By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com

So here we are, at the arrival of another basketball season, as the leaves change color and the air gets crisper. There are fresh faces in new places eager to get going in the pursuit of excellence and improvement and there are a range of emotions that come with being the newcomer to the group. The players feel it and the coaches do too. The arrival of the 2004-05 season seemed like a good time to survey some of the latter, especially after penning a summer piece on job pursuit.

They’re as excited as we are about the upcoming campaign, as the belief that anything is possible still rings true to those unburdened by years in the business. 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.

Jacki Windon

Perspective on the game is important to Case Western Reserve women’s coach Jacki Windon, whose professional life changed in an unexpected whirlwind after taking the job in July.

“It’s been a range of things, overwhelming and exciting, and there have been times when I’ve been scared to death,” Windon said. “But as overwhelming as it is, it’s still basketball. You’re still trying to put the ball through the hole. That doesn’t change. If you keep that in mind, things will work themselves out.”

The 26-year-old Windon came to Division III after four years as starting point guard at Division II Gannon and two years as a high school coach at her alma mater, Archbishop Hoban High in Akron. After Kristin Hughes departed for Division I Colgate, Case Western was steered to Windon by several recommendations and after a whirlwind couple of weeks in which both her best friend and brother got married, Windon found herself as a head coach in one of the toughest leagues in the country. She learned quickly that her team will get no sympathy from her fellow coaches in the University Athletic Association.

“We were picked last, and that’s perfect,” Windon said, acknowledging that some teams may underestimate her squad, which beat Final Four-bound Rochester in overtime as the highlight of a 10-15 mark last season “We want teams walking in here with the mentality that they’re going to play a last place team. We know we’ve got our work cut out for us. I just want to keep our enthusiasm up.”

This has truly been learn-as-you-go for Windon, who in the first couple of days sat in her office and asked herself ‘Where do you begin?’

It began with perspective and conversations with players about subjects such as whether or not medical school was the right option for them.

“I enjoy the closeness in terms of years,” said Windon, who graduated college in 2001. “I can tell the kids that I’ve been there and I know what they’re going through. That kind of support system is a special thing. “

In October, things moved to the court for practice, where Windon will occasionally jumps into a drill to teach until her knees remind her she’s not a college athlete anymore. The Spartans are a young team, with only one senior (guard Keesha Alen, who was all-Second Team UAA last season), and the thought process behind Windon’s decisions is looking both at the present and what she wants to instill two to four years down the road. The offense is designed such that there are no wrong spots for players to be on the floor. A framework is in place that allows for on-the-fly adjusting, which is exactly what Windon is going through herself.

“I tell our kids to keep rolling,” Windon said. “We’ll take baby steps to get better. There’s stuff you control and stuff you can’t. You just have to roll through it.

“After our first week I was thinking to myself that I wished I had the chance to play with our kids because they play so hard.”

Mo Cassara

The last time Mo Cassara was heading to Buffalo, it was in a private Lear jet from Dayton, headed to a 20,000 seat arena to play DePaul in the NCAA Tournament. This week, Cassara, now the head men’s basketball coach at Clark is plotting the logistics of an eight-hour bus ride and calculating how much meal money he’s going to need from his budget for his first weekend of games.

But Worcester, Mass., is where he wants to be. Cassara got a taste of the Division I level, working as an assistant coach for a Dayton squad that was in the Top 25 last season, but decided that it was time to be a collegiate head coach. He had previously spent four years in this city as head coach at Worcester Academy, a prestigious prep that has graduated several Division I and Division III stars, ranging from Boston College forward Craig Smith to ex-All-NEWMAC selection, recently graduated Clark guard Dave McNamara.

“I’ve had to explain it 300 times in the last few months,” said Cassara, the son of former St. Lawrence coach Rick Cassara, who played there under current Williams head coach Dave Paulsen. “I put a lot of value into being a head coach. I love the city of Worcester. It’s a special place. I’m thrilled to be at Clark. It’s nice to be the guy in charge, the one that’s blowing the whistle. I think in Division III, you have a chance to establish a better rapport with the kids, and the community really embraces you.”

