Womhoops Guru

Mel Greenberg covered college and professional women’s basketball for the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he worked for 40 plus years. Greenberg pioneered national coverage of the game, including the original Top 25 women's college poll. His knowledge has earned him nicknames such as "The Guru" and "The Godfather," as well as induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Tar Heels Leap To The Top

By Mel Greenberg

Depending on what time you are reading this from early Monday morning until the weekly Associated Press women's basketball poll is officially is released in the afternoon, the ascendency of North Carolina to a first-ever No. 1 ranking may have yet to go into play.

However, the win at No. 2 Duke leaves no doubt about the Tar Heels' rise, so we thought we'd jump start the process with all the little factoids, among other items elsewhere, that surround the history-making event in Sylvia Hatchell's program.

Although this is the 30th season of the rankings and this week's list is the 511th poll of all-time, North Carolina is only the 21st team to reach the top. In a note of oddity, the Tar Heels achieve first-ever No. 1 status for the first time since Duke made the preseason poll of the 2002-03 season.

The Blue Devils were later eclipsed by Connecticut, which beat Duke in February in a 1-2 matchup and went on to win a then-fourth NCAA title.

Overall, there have been 513 No. 1 rankings. Old Dominion and Texas shared the top the week of Jan. 29, 1980. Louisiana Tech and Tennessee were tied for first in the preseason poll of the 1989-90 season.

Here's a list of all the No. 1s and the times they have been ranked.

Most times #1 overall, all years

Schools Count

Tennessee 104

Connecticut 94

Louisiana Tech 83

Texas 47

Old Dominion 34

Virginia 24

Duke 23

Southern Cal 16

LSU 15

Auburn 11

Stanford 9

Wayland Baptist 9

Iowa 8

Penn St. 6

Vanderbilt 6

Delta St. 5

Georgia 5

Notre Dame 5

Maryland 4

Purdue 4

North Caro. 1

Meanwhile, there is an expectation that the number of teams in the 21-25 group from last week that suffered double losses will create a mass exit making possible the arrival of Kentucky, which upset then-No. 1 Tennessee, and St. John's, which has been closing in on a ranking.

Kentucky's last appearance was on Feb. 2, 1993, while St. John's last cracked the list on Feb. 5, 1984, when Diana Taurasi and Alana Beard of the WNBA had yet to reach their second birthdays.

Also, talk about synchronized progress. Mississippi's Carol Ross, a former Florida head coach, and Kentucky's Mickie DeMoss, who was Pat Summitt's longtime assistant at Tennessee, were both hired right after the 2003 season.

As it evolved, both of their new programs reached the AP rankings the same season after long absence. Additionally, DeMoss and Ross once served the same time on the staff of Auburn's Joe Ciampi, who was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville in June.

Meanwhile, while waiting for the new rankings, here is a list of coaches who have played for and coached teams ranked in the AP Poll. DeMoss, a graduate of Louisiana Tech, finished her education a year before the Techsters cracked the list in the 1977-78 season.

Marianne Stanley, the WNBA's New York Liberty assistant who coached Old Dominion, Southern Cal, and Penn, also missed the list by graduating Immaculata the season before the first-ever poll In November, 1976.

AP PLAYER-COACH HISTORY

(Played for and coached Ranked Teams)

NAME SCHOOL COACH SCHOOL PLAYED

1. Katie Abrahamson-Henderson SW Missouri (now Missouri St.) Georgia/Iowa
2. Cheryl Burnett SW Missouri Kansas
3. Pokey Chatman% LSU LSU
4. June Daugherty Boise St./Washington Ohio St.
5. Nell Fortner Purdue Texas
6. Wendy Larry% Old Dominion Old Dominion
7. JoAnne P. McCallie Michigan St. Northwestern
8. Muffet McGraw Notre Dame St. Joseph’s
9. Cheryl Miller% Southern Cal Southern Cal
10. Kim Mulkey-Robertson Baylor Louisiana Tech
11. Mary Murphy Wisconsin Northwestern
12. Kathy Olivier UCLA UNLV
13. Carolyn Peck Purdue/Florida Vanderbilt
14. Laurie Pirtle Cincinnati Ohio St.
15. Carol Ross% Florida, Mississippi Mississippi
16. Bev Smith% Oregon Oregon
17. Dawn Staley Temple Virginia
18. Jan Ternyik San Francisco Montclair St.
19. Charli Turner Thorne Arizona St. Stanford
20. Amy Tucker* Stanford Ohio St.

