Tournament Notebook
March 07, 2004 01:55 PM | General
March 7, 2004
HARTFORD, Conn. – West Virginia coach Mike Carey had a little talk with junior point guard Yolanda Paige before the start of the 2004 Big East tournament.
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| Guard Yolanda Paige scored 22 points and handed out a tournament-record-tying 13 assists Saturday against St. John's. (AP photo) |
He told her it was time for her to step up her game and take it to another level knowing if she did that, his Mountaineer team was going to advance to another level.
Paige took his instruction to heart Saturday night against St. John’s, producing one of the best games of her career. She scored a team-high 22 points, handed out a Big East tournament-tying 13 assists, made a tournament record 8 steals and grabbed 7 rebounds.
Put another way, Paige was just two steals and three rebounds shy of having a quadruple-double.
“I think from the start of the game she was the difference,” said St. John’s coach Kim Barnes Arico, whose team finishes the season 10-18. “She’s a tremendous player and really showed it tonight. She had two turnovers in 36 minutes. That’s just tremendous.”
Even though Paige was named to the all-Big East third team, she has fallen under the radar screen in some people’s eyes mainly because of her erratic shooting. She came into the tournament making 39.9 percent of her field goal attempts and just 27.3 percent of her three-point shots.
Saturday against St. John’s, Paige was 9 of 14 from the floor and was 1 of 1 from three-point distance.
“It was her most complete game,” said Carey. “She was motivated on the defensive side as well as the offensive side.”
Even though Kate Bulger and Sherell Sowho are the team’s two primary scorers averaging 14.9 and 13.5 points per game respectively, it is how well Yolanda Paige performs that is going to ultimately dictate whether or not the Mountaineers can hang around Hartford for a couple of more days.
News and Notes
If CollegeRPI.com is reflective of the RPI used by the NCAA selection committee, then seven Big East teams currently have RPIs in the 20s or higher with the only team really hanging in the balance is West Virginia at 55.
If the Big East gets seven bids like it did last year, many believe it could come down to West Virginia and Rutgers for the Big East’s last spot. Even though the Mountaineers beat the Scarlet Knights head to head in Morgantown back on Feb. 24, the Knights have a very strong 23 RPI and have a long NCAA tournament history which may sway committee members.
“I think we might need one more (win),” said Paige. “It may be enough now but another win removes all doubt.”
At any rate, today’s results will determine how many teams the Big East ultimately gets into the tournament. If Rutgers and West Virginia both win today, then there is an excellent chance the conference will send eight teams to NCAA play for the first time in conference history.
West Virginia is looking for its first NCAA tournament berth since 1992.
In other conference tournament action, the top four seeds in the ACC are still alive heading into today’s semifinals. The top three seeds are still playing in the Big Ten tournament, No. 1 faces No. 2 in the Conference-USA championship game Monday night, while the Big 12 tournament begins Tuesday.
RPI No. 34 Tennessee-Chattanooga, No. 77 Austin Peay and No. 117 Penn have already earned NCAA bids by winning their conferences.
The Wildcats defeated West Virginia, 74-67 in Philadelphia two weeks ago in a game West Virginia actually led for a brief time in the second half. Villanova has a commanding 12-4 lead in all-time series play and West Virginia’s last victory against the Wildcats came in 1998.
“They can shoot very, very well,” said Paige. “They’re all tall and we’ve just got to take it to the basket on them because I think we’re a little quicker than them.”
“Villanova is a great team,” added Kate Bulger, who managed just 6 points in Saturday’s win against St. John’s. “We’re focused on them now and we’re not happy with just winning one game here.”
