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Posted Nov. 15, 2007

Strong duo still makes waves

Everyone has taken notice of Guilford center Ben Strong’s basketball skills. It’s hard not to do so.

Strong’s mom, Sarah was among the first. She’s the one who got annoyed when he quit the Chapel Hill High basketball team at the end of his junior year. When Strong got in trouble at home, his mom laid down the following sentence -- he could either have his car taken away from him, or he could return to playing basketball. “So I went back,” said Strong with a laugh.

Guilford coach Tom Palombo noticed. Since Strong was a late bloomer, one who entered high school at 5-10 (he’s now 6-11), and didn’t become a noticeable player until senior year, coaches at bigger schools didn’t pay too much attention. Palombo did and is glad for that.

“He was lights out,” Palombo said, describing a season in which Strong averaged 25.4 points, 11.4 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game and scored an NCAA Division III Tournament record 59 points in the Sweet 16 triple-overtime win against Lincoln.

Opponents noticed, especially last season when Strong made the jump from very good to great and took the team with him. The Quakers went from 13-14 (10-8 in the ODAC) when Strong was a sophomore to 24-5 (15-3), falling to Virginia Wesleyan in the NCAA Tournament Elite 8.  As a freshman, Strong was the guy who teammate Jordan Snipes nearly hit in the head with the release his 90-foot game winning shot (had Strong grabbed the rebound, that shot never would have happened). As a sophomore he stepped up into a significant role. As a junior, he became a superstar. Who knows what’s next.

“He’s a heck of a player…He is what you want in your best player, a worker, a leader, a great teammate and a winner,” said Randolph-Macon men’s basketball coach Mike Rhoades, whose team got burned for 40 points by Strong in a regular-season meeting, one of two won by Guilford last January.

D3hoops.com noticed, naming him its player of the year last season, one of many accolades Strong received.

In turn, the NBA has noticed. Scouting guru Marty Blake knew the name immediately when it was mentioned, rattling off Strong’s numbers. Blake said of Strong, “He’ll be watched” this season by NBA squads, noting that a lack of quality Division I centers may help Strong’s case. “If you see any, call me ... collect,” Blake said.

Said Strong: “I’m aware of (being watched by scouts), but I try not to let it get to me. I got to where I am just playing and having fun. I figure if I just keep doing what I’m doing everything should fall into place.”

Word of mouth does tend to get around, and even the likes of Amare Stoudemire and LeBron James have noticed, as Strong worked as a counselor at their basketball camps this summer, then got to play pickup with them when their was free time. Roy Hibbert, Division I’s best returning center, dunked on Strong pretty hard in one game, while Strong scored a couple of times off passes from James, just a month after the NBA megastar was throwing them in the NBA Finals. Playing with and against some of the best college players in the country, who were also working the game, didn’t faze Strong.

“The biggest discovery I made was that I could play with them,” Strong said. “I’d never played against competition like that. I wasn’t the biggest guy out there. I had to use my talent instead of my size.”

Strong has a few on-court talents, beyond what the average Division III big man brings. He went from skinny freshman to strong-muscled junior with weight-room work, but didn’t lose any of his other skills in the process.

“He used to be a guard, which I think contributes to his being able to shoot and dribble now,” said Strong’s good friend, Guilford point guard Caleb Kimbrough, who was two inches shorter than Strong when the two entered high school together, then was a foot smaller by the time both decided to go to Guilford. “Now he can attack the basket and try to finish every play with a dunk.”

Said Strong, who scored 27 points and had 15 rebounds in Guilford’s 99-63 loss to Division I South Carolina last week: “I’m a bigger player who has the ability to score in nontraditional ways. I have some more perimeter abilities than some of the big guys I play against.”

The great thing about having played with the same point guard since middle school is that the two have an on-court mental connection, allowing one to know what the other is doing. Sure, receiving feeds from LeBron James is awesome, but the passes from Kimbrough and teammates are what will help Guilford go even farther, both in the ODAC (lost in first round of postseason tournament to Bridgewater) and the NCAAs (the Quakers are ranked fourth in the D3hoops.com preseason Top 25).

