By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com

If you showed up late for the 6 a.m. September pickup games at Massachusetts-Dartmouth, and didn’t call ahead with a good excuse, the punishment was to do two minutes of “crabs.”

The meant that you assumed push-up position, than crawled around in different directions until the fatigue overwhelmed you. If you’re made to do it once, you’ll realize it’s smart not to ever have to do them again.

Dan Holbrook averages a double-double for Mass-Dartmouth.

“It made everyone realize that we were serious about what we were doing,” said senior center Dan Holbrook.

It took a while for everyone else to realize that the Corsairs were for real and a 16-0 start has convinced most people (though the Top 25 poll has them eighth, third among New England teams, behind Brandeis and Amherst). Picked to finish fourth in the Little East this season, Mass-Dartmouth has been one of Division III’s biggest surprises, with quality wins over Brandeis, Salem State and most recently, at Rhode Island College.

It’s a surprise to me,” said 24th-year coach Brian Baptiste. “We didn’t expect that this year. I was thinking I probably have had 10 teams that were more talented than this one, but I’m starting to second-guess myself on that now.”

The trademark for this team has been its comeback ability. The last three victories, against league rivals Eastern Connecticut, Plymouth State, and Rhode Island College, have come in games in which they trailed by 10, 12, and 8, respectively.

“Our kids are confident,” said Baptiste. “They don’t panic late in the game whether we’re winning or we’re losing. Someone seems to step up and make a big play. Our shots weren’t falling that day against Plymouth, but our kids never lost their poise. They battled through it.”

Holbrook knows about perseverance, having returned from a broken foot, suffered early last season, which allowed him to get a medical redshirt and return for his senior season, in which he’s averaging 14.9 points and 11 rebounds per game. He was the best player on the floor throughout the win at Rhode Island, a game in which he finished with 20 points and 18 rebounds, and when the buzzer sounded, he came running to the sidelines with high-fives for every teammate. Baptiste, in describing Holbrook, referred to him, as “a goal-oriented player” and it was clear from the postgame reaction how important this goal was to the center and his teammates.

“That was definitely one of our biggest tests,” Holbrook said.

The Corsairs have passed every one because they can put five scorers and defenders on the floor at any time. They average 83 points per game as a team. Holbrook leads the team in scoring and rebounding, but not far behind as far as statistical support are senior guard A.J. Tavares and senior forward Cory Tynes, freshman forward Brandon Stephens and sophomore forward Jeff Macchi. Holbrook only scored six points against Brandeis, but the team won anyway, because Tavares led the way, scoring 22, including a clutch 3-pointer in overtime

“Brandeis definitely boosted our confidence, because it made us believe we could compete with nationally ranked teams,” Holbrook said. “But at the same time, we were very modest about it. We weren’t satisfied with just that win.”

Mass-Dartmouth can usually put four good 3-point threats on the floor at one time (shooting 37.5 from 3, making about eight per game), and Reece Gaines (7.7 assists per game, with a 3.3-to-1 assist/turnover ratio) has usually found them, often off a nice defensive play (he’s also averaging 3.5 steals per game).

“Reece is a tremendous leader, who comes to play every day and it has rubbed off on others,” Holbrook said and Baptiste seconded that, noting his quickness and skills are at a Division I level.

Mass-Dartmouth has been a sub-.500 team in four of the last five seasons, a step back from when the program was a New England power in the 80s and 90s, going to the NCAAs 11 out of 16 seasons, most recently in 2001 when it made the Sweet 16. To get back to that level takes a little something extra. Baptiste said he couldn’t ever remember one of his teams getting up at 6 a.m. for preseason work and admitted he was pleasantly surprised on Oct. 15, when he realized he wouldn’t have to teach to much to this team. The discipline and dedication from that month of work has wiped away any signs of crabbiness, if you’ll pardon the pun and it has gotten everyone together on the same page.

“The key points with this team are our unselfishness and our accountability,” Holbrook said. “Whenever a player is down, we pick him up. People are less apt to make the same mistakes twice.”

STILL THERE: We had a little fun at G.P. Gromacki’s expense this summer, after he was announced as head coach of the Amherst’s women’s basketball team. Perhaps you recall the photo caption, which read (“Gromacki, left, left.”) or the poll that asked how long he would stay at the school, his third in 12 months, which it turns out is nine miles from his childhood home. (“One season” won with 29 percent of the vote.)

In the interest of full disclosure, we were still doubters in November, despite the track record of his success, that Amherst would become an elite program this quickly, in what is thought to be among the best Division III leagues in the country.

