By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com

The Bates women’s team left its best basketball on the court in the last 25 minutes of the 2004 NESCAC championship. The visiting Bobcats came remarkably close to pulling off the upset of undefeated, No. 1 ranked Bowdoin, thriving by running-and-gunning, outscoring them by 15 points before succumbing in overtime, falling for the second year in a row. It is that kind of play that Bates has shown this season, as it is undefeated at 12-0 heading back to No. 2 rated Bowdoin for a very important regular-season matchup on Friday night.

Bates, ranked No. 9 in the Top 25, has lurked in the shadows the past couple of seasons, as Bowdoin, the three-time defending league champ, and perennial Little East powerhouse Southern Maine, tend to get most of the attention in that talent-rich section of New England.

“Deservedly so,” said Bobcats coach Jim Murphy, pointing out all that those two programs have accomplished in the form of NCAA title game appearances and league championships. “We’ve won consistently, just not as much as them.”

Indeed, the Bobcats are 19-game winners in each of the last two seasons, but a difficult early schedule, not to mention the quality of other teams in the NESCAC has made it difficult to make NCAA Tournament without getting the automatic bid, even though they’ve represented themselves as tournament-worthy with their NESCAC finals performance in each of the last two seasons.

This season might be the one in which Bates emerges on the national stage. The Bobcats have been dominant this season, winning 11 times by double digits. Bates wins by getting shots — lots of them. Through its first 11 games, the Bobcats took 201 more shots than their opponents, and their advantage in rebounding (plus-10.9 per game), explained how they are among the nation’s best teams in scoring at 80.3 points per game.

“We get a lot of good looks before the defense gets organized,” Murphy said, explaining the success of the team’s transition game. “We’ve played with the most confidence that we’ve played with in a while here.”

It helps to have experience, and the Bobcats do have that luxury, in starting three seniors — forwards Olivia Zurek, and Betsy Hochadel and point guard Heather Taylor. Zurek, arguably the NESCAC’s best offensive player, is a strong finisher on the move, and could end up leading the league in both scoring and rebounding this season. Taylor, has been the key to starting the running game with her passing ability. Hochadel is strong on both ends of the floor, and clutch, as evidenced by her game-tying shot in the final seconds of last year’s NESCAC title game.

“I feel that the season has gone really well, but I don’t think we’ve played our best basketball,” said Zurek. “I do think that everyone has brought their game to another level this season.”

The two underclassmen starting, sophomore Meg Coffin (sister of former Williams star Ben Coffin), and freshman Sarah Barton, have also been impressive. Coffin, an All-New England selection in soccer (which Murphy also coaches) has made improvements to her game, enabling her to rank second on the team in scoring. Barton is a difference maker as a nifty passer.

“I thought I was going to have to put catcher’s masks on our players faces,” Murphy said with a laugh of Barton’s ability to pass from all angles and directions. “She’s so creative. Everyone’s eyes light up when she has the ball and they all know to keep their hands up.”

The matchup with Bowdoin is an intriguing one and an important one, and could serve as a tone-setter for the rest of the season. Zurek remembers the last game well, not just because of the result, but because of the carryover effect that has lasted over nine months into the next winter. That’s why one of the things she mentioned about that contest may have a significant dual meaning.

“It was the best game I’ve ever played in,” Zurek said.

HOW’S THAT NEW JOB GOING?

Before the season began, we spoke with four first-year coaches, getting their take on what they expected their experience to be like. We caught up with them again this week, and got a midseason review, not necessarily getting into specifics on game situations or such, but rather getting perspective. There have been plenty of lessons learned, both on and off the court.

For example, Case Western Reserve’s Jacki Windon has learned that it’s good there is a Starbucks 30 seconds from the campus.

“Sugar free, vanilla non-fat lattes are essential,” said a laughing, somewhat hoarse Windon, who has slept a few times on the futon in her office through her team’s first 11 games.

The Spartans were picked to finish last in the UAA, but are 6-5, 1-0, with impressive non-conference wins against Baldwin-Wallace and Ohio Wesleyan. They do have the misfortune of visiting Washington University, which is coming off a surprising loss to Chicago this past Saturday, but the team is feeling pretty good about itself.

“The best thing that has happened is that I’ve seen more optimism from our players in themselves,” Windon said. “There were naturally some questions about me when I came in, as young as I am. I’ve seen them get a sense that we can do some special things here and the sense that we can compete night in and night out is good to have.”

Without a full-time assistant on staff, Windon has balanced multiple tasks at once. Communicating with her players has been among the highest priorities.

“I think I’ve also learned that I’m going to be a better parent someday because of this job,” Windon said. “I’m not sure that I would enjoy this job as much if I wasn’t coaching this group of kids. The exciting thing is that we’re so young. Knowing that we’ll have another year together is an exciting thing.”

Clark

Clark men’s coach Mo Cassara has found recruiting isn’t easy. The Cougars coach has had his share of adventures venturing up and down the east coast. On the way to visiting one player at St. Raymond’s High in the Bronx, Cassara and an assistant got stopped by undercover police who, because of Cassara’s sudden u-turn as he left a convenience store and approached the school’s back entrance, thought his vehicle (which still has Ohio license plates on it) might have been stolen. The confusion was fortunately cleared up before the recruit and his father arrived to meet them.

“It’s a heck of a recruiting story,” said Cassara, who has seen that trail from both perspectives, coming from being an assistant at Division I Dayton.

Starting a three-freshman backcourt (none a natural point guard) and having played eight of their first 12 games on the road, the Cougars are 4-8, with a couple of tough losses, including a buzzer-beater against Tufts, but earned their first home win against Babson on Tuesday.

