in preseason, but finished the regular season 12-13, 10-12 in the league, and had to win three of its last four games, including a road win in its final contest against Louisiana College, just to make the league tournament. It took awhile for Butterfield to realize that his personnel wasn’t well suited for his original intention of running and trapping, but could handle things well in the halfcourt, and playing some zone defenses. Texas-Dallas’s academic standards are pretty stringent (average freshman SAT score was over 1200, according to Butterfield) and the team lost two projected impact players in preseason and one at midseason due to academic issues. One result of that was that 11 different players have started a game this season.

“I don’t mind saying that things were going badly,” Butterfield said. “We had aspirations in the preseason of hosting the conference tournament. We were pretty disappointed with how we did.”

That changed very suddenly when the conference playoffs began. There were some positive signs at the end of the regular season, as Butterfield noticed that his squad was playing with a little more desperation, since it was smart enough to know where it stood in the standings. First the Comets edged McMurry, which had beaten them by 11 in the regular season, 73-69. Then, they shut down a Sul Ross team that was the defending champs and had averaged 95 points per game over its last nine contests, 75-64 the next day. On Sunday against Mississippi College, UT-Dallas was a significant underdog, having already been blown out twice by the hosting Choctaws. But the Comets came out flying, playing at the level of a national power. UT-Dallas shot 65% in the first half, and had as many 3-pointers (eight) as Mississippi had total baskets, and sophomore guard Martin Salinas had more points in the first nine minutes (20) than Mississippi had in the whole half (18). After 20 minutes, the Comets led by 27 and there was no turning back en route to an 18-point win

“There was no precedent for things going the way they did,” Butterfield said. “We drew a play in the locker room for our first play, ran it, and got a layup. Things just built from there. I’ve never seen a kid shoot like Salinas did. He hit everything he took, except for one free throw. He had a layup and two free throws, and all the rest of his shots were 20 to 25 footers. When we got in the locker room, I went right up to him and said ‘What’s wrong? How could you miss a free throw?’ He got all wide-eyed and then all I busted out laughing and the players did too.”

The UT-Dallas players can smile now. Suddenly everything looks pretty bright and players who were in funks for much of the season, have snapped out of them. Salinas, who scored 63 points and led the team in scoring in each of the three games in the tournament, is averaging 13.8 points per game, a hair better than Jason Malone’s 13.7. Malone is one of four seniors on the roster, three of whom were part of Butterfield’s first recruiting class in the summer of 2001, after a season in which the Comets, who began their program in 1999 and joined the ASC in 2001, went 4-21. Malone started this season out of position at point guard, but shifted to his more natural two-guard slot after sophomore Travis Carruthers emerged as the team’s top ballhandler. UT-Dallas plays a fairly small lineup, with 6-4 senior Eric Chatham (who ranked second on the team in assists) and 6-5 junior college transfer Kersh Milson (12.5 points per game) in the post.

“We have some great kids on this team, who have poured their heart and soul into this,” Butterfield said.

Heart and soul can get teams through situations like the one that the Comets faced last weekend. In the NCAA Tournament, talent tends to win out, and Texas-Dallas knows that it has its hands full with the SCAC champs on the road on Thursday night. But maybe, just maybe, the Comets can work some of their magic, again.

“Looking at them is like looking up a mountain,” Butterfield said of Trinity. “It’s a great challenge. I hope we can re-establish our momentum.”

THE LONG WAIT IS OVER: New England has had its share of championship teams the last couple of months in baseball and football and there’s another team not far from Foxboro and Boston that is trying to draw on their inspiration a bit as it heads into a very winnable section of the NCAAs.

Worcester Polytech (23-3) head coach Chris Bartley told his team at the start of the season that its philosophy was ‘Begin with the end in mind.’ The end to the NEWMAC regular season didn’t quite go as Bartley figured, with the team entering the postseason with back-to-back league losses after a 10-0 start in conference, but the end to the postseason was perfect, a 64-60 win against Wheaton (Mass.) that put the Engineers in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1985. It wasn’t quite like waiting 86 years for a title like the Red Sox did, but the victory completed a two-year turnaround from a 7-18, 1-11 mark in 2002-03.

“Our juniors were our first recruits and got this thing turned around,” Bartley said. “We took our lumps, but that experience eventually paid off.”

The Engineers, for the most part, are a group of undersized, scrappy sharpshooters, with only four players (three of whom are freshmen) taller than 6-3. WPI has had the league’s last two Player of the Year winners in guards Mike Prestileo (13.1 points), a junior, and sophomore Ryan Cain (20.0 points), who combined for 118 3-pointers this season. The one big man is sophomore center Scott Misiaszek, who at 6-foot-10 is ranked among the nation’s best shot blockers. Cain hit a couple of big 3-pointers late, but Misiaszek made the biggest play of the season, with a bullet pass to junior guard Ryan Flynn, who converted a four-point play with under a minute to go to clinch the championship win. Bartley described the pass as having the velocity of “a Curt Schilling fastball.” He also made a couple of references to the New England Patriots, drawing comparisons to hard workers like linebacker Tedy Bruschi.

