The Guru Report: Greenberg and Johnson Propel Drexel and Rider Close to Conference Titles

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – Drexel here at the Dragons’ Daskalakis Athletic Center and Rider about an hour to the north Thursday night moved within a game of each claiming co-championships and No. 1 seeds of their respective conferences while Rutgers out in the Midwest in Indianapolis, leaped the first hurdle to the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament.

On Friday, Villanova starts play in the opening round of the Big East tournament at DePaul’s Wintrust Arena in Chicago, while Temple likewise is part of the opening action in the American Athletic Conference up at the Mohegan Sun Arena, home of the WNBA Connecticut Sun, in Uncasville, Conn.

Also, Penn will be at Cornell in Ithaca, N.Y. before moving onto Columbia in New York’s Upper West Side Saturday looking for a weekend sweep and second place finish in the Ivy League heading into next week’s fourth annual tournament, this year being hosted by Harvard.

Likewise, No. 21 Princeton, with the No. 1 seed clinched, will be looking to do the same sweep in reverse and then win the tournament with the potential to land on the No. 4 seed line with first and second round hosting in the NCAA tournament.

In the small college world among the locals, Rowan, Harvard, and Widener begin play in the NCAA Division III tournament while on Saturday in a predominantly Division II local affair, the semifinals of the Central Atlantic College Conference (CACC) at USciences at noon and 2 p.m. will feature the host Devils against No. 3 Jefferson, both from the south division, while at 2 p.m. Holy Family, the No. 2 from the South will meet No. 1 North Seed Post.

Drexel Defense Guides Dragons to 600^th Program Triumph and Escape Win Over UNCW

Coach Denise Dillon’s group did not need an extra five minutes this time as Drexel did way back the first weekend in January to top UNCW but it was close enough with a defensive play at the finish to emerge with a 52-50 win at the Daskalakis Athletic Center to stay hooked with preseason favorite James Madison at the top of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).

The Dukes (24-4, 15-2 CAA) had their own problems playing at the same time down in North Carolina and trailing Elon until the last minute to grab a 61-58 victory.

Delaware, which also plays in the CAA, beat Charleston 63-54 at home in the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark as the Blue Hens (11-17, 7-10) moved into a two-way tie with Elon for what will be the seventh seed but either or both can catch Northeastern for fifth in the final standings.

Had JMU lost, Drexel (22-7, 15-2) would have clinched the No. 1 seed and have a chance to finish outright at the top. 

But should the Dragons, who play Charleston, Saturday, at 1 p.m., end tied with JMU in the final standings they will claim the No. 1 seed for next week’s tournament at Elon Wednesday through Saturday because reading down below the two leaders the deal-maker becomes JMU’s split with No. four Towson while Drexel swept the Tigers.

A year ago, Towson rallied to beat the Dragons in the closing minutes of the title game at Delaware.

“Happy to get us a ‘W’,” Dillon said. “It wasn’t a pretty game, but we found a way. We talk about it all  the time. I just thought the last stop identified who we are as a team.”

Thursday’s win here gave the Dragons their 600^th win in program history bringing the overall won-loss record to 600-518.

In the game with the Seahawks (9-19, 6-11), there were just two ties and one lead change, which came in the outset of the fourth quarter when Dragons senior Bailey Greenberg nailed a three-ball to put the Dragons up 36-25.

Coming out of the third quarter where she was 1-for-2 from the line to bring Drexel close, counting that triple, she went on to make it 10 straight points and then got a rebound down to Kayla Bacon for two more and a nine-point lead.

It remained that way with an exchange of baskets twice to stay ahead 48-39 with 5:58 left.

But the Seahawks were not finished, rallying within a basket 52-50 with 55 seconds left.

Drexel’s Mariah Leonard missed a shot with 25 seconds left but the Dragons continued to pressure the ball and brought enough heat for GiGi Smith to miss a potential game-tying shot that was smothered as time expired.

“I just thought we did a nice job in the third and fourth quarter allowing our defense to wear them down and it got us some easier transition opportunities,” Dillon said. “And in the fourth, we did get the stops when necessary. 

Greenberg, who’s last game in the DAC will be Saturday unless the Dragons land in the WNIT with a home game, had 16 points, the only Drexel player in double figures, while likewise for Smith on the Seahawks side with 13 points.

Defensively, Drexel outscored UNCW 17-9 in points off turnovers, forcing 20 miscues. 

Hannah Nihill had four steals for the home team, while Aubree Brown had three. Nihill, while managing the defense, also had six points, five assists, and two rebounds.

“I just said to the group, it’s never too late. You will always have opportunities to improve and get better.”

On Bailey’s fourth quarter leadership, Dillon said, “It’s nice. Because the team was working real hard on the defensive end and I was trying to get Bailey a little breather and I thought maybe at the start of the fourth, and I think she got wind of it and  said, `No, I’m not sitting out.’

