The Guru Report: 10th-Ranked Villanova Made Favorite in Saturday NCAA Opener as Siegrist Nears Two More Records
By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru
VILLANOVA, Pa. – A year after Villanova had to deal with being an NCAA tournament low-seed heading into an opening weekend hosted by third-seed Michigan in Ann Arbor, coach Denise Dillon’s bunch find themselves never having it so good as the top cats with a four seed enjoying the comforts of home.
That’s what winning a terrific amount of regular season games will help achieve and being the best team in the Big East not living under the short name UConn will also add to the luster.
And it’s also helpful moving up to the high rent district with a first-ever No. 10 ranking in the final Associated Press women’s poll of the season and a NET ranking of 12 when the tournament committee had to go through the data points to decide who the top 16 teams would be to earn hosting slots.
But most of all, unlike the nifty Wildcats teams during the long rule of now-retired coach Harry Perretta, this edition (28-6) has a once-in-a-lifetime star in senior Maddy Siegrist, the nation’s leading scorer (28.9), who has a chance to pounce on two more records to claim while playing in the one or advancing two games this weekend a Finneran Pavilion.
Reaching 16 points in the 5 p.m. game against 13th seed Horizon League champion Cleveland State (30-4) after PAC-12th champion and fifth seed Washington State (23-10) meets ASun champion Florida Golf Coast University (32-3) in the 2:30 p.m. contest would allow Siegrist, currently at 984 points this season to become just the fifth player in NCAA history to reach 1,000 in a November to March Madness span.
With a perfect mark of 20 or more points in all 34 games to date, including three of six losses at the hands of Big East champion and sixth-ranked UConn, a two-seed, by reaching 20 again Saturday Siegrist would tie former Washington star Kelsey Plum, now in the WNBA, for most consecutive games 20 or more points.
Obviously, the mark would become hers alone doing it against the Vikings Saturday night and then again Monday night against the winner of Saturday’s opener.
Her 2,799 points in a career total are now more than any male or female who ever played at the city’s six Division I schools except La Salle great Lionel Simmons and of the 13 Division I schools followed locally, only Delaware great Elena Delle Donne, now with the WNBA Washington Mystics, and former Penn State notable Kelly Mazzante are two area women’s collegiate stars who have scored more than Siegrist.
On Wednesday, Siegrist was named to the All-American first five of the A.P. and United States Basketball Writers Association, the first for a Villanova player and the first in the area since Delle Donne at Delaware.
The three teams here with Villanova are like what the Wildcats used to be – very good quality but not totally daunting.
Despite Villanova’s second-best seed in program history behind the two-seed and Elite Eight group of 2003, it would be a mistake to take anyone of them lightly.
Cleveland State, meeting Villanova for the first time and led by Horizon League player of the year Destiny Leo (17.7 points) and Brittini More (12.1 ppg), won the conference tournament upsetting No. 1 seed Green Bay.
“It’s been five years in the making for our program,” said Vikings coach Chris Kielsmeier at Friday’s press sessions here on the Main Line. “We’re really excited to compete and show we’re not just here to show up.
“They have been the standard of the Horizon League … and maybe we’re the new standard,” he said of the program’s growth.
Washington State coach Kamie Ethridge, a former Texas star and an aide at Vanderbilt under Jim Foster with Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin, accepted a job to run the Cougars when they were one of the basement teams in America, the only PAC-12 team never ranked.
“What drew me … their commitment to make women’s basketball relevant,” Ethridge said.
The Cougars feature Charlisse Leger-Walker, whose sister was on the squad.
Last year an upset of Arizona got Washington State ranked the first time, but the larger achievement was earlier this month crashing through the PAC-12 tournament and winning the automatic bid.
FGCU has dominated he Atlantic Sun more recently called the ASun.
“Every year is a different year,” said coach Karl Smesko. You have different people involved. For a lot of our players, this is the first time they’ve experienced March Madness, something that everybody looks forward to.”
Asked about his team’s Saturday opponent, Smesko observed, “I think they’re just really well coached. They’re very disciplined. They help one another. They’re very solid defensively. They control the tempo. They know each other’s strengths and they play into each other’s strengths.”
Seniors Brooke Mullin and Siegrist are the last of the group who had one year under Perretta before Denise Dillon returned to her alma mater from Drexel.
“I think the emphasis she has on defense takes us a lot,” Mullin said. “Defense wins our games. Obviously, the offense helps, but her focus on defense is what I think takes us to the next level.”
Siegrist added, “I don’t think it could have been a smoother transition from one coach to the next, and I’m just so fortunate. I’ve had both experiences. I’ve got to play for two great coaches, you know instead of one.”
Dillon spoke of the improvement Lucy Olsen made this season from what was a decent showing the previous time around.
“She is an absolute basketball player in everything she does. You can see the results through her efforts. It’s working beautifully for us.”
Olsen made the Big East second team from the conference coaches, who made Siegrist the player of the year for the second straight time.
“You know Maddy had a tremendous year last year, so you’re wondering, wow, how are we going to match that? Not only has she matched it, she’s also brought it to another level.”
With all the other collegiate men’s teams from the area not making the field, the focus has been on the ‘Nova women, who might draw a second sellout a month after doing so for the annual UConn visit.
President Biden even picked the Wildcats on his women’s bracket to win, though his Arizona choice for the men didn’t age well.
“The Bidens have been great supporters of Villanova, talking about on the men’s end. So he is following suit and supporting the women as well. Always a good thing.”
Though the team is home, the Wildcats are using their road routines, staying together in a hotel off campus.
Freshman Megan Olbrys hurt her hand during the practice but Dillon believes the squad “by committee can cover her contributions.
Being Friday was Saint Patrick’s Day, the team had green practice jerseys with Villanova printed across the front.
Meanwhile of the Friday games that got going besides the rare 16-1 win by Fairleigh Dickinson men and the Princeton men, the Princeton women got out of a cold shooting spell late as Grace Stone repeated her end game heroics pulled last December on Rhode Island, this time stealing a pass and connecting on her fifth from deep with 4.7 seconds left in regulation and then the Tigers got a stop to take down North Carolina State 64-63 at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Coach Carla Berube’s 10th seeded Ivy champs will play second-seeded Utah Sunday at 7 p.m.
“She’s got ice in her veins,” Berube said of another Stone cold game-winner, her 22nd point in the contest.
Kaitlyn Chen also scored 22.
Princeton (24-5) denied the Wolfpack a point for the last 5:43 of the contesgt.
In the WNIT, Harvard blasted NEC regular season champion Fairleigh Dickinson 69-53 as Kaitlyn Davis and Sienna Durr each reached the 1,000-point career milestone mark.
The Lions in the next round will host Fordham Monday night at 7 p.m.
In other NCAA women’s upsets, 10th-seeded Georgia stopped 7th Florida State 66-54; 11th-seeded and Mississippi State ended sixth-seeded Creighton’s ambitions for another Cinderella run with an 81-66 win,
posted by Mel Greenberg | 8:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home