“We’re not overly talented,” Bartley said, “but this is a team where the sum is greater than its parts.”

SHOOTING FORWARD: We went searching long and hard, poring over stats sheets on Sunday night, looking for the most statistically unusual player in the NCAA Tournament, and were pleased to finally hit paydirt with Denison junior Kristen Sheffield. The 6-0 forward has the rare ability to make a huge impact with both perimeter offense and post defense. She enters the Big Red’s first-round game against Baldwin-Wallace on Thursday with 58 3-pointers and 102 blocked shots, and is averaging 11.4 points (second on the team to senior forward Emma Woodward) and 7.6 rebounds per game. On top of that, Sheffield is adept at ballhandling too, ranking second on the team in assists and is sometimes used to bring the ball up the floor.

“I like to think of myself as being pretty versatile,” said Sheffield, an economics major with a political science/psychology minor. “I know I can impact a game in a lot of ways. I’ve spent a lot of time working on my shot. When I started playing, I was small, and played the perimeter when I was younger. So I had a good outside shot. Shot blocking is something I can do because I’m tall, I have long arms, and I’ve learned how to time it.”

Sheffield has already set the North Coast Athletic Conference’s all-time record for career blocks. She led Denison (19-8) in scoring in each of the three NCAC Tournament games despite playing with a broken shooting (and blocking) hand, finishing with 49 points and 16 blocks and was one of the primary reasons why the Big Red are making their second-ever NCAA appearance.

“With her size and ability, if she had gone the Division I route, she actually would have been a point guard,’’ said Denison head coach Sara Lee, who is quite glad that Sheffield didn’t. “She has an odd combination of talents. She is definitely unique to our league.”

THE LONG… Rising to new heights isn’t as hard for St. Benedict senior center Kim Johnson, who might be the tallest women’s player in the NCAA Tournament at 6-4, as it is for others.

Johnson has only averaged 9.3 points and 8.2 rebounds, but has led like an All-American as an urgency has set in, upon the realization that she is approaching the conclusion of her basketball days.

“It’s immeasurable,” said St. Benedict head coach Mike Durbin when asked about Johson’s impact, beyond her scoring 17 second-half points in the MIAC title game upset of top-seeded Carleton by the tournament’s No. 3 seeded Blazers (22-4). “Someone once told me ‘You should see how Brett Favre leads the Packers behind the scenes.’ I think Kim has some of those same characteristics.”

The Blazers have a toughness going for them as they prepare for their first round matchup with Simpson. Johnson is one of the keys to that. She’s not what you’d expect from someone that big, as Durbin points out that Johnson doesn’t lumber in any way. She shoots 49% from the field, has made 14 3-pointers (down from 38 a season ago), and has 49 assists with only 34 turnovers. Mental strength, at this point, may actually be her biggest strength.

“I’m not ready to be done,” said Johnson, who just finished a student-teaching run with kindergartners and is now making the transition to her first days helping teach eighth grade. “I’ve been playing like it’s my last game. The (most noticeable thing) about this team is its stubbornness. We’re not going to give up.”

AND THE SHORT… It seems that Ursinus guard Mike McGarvey would rather talk about the little things he and his teammates do on the court, appropriate because he’s only 5-9, but little doesn’t come up when describing his game. McGarvey has come up big in every aspect for the Bears, who upset Franklin and Marshall in the Centennial Conference title game, after being picked to finish fifth in the league in preseason. The Bears take on New York City Tech in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.

“I like to play the game the right way,” said McGarvey, a junior, who won league player of the year honors by averaging 17.6 points, 7.6 assists, and 2.9 steals per game. “I think I know when to make a play and when not to, which is important, because the point guard has to be on the same wavelength as his coach. I don’t know if I’m a scorer or a passer. I guess I’m a playmaker.”

Ursinus (18-9) graduated the nation’s leading scorer last season in Dennis Stanton, but returned just about everyone else from a team that went 16-11 and made ECACs last season. McGarvey, who was the league’s leader in assists and steals as a sophomore, became more of the focal point of the offense, and ended up making 95 3-pointers and shooting 88% from the free throw line. He was only the team’s leading scorer once in the final five games, as his teammates raised their play to match his, particularly on the defensive end. Franklin & Marshall had averaged 86.5 points in the two regular-season meetings, but the third time around, Ursinus held the Diplomats to only 70. It was that with which McGarvey was most pleased.

“The biggest key for us was our defensive play,” McGarvey said. “We understood that was going to get us wins. We knew our offense would be there. Everyone doubted us, but we really stepped forward as a team.”