*-Filled in for Tara VanDerveer in 1995-96

%-Five played and coached at same ranked school.

And that's it until the next sunrise.

-- Mel

Friday, January 27, 2006

Unranked Teams Beating No. 1

By Mel Greenberg

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where have I been?

If you read the print edition of The Inquirer, you'd know the answer to that.

But it's time to get back into blog shape.

I know after last night's upset of Tennessee, you're probably wondering when was the last time an unranked team beat a No. 1 team in the AP Poll.

Here's the history:

March 1991 - Penn State finished No. 1 in the final AP poll. The Nittany Lions then fell at home to unranked James Madison, 73-71, in the second round of the NCAA tournament at State College.
The loss, incidentally, helped pave the wave for UConn to eventually emerge from Philadelphia to advance to its first Final Four.

March 1993 - Unranked Georgia beat No. 1 Tennessee, 73-72, in the second round of the SEC tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Jan. 17, 1994 - Rutgers 87, Tennessee 77 at Piscataway, N.J. An ice storm beset the region. The Scarlet Knights, then under Theresa Grentz, were at the other extreme shooting a torrid 80 percent through much of the first half to make headlines.

Jan. 26, 2006 - Kentucky 66, Tennessee 63. - Wildcats coach Mickie DeMoss, a former longtime assistant to Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, gains some notoriety at the expense of her former boss.


Landers moves to second; Stringer passes Portland, Geno catches Sharp.

Penn State's season-long absence from the AP rankings and the recent departure of Texas and Texas Tech has created some shuffling in the pecking order of coaches' appearances in the poll.

Here's a copy of our tracking sheet that shows the current situation through Jan. 23.

Quick hits on AP poll performance for coaches thru week No. 11 of the 2005-06 poll
(This is 510th poll after week 11).

Coaches With Three Ranked Teams (Records on pages through week 11, 1/23/06)

Lin Dunn (Miami-2), (Mississippi-1), (Purdue-130), 133
Sharon Fanning (Kentucky-4), (Miss. St.-46), (Tenn.-Chattannoga-4), 54
Jim Foster (St. Joe-35), (Vanderbilt-164), Ohio St.-49), 248
Don Perrelli (Northwestern-52), (S. Conn.-20), (St. John’s-1), 73
Marianne Stanley (Old Dominion-141), (Southern Cal-24), (Stanford*-18), 183
Vivian Stringer (Cheyney-85), (Iowa-155), (Rutgers-97), 337
Debbie Yow (Florida-2), (Kentucky-21), (Oral Roberts-1), 24

Co-Coaches
Kittie Blakemore, Scott Harrelson – West Virginia 8
Sonja Hogg, Leon Barmore – Louisiana Tech 51
Jill Hutchison, Linda Fischer – Illinois St. 3
Jim Jarrett, Joyce Patterson – Georgia St. 1
Marianne Stanley, Amy Tucker – Stanford 18
Jim Bolla, Sheila Strike – UNLV 18

