NCAA Notebook
March 19, 2004 07:01 PM | General
March 19, 2004
COLUMBUS, Ohio – To West Virginia University women’s basketball coach Mike Carey, 12 years is ancient history as far as he’s concerned.
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| West Virginia coach Mike Carey talks to his team during Friday's shoot-around at St. John's Arena in Columbus, Ohio. (AP photo) |
That’s the amount of time it has taken the Mountaineers to get back to the NCAA women’s basketball tournament, having last played in the Big Dance in 1992. WVU seniors Kate Bulger, Janell Dunlap and Michelle Carter were just 10 at the time.
“You know, our seniors have only been at West Virginia for four years so they’re looking at a four-year span that they have not been to the big dance,” said Carey Friday afternoon. “Myself, this is my third year at West Virginia so this is the first time in three years we’ve been here. We don’t really stress ’92 as much as we do where we’re at right now and what we need to do to get to the next level.”
His growing Mountaineer program can take another step Saturday morning when they square off against a very good Ohio State team playing on its semi-home court in St. John’s Arena.
Most of Ohio State’s home games this season have been at 19,000-seat Value City Arena, but because that venue is hosting NCAA men’s first and second round games this week, the women’s tournament games were moved to 13,000-seat St. John’s Arena where the men and women last regularly played in 1998.
“We played two games over here and we practiced here about five times this year so I would not say that this is where we live,” said Ohio State coach Jim Foster. “And that’s what we think of it. This is not the Schott.”
Even though Ohio State may not have the same comfort level playing in St. John’s Arena, Carey believes the No. 6-seeded Buckeyes will be a handful nonetheless.
“The game is played on the floor and we don’t need to make any excuses,” he said. “We need to play against Ohio State and not be concerned where we’re playing them.”
Carey says he has to get his team prepared for an Ohio State team that will change defenses literally every time down the floor.
“On tapes of Ohio State we’ve seen the play a lot of zone, 13-1, 2-3 and triangle and two, some times man,” he said. “I thin that they’ll start straight-up zone and we have an opportunity for hitting from the outside and then they’ll change up. If we’re not (hitting), they’ll stay in it because they’re bigger and a little bit stronger than we are.”
“We play a lot of defenses and we play a lot of defenses within the course of every game,” added Foster. “I don’t anticipate this being any different than that.”
Carey believes the game will boil down to whether or not West Virginia can rebound against Ohio State’s two big girls: 6-foot-5 Jessica Davenport and 6-foot-3 LaToya Turner.
“Throughout the year rebounding has always been the key to us whether we’re successful or not successful,” said Carey. “Needless to say we need to get out and run and if we don’t rebound we don’t have that opportunity so it’s going to be very important that we limit them to one shot and we can get out on the fat break and see what happens.”
Saturday’s game is set to start at 11 am. ESPN will have live coverage. Fans can also listen to MSN’s radio coverage beginning at 10:50 am through Yahoo! Sports.
Notebook:
“I’ve been up often at 4:45 in the morning, especially with this team in January,” said Foster. “Now I can honestly say that’s a first in 26 years. We passed on shoot-around. But you’re welcome to come and see if we’re there.”
“The first time they fired that gun I almost died,” he said. “They should give a little notice that it’s going to happen when people come in there. We had some great matchups. I had a guard named Debbie Black and I remember (former men’s coach) Gale Catlett taking time to talk about Debbie Black on his TV show, how impressed he was with her. And (former All-American) Rosemary Kosiorek was a heck of a guard. And Georgeann Wells was the first woman to dunk in a game.
“The team bus broke down once on the way home,” he added. “There is some back roads in that state, let me tell you. I didn’t think they’d find us for three days.”
“She’s had good practice opportunities this week and for someone who’s missed as much time, she’s looked pretty sharp.”
Munoz, a Tennessee transfer, averaged 5.6 points and 2.9 rebounds in 20 games as a backup forward. Munoz is the daughter of former NFL all-pro offensive lineman Anthony Munoz.