Best games of championship week
Stevens Point 65, Oshkosh 59
WIAC men’s semifinals
Jack Bennett said it was one of the best games he’s ever been associated with in his lifetime. That was good enough for us. By the way, it was the 24th straight WIAC postseason home game combined that was played in by the men’s or women’s Pointers teams, an impressive run of dominance in one of the nation’s best conferences.

Ursinus 72, Franklin & Marshall 70
Centennial Championship
Neither team led by more than five points at any point. Ursinus scored with 2.7 seconds left on a basket by Will Furey to go in front, than survived a 3-pointer that clanked off the back of the rim that would have won the title for the Diplomats.

Western Connecticut 135, Plymouth State 130 (2 OT)
Little East Championship
Too many superlatives to mention. Plymouth’s Nick Pelotte scored 62 points and had 13 assists in a losing effort, and got a two-minute standing ovation after the game after being named MVP.

Baldwin-Wallace 78, Otterbein 76 (OT)
OAC Quarterfinals
The game that started the Yellow Jackets magic run to a championship from the No. 6 seed. Sophomore forward Tori Davis had 41 points and 13 rebounds, and scored the game-winning hoop in the final seconds of overtime, snapping the last of three ties in the extra session.

Wittenberg 61, Wooster 59,
NCAC Championship
Not quite the triple-overtime thriller from two weeks previous, but any time these two teams get together, chances are that you’ll see an exciting, Final 4 caliber contest.

Bowdoin 65, Bates 59
NESCAC women's Championship
Turned into a game of “Can You Top This?” over the last six minutes. Bowdoin forward Justine Pouravelis, who has wowed us several times over the last two seasons, played an unbelievable all-around game, finishing it with a steal and assist on the game-winning basket with half a minute remaining.

Brockport 74, Oswego State 67 (OT)
SUNYAC Championship
Valiant comeback by the Golden Eagles, overcoming an eight-point deficit in the final five minutes of regulation to tie, then win in overtime, putting two SUNYAC teams into the NCAA Tournament. Key stat: Brockport’s Ashley Broadhurst went 21-for-23 from the free throw line over the two games that weekend.

Chestnut Hill 68, Notre Dame (Md.) 62
AWCC Championship
There were 14 lead changes and four ties, but the glass slipper finally fell off the shoe of the Cinderella Gators, who couldn’t hang on to a late seven-point lead, and finished as runners up with an 11-17 mark.

Gwynedd-Mercy 88, Wesley 85 (OT)
Pennsylvania Athletic Conference semifinals
Wesley led 85-78 midway through overtime, but the Lady Griffins closed the game with a dramatic 10-0 run to advance to the championship game.

Illinois Wesleyan 75, Wheaton (Ill.) 73,
CCIW semifinals
This had just about as exciting a finish as you could get. The lead changed hands six times in the final two minutes, and the Thunder had four cracks at the tying shot on their last possession, but couldn’t score the basket that would have put the game in overtime and kept their NCAA hopes alive.

ATTENTION GRABBERS
Good stuff from the folks in western New York, that doesn’t involve St. John Fisher. Rochester’s men, who loom as a potential foe for the Cardinals, might be the most tournament-tested group in the country. The Yellowjackets feature a senior class that has, for the first time in team history, won 20 or more games and made the NCAA Tournament in each of the last four seasons.
Our favorite quote of the past week was from first-year William Smith women’s basketball coach Olympia Scott-Richardson on her team’s winning the Liberty League crown and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1999-2000. “Our main goal was to win a championship,” first-year William Smith coach Olympia Scott-Richardson said. “Championship ball is when you bring it every single day. It’s not something you can turn on when you get to the game. It’s something that is a habit, because you do it so much, it’s second nature. Your first thought, your second thought, and third thought is to play like a champion. This team really bought into that.”
Interesting to note that for the third straight season, the defending women’s national champ doesn’t even make the NCAA Tournament. This despite the fact that UW-Stevens Point, Trinity, and Wilmington went a combined 69-13 the season following their title runs. That makes us glad that the field is expanding next season.
How’d we do on our super-sleeper picks from the preseason? Well, it looks pretty good to this point, particularly on the women’s side, where we had three conference champions in Randolph-Macon, St. Benedict, and UW-Stout, an Albion team that lost in its league title game, and a Luther squad that went 13-2 before fizzling a bit down the stretch. On the men’s side, we felt good for our source who told us Mount St. Mary would be the best in its league by season’s end. We also liked the buzz on Bates, which made it to the NESCAC title game. Our choice of Westminster (Pa.) looked good until the Titans ran into Wooster, then finished 15-11, 5-5, playing Grinnell-style again, while Adrian (15-11, 8-6) never made quite the push we had hoped for.

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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