Junior Stephanie Grobe is the type of intense defensive pest that her coach would have hated being guarded by. Photo by Connor Koehler

Maureen Webster the basketball player would have absolutely despised Maureen Webster the coach. Fortunately for her, time travel doesn't exist, so she can't yet coach against her younger self.

She can coach against others, however, and that's been unfortunate for them.

Since taking over as the head coach of the Clarkson women's basketball team before last season, Webster has guided the Golden Knights to a 37-12 overall record (23-7 in Liberty League games) and the program's first two trips to the conference tournament. In the four seasons prior to Webster's arrival, Clarkson went a combined 26-69 overall. Now the Golden Knights sit one win away from clinching the No. 1 seed in the Liberty League tournament.

How has it happened? Unselfish play, conditioning, and pressure, pressure and more pressure, to name a few reasons.

"I try to think about what I hated when I was playing, what did I hate that the defense did, and then I want to do it ten times harder to somebody else," Webster said. "I hated when people pressured and I hated when they were all over the ball, so those are things that I like to do."

Clarkson ranks 14th in total steals (312), 13th in steals per game (13.6) and tied for 18th in turnover margin (7.00) among all Division III teams. The Golden Knights' 56.3 points allowed per game are the second fewest in the Liberty League.

"I like to push the tempo, I like to pressure hard, and it just so happened that I inherited a group of athletes that like to do that as well," said Webster, a 2009 graduate of SUNY Potsdam.

Webster has leaned heavily on a talented and versatile starting unit this season, all players brought in by former head coach John Hampton, who Webster has known since her time as an assistant coach at her alma mater. Senior forward Ashley Loggins, junior guard Stephanie Grobe, and sophomore guards Madison Shea and Devin Sorell have each started all 23 games and are averaging at least 33 minutes per game. Junior forward Alyssia Marsal has started 22 games and is averaging just under 25 minutes per game. Senior forward Colleen Daley, the top reserve off the bench, averages 16.3 minutes per game, but otherwise only two other players average even 10 minutes.

"I feel really comfortable with my starting group and that's why, as you can see with the numbers, I continue to go with them," Webster said. "And it's hard to go away from something that's working."

Loggins is the most decorated of the bunch. In last Friday's 60-52 win against William Smith, she broke the program record for all-time rebounds. She's seven points away from the program all-time scoring record. Her name is all over the Clarkson record book, and her 15 double-doubles this season are tied for 13th nationally.

Grobe ranks third on the team in scoring (9.7 ppg), but her contributions are most keenly felt on defense, where she routinely shadows the opposition's most dangerous scorer.

"She's always on the person that has the most points," Webster said. "She's been absolutely vital to us defensively."

Sorell and Shea both saw extensive playing time last season as freshmen. Before accepting the Clarkson job, Webster spent one season as the head coach at SUNY Delhi, where she recruited Shea. Shea informed Webster of her decision to commit to another school, but Webster didn't know it was Clarkson until she took the job.

"It was a nice surprise to see her walk into the office," Webster said.

Of course, when you have five starters playing roughly 30 minutes per game and a steady rotation of just six players, there is a concern of wearing players down. That's especially true, given the aggressive style of play the Golden Knights implement. The injury bug bit hard last season, when by Jan. 7 the roster of 12 players was down to just seven healthy players.

So far, the Golden Knights have avoided a repeat of that this season.

"If one of those players went down, it would be really challenging for us at this point," Webster said.

Webster's philosophy requires players to be in peak physical conditioning. So, naturally, that means running -- a lot of it. The players have grown accustomed to those physical demands.

"We do a lot of running and sometimes we definitely complain a lot about that to each other," Grobe said with a laugh. "We get frustrated sometimes, but in the end I do think it's for our best because we'll be in better condition than a lot of the teams we play. That definitely is beneficial for us."

Clarkson will enter Wednesday night's road game against St. Lawrence on a 14-game winning streak, another program record. Prior to the long winning streak, Clarkson dropped its first two conference games back in early January. For a team with legitimate conference title hopes and NCAA tournament dreams, that was a wakeup call.