Admittedly last season will be hard to top. The Quakers lost a couple of other significant starters in Thomas Burge and Jordan Snipes and they’ll need to be replaced, as Strong can’t make that kind of run on his own. Though, the way he played against Lincoln in such an important contest, anything is possible.

“In the year to come we might see something special from Ben,” Kimbrough said, “but I don’t know what is going to top Lincoln.”

Strong is game, and has the game, to do just about anything. In that contest (one tied by Snipes with a regulation buzzer-beating 3-pointer), he scored 24 points in the final 15 minutes, including the game winning free throw in the final seconds.

“That day, I just got into a zone, where I wasn’t going to let us lose,” Strong said. “I’m always in (that zone) now.”

IPPEL HOPES TO GO OUT IN STYLE: It’s an odd yet adept style, but that’s the one that works best for Division III’s top returning player and last year’s leading scorer in all of women’s college basketball, Millikin 6-2 senior center Lindsay Ippel.

Millikin photo by Kevin Krows Lindsay Ippel continues to amaze two years after Millikin's title run.

“She can just scoop her body around you,” said point guard Andrea Riebock, also a teammate of Ippel’s at St. Teresa High in Decatur, Ill., who has gotten used to watching the array of maneuvers that befuddle opposing post players.

“She slithers through,” said Millikin head coach Lori Kerans, explaining how Ippel scores, and/or gets to the free throw line over and over again.

“A little awkward,” Ippell acknowledges, noting that more to be true during her remarkable (odd, but adept) freshman year. “I consider myself a rebounder, and a physical player, though I love being more of a finesse player. I’ve learned to be a power player.”

The learning process was a quick one. For those who don’t remember, as a freshman, Ippel spent much of the season on Millikin’s bench and on the JV team, until starting forward Karin Olson got hurt just prior to the start of the CCIW Tournament. Kerans, in desperate need of someone to replace the inside presence turned to Ippel, who responded as if she was a seasoned veteran. It was a delightful surprise to many to hear repeated yells of “What a move by Ippel!” on Millikin’s radio broadcasts, or to see such action in person, as we did at the conclusion of the team’s national title run.

The Big Blue carved a dreamlike path through the NCAA Tournament, with Ippel, unintimidated by the moment or having to face All-American caliber opposition, averaging 19.8 points in the final four games (scoring 25 in a championship-game rout of Randolph-Macon).

“I thought that she would be here (at this level of play) as a senior,” Kerans said. “I just didn’t know that she would get there at the end of her freshman year and maintain it. That (run) got me to have unconditional faith in her.”

During her sophomore season, Ippel did maintain those kinds of numbers, averaging 18.8 points, but the team slipped to an uncharacteristic for the program 15-10 in defense of its national championship. The Big Blue got back on track in 2006-07, winning 20 games, but falling just short of an NCAA bid in the heavily loaded CCIW. Ippel set 15 school or conference records during her junior season, setting the stage for this year, one in which the Big Blue return just about every key player.

“I definitely believe (this team is national championship-caliber),” Ippel said. “But first we’re going to concentrate on winning our conference. We’ll start small.”

They’ll start small, but think big, because Ippel dominates on the floor.

“There are a couple of things that make her special,” said Riebock. “To be that kind of scorer, you have to have god-given talent and something within you. She has great hands. You throw it anywhere around her and she can catch it.  Whether you’re tall or short, she can get under you, and because she has such a great touch around the basket, it becomes an easy layup for her. She’ll do that often and it’s hard to stop.”

 “Lots of people see her style of play and it may not be as graceful as you would think (for an all-american), but she gets the job done every time. She’s ready to go when the big moments come.”

Ippel spent much of the summer working as a technician in the cardiac unit at St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur and envisions a future as a nurse, which seems like a good career choice for someone who is poised under tough circumstances.

“My admiration and respect for her continues to grow,” said Kerans. “She handles all the balls you have to keep in the air (as a student athlete) with grace and dignity. I’ve said to myself that I hope I’m handling pressure the same way she does. She doesn’t get rattled.”