We’re not doubting any more, not after the Amherst women have started the season with a school-record 16-game win streak, with impressive wins over Tufts and Bates in its first league matchups of the season. And he and his team can have a little fun at our expense, as the only poll worth mentioning now is the Top 25, which the Lord Jeffs are in for the first time.

Gromacki has now turned programs into immediate high-level winners at three stops. In 1998-99, his first season at St. Lawrence, the team went 23-6, and made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in a decade and a half. By 2002, they were in the Final Four. Then last season, his only one at Hamilton, the Continentals improved from 8-16 to 20-8, their first 20-win season since 1992-93.  Amherst was 12-13, 3-6 in the NESCAC last season, but has already bettered that with room to spare. Noteworthy too is that at both Hamilton and Amherst, Gromacki was named head coach late enough such that none of the recruits in the first season was his. And yet his teams don’t miss a beat.

“We expect excellence,” Gromacki said, summing up his coaching philosophy quite succinctly. We expect to win. Our goal is to win a national championship, but we don’t lose sight of what’s involved in the process. It’s been a great team to coach. We come to work hard, but we enjoy ourselves too.”

Amherst photo by Charlie Quigg Samantha Swensen's 13.0 points come in just 23.7 minutes per game.

One key for the Lord Jeffs this season is that sophomore forward Samantha Swensen has gone from NESCAC Rookie of the Year for an average team a season ago to being a difference-maker for a winner. She’s averaging 13.0 points and 4.9 rebounds but more than that, has had impeccable timing for the big play.

Amherst closed out its winter-break Florida trip against Endicott, but uncharacteristically struggled for the first 39 minutes and 59 seconds, and was down a point needing to go the length of the floor. Gromacki calmly drew up a play, one that got busted when the ball was tipped, right to Swensen, the unlikeliest of any player to shoot from long range. Her desperation three-pointer (the only one she’s tried all season) was good as the buzzer sounded. 

“Coach had a look on his face like we were gonna win the game,” Swensen said of what it was like during the timeout prior to the shot. “I don’t know how he knew it. He has all this faith in us.”

“You could try that 100 times, and it wouldn’t work once,” Gromacki said of the accidentally perfect execution.

The Lord Jeffs didn’t face an overwhelmingly difficult non-league schedule, but they made the jump into facing NESCAC opponents rather smoothly, with Swensen’s late-game magic continuing.

Swensen added a 26-point effort in a non-league win over Wesleyan, in which she scored back-to-back go-ahead baskets in the final three minutes to fend off a late Cardinals rally. Then, against Tufts, in an eagerly awaited NESCAC-opening matchup of two unbeatens, Swensen’s buzzer-beating came into play again, when Sarah Leyman lobbed a pass from just in front of midcourt over the top of the Tufts defense, for a game-ending layup.

The Lord Jeffs have also gotten really good play from senior point guard Shaina Pollack, who specializes in making thread-the-needle passes that are right on target, hence the 5.4 assists per game and near 2:1 assist/turnover rate (similar to men’s All-American Amherst point guard Andrew Olson). Two other seniors, Stefanie Reiff and Anne-Claire Roesch have been key to the success as well, with the two combining for 39 points in a win over Bates, the day after the Tufts triumph.

“I think one of our specialties is that we have so many players who can step up and do things,” Swensen said. “Shaina is an unbelievable point guard. Whenever she has the ball, I feel very comfortable. With Stef, we like to laugh because she has this one move, a fadeaway that can’t be stopped, by the other team, or by us in practice. (Roesch) is always getting the team up. She’s always very intense. Our other starter, Yasmine Harik, is the best defender I’ve seen. She can guard anyone from Division I to Division III, and Stacy Brossy (who filled in as a starter as Reiff returned from injury) is calm and confident. She can shoot the same way whether the score is tied, or whether we’re ahead by 50.”

The team’s improved shooting percentages across the board have increased to the point where the Lord Jeffs shot 52 percent against a Tufts defense that entered ranked third in the nation in opponents field goal percentage.

“This team might be different from some of my past teams in that it can put up some points,” Gromacki said of a squad that has averaged 78 per game. “My teams have always relied on their defense. With this team, we definitely like to push the ball. We have an aggressive, attacking defense and offense.”

Gromacki said that one thing he learned from two seasons as an assistant at Temple, which came in between his time at St. Lawrence, Drew, and Hamilton (Gromacki was at Drew for a few months, but left for Hamilton without coaching a game there) was improved level of attention to detail.

“He really knows what he’s doing,” Swensen said. “If something goes wrong, he knows it right away. He’s pinpointed the good and bad, and we’ve worked on our weaknesses. When we’ve had a weakness, we turned it into a strength.”