“ So, a good move on my part for not taking her out and a good move for Bailey Greenberg to step up her game.

“She looked like she had a little look where she said, `Something has to happen here for us to win.’”

The Dragons come full circle in the 1 p.m. game Saturday besides bidding arena adieu to Greenberg, and three other seniors in Brown, Niki Metzel, and Leonard, along with two managers.

Furthermore, back in January in the CAA opener, Drexel was upset at Charleston before using the overtime win at UNCW two days later to launch a 13-0 run of triumphs, including a lopsided win here over JMU before JMU issued a payback down in Harrisonburg last weekend.

In the Delaware win over Charleston (13-15, 6-11), Blue Hens senior Rebecca Lawrence broke the program’s single-game block record with 10 rejections to pass the previous mark of eight held by Colleen McNamara against Lehigh on Jan.  5, 1994. Her total was one off the CAA single game record.

Delaware came to life with three double doubles; Samone DeFrese had 20 points and 11 rebounds, Nicole Enabosi had 16 points and 13 rebounds, while Jasmine Dickey had 15 points and 12 rebounds.

It was the Blue Hens’ 250^th win in the Bob Carpenter Center. The team blocked 13 shots for a new floor record, eclipsing the previous mark of 12 powered by McNamara’s big night.

Whither Dillon?

Meanwhile, the elephant in the arena at Drexel, Saturday, is also the question of whether, WNIT home game aside, it will also be the last game for Dillon, who is in her 17^th season.

With the Villanova vacancy now a short time away from being official once longtime coach Harry Perretta heads into retirement after 42 seasons following the Wildcats’ closing the books on 2019-20, the speculation ramps up as to who will be named the successor.

Dillon has always been considered the heir apparent off her time as a player with the ’96 graduation class and longtime association with Perretta, calling each other after great wins and tough losses along with other matters.

Whatever talks they may have had, Dillon and the staff has remained publicly locked into winning a second CAA title and zero discussion, which is a tribute considering unlike most situations, with his announcement coming in November, meant a whole season of speculation.

The only other notable switch in the city for either gender was Fran Dunphy’s move from Penn to Drexel after Hall of Famer John Chaney’s retirement.

But that announcement came at the end of the season.

“It was never on my radar,” Dunphy said in a recent discussion comparing the situations. “John announced, I got a call from (then Temple athletic director) Bill Bradshaw.

“I went to John for his blessing, if I didn’t get it, fine, if he had someone else in mind, I had a great job at Penn. But he was good with it, and talks began and three weeks later I was hired.”

But the question is how much has Villanova opened it up, nationally. 

The school hired a national search firm several months ago, and it is known several prominent women’s programs have had inquiry calls, leading to the inference that perhaps on one hand great respect for Perretta’s era, but on the other, it might be time to invest in the women becoming a national brand as Jay Wright has done with the men’s program.

Part of this is tied to the coming of UConn back to the Big East as soon as July 1 arrives.

Still, even if that element is having influence, many believe Dillon still deserves first shot, she’s capable enough, and if it doesn’t work, then go from there.

And on the other side, while Drexel across the board will try to do what it can to make Dillon remain, and they have the resources, it appears there’s a continuity plan in place that if a departure occurs, the Dillon legacy will still be there.

And the bottom line, if offered, she still has to decide, and there’s as much a reason to stay for now, knowing other opportunities to move will be there down the line considering Dillon is considered among a group of the next generation of sideline leaders.

Johnson Powers Rider to Stay Locked with Marist

On Stella Johnson’s last seasonal night at Alumni Gymnasium in Lawrenceville, N.J., the Rider senior and nation’s leading scorer (24.2 points per game) had another explosive performance with 31 points and 10 rebounds to deliver a 72-52 payback to Saint Peter’s in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference game.

Johnson also had six steals and it was her sixth game with 30 or more points.

The win kept the Broncs (24-4, 17-2 MAAC) tied at the top with preseason favorite Marist with just Saturday’s games remaining to determine the final standings.

The two leaders split during the season on each other’s course, Rider winning in overtime up in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in the initial meeting.

An upset at Saint Peter’s (8-20, 5-14) was the Broncs’ only other loss but Marist split with Fairfield, which becomes the tie-breaker for the top seed unless one of the two frontrunners loses and the other wins, thus producing an outright regular season champion.

It was also Amari Johnson’s farewell home game, unless fate sends the Broncs into the WNIT as a host site for a round or more. 

She gave her farewell to the tune of 22 points and 16 rebounds, while senior Lea Favre had 12 points.

Amari Johnson leads the MAAC with 16 double doubles.

