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Around
the Nation

Posted March 8, 2007

Still a weapon,
not so secret

It's not often that we talk to assistant coaches for Around the Nation. But in this instance, we felt one of the subplots of the Bowdoin-Rochester Sweet 16 matchup was too good to resist.

Corinne Pelligrini and Courtney Trotta have spent a lot of time next to Rochester's Jim Scheible on the bench.

It was three years ago when we got tipped off by a few folks that Bowdoin's then-unbeaten national-championship game bound team had a secret weapon, a point guard who didn't play often down the stretch, but was quite a key to the team's success in a behind-the-scenes manner. We noted it with a three-sentence reference in a preview story, then filed it away with many other story tips we've received these last few years.

Things have come full circle in such a brief period of time and that “secret weapon” is working against Bowdoin this weekend. And as it turns out, there's a second one to boot.

Rochester has two assistants who are Bowdoin graduates -- the aforementioned Courtney Trotta (class of '04) and recent addition Corinne Pellegrini (class of '03) -- and both are working feverishly (while pursuing graduate studies) to make sure that their team is well prepared for this matchup. Both had their moments in the sun, reaching this level as players (Trotta's team made the Sweet 16 or better four times, Pellegrini, part of Stefanie Pemper's first recruiting class at Bowdoin, which turned the program into consistent winners made it three times) and are now highly regarded coaches.

“You can tell coach Pemper that I thank her very much for these two,” Rochester coach Jim Scheible said with a laugh.

Trotta, whose father is a longtime high school basketball coach, got the top assistant's job three seasons ago after an interview set up by Pemper's recommendation, where she greatly impressed Scheible with her knowledge, and we're not just talking X's and O's.

“She is wise beyond her years,” Scheible said. “She brings a great understanding of things like team dynamics. What made her special right away is that she wasn't afraid to tell me if she thought I was wrong about something and needed to look at doing it differently. For a first-year assistant to say that to a 13-year head coach, that speaks volumes about her confidence.”

Courtney Trotta, left, and Corinne Pelligrini spent a lot of time next to Bowdoin's Stefanie Pemper as well.

Pellegrini got the second assistant's job after former teammate and neighbor Trotta (they grew up in adjacent towns in Massachusetts), suggested she apply. Pellegrini had a year's experience as a high school head coach, and is now in her second season as a Rochester assistant. She works with the forwards and is the one that players turn to when they're having on or off-court issues.

“Corinne is the mother figure, who takes the kid who's struggling under her wing and gets them back to emotional good health,” Scheible said.

Both assistants played just about every role on the court (starter, sixth man, team captain), so they know what the players are dealing with on the court. They are just as important to the team off the court.

Trotta, who used her skills in the Bowdoin sports information office to write cleverly worded player biographies, likes to talk of valuing the bonding experiences that make a team better. She cites as an example as to why she called the team ‘hard-working goofballs' how they waited in O'Hare airport for six hours until 2 a.m. for a delayed flight back from their game in Chicago. The team staged a karaoke session over the airport PA system.

“I learned to value the little things that make the team good, the cheering and the supporting each other,” Trotta said. “That was something I talked to (Scheible) about. It can't just be token support. I think that's something that our senior class really understands. They've latched on to it and not let the sidelines go quiet during games. I think that helps move the team forward.”

“I know when I came off the bench, it made me realize how much support the bench players can give,” Pellegrini said. “If someone is on the floor, you knew that they deserved to be out there. If the 16 th player is on board, that's a good thing. A lot of other coaches have said that they wished they had that.”

At Bowdoin, one thing that Pemper teaches is player empowerment and trust. Trotta and Pellegrini were taught everyone on the team should support each other to the fullest extent and have ownership in important decisions, including game strategy. The coaching staff lets the players meet separately at halftime to try to figure out adjustments, before coming in with their own ideas. Trotta broached that approach to Scheible and he was receptive. Now Rochester's players huddle in practice sessions to try to figure things out on their own.

The experience of competing against Bowdoin will be a weird one for both assistants, though perhaps moreso for Trotta who played with Bowdoin's seniors. Trotta remembered that she played against St. Lawrence in the Elite Eight her sophomore year and had to guard her best friend, whose team went on to win. That numbed her to the idea of competing against friends.

“I was pretty close to Stef while I was at Bowdoin, and I know I will remain close with her,” Trotta said. “ It is definitely a friendship that I value, because I know that I learned a lot from her and I have a lot of respect for her.”

That said, there are competitive advantages to having two Bowdoin grads on staff for a moment like this and the chess match that this game could be will be fascinating. Trotta played with the current seniors when they were freshmen, so she has strong personnel knowledge and both she and Pellegrini know Pemper's approach to games. One play likely zapped from the Bowdoin playbook this week: the endgame out-of-bounds full-court pass that helped them clinch many narrow, important victories during their time there.