Case in point one weekend in which Gromacki felt that the team was not bumping cutters to the basket enough, so the team worked for 30 minutes in its next practice on proper bumping.

“Next game, every time anyone came through the middle, I thought ‘bump em,’” Swensen said. “He gets in your head what you need to work on.”

That happened from the day of the team’s first meeting when Gromacki told them he had watched them on video, and knew that they had the talent to compete at a championship level. He could tell from their response that the team was eager to win. Swensen bought in right away. She knew then that the team was ready for a “special” season. When we asked her if she felt this team could live up to the lofty preseason expectations, she didn’t hesitate.
 
“I definitely do,” she said. “If there were any doubts, they’ve been cleared up.”

Same for us.

ALSO RISING: Though they haven't quite had the improvements that Amherst's women have, some other squads have made dramatic improvements this season. Here's a list of a few that caught our eye and made the jump to respectable.

Men's
SUNY-Maritime 4-21 to 8-8 (Skyline) 
Energetic first-year coach Jody King getting big play from Division I transfer Jamal Webb.

Maryville (Mo.) 6-19 to 6-9 (SLIAC) 
Trying to reach back to level of two seasons ago, when team was 18-9, 11-3, advanced to NCAA Tournament.

Thomas More 3-23 to 8-9 (PrAC) 
Capital transfer Mark Tinklenberg has been standout, with three 30-plus point games.

Becker 3-22 to 7-8 (NAC) 
Former Massachusetts assistant Brian Gorman has revamped program, got nice win at Elms to improve to 4-1 in NAC.

Women's 
Hanover 3-21 to 11-6 (HCAC) 
A good sign: Four of the top five scorers are freshmen.

Regis (Mass.) 5-20 to 10-3 (CCC) 
Southern Maine alum Julie Plant coached much of last season with five players, roster size and win total increased in 2007-08.

Coe 8-18 to 12-5 (IIAC) 
Cooled off slightly after 8-0 start, but considering two of losses are to UW-Whitewater and Simpson, that.s not too bad.

NORTH END OF OAC: In only four of the past 11 seasons, the Ohio Northern women’s basketball team posted winning records. However, two of those have come in the past four years. Last year, the Polar Bears continued building on the foundation of solid inside play and accurate outside shooting.

Midway through the Ohio Athletic Conference schedule this year, Ohio Northern finds themselves in unfamiliar, but welcomed territory, first place in the OAC. They are 13-3 overall and 8-1 against OAC competition. Their lone conference setback was a 79-52 loss at Baldwin-Wallace.

This current crop of seniors has gone from 11-15 as freshmen to beating some of the nation’s most respected teams in Wilmington and Capital within a week’s time.
“To see it go from where it was our freshman year to this year has been an amazing turnaround,” said senior forward Erin Brand.

“We’re only halfway through play right now,” she added. “We still have to worry about playing everybody once again. It’s a great feeling, but you’ve still got to stay focused and worry about playing them all one more time too.”

Senior sharpshooter Jenny Markle echoed Brand’s sentiments.

“One of my individual goals was to make the most of my senior year and I think I’ve done that so far,” said Markle. “As a group, our team motto for this year is ‘One Shot.’ We treat each game like it is our last shot to beat these teams. It’s really special that we’ve been able to do what we have in the first half. We just have to go out and replicate that in the second half now.

“It’s something us six seniors have wanted to accomplish since we came here,” continued Markle. “We’ve kind of been the change in this program. When we’re actually seeing results and taking this program to the next level, it’s really special, especially since it’s our senior year and it’s our last opportunity to do so.”

Brand and Markle, along with Mallory Rentz, Leah Zimmerman, Tara Butler and Megan Cevasco, have made their final season in the burnt orange and black successful to this point. In the post, Brand is averaging 12.9 points and 5.4 rebounds-per-game heading into Saturday’s action. She is hitting nearly 49 percent of her shots.

On the outside, neither the OAC nor NCAA has any other shooter that can equal the success Markle has experienced. The 5-foot-2 shooting guard hits on 56.8 percent (46-for-81) of her three-point attempts. The second-best shooters in the country, Amanda Moore of Beloit and Hamilton’s Jess Barrows, connect on 49.1 percent of their triples.

“I love it when Jenny can kick it in and then to kick it back out to her,” said Brand, a psychology major with a minor in biology. “Very rarely when I kick it back out is it not going in. It’s great to be able to shoot it out and have that confidence. I have full, 100 percent trust in her that she’ll do that. She’s proven it time and time again.”

When this senior class first entered Ohio Northern, coach Michele Durand decided the time had come to change how the offense and defense handled the rest of the OAC. Over the four year span, the team’s final record has improved with each season.

