4B • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2002
3.
Connecticut point guard leads All-America team
Women's first-team sections announced. Bird takes top spot
The Associated Press
Sue Bird, the point guard who directs the nation's No. 1 team, was the No. 1 player yesterday on The Associated Press All-America team.
Bird received the most votes from a nationwide media panel and Oklahoma's Stacey Dales became the sixth player to repeat as a first-team selection. They were joined by Alana Beard of Duke, Chantell Anderson of Vanderbilt and LaToya Thomas of Mississippi State.
Anderson and Thomas moved up from the second team last season, when Bird was on the third team and Beard received honorable mention.
The first team duplicated the preseason All-America team in November.
Bird, Beard and Anderson were the only players picked on all 44 ballots cast by the media representatives who vote in the AP poll. The team has only two seniors, Bird and Dales. Anderson and Thomas are juniors and Beard is a sophomore.
Bird, who received 41 first-team votes and 214 points on a 5-3-1 basis, is the ultimate point guard — unselfish and smart, yet offensive-minded enough to score when needed. She was one of four Connecticut players on the three All-America teams, the first time one school has had that many.
mention.
Connecticut's Swin Cash and Diana Taurasi made the second team and UConn's Asijha Jones was on the third team. The Huskies' fifth starter, Tamika Williams, received honorable
"It's a great honor to make the first team among so many talented players, and I can't be more excited for my teammates, either," Bird said. "We've worked so hard all year long, and the fact that all five have been recognized by the AP goes to show how balanced and truly talented our starting five are.
"I'm glad we can all share the honors together."
Bird is the one who keeps that group together. She averages 13.7 points and 5.9 assists, and makes opponents pay when they foul her. Bird has missed only six free throws all season.
Beard received 36 first-team votes and had 204 points, while Anderson had 37 first-team votes and 200 points, followed by Dales with 177 and Thomas with 140.
Versatile enough at 5-feet-11 to play on the perimeter or inside,
Beard leads Duke in scoring (19.5), assists (4.6) and steals (3.2) and is second in rebounding (6.1).
"I am almost speechless," Beard said. "To finish second in votes to Sue Bird is amazing because Sue is an outstanding player. For me to be a sophomore and get the second-most votes is very exciting."
Anderson, a 6-foot-6 center, is almost automatic when she gets the ball near the basket. She's shooting 65.9 percent this season and has expanded her range, while averaging 20.2 points and 6.3 rebounds.
"It is an honor to be recognized and to be included in the company of those I consider to be some of the best players in the country," Anderson said. "I realized I am only as good as my teammates allow me to be, and I am fortunate to be surrounded by great players and coaches every
day."
Dales led second-ranked Oklahoma to the Big 12 regularseason and conference championships. Like Bird, Dales' leadership and mere presence on the court make her valuable, but she also has good numbers: 17.3 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.9 assists.
She was at her best in the Big 12 tournament, averaging 22.3 points in three games and capping the Sooners' title run with 25 points and 11 rebounds against Baylor.
"If ever there was a kid who deserves to shine at this time, it's Stacey Dales," Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale said. "I'm telling you, she is fun to watch. There were many, many plays in Kansas City this past weekend where I just sat down and enjoyed watching her."
Thomas has been Mississippi State's go-to player since she
arrived in Starkville. She's second nationally in scoring this season (24.9) and had games of 40 and 43 points. Thomas also averages 9.7 rebounds and shoots 57.7 percent.
"I'm just happy," Thomas said. "Not everybody is fortunate enough to be one of the top players in the nation. It's a great honor. I have to thank my teammates because without them, none of this would be possible."
Joining Cash and Taurasi on the second team were Angie Welle of Iowa State, Nicole Powell of Stanford and Kelly Mazzante of Penn State. Jones tied Shereka Wright for the final spot on the third team, which also had Sheila Lambert of Baylor, Lindsay Whalen of Minnesota, Kara Lawson of Tennessee and Linda Fohlich of UNLV.
Kansas State plays host in Mideast Regional game
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — This gives a whole new meaning to "home court advantage."
No. 11
Kansas State
opens NCAA
Mideast
Regional play
Friday against
Kent State at Bramlage Coliseum, the Wildcats' home gym and within a 90-mile radius of where four of Kansas State's starters played their high school home games.
"It's fun to think of a lot of people being able to watch their local players compete in
the first round of the NCAA tournament," coach Deb Patterson said yesterday. "It's a unique part of a special year we've had in terms of fan support, and I expect we'll have a tremendous turnout."
Three of the four — senior guard Kristin Rethman, sophomore forward Nicole Ohlde and freshman forward Kendra Wecker — grew up less than an hour away from Manhattan in northern Kansas.