Cassara is approaching the job in a different manner from a lot of new coaches, because of where he has been and what he has seen. Recruiting has been an extremely high priority. Cassara inherited a team that went from eight seniors last season to none. Clark has historically been one of the top programs in New England and a frequent Sweet 16 participant and may face some squads this season who are eager to make up for years of losing to the Cougars

“We’re young and inexperienced,” said Cassara, whose team does have one of the top forwards in the NEWMAC in junior Tim Dutille, but will start three freshman on opening night. “We lost eight seniors — kids that had been to the Elite 8. We have nine freshman, four sophomores and one junior. I believe I was brought here to recruit. I love to play an up and down style and we’re going to recruit the type of kid that can play that. Within a couple of years, we’ll be competing on a national level again.”

Cassara sounds confident, but admits to some trepidation when prodded. That first weekend makes him nervous, with the first game pitting him against a Buffalo State head coach (Dick Bihr) who has more than 400 collegiate wins.

“I have none, so I can’t imagine that I know anything compared to him,” Cassara said with a laugh.

Andy DeStephano

Andy DeStephano comes in each day at 9:30 a.m. and leaves close to midnight, and there are many looks at the sign on his desk in the time in between. It asks: “Do you love basketball?”

“I was in sales for four years and it was the worst four years of my life,” said DeStephano, a native of Miller Place, a Long Island suburb outside New York City, whose first head coaching job comes after a year as an assistant at Plymouth State. “I always thought I was going to be a lawyer or a politician, but one day I came home from high school and decided I wanted to be a college basketball coach. I felt I had a knack for teaching others.”

It was a road made a little tougher by the fact that the 5-foot-8 DeStephano didn’t play, but this is a level at which dedication to detail is more significant than how good you were on the court.

“It pays to be persistent,” said the 28-year-old DeStephano.

That is a trait that has stuck with him, through his time as a student manager, learning from the likes of former St. John’s coach Lou Carnesecca, then as a 20-year-old high school JV coach, to the gigs at St. Joseph’s (L.I.) and Plymouth. DeStephano has applied his dogged style to instilling more discipline in the program than was previously there.

“My 8 o’clock meetings begin at 7:55, and you don’t wander in like it’s a social hour,” DeStephano said. “Our freshmen are in study hall five hours a week. If you come into my office, you take off your hat and your headphones. I look at it this way. Ten years from now, I may save a kid’s $40,000-a-year job by teaching him some social graces.”

DeStephano faces an uphill battle in many, many ways, even in a league without national prominence like the Skyline Conference. Centenary was 3-22 last season and has to compete as a private school recruiting against NJAC schools that can offer less expensive tuition and better basketball reputations. Only two recruits committed to the team when the coaching situation was in flux during the spring, and one, 6-foot freshman Josh Davidson, has been a pleasant surprise after being converted from power forward to shooting guard. They join senior forward Bryan Sherlock and junior guard Andre Harris, whom DeStephano thinks can be among the best offensive and defensive players in the league respectively. In an odd scheduling quirk, which came about when several teams backed out of Montclair State’s opening tournament, DeStephano’s coaching debut will come against the Plymouth squad he coached for last season.

Some may scoff at the notion that things will change quickly, but DeStephano says he has noticed an improvement already. There is a feeling of hope for coaches like DeStephano who are optimistic that they can teach their craft in a successful, and meaningful fashion.

“I bring a passion that I hope I can infuse in my players,” DeStephano said. “If I ever look at that (desk) sign and hesitate, I know it will be time to get out.”

Suzy Venet

It wasn’t long ago that Suzy Venet was the best women’s basketball player on a Mount Union team that was one of the best in the country at handling pressure situations. Now, a little more than six years later, and in her first head coaching job at Manchester, Venet is bracing herself for the nerves she knows will come from the team’s first close game.

“I hope I use my timeouts at the right time, and I hope we’ve prepared our players to handle the situation,” Venet said, than added with a laugh. “I hope that every game we’ll be up near the end.”

Venet knows that it won’t work that way, but she also knows she is well prepared for every situation. She spent the past six years soaking up knowledge as an assistant coach, first for two seasons at Bowling Green, than for four more at Division II Minnesota State-Mankato, not to mention her time as Mount Union’s point guard, as her name is still in the NCAA women's basketball record book 19 times.

“I did a lot of research,” said Venet, who graduated in 1998 after two trips to the Final Four. “I feel I have the depth of knowledge of X’s and O’s, the background to analyze other teams, and the discipline of knowing what it takes to be a successful Division III athlete.”