“We started strong and finished strong,” Cassara said. “We’ve played well for a half this season, but this was the first time we played two solid halves. It was my first win in our gym. We were 0-3 to start, and I lost two New England prep championships here too, so it was really good to get that first win.”

Cassara’s team is young, but has played hard and has been receptive. He gets reminded every so often that freshmen can be, well, freshmen, and that he’s not in Dayton anymore.

“We had one player who didn’t bring his uniform one game, because he didn’t have a bag to bring it in,” Cassara said with a laugh.

Centenary

Andy DeStephano has learned that this isn’t Hoosiers and that Jimmy Chitwood isn’t coming through his gym any time soon. DeStephano’s Centenary men’s squad is 0-11 and looking for its first win. But the focus now is on what he refers to as “small victories,” such as that his team is both shooting and rebounding better over the last few games.

“Sometimes we take jobs with the notion that we’re going to change everything, then put up a banner in March,” DeStephano said. “Sometimes with that, you forget about those small victories.”

DeStephano realized that the team will be a reflection of his attitude, so he coaches every possession, regardless of the score, as if the team is in a tight game.

“We still love what we’re doing,” DeStephano said, listing the difficulties the team has endured through six weeks. “Our leading scorer is out with a high ankle sprain. My whole team had either the flu or bronchitis, all at the same time. That’s made it more of a challenge, but they’ve continuted to play hard. They haven’t quit either mentally or physically Everyone is still eligible (in second semester) and that’s the first time that’s happened here in a long time. The sign in my office says ‘Do you love basketball?’ My team does. I want to see them win. They’ve worked hard. Now, they’re due.”

Manchester

Suzy Venet learned about discipline and that there are tough decisions to be made when you’re in charge.

“One of our best players decided to take two extra days off after Christmas break,” Venet said. “I had to make a choice. Do I bench her or suspend her? I decided that she could play, but only if she made up every sprint that we had done during the two days she was gone, in one day. She did. She wound up being the last player off the bench in our next game, and scored five points because she had no legs left. I think that got the respect of the players, because I did what I believed in, rather than play her with no punishment.”

Manchester is 6-8, 0-3 in the HCAC, but has twice as many wins as it had last season, and is only four shy of Venet’s goal of 10 victories in her first season, even though the roster has dropped from 17 in preseason to 11 due to injuries and players choosing to leave the team and school. The team is still struggling to meet the statistical milestones for shooting percentage that Venet set, but Venet has worked hard with them to correct flaws in their game. She has a veteran squad, with four seniors, who have formed the backbone of the team and set the tone for what should come in future years. With them leading the way, Venet has worked on improving her younger players.

“At this level, you don’t get the preseason time to work that you do at others,” Venet said. “I’ve found out the weaknesses of some players as we’ve gone along. It would have been nice to fix those earlier, but we’re working with them on everything right now. We haven’t quite reached our goals, but I think our players are much improved.”

ATTENTION GRABBERS

• In the past we’ve done a feature called “Game of the Year?” spotlighting the most interesting contest of the week, and this season, it’s going to be hard to top New York City Tech’s rally from 27 points down to beat CCNY on Saturday. Credit the win to head coach Ray Amalbert’s “21” press defense, which forced 10 turnovers, and when combined with 90% shooting turned a 27-point deficit into a six-point lead (via a 39-6 run) in a little more than 7½ minutes.
  
  “I’ve been working on it all my life,” Amalbert said of the defensive system, on which he has given clinics nationwide and in Puerto Rico. “In 35 years of coaching, I’ve learned, that if you want to get back into a game, the press can do that for you."
  
  The win had a definite effect, as NYC Tech beat Staten Island on Wednesday to take over first place in the CUNYAC.
  
• A check of the NCAA leader board raised our eyebrows when we saw that Ohio Northern freshman guard Jenny Markle was shooting better than 70% from three-point range. Markle is now 24-for-34 from long range and one of the key reasons why the Polar Bears are off to a solid start at 8-4, 3-2.
  
  Markle made six of her first 12 3-point attempts in games, then in a practice session prior to the OAC opener against Mount Union, hit 20-for-25. That near-perfect touch rolled through the next three games, in which Markle made nine out of her next 10 attempts.
  
  “I’ve never shot this well,” said Markle, the all-time 3-point leader at Copley High, located in the suburbs of Cleveland. “Three-point shooting has always been my thing. I’ve always preferred shooting three-pointers to layups. It’s a mental thing for me. I think that every shot is going to go in.”
  
• The women’s side of the Lake Michigan Conference is very much up for grabs this season and Edgewood, picked to finish second in the league’s preseason poll, hopes that an impressive freshman can push it over the top. Nickie Updike, a 5-9 forward, leads the team in scoring, rebounding, and steals. The Eagles, under first-year coach Bobbi Endress, have already snapped Lakeland’s 19-game conference win streak by beating the defending league champs on the road. Speaking of Lakeland, the Muskies are 4-1 in league play, despite fighting through injuries, with three players among their top six lost for the season due to ACL tears in a span of 19 days, and another starter currently sidelined with a concussion.
  
• Last season, we spotlighted the Simpson men’s last-second win over Lorasdue to their favorite game-ending play, known as “St. Mary’s.”
  
  As luck would have it, the Storm women were in the same position against Loras earlier this week, trailing by one point with two seconds left. Amazingly “St. Mary’s” worked again, as Sarah Pearson connected with freshman Carlie Beals, on an 80-foot pass, which Beals converted into a buzzer-beating layup for a win that kept the Storm unbeaten in the IIAC at 11-2, 4-0. … Speaking of Simpson, the Storm women’s team took the lead in our search for the best road win streak. Simpson won 21 straight over a stretch spanning from Feb. 20, 1997, to Jan. 28, 2000.