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Posted March 9, 2006

E-mail: mark@d3hoops.com

Utica hoping for some brotherly love

Growing up in upstate New York, current Utica men’s coach Andrew Goodemote was most bugged by the fact that he couldn’t beat his older brother Jon, one of three siblings, in one-on-one basketball.

“Through ninth grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, we’d play six or seven games at a time and I could never beat him,” Goodemote said. “I’d throw the ball, antagonize him, try to get him to play one more game. But I could never beat him one on one.”

That’s akin to the situation that Goodemote’s basketball team faces on Friday when it takes on league rival St. John Fisher in a sectional semifinal at Amherst. The Pioneers have lost six in a row to the champs of the Empire 8, including all three meetings this season.

“They’re now my big brother,” Goodemote said with a laugh.

Junior Ray Bryant had 29 points and 14 rebounds in Utica's second-round win against Worcester Polytech.

The good news for Goodemote is that he did beat his brother eventually, in a team setting, as a freshman at Albany when Jon was a 1,000-point scorer with St. Lawrence, so maybe Utica is due to get a win.

The Pioneers (23-6 after going 13-13 last season) barely made the NCAA Tournament as a Pool C selection (Goodemote told his players they were ECAC-bound after losing in the Empire 8 final), were underdogs at the regionals, first against Commonwealth Coast Conference regular-season champ Gordon, and than against homestanding NEWMAC champ Worcester Polytech, but pulled out two wins. You might not have noticed it from the way his team played, but this NCAA experience has been rather nerve wracking.

“I was so nervous Friday (against Gordon) and our players, who normally joke around before a game, were so quiet,” Goodemote said. “Once we got Gordon under our belt, we were so much looser. We knew we would be better (against WPI). At least our players were confident. I was still nervous. I told our coaches ‘I just hope we don’t get embarrassed.’ ”

In the early going, the Pioneers got blitzed and when Goodemote called his first timeout, his squad trailed 10-0. He asked his team if they realized that the second-round game had even started. One of his seniors, 1,000-point scoring forward Willie Lucas, responded.

“Coach, we’ll be fine,” Lucas said. “We’ll lock them down.”

That proved to be an accurate assessment. Utica came out of the timeout and proceeded to blow WPI out of its own gym, as it scored the next 10 points, took the lead by halftime and won going away, 76-58.

“This has been such a remarkable run,” Goodemote said. “There’s so much luck involved in a run like this. I’ve also been amazed that we’ve been so resilient.”

Utica beat WPI by having the better of what were essentially two starting lineups of five guards. But while WPI was unable to shoot the ball well, Utica slashed its way to the win. Ray Bryant, a 26-year old transfer from Mohawk Valley Community College, has been awesome recently, posting 25 points and 12 rebounds against Gordon, and than 29/14 against WPI. That’s not surprising considering he’s averaging 18.8 points per game, slightly ahead of 1,000 point scoring senior guard Justin Cichon (SEE-shon).

The Pioneers have played small since losing forward Jack Poulson to injury, but that hasn’t historically enabled them to match up well with St. John Fisher. In the last two meetings, the Cardinals have outrebounded the Pioneers by 17 and outscored them by 25. In describing St. John Fisher, Goodemote used the word “tough” about half a dozen times in a 15-second span. He admits that St. John Fisher is the better team, as the three prior meetings have shown that to be true. But he’s hopeful that the law of averages will kick in, and that his team’s best game will allow it to pull of another surprising win.

“For us to win, we have to rebound with them,” Goodemote said, listing his keys to the game. The most critical stat for us is keeping them off the offensive glass. Second, we have to score in transition. We'll get in foul trouble playing in halfcourt, so we have to get transition baskets against them. And third, we have to keep our poise and composure if a guy like Mike McGee (one of Fisher’s top shooters) hits three threes in a row. I have a lot of respect for Coach (Rob) Kornaker (at St John Fisher). He was the first one to call me on Sunday to congratulate me and that was great. St. John Fisher is better than we are. I told our players that we could play them 10 times, and maybe we’d only beat them one. But let’s hope this one is that one.”

ROCKY? HARDLY: Scranton women’s coach Mike Strong described his squad’s start as “rocky,” and in most cases, that probably means three to four defeats, but at Scranton, where the standard of excellence is quite high (based on past success) and the losses are quite few, that had more to do with team chemistry than the defeat it suffered against Catholic.

The Lady Royals added three transfers to a team that advanced to the national semis last season and that altered team chemistry a bit. The issues were resolved with time, as Strong felt that they would be, and the result is yet another team that is in the hunt for a national title. Scranton hosts a sectional for the second straight year and takes on Rochester on Saturday.

“After our loss (in the third game of the season), we had a locker room meeting and formed what I called ‘The Circle of Trust’,” said Strong, whose career as a coach spans a quarter-century at the school and whose collegiate degree was in counseling. “I asked the players if they had anything to say and told them to say whatever they wanted We had girls shouting at each other. It turned out to be a positive. We continued that until early February. After that loss, we pretty much took care of business the rest of the season.”

In Scranton’s case, that means getting to this point, which they’ve done again and again and again. The Lady Royals have been to the NCAA Tournament in 13 of the last 14 seasons. This will be the school’s 17th trip to the round of 16. It has won 47 in a row at home, making them the favorites to advance past these next two rounds.