Venet has also brought some sophisticated systems to the program. When asked what kind of team she wants, she picks one that is “hard to scout” and will spend the next couple of seasons teaching different, more complicated play-calling methods, and a pressing defense. Such teaching takes patience, especially when dealing with a program that won eight games combined over the previous two seasons. Venet was used to playing with teammates of a very high skill level, and coached at higher levels than Division III these last six seasons. She has brought her expectations in line with the players with which she is working and talks of sending seniors Erica Sewell, Dede Quinn, Karlene Clapp and Erin Ward out with a special season.

“It can be frustrating, because we’re not quite there yet,” Venet said. “But the rewarding part is that you can see the progress you make. There are going to be more rewards down the road.”

The goals at this point are realistic- 10 to 12 different statistical tallies which could allow the team to reach double figures in victories. Among them, shooting 70% at the foul line and 30% from 3-point range, and holding opponents to under 39% shooting from the floor.

“These standards will get higher as we bring the program up,” Venet said. “But I think these are great goals. Our sites are not geared to winning a national title. We’ll let the wins take care of themselves.”

REMEMBERING THE BIG SHOTS: Scouts have told us that UW-Stevens Point senior forward Jason Kalsow is one of many small-college blips on the NBA’s radar screen this season. Chances are that they like his 6-7, 230-pound frame, and chances are also good that they’ll like his response when he recreates the last-second shot that won the 2004 national championship, 84-82 against Williams at the Salem Civic Center last March.

“People always ask me about the pressure,” said Kalsow. “I didn’t think there was much pressure. We had time. The score was tied. We ran a set that everyone was very comfortable with. Usually in that set, we try to pass over the top for a layup, but the defender played it well, and I had to shoot over him. I like to think that I usually make that shot. I just made sure that I got it high enough.”

Kalsow and teammate Nick Bennett (whom Kalsow jokes he would have passed the ball to, had the Pointers been trailing) both had tremendous Final Fours, with Bennett scoring 20 points in the semifinal win over John Carroll, then 30 points in the championship game, and Kalsow putting up 16 points and 15 rebounds against JCU, then 24 points, nine rebounds and six assists against Williams. One of Kalsow’s favorite thoughts from the run to the championship is not of shots others made, but those by their teammates.

“The thing that I found (funny) was that during the NCAA Tournament, we started taking halfcourt shots at the end of practice, and we couldn’t leave until someone made one at each end,” said Kalsow, whose younger brother Brad, a shooting guard who scored more points than both his brother and father at Huntley (Ill.) High, joins the preseason No. 1 squad. “The funny thing was that we made halfcourt shots to end halves in both games in the (Sweet 16/Elite Eight). Jon Krull had one against Puget Sound and then Tamaris Relerford made one against Lawrence. (The run) was a once in a lifetime thing, for most people. We realized that you have to make the most of your opportunities.”

Wilmington’s then-freshman point guard Samantha Hood knew immediately that she had just given the Quakers the lead in the national championship game against Bowdoin when her 3-pointer swished through the net with 1:35 to play.

“Shooter’s instinct,” said Hood, now a sophomore on a Quakers team that will be well-challenged to repeat its amazing run to the 2004 title. “You practice a shot like that so often that you know as soon as it leaves your hand.”

Hood was the least likely of the five Quakers on the floor to make such a big shot. In this case, she was set up by a feed from All-American senior forward Tara Rausch. Normally things worked the other way around. Mired in a terrible slump, Hood had made just eight of her previous 35 shots during the NCAA Tournament and just two of 15 on the rims at the Batten Center at the Final Four. She was in the game because she could handle the ball (13 assists, one turnover in the last two games), but this was an opportunity in transition that she just couldn’t pass up.

“I went into that game with just a horrible shooting percentage,” said Hood, who ended up with seven points that day. “I couldn’t put the ball in the ocean. But, you’ve just gotta keep shooting. It’s probably the biggest shot I’ll ever take and one of the most thrilling.”

One shot not only erased the slump, but gave Wilmington the lead for good, propelling the school to its first championship in any team sport.

“It was an unbelievable run,” Hood said. “It was like it didn’t matter. We knew we weren’t going to lose. This year, we have a lot of new faces, but nothing has changed as far as our attitude and our intensity. We hope that our hard work will pay off.”

HOPING FOR MORE THAN POINTS: Beloit junior forward Josh Hinz may be the nation’s top returning scorer, but he’s hopeful that less is more for the Buccaneers in their quest to change their fortunes this season in the Midwest Conference.

