Photo for Transylvania athletics by CBreezy Media

By Riley Zayas
Special to D3hoops.com

The “Texas-to-Texas” season. 

That’s what they’re calling it. Few teams can say they won a national championship in the same city in which they tipped off their season four months prior, but that is exactly what the Transylvania women’s basketball team has its eye on. 

A win on Saturday in Hartford, Connecticut is the only prerequisite. 

“That’s been our goal from the beginning,” head coach Juli Fulks said, “to start and end in Texas.” 

• D3hoops.com All-Region team
• Updated 2023 Division III NCAA Tournament bracket
• More NCAA Tournament headlines

Exactly four months, and 30 games separate the Nov. 18 season-opening victory over Concordia (Texas) at the Texas-Dallas tournament from Saturday’s national semifinal. A victory in Hartford would send Transylvania back to Dallas – a full circle moment – for the national title game, which will be played April 1 as part of the Division I women's basketball Final Four. But another team of Pioneers, the top-seeded Smith College Pioneers, currently stand in the way. 

“Smith is an unbelievably talented team, and very well coached,” Fulks added. “Everyone is working through the plan now, and trying to figure out where we’ll end up by Saturday.” 

The Final Four matchup is set to be Transylvania’s first in program history, a tremendous accomplishment for a program whose accomplishments within the last handful of seasons stack up with the best in the nation. 72 wins against seven losses in the last three years is certainly notable, especially when it is noted that six came in the 2020-21 season alone. As is the flawless 31-0 record the Pioneers carry into Saturday’s contest. 

The defensive effort is off the charts; Transylvania allows just 46.4 points per game, third in the nation, and far and away the best amongst the four teams still standing. The rebounding margin of 10.8 ranks 11th-best nationally. The senior leadership is certainly present with four seniors in the starting lineup, each having started all 31 games. 

But key, according to Fulks, is the mental approach. Finding “joy in the journey”, as she says it.  

“Heading into this season, especially with this senior group, it was important that we didn’t get hung up on the record, knowing that going undefeated [in the regular season] two years in a row is hard to do,” Fulks said. “We coined a phrase at the beginning of the year called ‘Joy in the Journey.’ 

“The whole thought process was that while we have really big goals, that wasn’t going to define the five months that we got to spend together. That’s one of the keys before every game that we have on the board, ‘How are we going to make sure we are grateful for the experience?’”

Madison Kellione has reason to be grateful. The team’s leading scorer at 15.0 points per game, as well as part of the foundational senior class, Kellione spent her entire freshman year on the bench due to a knee injury. Her sophomore year brought forth a season dominated by Covid, with no national tournament to play and no national title to play for. 

“It means the world to me,” Kellione said of Transylvania’s deep run. “To see all my work pay off over the years and to get to this point is something I always dreamed of, but didn’t think could become a reality.” 

It has become a reality for Kellione and her teammates, who clinched a Final Four spot in a dominant 79-63 victory over NYU in Saturday’s sectional final. There was great significance in the fact that the victory came on Transylvania’s home court, in front of a large crowd donning the red and black. 

A year ago, the Pioneers were also on the home court, and also in the Elite Eight. They were on the brink of a trip to the Final Four, leading Trine 19-8 through one quarter. But the Thunder prevailed, 54-47, leaving Lexington with Transylvania vowing not to let that opportunity get away again.

“We were driving off our loss last year,” Kellione said of the NYU win. “We talked about it in our team group message before we went into the game. We were there last year, and lost. We weren’t going to do it again.” 

Three scored 20-plus points for the Pioneers, led by Kennedi Stacy’s 23. Dasia Thornton had 22 and Kellione added 20.Three different players grabbed at least seven rebounds apiece and another trio, Kellione included, dished out two assists each. 

Simply put, there is no real focal point in Transylvania’s attack. It’s a “pick your poision” sort of approach for most opponents, considering the experience and depth evident on Fulks’ senior-laden roster.

“We’re a group that loves to play together,” Kellione said. “I think that’s what makes us so good. There’s not one dominant person or leader. It’s a group effort.” 

The experience level on the roster also helps in other ways. This past weekend, the sectional round brought Ohio Northern to Transylvania’s home floor in addition to NYU. The playing styles of the two opponents varied starkly, yet Fulks said she came away impressed by her team’s execution of two very different game plans in a 24-hour span. 

“ONU has a dominant guard who has been really good all year with a great supporting cast,” Fulks said. “NYU had a dominant post player who was versatile and the Defensive Player of the Year [in the UAA]. So the gameplans were different but I thought our players did a good job of understanding and relied on their best strengths, which is .”

Transylvania has a unique way of identifying those strengths. Listed on the staff directory is Tim Whitesel, who holds the official title of “Director of Statistical Analytics.” Not exactly a common position within most D-III coaching staffs, or collegiate coaching staffs in general. But Whitesel has given the Pioneers a unique perspective on the games they physically see on the court through his model and numbers. 

“He’s a huge part of what we do,” Fulks said. “He has his own algorithm and way of assessing teams. He ran all the numbers last night and we started talking through, as a coaching staff, how those might play into what our game plan is and what we’re trying to accomplish.” 

For example, in two of the last three games, they knew there was an offensive target they needed to hit in terms of rebounds. In one of the games, Whitesel’s model showed there was a possession number they needed to hit. Looking at things from this perspective opens up new ways for the coaching staff to scout opponents, and has, in some ways, completely changed the way the players at Transylvania view their sport. 

“He’ll even pull me over to the side and talk numbers with me,” Kellione, a physics major, said. “It’s music to my ears. I think it’s really cool to connect science and math to basketball. It’s really interesting to see the behind the scenes of how basketball works besides just watching film.” 

The analytics have helped prepare the Pioneers for Saturday’s showdown. The senior core gives Transylvania a remarkable calmness and poise. And they are confident the 31-game win streak will soon be 32. 

“I think it comes back to their competitive nature,” Fulks said. “They want to know what matters. They want to know how to win. They’ll do whatever it takes.”