“The big thing that’s changed is that now she has the confidence to know she can dominate a game,” Riebock said. “If she dominated in high school, it was unexpected. Now it is expected. She expects it out of herself.”

Ippel’s confidence has grown to the point where she simply won’t be stopped. Kerans cited a game last season at North Central in which Millikin trailed by three with 1.5 seconds left, needing to go the length of the floor to score. All the players wanted to run a play for Ippel to take the tying three, even though Ippel had never attempted one in her career. Undaunted, Ippel caught the pass, went up for the shot from behind the 3-point line, and drew the foul. She made all three free throws and the Big Blue went on to win in overtime.

Kerans said that when teams go to a zone look against Millikin, Ippel becomes “the meat of the sandwich,” always surrounded by two bodies, but that doesn’t stop her. She’s not just a scorer who led Division III in field goal percentage (one who can’t be fouled, since she shoots nearly 75 percent from the line now), but a good passer, and a strong all-around player..

“Lindsay has such a high basketball IQ that she can figure out the opening, or give the ball to somebody else,” Kerans said.

“It’s not a situation (with a play) of ‘it maybe could happen. With Lindsay, it is going to happen. It’s a blessing to be able to watch how she does it.”

DEFIANCE SUPER, SLEEPER: The Defiance men’s basketball team was considered an easy mark in years past, but something was different about them last season. Behind a strong frontcourt and an experienced set of guards, Defiance went 17-9 and advanced to the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship game, its best season since 2002-2003, knocking off top-seeded Franklin in the semifinals.

Experience and the addition of talented newcomers proved to be a perfect combination in gaining back respect in the HCAC and around the country. That’s why the Yellow Jackets lead our list of “Super Sleepers,” a group of unranked teams that we think could make significant national noise.

“We had some players that had gained experience for a couple of those years,” said Miller. “We had a couple of nice freshmen that came in and contributed for us last year. Historically, our league has been very balanced and quite honestly, we were able to do a better job of making some plays in situations down the stretch in games and were able to come out on the right side of some games where maybe we struggled to do that in previous years.

“We have been able to recruit some talented players and certainly that had something to do with it,” he said. “I’ve got to give a lot of credit to my assistant coaches that I’ve had here. We don’t have a full-time assistant’s position. I’ve had a number of young guys that have done a nice job for me.”

In 2007-08, Defiance brings several players back from the runner-up team of a year ago. Point guard C.J. Johnson, left, will command the offense and enter the ball down low to Anthony Pettaway. Both Johnson and Pettaway were double-figure scorers for Defiance during the breakout season. Pettaway averaged 16.3 points and 7.4 rebounds, while Johnson added 11.7 points per game.

“C.J.’s been around the block for us a number of times and has really played from the get-go,” said Miller. “We are hoping that C.J. will have a real fine season. For us to win and to be competitive against the best teams on our schedule, certainly, it really helps our chances when C.J. performs well.

“His talent level and his ability level have never really been questioned,” Miller said of Pettaway. “What he has worked hard to prove and what we’re really hoping to see from him is a level of consistency that maybe he hasn’t always had in the past. He can be a real force in the middle when he decides that’s something he wants to do. He’s had a fine off-season preparing himself for this year.”

In addition to Johnson and Pettaway, Miller’s stable of athletes is full of talented players looking to make their presence known. Sophomore Nick Sales was tied for fourth on the team in scoring (10.4 points per game), while leading Defiance in rebounding (8.0 rpg). Sales is a 6-3 forward who saw more than 23 minutes per game in 2006-07. When he gets the ball, Sales can finish around the basket, making 63.3 percent of his shots.

Junior guard Anthony Jackson will also be relied upon for production in the backcourt and to give the Yellow Jackets extra help on the glass.

“Nick was a real fine addition for us as a freshman, right at the top of our league in terms of rebounding the ball and really does a nice job for us on the glass and is a good athlete,” said Miller. “We’re going to need Anthony Jackson to continue to be an aggressive player, a guy that seeks out some offense for himself.