“Actually,” Trotta said with a laugh. “That's a play I've tried to convince (Scheible for us) to use.”

Trotta says she's not sure that she's a coaching lifer, but you get the feeling that both her and Pellegrini have pretty good futures in the business. Scheible expects to be coaching against them someday.

“If not next year than very soon thereafter,” said Scheible, whose coaching tree includes head coaches in basketball, field hockey and lacrosse. “I'll say this: If I was an athletic director, I'd definitely hire them.”

BUCKEYE BRACKET: The Ohio Athletic and North Coast Athletic Conferences have storied histories, especially when it comes to the NCAA Division III Tournament. Five years ago, Wooster finished third in the nation. The next season, John Carroll made a run to the Division III Final Four.

This weekend, the Scots and Streaks meet again. This time, a spot in the Elite Eight is on the line. Including this Friday’s matchup with the Scots and Blue Streaks, the NCAC and OAC have met in 12 of the past 13 NCAA Tournaments. This will be the fifth meeting in postseason play between John Carroll and Wooster. The Blue Streaks hold a 3-1 edge in the postseason contests.

Both teams know this matchup in the Sweet Sixteen will be an important one for their respective programs.

“I think it’d mean a lot for the seniors on the team, me, Tim Vandervaart and Andy Van Horn,” said Tom Port, the NCAC Player of the Year. “They (John Carroll) knocked us out of the tournament our first year on our court. We’ve got a neutral site with them, so it’ll be a good game up at St. John Fisher and hopefully, we’ll fill the 1,200-seat arena.”

“They get up and down the floor a little more. A couple years ago, they were more of a half-court team,” said JCU senior point guard Pete Moran. “They’re more athletic this time around. If we get out there and defend, and try to contain Port and (James) Cooper, we’ll be okay.”

“The most important thing defensively is rebounding,” added Moran. “We’re not blessed with the size some of these other schools have, but if we take the boards and get a body on someone, I think we can play with them.”

Steve Moore of Wooster and John Carroll’s Mike Moran have both coached in big games. Each is looking for a good game on Friday evening at St. John Fisher’s Manning and Napier Varsity Gymnasium.

“We do have something to prove. We want to move on so we’ll have to play well,” said Moore, whose Scots lost to OAC power Ohio Northern in December. “Our team is different from that year and their team is different. Some of the same players are still there, (Brandon) Mimes (right, against UW-Stevens Point in Final Four) and Pete Moran. Tom Port is really the only guy that played in that game that’s back for us.”

“A lot of things are the same. I know John Carroll does so many things that can make it tough to play against them: Their ability to pressure you and cause turnovers,” he added. “They still have the same kind of athletes that you really have to take care of the basketball against them.”

“Because of our league, there are so many tight battles that we have throughout the season. If you are look at our conference, there are (seven) teams in there that have (.500 or better) records,” said Moran. “There’s really no lower tier to it. When you’re playing game after game when they’re tight battles, you’re kids learn how to perform in pressure situations.”

“Port has been there for awhile. He’s an experienced player,” he added. “The Cooper kid is a scoring machine. You kind of hope those guys don’t have career days. They’ve got athleticism when it comes to their size.”

Wooster comes in winners of their last nine games. They are 27-3 overall and were 15-1 in the NCAC. John Carroll is 9-2 during their last 11 contests. Baldwin-Wallace and Capital are the only teams to beat the Blue Streaks during the last seven weeks.

The Streaks are led in scoring by Mimes and Terry Walsh. Mimes scores 20.6 points a game, while Walsh averages nearly 16.5 markers. Bringing Mimes back to the team and adding Walsh through a transfer have been two important reasons why John Carroll has recovered nicely from a 12-14 2005-06 season.

“That’s like asking what is the importance of the horse to the cart. They’re pulling it,” Moran said with a smile. “They both score a bunch of points for us. These guys moved us up a couple notches along those lines.”

“Winning cures everything,” said Pete Moran. “I can’t say enough about Brandon Mimes and Terry Walsh, (they’re) two phenomenal basketball players. When you’ve got guys like that come in and put up the numbers they do, you’re going to win a lot more basketball games.”

Wooster has experienced their own resurgence since the return of forward Tim Vandervaart. The senior returned on Feb. 20 after suffering a broken left wrist. With Vandervaart’s production back in the line-up, the Scots know they are a better basketball team.

“On defense, he’s been helping a lot when people are penetrating. He’s been rebounding a lot when he’s been in there,” Port said. “He’s still trying to get his legs under him after missing a month and a couple weeks with a calf injury. When he comes in, he gives us a low-post presence. Tim’s looking to score a little bit more and that opens up threes for us.”