Rethman graduated from
Redshirt guard Laurie Koehn, the nation's most accurate 3-point shooter, was a high-school star at Moundridge, 80-odd miles southwest of Manhattan. She got plenty of playing time at Bramlage during her high school career, though, leading Moundridge to Class 2A state championships there in 1997, 1998 and 1999.
high school in Corning, 40 miles northeast of Manhattan. Ohlde graduated from Clay Center. 30 miles northwest of Manhattan, and Wecker in Marysville, 40 miles north.
All of that, Patterson and her players said, would not mean anything if third-seeded Kansas State did not play well against the Mid-American Conference tournament champions, who take a six-game winning streak into Friday's game.
We know that we have some work to do because hosting doesn't guarantee anything," said Koehn, who averages 17.3 points per game and is shooting 42.6 percent from long range.
Still, Patterson said, there were advantages — especially for a team that starts three freshmen — to playing in a hometown atmosphere.
"Emotionally, it's always a big boost — especially when you're about to line up against a great and hot basketball team in Kent State," Patterson said. "When I stand in front of my team and share with them that this is a team that has scored 80 points in four of its last six games, I think that brings the point home."
The Golden Flashes (20-10)
have three starters and one reserve averaging in double figures. They are led by senior guard Kate Miller (14.7 points per game), 6-foot-6 sophomore forward Andrea Csaszar (14.6 points per game, 47 blocked shots) and junior guard Valerie Zona (13.2 points per game, 4.3 assist per game).
"That's a difficult draw for Kansas State," said Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly, a close friend of Kent State coach Bob Lindsay. "I'm glad he's not coming here to play. He's got good players, and he'll have them ready."
Kansas State (24-7) is making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 1997 but hasn't won there since reaching the regional semifinals in 1983 before the tournament expanded from 32 to 64 teams.
St. Francis hoping for miracle win
LORETTO, Pa. — St. Francis is the patron saint of animals. How unfair, then, his basketball team should be fed to the wolves — or the Huskies, as the case may
The Associated Press
he.
After winning an automatic bid as the Northeast Conference champion, the St. Francis, Red
Flash won the right to face unbeaten and top-ranked Connecticut in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
"This is an exciting opportunity for us," guard Sami Allison said. "Connecticut is obviously the best team in the country, and it's a great opportunity just to play them."
Just as Connecticut is the clear choice as the tournament's top seed — the Huskies (33-0) are the nation's only undefeated team and the unanimous choice as No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 — St. Francis is a logical choice as the tournament's bottom seed.
After a 2-7 start, St. Francis came back to finish 19-11, win
ning both the regular-season and tournament titles in the Northeast Conference. But the NEC was rated 30th out of 31 by CollegeRPI.com and the Red Flash have the lowest RPI (157) of any team in the tournament.
"We weren't very surprised," guard Tonjee Ward said. "We kind of expected we'd be a 16 seed. We're just looking at this as a challenge."
Beating a No.1 seed in the first round of the NCAA tournament is about as close to impossible as there is in sports. Since going to a 64-team format, only one women's team has pulled off that task - Harvard beat Stanford 71-67 in 1998.
"I tell our ladies, 'If it was a 100 percent guarantee who's going to win that game, they wouldn't bother to play it.'" St. Francis coach Myndi Hill said. "Now a game like this, it might be 99.99 percent — but we're still going to play like we know we can play."
That's exactly the attitude the Red Flash need, according to Kathleen Delaney-Smith, who coached Harvard in its win over Stanford.
"They have to come up with a game plan where they can believe they can disrupt UConn. Whatever that is — whether it's a trick defense, something unorthodox
— because, player-for-player, no one in the country can match up and beat UConn. You just absolutely have to believe you
can win."
Hill knows the keys to staying with the Huskies: get back in transition, limit their offensive rebounds, don't be afraid to take the first open shot.
She also knows that's easier said than done. Every game plan this year has fallen short, and most of them far short. Twenty-three of Connecticut's 33 wins have been by 30 points or more, and even the Huskies' 86-72 win at Tennessee was closer than the final score.
Hill said the most important thing was not to get overwhelmed in the first few minutes. Even though the players might be a little awestruck playing against stars such as Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi — "Shoot. I'm even a little excited to be on the same court as Geno Auriemma," Hill said — if they can keep the score close, they might not be forced into Connecticut's running game.
The tournament also is a learning experience for St. Francis, which has just one senior on its roster. This is the sixth NCAA bid in seven years for the Red Flash, but they have yet to win a game in the tournament.
"We want our ladies to play in that atmosphere, to play those top teams, and learn how to compete in that environment," Hill said. "Maybe next year we can get a 13 or a 14 seed, maybe a 12 or 11, and be in a better position to get that first win."
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