“I think down the stretch in the league that Jackson became more aggressive for us and that became a harder team for people to defend,” he added. “Those two guys and then our other senior, Bryan Post, who will play at the three and the four spot for us, brings a lot of experience. We’d like to see him bring a high level of energy and some defensive ability to the court for us.”

This year’s schedule for Defiance has many potential challenges. Difficult matchups at the beginning of the season could set the Yellow Jackets up for more meaningful games against the HCAC’s best competitors.

Defiance starts the season with games against Wilmington and at Thomas More. They return home to host an upstart in the Ohio Athletic Conference in Heidelberg and the number two team in the North Coast Athletic Conference preseason poll in Ohio Wesleyan before starting conference play. Prior to the Christmas break, the Yellow Jackets will travel to Orlando for the RDV Sportsplex Classic.

“We feel we’ve put together a pretty competitive non-conference schedule,” Miller said. “We hope that in our non-conference schedule we’re going to learn some things about our team. We’re going to be faced with some real challenges there.

“In the league, Franklin is the team that is picked to win it,” said Miller. “They’ve got everybody back. Transylvania has been the NCAA Tournament team the last couple of years. What makes our league pretty tough is just the balance. I don’t know that we necessarily had a team that was one of the top 15 teams in the country.”

While others may want to talk about last season or what lies ahead for Defiance, Miller knows his team is not guaranteed anything based on previous successes.

“Teams always talk about the goals and the things they would like to accomplish. Around here, we don’t spend a lot of time focused on that,” he said. “For us, we just take the mindset that if we come in and work hard, try to get better each day, learn from our mistakes, that maybe at the end, we’ll have a chance to do well.

“The great thing that this group of guys was able to get last year was a taste of success,” said Miller. “I think at some level, it’s given them some confidence to feel like they can be a competitive basketball team. Certainly, when you have a couple of lean years like we had, you can start to question your ability to be a competitive team at that level. I hope some of the success we had last year has carried over to a little bit of a different mindset for us this year.”

OUR OTHER SUPER SLEEPERS: It’s dicey picking a team in a league that has the No. 4 (Guilford) and No. 6 (Virginia Wesleyan) preseason teams, but we’ve heard good things about the Hampden-Sydney men. The Tigers won last year’s ODAC Tournament, but like Defiance, did not manage even one vote in the D3hoops preseason Top 25. Perhaps those voters didn’t realize that now senior captain, 6-7 forward Troy Kaase, is back from the injury that sidelined him for all but the first eight games of last season. Kaase averaged 15.5 points before getting hurt and his return should bring a lot to a formidable squad that returns three other double digit scorers.

Dominican men: Two of our primary sources for these picks felt strongly about Dominican, even though the Stars were picked third in the Nothern Athletics Conference preseason poll, behind Aurora and Edgewood. The key to the pick is the upward progression in wins (seven to 10 to 17 last season, the best since 1991-92) and that the Stars return four players who started at least 19 games, led by 1,000 point scorer , 6-8 forward Mike Haiduc.

Occidental women: Another team on the upward curve, one with 12 returnees (including four of its top five scorers back) from a team that was 16-9 last season, its best finish in 27 years. There’s a playoff in the SCIAC this year, so you don’t necessarily have to be the best regular-season team to get an NCAA bid.

Mississippi College women: This is one of those hit-or-miss picks that could go either way, but multiple sources suggested we give them a shot. The Choctaws lost 77% of their scoring, including the ASC’s all-time leading scorer Lacey Kennedy, but added a pair of community college transfers in the post, and a Division I transfer at point guard in Anna Patterson (Southern Mississippi). The feeling within the league is that one of the upper-echelon teams (Howard Payne, McMurry, Hardin-Simmons) is Final Four capable, but just in case one slips, Mississippi College could be there to fill the void.

HOW DO YOU REPLACE ... It’s an interesting year on the women’s side, as some of the primary “power schools” may not be as dominant as in year’s past, due to significant departures.