“It’s a definite plus. Tim, before his injury, was our primary inside scoring threat,” said Moore. “It looks like, after the other night, that Tim is starting to get that touch back. He can give us a boost and make us more versatile.”

Vandervaart led the Scots with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting against Centre in the second round last weekend. Even though the teams are traveling to Pittsford, N.Y., and will not play in front of a local crowd, it will still be a great game between two outstanding programs.

Brandon Johnson had 17 points and pulled down six rebounds in Wooster's first-round win against Transylvania.

“You’re going to have teams from each league get in and if you advance, you’ll eventually meet an Ohio (Athletic) Conference team,” Moore said. “We know it’s going to be a tough game. We’ve had a lot of matchups with John Carroll over the years in the tournament and they’ve always been tough and that’s no different this year.”

“It would just be a great feeling for anybody at this point if you advance,” he added. “The further you go, the more enjoyable it is. No one wants their season to end.”

“There have been great battles. Wooster and Wittenberg have kind of dominated that conference the last 30 years,” Moran echoed. “We’ve had that opportunity a bunch of times in the last ten years. It’s one of those gun fights in the Old West. You don’t know who wins until the smoke clears.”

As to which conference is the best in the Buckeye State, Port believes the fans will have to wait for a few more hours for the answer.

“We’ll see on Friday night,” Port said.

BUMPY ROAD: Would you get on a bus, filled to capacity, for an oft-bumpy 1,077-mile, 17-hour (not including pit stops) trip, just to watch a basketball game or two?

Fifty-six diehard devotees of the Howard Payne women's team plan to do so, to get from Brownwood, Texas, to Decorah Iowa, to see if the best-supported Division III team can make its way through to calling itself the best team in Division III.

"I'm passionate about a long of things, but I don't know that I'd ride that bus," coach Chris Kielsmeier said with a laugh. "I think that's a little crazy myself. I just hope that when you're sitting there, you enjoy the person sitting next to you."

It has been a dream season for Howard Payne, ranked No. 2 nationally at 28-1 after winning the ASC title . Everything that could go right has gone perfectly. The team is almost unbeatable and the players have received unprecedented support, with upwards of 4,000 fans attending the second-round NCAA rout of Chapman.

Now the road gets a little bumpier, with a trip north for the Sweet 16, since the spot that Howard Payne calls home wasn't deemed as the most equitable host, despite the assurance that such games would draw tremendous crowds.

But it's all just part of the ride for a group that is very excited to be playing against Puget Sound in the Sweet 16. They'll be there, by plane, thankfully, along with what should be a delirious group of friends and family, bolstered by a few folks that Kielsmeier knows from his time at Iowa State, who will adopt Howard Payne as their favorite team for the weekend. It will not be a typical fan base.

“It's exciting to know that our fans love us that much,” said guard Meia Daniels, a candidate for national player of the year honors.

Physically, this may be a bit of a trek for the Yellow Jackets, but mentally, it's one they've spent the entire season preparing for. They returned all five starters from last season's squad, which went 24-5 before falling to Final Four-bound Hardin-Simmons in the second round of NCAAs. They win because they are well-rounded. In previous seasons, Daniels, averaging 16.9 points, carried the team, but this season she's gotten lots of help from the likes of fellow starters Stacey Blalock, Kim Hoffman, Heather Hohertz, and Molly Buker. Daniels' scoring average is down nearly four points, but the tradeoff is that Blalock and Hoffman score in double figures regularly now too. The bench is secure in its roles with freshmen Hope Hohertz and Sarah Jockers among those making major contributions.

“Our team is right where I want them to be,” Kielsmeier said. “We are a confident team who believes we can have a lot of success. We're confident in doing what we've done all year. Our players have played a lot of big games this season and it's our third straight NCAA appearance. They're well-tested. Our approach is that this is just another game.”

Funny thing, Hope women's coach Brian Morehouse said that last sentence was his team's philosophy all last season. His team rode those words to a national title.

KEEP UP WITH THE DAVISES: Iman and Tommia Davis both thought it was a strange coincidence that they ended up as freshmen roommates at Emmanuel. Though they share a last name, they're not related, and they're totally different types of players, but they sure have made a significant impact as the Saints have marched their way into the Sweet 16.

Only these Saints don't march. They sprint because that's how this team plays, running-and-pressing for 94 feet. Coach Andy Yosinoff, now in his 30th season, called his team's come-from-behind win over Brandeis in the second round of NCAAs one of the best in school history, and that's high praise coming from a coach with an extraordinary run of success, including a Final Four appearance in 2001. The Davises were big keys in the comeback and figure to catch the attention of those coming to Boston for the next two rounds, with SCAC champ DePauw as the next opponent.