“I really can’t say what these seniors have meant to the program because we are not done,” said longtime Rider coach Lynn Milligan, who recently became the all-time winningest coach in the program’s history.

“Up to this point, they have done everything I have asked of them. They’ve represented the uniform better than I could have ever imagined. They are great, strong and independent women that work really hard,” Milligan said.

“They have a vision and a goal, and they trust one another. They’re really special. I’m really excited that we were able to play at home tonight. We had a really good second-half against a high-powered offense.”

The Broncs set a program mark with a 12-1 record at home.

Rider finishes Saturday at Monmouth at 4 p.m. in West Long Branch, N.J.

The MAAC tournament quarterfinals, leading to an automatic NCAA bid, begins Wednesday at Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in nearby Atlantic City, N.J. as the annual event moves for the first time in years from the Times Union Center in Albany, N.Y.

Rutgers Advances in the Big Ten

After sitting out the first day with a bye, the fifth-seeded Scarlet Knights got under way in the Big Ten Tournament at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and ousted No. 12 Wisconsin 63-55 to move to Friday’s quarterfinals.

The tournament winner gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Advancing for the fifth time in six tournament appearances since leaving after a brief one-year stay in the American Athletic Conference, Rutgers (22-8) used a big finish in the fourth quarter outscoring the Badgers 21-10 after entering the period with a three-point deficit.

Rutgers dominated in most categories against Wisconsin (12-18), besting in points off turnovers, in the paint, second chance, fast break and off the bench.

“Wisconsin was well prepared, and it was a scary situation simply because when you play a team three times, and they’ve had very close games to the top teams within the Big Ten, we were nervous,” said Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer.

“The team willed itself to a win and it worked out for us,” Stringer said of rallying to stay alive.

The Scarlet Knights will play fourth seed and 20^th-ranked Indiana in the quarterfinals at 2:25 p.m.

Arella Guirantes scored a game-high 27 points and set a school record for made foul shots in a season with 156 – one more than the legendary Sue Wicks, who played in the late 1980s. She set the previous mark in 1987-88, the same span she earned national player of the year accolades.

Reserve Danielle Migliore had nine points and a career-high four steals.

Meanwhile, since the Guru skipped a report off Wednesday with just one local team playing, in an opening Big Ten game just like last year, 14^th-seeded Penn State was bypassed by 11^th-seeded Minnesota 85-65 off a strong second-half from the Lindsay Whelan-coach Golden Gophers.

Kamaria McDaniel had 22 points for the Lady Lions (7-23) while Siyeh Frazier had 15 points in her farewell game, and Anna Camden, a freshman, scored 12 points.

Minnesota (16-14) jumped to a 16-3 lead.

The loss completed coach Carolyn Kieger’s first season after moving from Marquette but many believe the future will be bright once the recruiting pieces are in place. 

The Gophers were also gone by Thursday, losing 77-56 to No. 6 Ohio State, while in other second round games No. 7 Michigan rallied to beat No. 10 Nebraska 81-75, while No.9 Purdue topped No. 8 Michigan State 72-63.

In Friday’s quarterfinals, Top-seeded Maryland, ranked sixth and which tied Northwestern, ranked 11^th, for the regular season title, will meet Purdue at noon before the Rutgers game and those winners meet in a semifinal on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.

Northwestern will meet Michigan at 6:30 p.m. while Ohio State will meet No. 3 Iowa, ranked 19^th, in the final game and those winners will meet in the other semifinal, Saturday, following the end of the first game.

The championship is Sunday at 6 p.m.

Other Tournaments

Atlantic 10: The locals – La Salle and Saint Joseph’s are gone, but in quarterfinal action Friday at UD Arena in Ohio, No. 9 Richmond meets No. 1 Dayton at 11 a.m., while No. 5 UMass meets No. 4 Saint Louis at 2 p.m. and those winners meet in a Saturday semifinal at 11 a.m.

No. 2 VCU, which had a first-round bye with Dayton, meets No. 7 Davidson at 4:30 p.m. while No. 3 Fordham meets No. 6 Duquesne at 7 and those winners meet in the other semifinal Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

Sunday’s Championship is at noon.

American Athletic Conference: It’s a weekend of poignancy with UConn, with a perfect record in the AAC at this moment, heading elsewhere to the Big East this summer. 

It’s also likely the last AAC tournament in casinoland because of that, at the Mohegan Sun, to be replaced, naturally, by the Big East. Do the business math.

With the league office moving to Dallas, many officials are deciding to go in other directions, retirement, etc. 

One is former Syracuse coach and conference women’s administrator Barb Jacobs, though we expect to see her show up somewhere prominent as a consultant or whatever.

