Pre-2007 Around the Nation columns

March 8, 2007 Still a weapon, not so secret When Bowdoin takes on Rochester in the Sweet 16 this weekend, Coach Pemper will see two familiar faces on her opponents' bench. Plus we preview the John Caroll/Wooster men's matchup and recap the Tournament's first weekend.

March 1, 2007 Five people you meet in March One of those neat things about the Division III level is that you never quite know who you're going to run into, and some amazing stories have come across our desk the last couple of days.

February 14, 2007 Shooting from the hip In the summer of 2005, two of the best pure shooters in the country went mano-a-mano at the Johnny Tauer Championship Basketball Camp. It was St. Thomas' Bryan Schnettler against Northern Arizona's Stephen Sir in front of every student in camp, as well as a dozen basketball coaches. The two traded rainbows around the 3-point arc, shooting off the catch, on the move, and around screens. They stepped farther and farther back behind the arc and let it fly.

January 25, 2007 Loras hopes to close in style We couldn't recall ever writing about any of these teams in the past. They've given us reason to write this week, mostly due in part to their fine play, and so we introduce some squads you may not be familiar with.

March 2, 2006 Why are you here? When the season started — in fact, when the week started in some cases — not all of the 59 teams in the Division III men's basketball tournament were on the radar. We picked a few to focus on this week, as the NCAA Tournament tips off.

January 20, 2006 Two surprises still unbeaten Mark Simon checks in on the women's teams at Mary Washington and McMurry which are off to surprisingly strong starts. Plus a Johnson and Wales player prepares for a different kind of pro sports career.

January 10, 2006 Some returns unexpected, some rejected At this level, it's not unusual for someone to sit out a season to work, deal with financial obligations, or improve grades, but Kent Raymond's reason for not playing for Wheaton last season was different than most.

February 17, 2005 One-loss wonders Nobody's perfect in Division III women's basketball, but one-loss teams Randolph Macon and Buena Vista are still really good and ready for Tournament success. Plus Lincoln has a potent 1-2 punch and the Rockford women have gone worst to first.

February 10, 2005 How to spy Cinderellas Two seasons ago the Gustavus Adolphus men turned it on in mid-January and went all the way to the national title game. Who is ready to make a Cinderella run this season?

February 3, 2005 It's not how you start Off to its best start in program history, the Clarke men are looking to finish strong in the conference race, thanks to two Byrds. Plus the Wheaton women are booming and the Emory and Henry men give the Grinnell System a go.

January 20, 2005 Taking, getting a chance It was four years ago that Larry Welton thought that the persistent annoyance that was aching his left knee was “growing pains.” This was someone, who after all, sprouted 12 inches during his sophomore year of high school and Welton thought his bones were still adjusting. He would learn soon that it was a much more serious problem.

January 13, 2005 Third chance to finish first Bates has lost to Bowdoin in the NESCAC championships the last two seasons and the Bobcats are ranked behind the Polar Bears again, heading into the teams' matchup. Will Bates make the most of this third chance?

December 16, 2004 Playing for more than Pride The personnel are virtually identical, but the difference between this season’s Springfield men’s squad and the one that was 5-14 in February, is significant.

November 18, 2004 Feels like the first time We found four first-time head coaches, who agreed to check in with us for conversations at the beginning, middle and end of their seasons, regardless of record, to allow us to get an inside perspective of their team’s journey through the year.

March 9, 2004 The road to the Sweet 16 There are 16 head coaches remaining on each side, 16 teams feeling spring coming. They're just as optimistic as they were at the beginning of the season, if not more so. And why shouldn't they be?

March 3, 2004 Last line of defense You wonder sometimes how a player will respond to certain things you say. So we approached gingerly when we told Bowdoin's sophomore center Justine Pouravelis that she was an intimidating presence on the basketball court.

February 26, 2004 NYU reloads, returns to postseason Let's be honest -- the NYU women slipped off the Division III radar for a while.

February 12, 2004 Brandeis playing more than spoiler There are always plenty of reasons to write a team off — coaching changes, a slew of graduations, playing in a tough conference. Now, as the regular season enters its final stages, these teams find themselves at center stage, with the chance to be more than just spoilers.

February 5, 2004 Ohio going to the wire It’s a given that every season you’re going to have a couple of league races that are nip and tuck from top to bottom. In 2004, it looks like the best place to go for that is the men’s side of the Ohio Athletic Conference.

January 22, 2004 Stakes high in NESCAC weekend “It’s going to be very intense,” said Williams coach Dave Paulsen. “A fun weekend to watch, but I don’t know how much fun I’m going to have.”

December 23, 2003 Grinnell's System begins to take hold It is basketball. Maybe not the way you and I know it, but it is the same game, with the same rules and the same objective. But the way we are about to describe is even more different than other systems.

December 11, 2003 Fisk tries to build on second upset Larry Glover initially came back to Fisk University eight years ago to teach, but when asked by members of the athletic department to fill in as head men’s basketball coach at his alma mater until someone else could be found for the job, he was willing.

March 27, 2003 The spirit's the thing Last weekend in Terre Haute, Indiana, three of the four teams found themselves on the short end of late-game heroics. The end result was one champion in name, three others in spirit.

March 19, 2003 No, we're not the team to beat, really What we have here are two teams, neither of whom wants to be considered the team to beat, so we’ll oblige and label both the Rochester Yellowjackets and Trinity Tigers women’s basketball teams as the as underdogs, even though they are going head-to-head in Friday’s national semifinal.

March 13, 2003 Hoping to end SCIAC's exile The Southern California Interscholastic Athletic Conference has a cold, barren reputation when it comes to playing national competition in the postseason, so that may be why the league has a close eye on the Occidental men heading into the Sweet 16. The Tigers, 22-2 with a 16-game win streak, will change planes, then drive in vans two hours to Storm Lake, Iowa, to face host Buena Vista in the sectional semifinal on Friday night.

February 25, 2003 Their roll must go on The limited number of at-large spots for teams in the NCAA Tournament creates interesting situations in a number of leagues throughout the country. One slip-up may be enough to prevent some of the hottest teams in the nation from playing in the postseason. That adds a little pressure to the mix, and makes the stories of these squads all the more interesting. Here’s the way it goes for four of them:

February 13, 2003 Even doctors can't stop Kolmodin There isn’t much that the doctors can do to alleviate the pain in Wheaton junior center Joel Kolmodin’s knees, but there still isn’t much that opponents can do to stop the best player in the CCIW.

January 16, 2003 Starting out at the bottom Armon Gilliam was an All-American at UNLV and the No. 2 pick in the 1987 NBA draft. While he wasn't a star in the NBA, he was good enough to play 13 seasons and score more than 12,000 points before retiring in 2000. Normally that alone is good enough to land some sort of Division I job, but Gilliam is content to be head coach rebuilding the program at Penn State-Altoona.

January 9, 2003 Eagles hope ride hasn't landed The Mary Washington men have matched their win total of 10 from last season in just 11 games, despite the fact that the team's starting lineup is almost identical to last season. The worst thing the Eagles could say about the first two months of the season was that they ended. Now head coach Rod Wood has to get his team back into shape, after two-and-a-half weeks of no practice that followed a stunning win at Division I Virginia Military Institute.

February 19, 2002 New rivals headed for ASC showdown The common lament among Division III basketball programs is that there are too many quality teams and not enough spots for everyone to make the NCAA Tournament. The restructuring of the tournament a couple of years ago spreads the bids across the country and the large number of upsets in conference tournaments make it difficult for everyone to find a spot.