“We wouldn't be where we are without those two,” said Yosinoff, whose bounce-off-the-walls energy during games is resemblant of how his team plays. “They have a great court sense and the ability to pick out what's going right and what's going wrong. Both of them are winners.”

Iman is a 5-6 guard with the ability to accelerate to create scoring opportunities for herself and others, and averages 11.5 points. She is tough. Yosinoff likens her to a linebacker and says she's “strong as an ox.” When a Brandeis defender landed on Iman's shins, she came out of the game, but only for a moment, and then returned to finish her 15-point second half. Tommia, the GNAC rookie of the year, is 5-9 and averaging 10.6 points, with a Charles Barkley-esque mentality for defending and rebounding. “I don't know if I'm that good,” Tommia said when the Barkley comparison was brought up.

Tommia is intense and if you're not careful, she'll run you over. When Tommia fouled out late against Brandeis, she took a big, phantom swing at the air before plopping down into her seat to cheer on her teammates.

Having those two on the floor, alongside league player of the year Jade Paez, will be extremely important for Emmanuel this weekend going up against opponents who will all be bigger and stronger. But having homecourt advantage should be a help, as should seeing opposition not familiar with the Saints style of play, and not likely too familiar with the Davises. They may fall behind double digits, as they have several times this season, despite a 29-1 mark, but never ever count Emmanuel out of a game.

“We have the capability,” Iman Davis said. “We've been in that situation. That's why I love this season. We play with heart and fight it out to the end.”

SCENE, HEARD AT THE REGIONALS: We surveyed a few staff members and SIDs for their favorite “non-playing” moments from regional weekend. Here are a few

You tend to get a very knowledgeable fan base when you see a Division III game in Maine and it wasn't just a few fans that clapped, but more like 900 Bowdoin supporters who gave Mount Holyoke senior Joanna Silvey a standing ovation after her 12-for-13 30-point performance was complete. Bowdoin won the game by 17 but the crowd provided Silvey, whose performance was described by one watcher as Jordanesque, with a neat send-off that should be remembered forever.

During one timeout in Rhode Island College's first-round win over Coast Guard, a newspaper reporter approached Coast Guard's sports information director and, noting the intensity with which they played, asked “How in the hell did this team go 2-10 in its league?”

A group of Brandeis women's basketball players became quite preoccupied with a courtside computer after the team completed a first-round win over Maine-Farmington. On the screen was a videocast of the Brandeis men's team, battling with Trinity in overtime. After a basket by Steve DeLuca, that basically clinched the game for the Judges, the Brandeis players got very excited, so much so that it actually interrupted the introduction of the starting lineups for the Emmanuel-Salve Regina game that were taking place in front of them.

The riveting broadcast by Loras SID Tim Calderwood of his team's first-round loss to St. John's had an added touch of suspense. With the game tied in the waning moments of regulation, Calderwood described a potential game-winning play. As he described the final shot being on its way, our computer went silent due to “buffering”, leaving the listener hanging as to whether the shot went in or didn't for a good 10 seconds. Ah, the magic of webcasting left this person cursing endlessly. Postscript: The shot was no good, but the call of the winning basket by St. John's in the final seconds of overtime, came across plenty clear.

After Catholic lost to Lincoln in the second round, 100 Catholic fans waited outside the locker room for the players to return. All six seniors, five of them starters, were greeted by thunderous clapping.

DePauw women's head coach Kris Huffman's reaction to the cake with her picture on it, presented after the second-round win over Denison , which was Huffman's 300th career victory. The coach admitted afterwards that she had no idea that such a milestone was approaching.

Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com A scene seen of two Wheaton (Ill.) fans, on a down note against Simpson in the second round.

Daron Lindeman, one of the referees in the St. Benedict-Wheaton (Ill.) first-round game would break the ice, and the silence, in a most interesting way. While standing 10 feet, or further, away from the player who was to inbound the basketball he'd say "Oh don't worry, I can get the ball there. I'm a good bouncer." The player, those game officials and media around him would crack up, or at least crack a smile, at his attempt to lighten the mood in an intense game.

The line to get into the gym at Howard Payne was probably the longest in Division III history. Five minutes before tip-off, it was evident that this was going to be a special night, with 800 fans patiently waiting to enter the gym.

Rochester men's basketball coach Mike Neer is one of the funniest, most insightful coaches you'll ever get the chance to meet, and our crews have talked to him on several occasions. He had the best line of the weekend, after his team lost to SUNY-Plattsburgh in the first-round on a gut-wrenching 40-foot buzzer beater by Anthony Williams.

"Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug."

If you have a tip for Note of the Week, send it to atn@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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