Kennedi Stacy and the Pioneers will leave their home gym and home fans behind this weekend. Transylvania athletics photo

By Ryan Scott
D3hoops.com

Believe it or not, the Transylvania women’s basketball team actually has no problem playing on the road.

“They love playing in their black jerseys as much as they love playing in the Beck Center,” says head coach Juli Fulks.

Home or away hasn’t seemed to matter over 62 wins (the third longest streak in Division III basketball history – men or women) and last year’s national title. The opponent doesn’t seem to matter either. Often ribbed for a weaker schedule than other contenders, Transylvania steamrolled NYU on the way to the title game and systematically dismantled a depleted Christopher Newport squad to win the Walnut and Bronze.

• 2024 NCAA Tournament bracket
• Feature: UW-Stout shakes off slump
• Jostens Trophy finalists announced
• More Division III NCAA Tournament features

“I made a map this year,” says Fulks, “of every regionally ranked team within three hours of us that we could’ve played – it’s only two or three. There are not endless funds or endless Saturdays.”

In fact, Transylvania’s closest game this season – the only one in single digits – was at home, a 54-48 win against Wisconsin Lutheran in November.

“We know that we’re preparing,” adds fifth-year senior and All-American, Dasia Thornton, who genuinely didn’t seem to know what the streak was up to. “We are working on things we’ll have to execute later. We can only win these games one at a time; whatever number we get to is what we get.”

Still, they’re hoping the streak is still alive at 66. That will mean two titles in a row and a chance for more. After all the relatively easy wins (they’ve only been down once at halftime), it would seem to be difficult to motivate and achieve the level of play necessary to win in these final two weekends.

“Our practices are incredibly competitive,” says Fulks. “The players might not remember how many games we’ve won, but they remember losing in practice last week and it drives them.”

Transylvania has had to bring in a retired NCAA official to referee these notoriously difficult practices and Fulks has scheduled the best teams she can – playing Division II national champion Ashland (24-1 this year) and D-I Northern Kentucky in the preseason, largely to test out the famous Transylvania press against another high caliber team that plays the same way.

“Honestly,” says Fulks, “This has been the least adverse season I can remember. We have such a veteran group that's been through so much, they can handle any situation that comes up.”

Getting extra attention about going on the road this week, despite earning the top seed in their quadrant, might be one of those situations. Transylvania president Brien Lewis sent a letter to NCAA president Charlie Baker (and released it to the media), re-stating his objection to the 500 mile rule, which prioritizes geography in hosting assignments when there’s a significant travel cost savings.

“I appreciate that our president put out a strong statement,” says Fulks. “I coached on the West Coast. I’m familiar with the challenges. I admit, we’ve benefited from this rule during my time here. The first challenge is having enough momentum to start seriously looking at these issues. It’s difficult when a policy is in place that doesn’t disadvantage a large part of the country, who never have to deal with this. It’s hard to get things changed that don’t affect lots of people.”

For those following Division III on a national scale, the geography issue is old hat, but, as we’ve seen with the uproar from Ashland, Virginia, where the Randolph-Macon men’s team, which has also been the beneficiary of this rule, has to travel to Connecticut to compete this weekend, it really isn’t a widely known issue around the country. Funding is a major conversation across the NCAA right now and certainly travel costs for championships will be front and center in Division III.

Transylvania isn’t worried, though. In fact, they’re about as opposite as you can get.

Fulks says, “We’re science nerds at our core, as a staff.” A staff that includes Tim Whitesel, who still lives and works in the Northwest, but accompanied Fulks to Transylvania when she made the move from Lewis & Clark ten years ago. Whitesel provides detailed statistical analysis for each game and opponent, supplying Transylvania with statistical keys on offense and defense, goals the team tries to hit and prevent the opponent from hitting each night.

This is the real competition in Transylvania’s undefeated schedule. The Pioneers might have a twenty point lead, but they’re locked into rebounding a certain percentage of misses or holding the opponent below a certain threshold – it’s a game within the game that’s been a big part of the team’s success.

“Says Fulks, “We’ve hit our goal in each of the last six tournament games.” All wins. Clearly.

There’s also this meta-zone, as Fulks terms it, a defense not a lot of teams see or are properly prepared for. Fulks credits the conference season, even if the games don’t end up that close, for the success of the zone in March.

“These teams have seen us two or three games a year, year after year, they are constantly throwing new stuff at us. We’re unlikely to see anything in the tournament we haven’t seen before.”

Experience helps, too. Transylvania lost just Madison Kellione from the title squad and Sadie Wurth stepped in to spell the All-American point guard pretty seamlessly – if anything it’s helped spread out the offense and make the Pioneers more difficult to guard this season.

“I think we’re better defensively and we’re better at rebounding,” says Fulks. “We did things in the zone this weekend that we’ve never done before. [Our strength is] our ability to adapt to new things and come up with creative solutions because we know it so well. I have full confidence any of our seniors could coach the team, if our staff wasn’t available for some reason.”

Adds Thornton, “We do need them for the numbers, but we could possibly take their jobs.”

Despite all the numbers and analytics, there is something intangible about what Transylvania’s been able to do on the court. Fulks has instilled a supreme confidence in this team that seems to transcend winning and losing. Most teams, at this point in the season, talk about not feeling the pressure, but you genuinely believe it from Thornton and crew.

NYU is clearly the favorite for the title on paper and I was voting Rhode Island College No. 2 early in the season, because of the depth and size and experience on that team. I switched to Transylvania in late January for a reason I can’t explain. They just seem to hover above the competition – not that they’re better than their opponents, but that they seem to have figured out something about the game no one else knows.

Fulks says, “We can only do what we can control,” and it just feels like Transylvania can control more than other teams.

We’ll know for sure after this weekend. UW-Stout in the next round and then the winner of host UW-Whitewater and Hope, if they make it that far. Notes Fulks, “Three of these teams played in the national title game the last two seasons. Whoever comes out of this weekend will have earned it.”

Transylvania aims to earn it once again, no matter where the game takes them. After all, as Thornton says, “We just feel more confident in our black jerseys.”