Webster and her players held a series of meetings, each with honest discussions about the rest of the season. Strategy and game plan changes weren't needed. Rather, individual-minded play would have to give way to a team-first mentality to turn things around. Seven weeks and 14 consecutive victories later, Grobe calls the 0-2 start in Liberty League play a "blessing."

"Once we got going, we started working really well together as a team," Grobe said. "I saw our potential and how great we could be."

Just how great, of course, remains to be seen. Clarkson closes out the regular season with Wednesday's game against St. Lawrence and Friday's home game against Skidmore. A win in either of those games would clinch the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. Two wins in that tournament would book a trip to the NCAA tournament.

Plattsburgh State closes in on SUNYAC repeat

The Plattsburgh State men's team is on the verge of a second straight regular-season SUNYAC title. The Cardinals need just one win over their final three regular season games to clinch the top seed for the conference tournament. And while that seems like a foregone conclusion at this point, Saturday's 90-74 loss to Oswego State served as a painful reminder of last season's disappointing finish.

The loss this past weekend to Oswego State snapped a six-game winning streak, but didn't damage Plattsburgh State's chances at the No. 1 seed. The Cardinals earned that same top seed last season, only to fall at home in the conference tournament title game to, obviously, Oswego State. In both games, it was guard Brian Sortino that burned the Cardinals. In last season's tournament final, he tied for the team lead with 17 points. In Saturday's win, he poured in a staggering 38 points.

Plattsburgh, led by senior forward Kyle Richardson (19.7 ppg, 10.5 rpg), senior guard Edward Correa (14.3 ppg) and freshman forward Jonathan Patron (14.1 ppg), is 13-2 in conference play entering Wednesday night's home game against SUNY Potsdam, the top mark in a tightly-contested SUNYAC race. The next four teams after Plattsburgh in the SUNYAC standings (SUNY Geneseo, Brockport, Oswego State, Cortland) each have at least 10 conference wins entering Wednesday night. That means there's plenty of room for movement, but you can bet Plattsburgh State will be keeping an extra eye on Oswego's status.

Lancaster Bible men, women control NEAC

It's been another banner season for the Lancaster Bible basketball program. The men's or women's team, you're asking? Well, both actually. A quick look at the conference standings tells the story. The men sit at 15-0 against NEAC teams -- and a perfect 22-0 overall -- while the women are 16-1 in conference and 19-3 overall. Both teams have clinched NEAC South Division titles and secured home-court advantage throughout the conference tournament.

If this song has a familiar tune to it, that's because both Chargers teams were in the same position last season. The men came up short in the conference tournament for a second straight season, losing to SUNY-Cobleskill, while the women fell to Morrisville State in the conference tournament semifinals. We've written about the Lancaster Bible men in this column space, including a feature story three weeks ago, but the same narrative applies to the women -- simply getting to the conference tournament isn't enough.

The men routed SUNY-Cobleskill 95-71 this past Saturday behind 31 points from junior guard Bryce Williams. Senior forward Aubrey Folger, the third-leading scorer in the country with 23.1 points per game, scored 17 and senior forward Shanice Smith added 19 points and 14 rebounds in a 76-64 win over Cobleskill on Saturday.

Three games remain on the regular-season slate for each team, with the final games coming Monday, Feb. 22 against Penn College.

Top 25 roundup: Little movement among East teams

Lancaster Bible, one of just two remaining undefeated men's teams in the country, held steady at No. 15 in this week's D3hoops.com Top 25 poll.

Plattsburgh State slipped one spot to No. 23, while NYU and Rochester continued to receive votes.

In the women's poll, Rochester checked in at No. 12, down three spots from last week's poll. NYU dropped from No. 14 to No. 22 after its losing streak reached four. Empire 8 contenders St. John Fisher and Stevens each received votes.

Contact me

Have a story idea? A fun stat? Just want to talk some hoops? I'm always happy to hear from a fellow D-III fan. I can be reached via email at andrew.lovell@d3sports.com, or on Twitter at @Andrew_Lovell.