Heidi VanDerveer has the benefit of an expert pair of eyes she can share video with. Occidental athletics photo

Winning is natural for the VanDerveer family. Tara VanDerveer is the coach at Stanford and has a 850-199 record that includes 21 conference championships and two national championships. Her sister Heidi VanDerveer led her Occidental team to its fifth straight SCIAC title. The two coaching sisters spend a lot of time helping each other throughout the seasons and will even break down video of each other's team to give feedback.

"I'm very fortunate to have someone with great insight and great perspective," Heidi said of her sister, who is 10 years older than her. "We're extremely close. We talk every day, been to a couple of their games and she's been to ours. It's been a great opportunity to get different perspective on your team."

Heidi has had vast experience with major college coaches such as being a graduate assistant for Pat Summit at Tennessee and an assistant under Nancy Wilson at South Carolina. She also has WNBA coaching experience and was even a head coach in Sacramento and Minnesota. She's also had the opportunity to experience the day-to-day operations of her sister's Cardinal program.

"I look at my experiences I've had, it's kind of like the saying goes, 'You don't own success, you rent it and you've got to pay rent every day,' " Heidi said. "When a team understands that, you want to work hard and buy in to a high level of expectations where excellence is the norm, it is expected."

Heidi is in her fourth year as Occidential coach and in each year the Tigers have brought home conference titles. They also took home the SCIAC crown the year prior to Heidi's arrival. The Tigers host Cal Lutheran on Thursday in a SCIAC semifinal game. The Tigers have been led by junior forward Makenzie Brandon with 18.2 points per game and 6.7 rebounds.

"I think we have played a challenging non-conference schedule," Heidi said. "Our conference is very competitive. The conference is always harder because they know you. You have to bring your A-game every night."

Whitman earns the Road Warriors moniker

There's no place like road for Whitman. The Missionaries are 12-3 on the road and 6-4 at home as they will face Puget Sound in the NWC tournament.

"We're a much better road team," Whitman coach Eric Bridgeland said. "We're used to playing on road; we're excited about Thursday."

Everything is better away from Walla Walla for Whitman. They shoot six percent better from the floor, 6.5 percent better on three-pointers; six percentage points better from the line and average four more rebounds per game.

"That's just what we are," Bridgeland said.

The Missionaries are like a brotherhood on the road according to Bridgeland.

"We have to learn we have to win on road do anything in the tournament," Bridgeland said. "We were born to play on the road. We're excited about it. I think it's because we're so close, it's all about relationships for us. It's kind of us against the world. We don't want to let each other down. We're more for each other on the road."

 Whitman's main cog road and home has been 6-7 senior forward David Michaels. Michaels, recently named the Northwest Conference player of the year, averages 19.6 points a game and 6.7 rebounds. Bridgeland said Michaels has been a totally different player and person from a season a go.

"He was the classic underachiever," Bridgeland said. "He was really immature. (David) and I sat down, and I said to him 'I need you to change or we're not going to play you.' The next day he got up every single morning at 6:30, got on the treadmill. He made a complete transformation.

"I've never been more proud of anyone, he just made a commitment to changing his life and you know that's not easy."

Balance the key for Cardinals

The hard-earned CCIW crown belongs to the North Central (Ill.) Cardinals. This time it's all by themselves.

It's rewarding to be able to win the conference outright," North Central coach Todd Raridon said. "Last year we shared with Augustana. We are fortunate this year to win it outright this year."

The Cardinals, who have won nine of their last 10, will host Augustana on Friday in the CCIW semifinals. Raridon said he hopes his team has a better showing than last season.

"We did a poor job last year, hopefully we will be better," he said. "We're a year older, hopefully our maturity factor can help as well and we're just focused on that as we have all year long. I think our kids have stayed fairly focused on that."

The strength of North Central has been the balance of four kids in double figures. Landon Gamble leads the way with 13.6 points per game; C.J. Goldthree, who missed four games with an injury adds 12.9; Derek Raridon adds 12.7 and Aaron Tiknis chips in 11.2.

"I think a lot of it has to do with our leadership," Raridon said. "The upperclassmen have done a tremendous job. Those guys have done a really nice job of leading this team and I think it starts there. They've sold everybody on what it takes. They're a very unselfish group from what you see from their point totals and their assists."

North Central has had many more assists than opponents with a 374-271 margin. That only helps the balance.

"We have a good inside game and have a good outside game," Raridon said. "It's not like you can just cover the perimeter."