“We really put in a deliberate Princeton-style offense the seniors’ first year here,” said Durand, in her seventh season. “We try to really emphasize getting good shots. We don’t run a lot. It doesn’t mean we can’t. We just really want to get good shots and force the other team to guard us.

“We’ve really opened the floor up to allow people to do what their strengths are,” added Durand. “Defensively, we play mostly man-to-man, which is pretty typical of our league. I think we’re fairly physical.”

Looking for a good shot and trying to challenge a defense to work hard for 30 seconds works just fine for Markle. Shooting several shots per game is nothing new to a guard who currently averages 11.1 points per game.

“I have a shooter’s mentality,” said Markle, who double-majors in pharmacy and Spanish. “I have to think every shot’s going in, even if it’s not. It’s just a product of what I put in over the years. Every summer, I would shoot 100-200 shots a day and it’s paying off now.”

Looking ahead at the schedule facing the much-improved Polar Bears, they host Marietta, Baldwin-Wallace and Otterbein with a short road-trip to Heidelberg in the next two weeks. They will try to focus on what got them to 8-1 through the first round of league play.

“I think 8-1 was outstanding for us,” said Durand. “I think we’re capable of doing 8-1 again, but you don’t just have to worry about Wilmington and Capital and B-W. John Carroll, I don’t know if they’ve lost a game since they played us. They’re right there. Otterbein’s always outstanding.

“Muskingum and Mount Union both gave us great games last week,” she continued. “I don’t think you can take a break any night or any day for that matter. I just think we have to look at things one at a time and take each opponent as they come.”

Durand’s players have taken the same attitude to the gym while preparing for the games ahead.

“We thought we worked hard at the beginning of the year and we did,” Brand said. “As Coach (Durand) always says, we’re the one that has the target on our back now. Everybody wants to beat us since we’re No. 1 in the league.”

“We can’t look ahead to any teams and we can’t look back on what we’ve done,” Markle echoed. “We just have to play defense and rebound. The reason we’ve pulled off some of these close games last week is because we played defense. It wasn’t really exceptional offense because our shots weren’t going in.”

Against the Muskies and Purple Raiders, Ohio Northern shot 40.5 percent from the floor and made seven of 30 three-pointers. Though the percentages are lower than the season average, Durand knows her team will be prepared mentally for anything teams in the OAC can throw at them.

“When we brought them in, we knew they were going to be pretty good,” Durand said of this year’s senior class. “We knew that they could help us turn things around here. They’ve been just what we thought. First and foremost, they’re good people and good students, which is really important. I’ve learned over the years that you’ve got to recruit good people, not just good talent. We did that with this group and I think it’s paying off.

“They know what they want. They’re pretty goal-oriented,” she added. “When you’re getting this late in the season, everybody’s tired and we go into finals about the last week of our season, so that’s always hard. They’re a pretty focused group, so I think we’ll be okay.”

WORTH WATCHING: Here's a look at the games of the weekend, and there are many worth watching, or listening to.

Friday, Jan. 25
Men’s
No. 3 Amherst at Middlebury: Middlebury has as good a chance as it has in a long time to get a high-impact win, as it enters with significant momentum after stopping Bowdoin’s nine-game win streak. The Panthers are thought to be legit, with their 13-2 mark blemished only by respectable losses to Ursinus and Stevens. Amherst can’t afford to look past this game to its next-day meeting with Williams.

No. 18 Millsaps at No. 14 Centre: The two remaining SCAC unbeatens meet for the only time this season, as they were placed in separate divisions when the league expanded. Millsaps beat Sewanee on Sunday on the strength of a season-low six turnovers and a last-second bucket by Lorenzo Bailey. The Majors were the consensus pick as the best team in the SCAC this season in our informal survey of conference coaches during the Southern Hospitality tour and are undefeated against Division III competition, with their only loss to Division I Southeastern Louisiana. The Colonels have four starters averaging between 11.1 and 15.5 points per game.

