By Mel Greenberg
About 60 milles or so East of one of Rutgers' all-time victories, the fourth-ranked Scarlet Knights hope to secure a similar outcome against the same opponent eight months later in Durham, N.C., Thursday night, when they visit No.17 Duke in the Blue Devils' fabled Cameron Indoor Stadium.
In one sense it is appropriate for Rutgers to visit Tobacco Road the way the Scarlet Knights have been smoking in terms of victories over Top 10 opponents.
But since the area is also known as the Research Triangle, that's also appropriate in the way coach C. Vivian Stringer has given lessons to Rutgers opponents on the unyielding toughness of defense in tight games.
Returning to yester-month, it was last March that Rutgers (6-1) rallied in the second half to topple Duke, 53-52, in the NCAA Greensboro regional semifinals in a thrilling finish. The outcome was decided with less than a second remaining as senior Lindsey Harding, the Blue Devils' top player, missed a pair of foul shots.
Duke (5-3) had been the overall No. 1 seed of the tournament. The win gave Rutgers a measure of revenge for an 85-45 rout by the Blue Devils earlier in December in the Jimmy V Classic in Piscataway, N.J.
The Scarlet Knights moved on two nights later to beat Arizona State and continue a sensational postseason run all the way to the NCAA title game, won by Tennessee.
Now Rutgers' opponent is carrying the revenge motive, although not all is the same as it was the last time these two teams met.
The Scarlet Knights, playing their second straight powerful Atlantic Coast Conference opponent, arrive just off a sensational 68-60 win over conference-favorite Maryland, Monday night, also in the Jimmy V Classic at home when Rutgers rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half over the No. 3 Terrapins.
Sophomore Epiphanny Prince, who scored the winning points against Duke in March, was the scoring star in the rally and finished with 22 points. The job was done with sister starters Kia Vaughn and Matee Ajavon on the bench, for the most part, in foul trouble.
Everyone is back on the Rutgers side from last season, minus former associate head coach Jolette Law, who is now running her own program at Illinois.
Short of a controversial last-second loss to Stanford in the season opener at home, Stringer's bunch has treaded successfully in a high-wire act on a killer nonconference schedule that won't get much eastier when the Scarlet Knights start playing rivals in the Big East.
However, barring injuries, Rutgers will be favored in almost every game the rest of the way, short of the Big East wars against No. 2 Connecticut, which will consist of home--and-home matchups in the regular season and perhaps one more in the conference championship.
The other game the Scarlet Knights will be an underdog is against top-ranked Tennessee on Feb. 11 in Knoxville, which will occur right after the first of the Connecticut games.
But losses in those games should not be damaging in terms of No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament. Tennessee and Connecticut, who will not meet in the regular season, are likely to get No. 1 seeds.
Furthermore, the win over Maryland, also in contention for a No. 1 seed, makes it likely that if the Scarlet Knights take care of business, they will get the third overall seed. Because of the nature of upsets that occur in conference play, a loss to someone such as Notre Dame or DePaul, may not be costly, either.
The one rub is that the potential exists for Rutgers, off the formula for seed and geographical placement, to be involved in a potential NCAA regional finals meeting back in Greensboro against North Carolina, which can state its case with another strong ACC run.
Thus, Thursday night, there is pressure on both sides of the Rutgers-Duke card for each team to win, as there was Monday night in the Maryland game.
Rutgers has to stay on track.The big news on the other side is Duke needs to get back on track.
The Blue Devils are on a rare three-game slide with losses to Connecticut in the Virgin Islands and at Vanderbilt and unranked Penn State. The plunge has knocked them out of the top 10 for the first time in the 21st century.
If things are very much the same on the Rutgers side, other than Stringer wanting to get more players into the mix to establish some depth, they are very much different in the Duke household.
Former coach Gail Goestenkors has moved on to Texas and been replaced by Joanne P. McCallie, who has her own special reasons for revenge.
Rutgers beat McCallie's former Michigan State squad twice, once in the regular season, and again in the tournament second round in East Lansing. That triumph sent the Scarlet Knights on to Greensboro.
Two important pieces of the Blue Devils roster are also gone. Harding became the overall No. 1 pick of the WNBA draft and was heading for rookie of the year honors until she had a knee injury at midseason.
Center Allison Bales, a big-body presence in the post, also began her post-graduate career in the WNBA.
Duke has had to play several games without Abby Waner, who was injured, and was without Wanisha Smith against Penn State.
Following Thursday night's game, both teams will head to Madison Square Garden for the Maggie Dixon Classic. Duke will meet Pittsburgh, Saturday at noon, followed by Rutgers against Army.
Click here to read more by the Guru, who, yes, will be on the scene in Durham if he finishes this fast enough to grab that cheap air fare he saw on the internet 24 hours ago.
From Cursed To Kurz as Ex-Blue Devil Shines in Villanova's win over St. Joseph's
It may have been snowing somewhat heavily outside Villanova's Pavillion Wednesday night, but the downfall was nothing compared to the blizzard of shots junior transfer Laura Kurz targeted through the nets as the Wildcats grabbed a key 71-47 Big Five win over St. Joseph's on the Main Line.
Kurz was on the sidelines last season, due to NCAA transfer eligibility rules, as Villanova seemed to be victims of a spell on the way to an all-time worst 8-21 performance.