As for the bracket, a local gets things going at Mohegan in an opening round game with No. 8 Temple getting a chance to redeem a recent loss playing No. 9 ECU at 2 p.m. following the opening game that has No. 5 Tulane meeting No. 12 Tulsa at noon. The top four teams got byes.

Friday night’s doubleheader has No. 10 Houston and No. 7 Wichita State meeting at 6 p.m., followed by No. 11 Memphis meeting No. 6 SMU at 8 p.m.

Saturday’s quarterfinals has No. 4 South Florida meeting the Tulsa/Tulane winner at noon, while the Temple/ECU winner meets No. 1 UConn, ranked 5, at 2 p.m. and those winners meet in a Sunday semifinal.

No. 2 UCF meets the Houston/Wichita State winner at 6 p.m. while No. 3 Cincinnati meets the Memphis-SMU winner at 8. Those winners meet in a Sunday semifinal. The times for the two games are 4 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

The championship is Monday st 7 p.m.

Atlantic Coast Conference: In opening round games Wednesday, No. 13 Wake Forest ousted No. 12 North Carolina, 83-73, ending former Princeton coach Courtney Banghart’s first year with the Tar Heels.

They turned down the WNIT option.

No. 15 Pitt hit a shot at the buzzer to oust No. 10’ Notre Dame, 67-66, ending the Irish’s year of misery and making it the first time since 1995 they are not going to the tournament and the first time since Louisville in 2010 was a national runnerup and didn’t return the next season.

No. 14 Clemson ousted No. 11 Miami 71-66.

On Thursday, No. 13 Wake Forest kept going beating No. 5 Virginia Tech, 58-55, while No. 8 Syracuse beat No. 9 Virginia 67-50, and No. 7 Georgia Tech topped Pitt, 68-58, and No. 6 Boston College beat No. 14 Clemson, 85-73.

On Friday in the quarterfinals: Wake Forest meets No. 4 Florida State, ranked 22, at 11 a.m., and No. 8 Syracuse meets No. 1 Louisville, ranked No. 4, at 2 p.m. and those winners meet in a semifinal on Saturday at noon.

Georgia Tech meets No.  2 N.C. State, ranked 10^th, at 6 p.m., while Boston College meets No. 3 Duke at 8 p.m. and those winners meet in a Saturday semifinal at 2:30 p.m.

The championship is Sunday at 12 p.m.

Big East: The last local is here and Villanova fell to seventh after a massive five-way tie for third and opens with No. 10 Xavier at 2:30 p.m., EST, in Chicago after No. 9 Georgetown meets No. 8 Providence at noon.

On Saturday in the quarterfinals, No. 1 DePaul, ranked 18^th, meets the Georgetown-Providence winner at 1 p.m., while No. 5 Butler meets No. 4 Seton Hall at 3:30 p.m. and those winners meet Sunday at 6 p.m.

No. 2 Marquette meets the Villanova-Xavier winner at 7 p.m., while No. 6 Creighton meets No. 3 Saint John’s at 9:30 p.m. and those winners meet Sunday at 8:30 p.m.

The championship is Monday at 8 p.m.

PAC-12: The super-charged conference with six ranked teams got under way with one big upset on Thursday, No. 12 California topped No. 5 Arizona State, ranked 24^th, 71-67. In other games, Utah beat Washington 72-63, while Southern Cal beat Colorado 69-54, and Oregon State, ranked 14^th, beat Washington State, 82-55.

In Friday’s quarterfinals, No. 12 California meets No. 4 Arizona, ranked 13^th, at 2:30 p.m., while No. 8 Uah meets No. 1 Oregon, ranked third, at 5 p.m, and those winners meet in a Saturday semifinal at 9 p.m.

No. 7 Southern Cal meets No. 2 UCLA, ranked eighth, at 9 p.m., while Oregon State, seeded sixth, meets No. 3 Stanford, ranked seventh, at 9:30 p.m., and those winners meet in a semifinal, Saturday, at 11:30 p.m.

The championship is Sunday at 8 p.m.

Southeastern Conference: In the second round Thursday, No. 9 Georgia topped No. 8 Alabama, 68-61; No. 5 Arkansas, ranked 25^th, beat No. 13 Auburn, 90-68; No. 7 LSU beat No. 10 Florida, 73-59; and No. 6 Tennessee beat No. 11 Missouri, 64-51.

In Friday’s quarterfinals: No. 1 South Carolina, ranked first, meets No. 9 Georgia at noon; No. 4 Texas A&M, ranked 15^th meets No. 5 Arkansas at 2 p.m.; those winners meet in a Saturday semifinal.

LSU meets No. 2 Mississippi State, ranked 9^th; and Tennessee meets No. 3 Kentucky, ranked 16^th, and those winners meet in a semifinal. The times are 5 p.m. and   7:30 p.m. 

The championship is Sunday at 2 p.m.

And that’s the report.