How is this team different? Well, it has the transfers, Casey Thran from Connecticut College and local products Tiffaney Williams and Tammy Waiters, both of whom came in from Lackawanna Junior College, and both work and raise a family in addition to attending school and playing basketball. Williams starts and gives the team a lot of size at 6-2, a rare commodity for the Mid-Atlantic region. The team is deep enough that Strong has surprised some who follow the team by subbing five at a time in certain situations.

Scranton’s strength is in its guards as both Allison Matt and Taryn Mellody earned all-league first-team honors. Matt is the team sparkplug both vocally and with her on-court play. Mellody, the league’s player of the year, has had to deal with being blanketed on the offensive end, but has still managed to average 17.2 points per game.

“I’ve heard coaches yell out to their players ‘Play her like we told you,’ ” said Mellody, on what it’s like to get the extra attention. “When I step on the court, there’s usually someone in my face right from the beginning. But I don’t they can’t totally focus on me. I don’t think our stats show how well everyone has shared roles this season. Everyone has been a leader in their own way.”

Strong is particularly pleased with the leadership of seniors Erin Healy and Kelly Lewandowski, neither of whom score a lot, and praised them greatly for their unselfishness.

“They’ve held the team together,” Strong said.

As did the Circle of Trust and though some players didn’t respond as favorably to it as others, Strong felt it was one of the unique facets of this season. Coaches rarely say that losing is a good thing, but in this case, the loss produced a net gain.

“We needed that to clear the air,” Strong said. “I’m glad that it happened when it did.”

WAKE-UP CALL ON SUPER SLEEPERS: At the beginning of the season, with the help of Division III coaches, sports information directors, and other tipsters around the nation, we made our second annual Around the Nation Super Sleepers picks, trying to tab teams that had floated under our preseason ranking radar, who had chances of making a significant national impact. Here’s how we did.

Wide Awake
Williams women: The only one of our 10 choices to still be playing heading into the NCAA sectionals. Multiple boosters deserve credit for touting the Ephs, who followed up back-to-back 19-7 seasons by going 23-5, good for a third-place finish in the brutally tough NESCAC. The feeling was that if Williams made it to the national stage, it would shine (particularly if it could escape the New England region), and the Ephs persevered through tough wins in the first two rounds over NYU and Messiah.

St. Thomas men: The Tommies were one-point wonders in our preseason Top 25 and multiple folks in Minnesota were somewhat puzzled by that. The Tommies won the MIAC crown, slipped past North Central in the opening round of NCAAs and threw a major scare into unbeaten Lawrence in the latter part of their second-round contest. They finished with 23 wins.

UW-Stout men: The Blue Devils were the choice of one West Region-based observer, who correctly prognosticated the success of UW Stout’s women’s team the previous season. This person was correct in assessing that UW-Oshkosh had some vulnerabilities and the UW-Stout squad was poised to capitalize all the way through into the NCAA Tournament.

Awake, but slightly groggy
Rutgers-Newark men: The folks in New Jersey were unanimous in their thought that Rutgers-Newark was the best team in an NJAC that was rather crowded at the top. The Raiders finished fifth in the league, but we still liked their chances in the league tournament, especially after it beat College of New Jersey in overtime. But William Paterson edged them out late in the NJAC semis and Rutgers-Newark fell in the first round of ECACs to finish 18-10.

Illinois Wesleyan women: It figured that the CCIW would come down to Millikin and Wheaton this season, but we figured Illinois Wesleyan might be able to sneak in on the women’s side. That assessment almost proved correct. The Titans finished second in the league and lost to Wheaton in the conference tourney finals. They finished 19-8, a three-game improvement from the previous season.

Johns Hopkins women: We kind of cheated on this one and labeled Hopkins a sleeper, even though the team was a combined 46-4 in the Centennial Conference the previous three seasons. The Blue Jays finished 22-8 and narrowly missed on a Pool C bid after falling to Muhlenberg in the league title game.

Chicago women: One of our spies offered up Rochester as a sleeper choice, but we wanted to take more of a risk if we were going to pick a UAA team, so we tabbed Chicago. In hindsight, this wasn’t a terrible choice, but it’s tough to pick a squad whose league doesn’t offer up a playoff. Chicago was arguably the best team to finish sub .500 in its league (6-8) as it spent part of the season in the D3hoops.com Top 25 after going 11-0 with eight road wins in non-conference play.

Snooze alarm
Brandeis men: We may have been a year early in choosing Brandeis, but several New England coaches were very high on their potential for success. Don’t be surprised if we choose the Judges again next season after they went 14-11, 7-7 in the UAA for the second consecutive year.

Brockport State men: Maybe our expectations and those of others in upstate New York were too high but Brockport added several new players that were expected to significantly impact a team that went 18-10 the previous season. Instead, the Golden Eagles slipped a bit, finishing 15-13 and losing to Ithaca in the ECAC Tournament semis.

Sewanee women: Perhaps a better assessment would be to say that this team is in need of a refreshing nap. It still puzzles those in the SCAC how this team went from 19-7, 10-4, to 11-14, 3-11, but the Tigers were never able to get on track once league play began.

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.

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