Now that the former Gernantown Academy star is back on the court, the Wildcats (7-1) are knocking down threes like old times as Villanova's next win will match its overall total of last season.
Villanova, which was 6-7 outside the Big East, is now 7-1 also against nonconference foes.
Kurz, who spent her first two seasons at Duke, hit all eight of her field goal attempts plus a pair of foul shots in the first half on the way to a 22-point performance Wednesday night. It's the fourth time in the last five games she has scored 20 or more points.
"She's brought so much to team, offensively,'' said Villanova junior Lisa Karcic of Kurz, who also grabbed seven rebounds. "She's just a talented skill player and I love playing with her.''
Karcic's performance was a story in itself with 19 points, while setting career highs with seven assists and four blocked shots. She also had three steals and six rebounds, while joining Maria Getty with four treys each. Getty had 14 points.
Overall, the Wildcats were 12 of 23 on three pointers. The win made Villanova with 3-0 in the Big Five, with three-time defending champion Temple left in the way of the City Series crown. The Owls will host Villanova on Dec. 21 at 3 p.m.
The Wildcats also caught St. Joseph's in all-time City Series victories at 84 each. Temple is one short of matching St. Joseph's consecutive Big Five win streak record of 15 straight, which was achieved twice since the round robin began in 1979-80.
The Hawks (5-3, 1-1 Big Five) were able to lock down Wildcat scoring threat Stacie Witman, who was held to seven points.
"They did a great job, defensively, on her, but that opened opportunities for our other forwards,'' Villanova coach Harry Perretta said.
"It's hard to say how good we are, other than it's nice to see us make shots, because St. Joseph's were missing two of their best players.''
Scoring leader Timisha Gomez suffered a concussion on Sunday in the win over Brown in Rhode Island and she was held out Wednesday night as a precaution and with an eye to the Hawks' next game against No. 21 Wyoming in Iowa's tournament, Saturday.
Freshman Sarah Acker scored 12 points for the Hawks and Amy Gillepsie scored 13 but St. Joseph's went almost the final 10 minutes with only one field goal.
Villanova, which thumped Penn, 66-26, on Saturday, hosts Atlantic 10 favorite George Washington on Saturday.
The Colonials just fell out of the rankings after several upset losses.
Considering Villanova has beaten La Salle, St. Joseph's, and has yet to meet A-10 members George Washington, Massachusetts, and Temple, perhaps a sweep might encourage the NCAA tournament committee to give Villanova the A-10's automatic bid if the Wildcats don't thrive on the Big East slate.
A-10 Commissioner Linda Bruno Resigns
News unrelated to final scores continues to affect the Guru and so it was late Wednesday afternoon on our way to the Main Line he called with the news of Linda Bruno's resignation, effective June 30, as commissioner of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Bruno has been a friend dating back to the mid-1990s when as an official of the Big East, she was also the head of the NCAA women's tournament committee and was influential in getting the 2000 Final Four to be awarded to Philadelphia.
She was also a key player in setting the TV deal that brought ESPN into the women's tournament in an expanded arrangement.
Over the years, she was always helpful behind-the-scenes in coverage, in explaining NCAA actions as well as other matters involving women's basketball.
Like Jonathan noted, with an inserted picture (now you know why our blog operations are here), Bruno was an escort at our induction to the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville in June.
Bruno was on the scene on our behalf and was a last-minute and willing substitute for the Grand Stairway entrance to the events when Rutges' C. Vivian Stringer was sidelined by the airline mess that weekend that prevented her from getting out of Newark, N.J.
Remembering Joe
As noted 24 hours ago, women's basketball chornicler Joe Smith, 65, died Tuesday after a short illness.
Founder of the one-man Women's Basketball News Service, Joe was around the sport at all levels from AAU to high school, through the AIAW and NCAA tournaments, USA Basketball tryouts, and WNBA games and playoffs.
Our own appreciation has yet to be written, but the Guru can offer some comments and reaction that have arrived via email or through phone calls and other conversation as word of Joe's passing began to spread.
"Joe seemed like he was around forever,'' said Villanova women's athletic Lynn Tighe, a former Wildcats star who grew up in Staten Island, N.Y. "I always saw him at my high school games.''
Carol Blazejowski, general manager of the New York Liberty, offered the following recalling when she first knew Joe when she was the national scoring of Montclair State in the late 1970s.
"Joe Smith was one of the original members of the media who embraced women’s basketball as far back as my college playing days at Montclair State College. He was not only a proud supporter and promoter of our game over the years, but also a loyal friend to many of us in the women’s basketball community. He will be missed by many on "game day.”
The WNBA Connecticut Sun offered some reaction from coach Mike Thibault, along with stars Lindsay Whalen and Katie Douglas.
FROM LINDSAY WHALEN: "Joe did a great job covering women's basketball. He was very knowledgeable, and it was obvious that he cared a lot about the game. He'll be missed."
FROM KATIE DOUGLAS: "I knew Joe for a long time. I always appreciated how much he knew about the game of women's basketball, and how much he cared about the sport and its players. This is really sad news. The game will miss him."
MIKE THIBAULT: "Because of the proximity of our team, we got to know Joe quite as bit in Connecticut, and it was fun to have another person around who was such a huge advocate for the women's game, and who fought for publicity for the women's game. He will be missed by a lot of people.”
We'll continue to provide more comments as they arrive.
-- Mel
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