FINAL FOUR: Quick thoughts on news and notes from around Division III. The conclusion of the 2006-07 season brought the end of two great careers in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Two of the top scorers, rebounders and shot blockers in the league graduated with Baldwin-Wallace losing all-time leading scorer Tori Davis and Tyler Ousley leaving many altered shots and highlight reel dunks in his wake at Otterbein. While a drop-off was expected, with ten OAC games left for Baldwin-Wallace (5-10, 2-6) and Otterbein (3-13, 2-7) still to play nine, each team is fighting for eighth place and a berth into the OAC tournament. Defensively, the teams are shells of their former selves. Without Davis and Ousley, the guard-oriented offenses score more, but also stop less. B-W surrenders 83.9 points, 10.3 more this year, while Otterbein gives up nearly 15 more points per game. With John Carroll, Capital, Muskingum and Heidelberg all off to great starts, the OAC could very easily have an eight-team tournament without 2002 national champion Otterbein or former back-to-back tourney winners in B-W come the end of February. You know how a lot of men’s teams get in a circle after introductions, make a series of loud noises and pummel each other for a few seconds? Well, the coaching staff at WPI has a sense of humor about it and has its own pregame circle get-together. It may not look as smooth as those done by players, but it certainly provides for some laughter for those seated close to the action. We endorse it and recommend that others do it as a nice tension-breaker prior to game time. Last weekend, Vassar beat Hamilton and Hobart in the same week for the first time in school history. The Brewers, if Rochester were to fall anytime soon, could classify themselves as the hottest team in New York, having won 10 consecutive games. There’s a 13-3 team that won’t even make its conference tournament, but still has delivered its fair share of “upset” losses. The Birmingham-Southern women are in their first year since moving from D-I and have two starters back from a team that went 8-22 last season against a full scholarship schedule. As a provisional D-III member they won’t be eligible for the playoffs until 2012. The Birmingham-Southern men are in a different boat – their roster is entirely new after the program sat out 2006-07, but even they are 9-6.

Pacific Lutheran at Linfield: The Lutes can match their win total from a season ago with a victory, but more importantly, improve to 5-2 in the NWC, putting them in good position to contend for an NWC playoff spot. Linfield is in a similar spot, with a 4-2 conference mark, having already surpassed last year’s victory total. The Wildcats are 7-0 at home, 4-0 in league play.

Women
Washington U. at No. 8 NYU: Washington has won six straight without star forward Jaimie McFarlin, but now the fun begins with two of the next three games at NYU and Rochester. Halsey Ward, who nearly took the Bears to victory in last year’s national title game, has stepped it up with some strong play in UAA season, averaging 19.3 points in three league games.

Carroll at Lake Forest: Lake Forest tries to bounce back after a tough loss to MWC unbeaten St. Norbert. League looks like one that has three serious contenders for two likely NCAA spots. Carroll needs to hang in top three, find a way to make up for a loss to surprisingly good Beloit earlier this season.

Saturday
Men

Hope at Calvin: The only rivalry with its own Web site, and perhaps the only rivlary in college sports whose supremacy cannot be disputed, these two will meet for the 167th time and are tied at 83 wins apiece. While this year won't match last year's unlikely five meetings, a series won by Hope 3-2, the MIAA title always seems to hang in the balance. This year, Hope enters at 5-0 in the league with Calvin at 4-1, but the Knights are reeling, having lost three of seven and five of nine.

NJCU at Richard Stockton: It's not quite a battle of division leaders (William Paterson spoiled that by beating New Jersey City last Saturday) but certainly matches two teams who could be there at the end in the New Jersey Athletic Conference. You know about Dana John on the Gothic Knights' side, but Richard Stockton counters with 37 percent three-point shooting and its opponents turn the ball over nearly 22 times per game.

UW-Stevens Point at UW-Oshkosh: You can't fit all four co-leaders in the WIAC on the same floor at the same time, but these are two of them. Oshkosh is 12-5 after a 7-0 start but is playing at home for the first time since Jan. 9.

Women

Oneonta State at No. 22 Cortland State:Which Red Dragons team do you prefer? Cortland State, which has the national ranking and track record, or up-and-coming Oneonta, which has won eight straight, and whose only loss was by three points to Brockport State?

No. 18 Tufts at Bates: The two teams that hosted Amherst and lost last weekend go toe-to-toe. Tufts won the first meeting at home, but that one didn’t count in the NESCAC standings. Bates will need to get off to a quick start in this game. The Bobcats fell behind 28-8 in their initial meeting and couldn’t catch up.

No. 24 Baldwin-Wallace at Capital: Capital wasn’t expected to be the team playing catch-up in the OAC, but that’s the position the Crusaders are in with a 5-4 start. They need to get back to the success from earlier this season when they beat B-W and Washington University on back-to-back days.

Sunday
Men

No. 4 Washington University at No. 2 Brandeis: Game caps a huge weekend for Brandeis (every UAA weekend will be) with Chicago and Washington coming to Waltham. Getting Terrell Hollins back on track is vital. Brandeis’ top forward didn’t score a basket until the final seconds of the loss to No. 1 Rochester last Sunday. Brandeis will have to contend with the size of Washington U.'s Troy Ruths and Tyler Nading, who have combined to average 33 points per game.