Beloit changed offensive systems, going from a basic motion that left the 6-6 Hinz as the primary target in the post to a Wisconsin-like swing that brings him out to the perimeter much more. The Buccaneers went 4-19 last season with Hinz averaging a school record 25.1 points per game.

“I’m trying to be more of an all-around player,” Hinz said. “Our focus is on turning this program around. Scoring that many points didn’t work for us. If being the leading scorer comes around as my role this year, I’ll take it. I’ve actually been wanting to get away from the basket more, because I think I can handle the ball well and shoot well. This offense is very basic, but if you run it right, it’s tough to stop.”

The story is similar on the women’s side, where the leading returning scorer is New York City Tech senior shooting guard Camille Manning (24.1 ppg in 2003-04). The Yellow Jackets went 2-21, but have a new head coach in former Hunter assistant Freddy DeJesus, a new point guard in Amanda Zieminski, and a new offensive system which will allow the team to run more. NYC Tech had games last season in which it only had six players, but this year’s roster heading into the season is at 11. That's fewer players than the full name of the school has words: New York City College of Technology of the City University of New York.

“I expect a lot for us this year,” said Manning, a native of Jamaica, who didn’t learn basketball until she came to the United States in 1996. “I think we can make the playoffs (eight of the 10 teams in the CUNYAC qualify) if everyone takes care of business. I found out over the summer that I led the nation in scoring. I was surprised. When we didn’t win, I wasn’t even interested in how many points I scored.”

Some of the burden should be eased this season, as the team figures to be better than the one that won only seven games combined over the previous three seasons. Manning’s other responsibilities, besides scoring, should increase in turn.

“She brings leadership,” DeJesus said. “You ask her to do something and she says ‘No problem.”’

Men's top returning stat leaders (2003-04 stats)
Points per game: Josh Hinz, Beloit, 25.1 (ranked fifth)
Rebounds: Anthony Fitzgerald, Villa Julie, 15.0 (second)
Assists: Mike McGarvey, Ursinus, 6.9 (tied for seventh)

Women's top returning stat leaders 
Points: Camille Manning, City Tech, 24.1 (first)
Rebounds: Jacclyn Rock, Staten Island, 15.1 (first)
Assists: Kira Peterson, Coast Guard, 6.9 (fourth)

SHAMELESS PLUG: D3hoops.com will get the season going early, broadcasting a season-opening tournament with the 17th annual Marymount Tip-Off, in which eight women’s teams along the Atlantic Coast will play three games in three days and leave with a better understanding of their program’s level heading towards conference play. This year’s field includes the hosts, who went to the Elite Eight last season, GSAC champ Maryville (Tenn.), PAC champ Alvernia (Pa.), usually strong Salisbury (Md.) and King’s (Pa.), as well as Gettysburg (Pa.), Elizabethtown (Pa.) and Richard Stockton (N.J.).

“It’s wide open this year,” said veteran Marymount coach Bill Finney. “Three games in three days really becomes a war of attrition. When our team was in the South Region, people used to say that we weren’t playing anyone. We thought this was a way to bring in people from all over to see how they were compared to the rest of the South. (The success meant) I got trapped into doing it year after year.”

The field is booked well in advance and next year’s includes an NYU team that many project this season to be the best team in the nation.

MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION: Last season, we looked at the biggest questions facing the previous year’s Final Four participants. This time around, we do the same thing, and try to provide answers to what might be on your mind.

UW Stevens Point (men): Can the Pointers survive the WIAC schedule? It’s highly likely that this highly competitive league will only get one NCAA bid again. That means no slip-ups in the playoffs, which can happen, even to a team that returns all five starters. There is a vibe going around that Platteville might be able to make a good run as well as the traditional strength of Whitewater, and it will be interesting to see if UWSP can hold them off.

Williams: Now that the ACC (starters Chuck Abba, Ben Coffin and NCAA assists leader Michael Crotty) have graduated, who will be the Big Ten (starters, reserves)? We don’t know much about the Ephs beyond forward Tucker Kain and point guard Jaris Cole, the only two returnees who averaged better than 15 minutes per game, so this may be the season that some teams come hard after them.

Amherst: Did Adam Harper’s thievery include taking away the Lord Jeffs 'defensive prowess? Harper, the two-time NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year may be the toughest on these four squads to replace. He had nearly three times as many steals as any teammate last season. Someone will have to fill in ably for him for Amherst to contend with Trinity (Conn.) for the league title.

