By Mel Greenberg
Three events tied with either a scheduled game involving a historical matchup or the release of the latest Associated Press women's basketball Monday had us scouring our historical database to entertain this Tuesday morning with some more trivia of the times.
Competition-wise down in Knoxville Monday night was the annual renewal of the Louisiana Tech-Tennessee nonconference rivalry that dates beyond the time that a young Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma was still learning to accurately count the number of games he had scheduled for the season.
Tennessee won 81-60 Monday night to take a 23-17 lead in the all-time series including eight straight wins.
The Techsters were one of the original thorns in the side of the Lady Vols and the two met nuermous times in NCAA and AIAW Final Four competition.
Though Louisiana Tech is unranked and missed the NCAA last season for the first time in the tournament's 26-year history, the Techsters and the Lady Vols are atop most all-time categories in the Guru-AP database.
The second event was the arrival of Wyoming to make its first AP poll appearance and become the 142nd team in the 32-year history of the rankings. Incidentally, those 142 schools have now been ranked 12,482 times.
Because Cowgirls coach Joe Legerski is a male, there was no need to see if he had qualified as a coach who both played for and coached an AP-ranked women's team -- an achievement held by an elite number of women.
And the other event was the end of a sizeable run by Duke in the top 10 after the Blue Devils fell to No. 11 by a slim six points to Baylor in this week's voting.
With all that said, let's give the Wyoming fan base a little more knowledge.
The Cowgirls are the eighth member of the Mountain West Conference to have appeared in the rankings, but they are only the fifth school to earn their acclaim while holding current membership.
The other seven who have been ranked are BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, Texas Christian, UNLV, and Utah.
However, TCU's rankings all actually occurred as a former member of Conference USA.
San Diego State gained rankings as member of the old AIAW Region 8, the Big West, Western Athletic, and West Coast Athletic Association.
UNLV's rankings came during membership in AIAW-Region 8 and the Big West.
Duke's Long Run Shortened
The drop of the Blue Devils occurred three weeks after former coach Gail Goestenkors ended hers at Texas with a non-top 10 ranking of the Longhorns in the preseason poll.
Duke had appeared 107 straight times, dating back to the first January poll of the 2001-02 season.
Tennessee is on a current run of 191 weeks beginning with the final poll of the 1996-97 season. The Lady Vols, currently ranked No. 1, should this season break the all-time streak held by Louisiana Tech, which is 202 from the Jan. 16, 1979 poll through the fifth poll of the 1990-91 season -- a span of 13 seasons.
The Techster upset UCLA, the defending AIAW champion, in 1979 in Pauley Pavilion, in a game we witnessed the previous week -- the AIAW convention we were covering was in Los Angeles the same week - and La Tech took off from there.
Prior to Tennessee's last time out of the top 10, the Lady Vols had been in the category for a streak of 187 weeks from 1986-87.That means they have appeared in the top 10 in 378 of the past 379 weeks of the poll that the Lady Vols have been minimally in the high rent district.
Coach Pat Summitt's teams have missed only 14 appearances, including the first-ever preseason poll in 1976, in what is now 540 weeks of rankings.
Meanwhile worth noting of this new poll is Ohio State's ranking of No. 19, the lowest appearance since a ranking of No.21 in the final poll of 2003-04.
The Buckeyes will be at Maryland, Friday night, for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and the Terrapins' attempt to throw coach Brenda Frese the world's largest baby shower for her expected twins, who might arrive in tandem with March Madness.
Prior to this season, Ohio State had been in the Top10 for 55 weeks dating back to the 2004-05 preseason vote.
West Virginia, at No. 15, is two spots away from an all-time ranking of No. 13 in the end of the '92 season.
Rutgers, which will be at St. Joseph's Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in a meeting of former Atlantic Ten rivals, recently passed Purdue on the all-time ranking list with a combined 301 appearances in the combined Theresa Grentz-C. Vivian Stringer eras.
The Scarlet Knights are two appearances behind LSU, the team that Rutgers beat Sunday to drop the Tigers from sixth to eighth -- a bit low in our estimation.
Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer, at 334, is three appearances away from passing former Penn State coach Rene Portlamd into fifth place on the all-time list. Her total also includes her previous stint at Ohio State.
Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw became 25th on the all-time list (actives and non-actives) this week, passing former Colorado coach Ceal Barry, who is retired.
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Guru-Stringer Hawk Recollections
OK, this is for my journalistic colleagues, friends and researchers who were in the Rutgers media room Sunday when I asked coach Stringer a question to advance the St. Joseph's game, whether she was worried about a "trap" situation on the schedule in that the contest with the Hawks is sandwiched between two nationally high-powered contests with LSU and Maryland, she spoke to the concept.
But she also noted that the Guru was there (at St. Joe's) and made a reference to the game as a few years ago.
Actually, we had two different events in mind.
Stringer was thinking about the Scarlet Knights' last trip to Hawk Hill, which was the season-opener for Rutgers on Nov. 18, 2001.
The Hawks, in their second game under new coach and former backcourt star Cindy Griffin, won 64-58 after St.Joseph's had just beaten Southern Cal at home.
It was a bad omen for Rutgers in that although a win over Virginia came next, the Scarlet Knights finished with a dismal 9-20 record.
That would have been Cappie Pondexter's freshman year, by the way, had she not been redshirted.
But we actually had in mind a 67-54 loss on Hawk Hill on Dec. 21, 1997, which dropped Stringer's bunch to 4-3.
What really had Stringer upset afterwards was the play of her centers, including one freshman from Canada by the name of Tammy Sutton-Brown.
The Hall of Fame coached questioned how her post attack could be 1-for-12 or something like that and outrebounded by the smaller Hawks.
Not to worry in the long run, however. Rutgers eventually went on a long win streak, finished first in the old Big East 7 Divisional format, and was 22-10.
In the NCAA tournament, Stringer got to go back to the state of Iowa at Iowa State -- not her former Hawkeyes campus - and Rutgers edged the host team, 62-61, in the second round.
Unfortunately, the next stop was in the Mideast semifinals in Nashville, Tenn., where the Scarlet Knights' season ended against -- who else? -- Tennessee, 92-60.
But the foundation was set for Rutgers' first Final Four trip to Philadelphia in 2000 where Stringer's group lost in the semifinals to -- you guessed it -- Tennessee.
Ranting About Seeds
Which brings us to the next point -- we noticed the Rutgers' coach express concern in her local newspaper about the historical treatment of her program by the NCAA tournament committee.
By the way, although this week's Rutgers ranking in AP is fifth, it is almost a statistical tie with No. 4 North Carolina. Furthermore, a win over Maryland next Monday would likely flip the Scarlet Knights back to their preseason third, which would be in the poll that would follow the game with the Terrapins.
We agree with much she has to say.
But polls have little bearing in what the NCAA ultimately does and it is about taking care of business, which was the pre-game tone Stringer was probably trying to set for her players about the LSU game.
Two seasons ago, if Rutgers had beaten West Virginia in the Big East tournament, when six teams were extremely close together contending for the four No. 1 seeds, the Scarlet Knights, at worst, would have gotten a high No. 2 seed.Had they gone on to beat Connecticut, they would have had a case for a No.1.
But the loss cost them a No. 2 because of its negative factor with everything else being equal, and they got sucked into the messy seeds of the Cleveland regional.
So looking ahead, here's what we see.
If Rutgers stays unbeaten from now into early January, meaning wins over Maryland and Duke, the Scarlet Knights will have their hands on a No. 1 seed. Tennessee and Connecticut will be the only major stumbling blocks the rest of the way, but since are both also projecting as No. 1s, losses would not be costly. Actually, the same goes for a potential defeat to Maryland, which is also looking like a contender.
Again, understand, everything must play out and some diversions could occur without harm to Rutgers' mission.
An upset loss in the Big East during the regular season may not be damaging.
But getting a No. 1, itself, does not mean everything will be great and fabulous.
Consider that in regional finals play, a No. 2 matchup coming from the other direction could be against Stanford (won't have enough to be a No. 1), LSU, or Oklahoma.
So, the ultimate goal would be to get the best No. 1 seed. That task is daunting because of the schedule.
In terms of Connecticut, if it becomes three meetings with the Huskies, someone is going to have to win two games over the other to get the better No. 1 seed. And, yes, ultimately, unless the Vols stumble here and there, a way will have to be found to beat Tennessee in Knoxville.
-- Mel
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