Southern Maine’s Ashley Marble
Possible solution: Josalee Danieli, who averaged 13.0 points and 7.0 rebounds at Little East Conference rival Rhode Island College, transferred in, and should be a major presence as a senior. (A few leagues have a rule in which an in-conference transfer must sit a year. The Little East doesn’t.)

Scranton’s Allison Matt and
Taryn Mellody
Possible solution: We can’t remember too many teams losing a pair of franchise players in the same season, but that’s what Scranton is faced with. The fix is yet-to-be determined, we think. Scranton’s top returnees averaged barely more than five points-per-game last season, so there’s sure to be a big jump somewhere.

DePauw’s Liz Bondi
Possible solution: This may be the biggest departure in any Division, let alone Division III. Bondi was not just the best player at last year’s Final 4, she was the Honda Division III Athlete of the Year, after championship seasons in basketball and tennis. DePauw has a point guard to replace graduated Suzy Doughty, but replacing Bondi is another story. It will be interesting to see if DePauw is as good a jump-shooting team as it was last season without Bondi’s presence in the low post.

WORTH WATCHING: Interesting matchups in the season’s opening week:

Men
Nov. 16: Ohio Northern at Washington University of St. Louis (at Calvin): The No. 1 ranked Bears have 17 returning lettermen that will be looking for another trip to Salem. Give head coach Mark Edwards credit for providing them with tough opposition in their first four games. Besides Ohio Northern and possibly Calvin, the Bears will also get another crack at Augustana (which beat Washington last season), and a look at UW-Platteville (picked third in the WIAC) at home, Nov. 24-25.

Nov. 17: Carroll at UW Stevens-Point: Grinnell was picked as the favorite in the Midwest Conference preseason poll, which tells you how much Carroll lost from last year’s Sweet 16 team. The Pioneers load up on WIAC schools, but with only 35 percent of last season’s scoring, they may get blitzed by a UW-Stevens Point team that has been waiting for seven months to play again after losing to Washington in the Sweet 16.

Nov. 17: Averett at Maryville (Tenn.): No offense to the teams that Averett opened with last season (Oneonta and Washington and Lee), but this year’s first couple of contests (Maryville, then Hampden-Sydney on the 20th) are tougher matchups. In an odd scheduling quirk, Averett will see both those non-conference foes twice, once in November and once in December. This is a good matchup of two NCAA teams from last season (Averett lost to Virginia Wesleyan in the first round; Maryville fell to Mississippi College in the second round), one probably worth playing twice.

Women
Nov. 16: Amy Hasbrook Memorial Tip-Off Tournament, DePauw vs. Olivet and Illinois Wesleyan vs. Wash U: Can it get any better in either gender than a potential national championship rematch of DePauw-Washington U. in the opening weekend? Of course, both teams have to win their opening-round games. Remember that Washington started last season by losing to Lake Forest in a contest in which it gave up a game-tying halfcourt shot at the buzzer. The Bears open with Illinois Wesleyan, a team that could be ready to make the jump from good to great. The Titans return all five starters from last year’s NCAA Tournament team and were ranked as high as No. 2 by one D3hoops.com preseason voter, before settling in at No. 15.

Nov. 16: New Paltz vs. Scranton (Muhlenberg tournament): The post Mellody-Matt era begins for Scranton against a New Paltz team that has significantly higher expectations than in previous seasons. Second-year New Paltz coach Jamie Seward beefed up the schedule significantly after improving his team’s win total from 10 to 17, with this tournament and a matchup with NYU. Remember that New Paltz is the team that came back from 18 down with three minutes left to beat Geneseo in last year’s SUNYAC tournament. For a change, outsiders don’t know how good Scranton is going to be, with the transition to a new league (Landmark) and new top scorers.. Opening weekend should provide a couple of intriguing tests.

Nov. 20: Bates at Southern Maine: Have a feeling that this is a prelude to a meeting in March. The Bates bandwagon seems to have a lot of fans, even after the team dropped to 15-10 last season. The consensus is that this is the team with the most talent in the NESCAC and a win over a Southern Maine team in transition could be just the right kind of confidence boost that the Bobcats need.

If you have a tip or note, 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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