John Carroll: Can the platoon system work again? JCU rotates players so frequently that it shouldn’t be hurt by graduating top scorers David Gibbons and Jerry Angel. Twelve players averaged at least nine minutes last season. JCU advanced by coming through in big spots. But winning close games takes both skill and luck, and it will take a lot of the latter to match the Blue Streaks 10 wins in games decided by 5 or fewer points in 2003-04.

Wilmington (women): How do you top that? It’s going to be hard for Wilmington to work the same magic it did in 2003-04, especially losing All-American Tara Rausch and having to go up in league play against a Capital team that beat them twice last season and returns all five starters. First up, figuring out who fills in the three vacant starter spots left by Rausch, and clutch shooters Amy Kincer and Emily Cummins. It might take a while, but one thing the Quakers showed last season is that it’s not how you start, but how you finish.

Bowdoin: Who becomes Bowdoin’s leader with the graduation of senior All-American Lora Trenkle and player-assistant coach Courtney Trotta (now an assistant at Rochester)? Hard to tell at this point. One thing that bodes well for the Polar Bears is that many of their players stepped up in big spots — particularly Vanessa Russell, Justine Pouravelis and Erika Nickerson during last season’s run. Bowdoin, which recruited two of a rare commodity, 6-0 freshman guards, will be tested early with a likely first weekend matchup against College of New Jersey and Rochester.

Rochester: Can the sophomores play like seniors? Rochester’s starting backcourt of Erika Smith and Tara Carrozza was vital to the team’s success the past two seasons. The Yellowjackets have their freshman guards a chance to get their feet wet — Danielle Muller and Emily Bango played in all but one game last season — and could see a major increase in minutes this season.

UW-Stevens Point: Do the Pointers have the depth to make another championship run? There’s no doubt that UWSP has one of the best frontcourts in the country with senior forward Amanda Nechuta and center Amy Scott, but injuries and a short bench hurt them at the Final Four. Still, we’d pick this team as the most likely of this foursome to get back to Virginia Beach.

POLL WATCHING: Our football counterpart, Keith McMillan at D3football.com, likes to look not only at the No. 1 ranked team in the polls, but how much of a swing there is in teams getting voted second-best. Here’s a 25-ballot breakdown of who got the most No. 2 votes in the D3hoops.com preseason Top 25. It shows that there is no clear-cut ‘secondary favorite.’

Men’s: Illinois Wesleyan 9, Wooster 8, Rochester 2, Lawrence 2, Hanover 2, Trinity (Texas) 1, Trinity (Conn.) 1.

Women’s: Southern Maine 9, UW-Stevens Point 7, NYU 6, Rochester 1, Bowdoin 1, DePauw 1.

One other interesting ballot note. When the UW-Stevens Point women won it all in 2002-03, the Pointers received one first place vote in the preseason poll. This year, that same voter is the only one currently on the bandwagon for Capital as the top team. Perhaps he or she knows something that we don’t.

THE SUPER SLEEPERS: Every season it seems that we get surprised by one team that makes an unlikely run either in their conference tournament, or even better, through the NCAA Tournament. While we like that, we also like the idea of having an idea in November who some of those squads could be. So, we went on “Sleeper Patrol” this past week, enlisting our various sources to come up with a list of possible surprise squads on both the men’s and women’s side.

Selected paraphrasings from our conversations: Mount St. Mary is big and quick and got a good transfer in Julio Ramirez from Southern Vermont and a nice point guard in Mike Hoyt. ... Remember what Westminster’s men did last year when they ‘went Grinnell?’ ... Adrian is another one of those young teams that returns everyone. ... Many people are saying Bates could surpass Amherst and Williams ... Oshkosh has a great sophomore in Jim Cappelle, and has an athletic 7-footer in Kerry Gibson. It may be best equipped to take on UWSP. ... Albion’s women came close to beating Wilmington. Their guard, Sarah Caskey, is the real deal. … Randolph-Macon can play a 6-foot-2 and 6-foot-3 player in their frontcourt and their point guard, Megan Silva, is terrific. They have seven to eight solid players and are going to make some national noise. ... Luther seems to be the team to beat in Iowa. ... I think it’s time St. Benedict makes it back. ... UW-Stout’s physical style allows it to be very competitive.