Coaches All Time Ranking Appearances

1. Pat Summitt, Tennessee – 496 (missed just 14 polls in entire AP history)
2. Andy Landers, Georgia – 388
3. Jody Conradt, Texas – 386
4. C. Vivian Stringer (3 schools – Cheyney, Iowa, Rutgers) – 337
5. Rene Portland (2 schools – St. Joseph, Penn St.) – 336
6. **-Leon Barmore, Louisiana Tech (51-shared with Sonja Hogg) – 325
7. Kay Yow, North Caro. St. – 322
8. Tara VanDerveer (2 schools – Ohio St., Stanford) – 304
9. Debbie Ryan, Virginia – 292
10. **-Joe Ciampi, Auburn – 290
11. **-Sue Gunter (2 schools – Stephen F. Austin, LSU) – 270
12. Joan Bonvicini (2 schools – Long Beach, Arizona) - 267
13. Marsha Sharp, Texas Tech – 264
13. Geno Auriemma , Connecticut – 264
15. Jim Foster (3 schools – St. Joseph’s, Vanderbilt, Ohio St.) – 248
16. **-Chris Weller, Maryland - 227
17. Theresa Grentz (2 schools – Rutgers, Illinois) – 225
18. **-Van Chancellor, Mississippi – 221
19. Sylvia Hatchell, North Carolina – 214
20.. Gail Goestenkors, Duke – 203
21..**-Marianne Stanley (3 schools – Old Dominion, Southern Cal, Stanford*) – 183
22. **-Paul Sanderford (2 schools – W. Kentucky, Nebraska) – 182
23. **-Marian Washington, Kansas – 176
24. $$-Gary Blair, (2 schools – Stephen F. Austin, Arkansas) – 146
25. **-Ceal Barry, Colorado – 142
**-Not in college; $$-Active at Texas A&M

Active Coaches-All Time AP Ranking Appearances

1. Pat Summitt, Tennessee – 496 (missed just 14 polls in entire AP history)
2. Andy Landers, Georgia – 388
3. Jody Conradt, Texas – 386
4. C. Vivian Stringer (3 schools – Cheyney, Iowa, Rutgers) – 337
5. Rene Portland (2 schools – St. Joseph, Penn St.) – 336
6. Kay Yow, North Caro. St. – 322
7. Tara VanDerveer (2 schools – Ohio St., Stanford) – 304
8. Debbie Ryan, Virginia – 292
9. Joan Bonvicini (2 schools – Long Beach, Arizona) - 267
10. Marsha Sharp, Texas Tech – 264
10. Geno Auriemma , Connecticut – 264
12. Jim Foster (3 schools – St. Joseph’s, Vanderbilt, Ohio St.) – 248
13. Theresa Grentz (2 schools – Rutgers, Illinois) – 225
14. Sylvia Hatchell, North Carolina – 214
15. Gail Goestenkors, Duke – 203
16. $$-Gary Blair, (2 schools – Stephen F. Austin, Arkansas) – 146
17. Muffet McGraw, Notre Dame – 139
18.Wendy Larry, Old Dominion – 127
19. Kristy Curry, Purdue – 116
20. Carol Ross, (2 schools – Florida, Mississippi) - 112
21. )))-Chris Gobrecht (Washington) - 104
22. ---Jane Albright (N. Illinois, Wisconsin) _ 96
23. Bill Fennelly, (2 schools – Toledo, Iowa) – 95
23. Cathy Inglese (2 school - Boston College, Vermont) – 95
25. Sherri Coale, Oklahoma – 90
26. Joe McKeown, George Washington – 82
27. &&-Jim Bolla, UNLV* – 75
28. Melanie Balcomb (2 schools – Xavier, Vanderbilt) – 72
28. Doug Bruno, DePaul – 69
29. Pam Borton, Minnesota – 68
31. Debbie Patterson, Kansas St. – 67
32. Kim Mulkey-Robertson, Baylor – 66
33. Sharon Fanning (3 schools – Tenn.-Chattanooga, Kentucky, Miss. St.) – 54
34. Mark French, UC Santa Barbara – 54
35. @@-Cheryl Burnett, Missouri St., 51
36. Kathy Olivier, UCLA 48
37. Joanne P. McCallie, Michigan St. – 46
38. Harry Perretta, Villanova – 44
39. ##-Kurt Budke, Louisiana Tech. – 42
40. Elaine Elliott, Utah – 40
41. ++-Bonnie Henrickson, Virginia Tech – 36
41. Brenda Frese (2 schools, Minnesota, Maryland) – 36
43. Lisa Stockton, Tulane – 34
43. !!-Tom Collen, Colorado St. – 34
45. Pokey Chatman, LSU – 30
$$-Active at Texas A&M; &&-Active at Hawaii (Shared 18 with Sheila Strike); @@-Active at Michigan; ##-Active at Oklahoma St.; ++-Active at Kansas; !!-Active at Louisville; )))-Active at Yale; ---Active at Wichita St.

We'll be back with some observations before the weekend is over.

-- Mel