By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com
It hit at about 9 p.m. one night, while back at our real job, that it was going to be another eight months before we got to cover another basketball game. That saddened us, if not for a few moments, until we started thinking about all the things we enjoyed this season. This was by far the most comprehensive season of coverage we've had on this site, and there were so many pleasant memories of great games, great conversations and great stories that went along with it.
With that in mind, here are some of our favorite thoughts from this year's women's Final Four.
Rochester
Senior guard Erika Smith left her mark on the Batten Center floor and in our mind as the best 'little player' in America. I've been watching Division III basketball since 1993 and can't recall a player 5-6 or shorter having a better game than Smith's 20-point, 18 rebound performance in the semifinal loss to Wilmington. Smith finished her career as the No. 2 ranked 3-point shooter in Division III, but also showed a tremendous ability to shoot and score over traffic. There was no doubt in our mind after watching those two games that her All-America selection was well justified.
The other thing that stuck out was the reception that Rochester got from its fan base (known on campus as "Yellow Fever") following its win over UW-Stevens Point in the consolation game. For the second consecutive season, the Yellowjackets showed a lot of pride with their second-half effort in their final game of the season, and their fans helped put smiles on the faces of players and coaching staff after a fine comeback that resulted in a win and a third-place finish.
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The skinny from Va. Beach We're leaving those years in Danbury behind, in more ways than one. Not only did we get another set of great games, but the event was well-run, the staff was friendly, and there seemed to be a real knowledge in the area that the event was happening. Biggest disappointment: What television did to game times. Yes, regional cable is great and it did put the game in about 15 million homes, but it threw everything else off, inlcuding attendance. Unfortunately, the NCAA will be making the decision on the future home of the final four before the next final four is played, and Virginia Beach will not get a chance to show what it can do. Moment of inspiration: Wilmington's Brittney Morris, out with a torn ACL, spoke at the championship banquet Thursday evening and let the other teams know, in a polite way, that they were there to win. Her teammates took it as a call to action. Most Improved Player: D3hoops.com had staff at three of the four sectionals, so we were very familiar with three of the four teams, plus all of us had seen UW-Stevens Point in 2002. But the player who stood out the most between the sectionals and the finals in our mind was Emily Cummins. Cummins went from being fifth on the Quakers in minutes in 2003 to being the main reason Wilmington survived the sectionals. With 41 points in wins over Thomas More and Puget Sound, Cummins' play gave the Quakers a chance to reach Virginia Beach in the first place, not to mention her big 3-pointers in the semis and finals. Best pregame sound bite: (from Bowdoin coach Stefanie Pemper, when asked what her team would do with all the extra TV timeout time) "I don't know, maybe somebody's going to have to tell a good joke." But not to single out Pemper, since we got good interviews from all four coaches. Hindsight moment: Jim Strick, UW-Stevens Point SID, noted the night before the semis that the only two Stevens Point road games he'd seen all season were losses. Someone pointed out these games were technically neutral games, prompting head coach Shirley Egner to breathe a sigh of relief. "Otherwise, we'd have to send you home!"
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UW-Stevens Point
"We're gonna be back here.There's no doubt about it."
That remark, from head coach Shirley Egner, left a pretty strong impression, as did her observation after the semifinal loss to Bowdoin that luck and good health go a long way in determining a champion.
It would have been nice to see the Pointers at full strength. The injury to Cassandra Heuer in the WIAC Tournament left UWSP with a significant hole in its rotation. UWSP was hit by injuries during the 2002-2003 season as well, which played a large role in determining their fate.
The Pointers should be among the favorites to return, considering that they'll return a Player of the Year candidate in forward Amanda Nechuta, who carried UWSP to a near victory over Bowdoin with her performance in the semifinals.
If there was any reason not to take seriously Egner's quasi-guarantee consider this. Our publisher, Pat Coleman, tried to talk to a Stevens Point assistant coach following the game but realized he was interrupting the coach's calling recruits.
Bowdoin
You can tell when you've run into a special team by the way they act, the way they play, and the way every little thing seems to break just right on the path to a championship. That combination existed for the Bowdoin Polar Bears, whose perfect season met an imperfect ending with a loss in the championship game. We went back and read what we wrote about Eastern Connecticut State after its loss to Trinity in last year's championship game and found that a lot of the comments we made about those Warriors held true for this team as well.
Head coach Stefanie Pemper said that, to some degree, her squad overachieved a little bit through the season. They won games not always on skill, but on belief — in their abilities and each other. That, and not necessarily the final tally of wins and losses, makes for a special team as well.
Wilmington
The nice thing about this season is that it gives hope to any team playing in the postseason that it can win a championship. The Wilmington women entered the NCAA Tournament this season as an afterthought, at least in our minds after a third-place finish in the OAC during the regular season, and ended it as one of the best stories in the history of Division III basketball.
We joked with our halftime guest on the championship broadcast, former All-American point guard Megan Woodruff that the season is a marathon and not a sprint (Woodruff and Quakers shooting guard Emily Cummins ran marathons in preseason), but in Wilmington's case it was both. Wilmington may not have had the best record during the season, but it survived and advanced its way through to the postseason, primarily by racing past teams in the final minutes.
Wilmington's season could have easily ended in defeat against Capital or Otterbein or Albion or Franklin or Thomas More or Puget Sound or Rochester, but the Quakers patiently persevered through every step. Their players may have been knocked to the floor plenty of times, but they always got right back up, and proved in the end that they had the strongest combination of mental and physical strength.