Women's Hoops Guru

By Mel Greenberg

Officiating errors contributed to preventing No. 5 Rutgers' shot at history last Monday in Knoxville when an apparent victory became a 59-58 loss to Tennessee, denying the Scarlet Knights from becoming the first women's team to beat top-ranked opponents in succession.

Rutgers had upset Connecticut at home the previous week in a Big East game that ended the Huskies' unbeaten run.

Then just as it seemed coach C. Vivian Stringer's squad had edged the Vols in a reunion of last season's NCAA title game opponents, the clock "froze" at the finish, providing enough extra time for Tennessee's Nicky Anosike to get to the foul line and make the winning free thorws with 0.2 left.

It was revealed the next day that the three officials failed to follow procedure and use a stop watch to measure the "real" elapsed time on the video monitor, although TV replays showed the game had ended before the foul call on Rutgers' Kia Vaughn.

Conversations soon began among AP voters on how to handle the situation in the next vote.

Then on Thursday night, No. 7 LSU rallied from a 19-point deficit, also in Knoxville, to upset Tennessee, 78-62, most definitely making the Vols' return to the top a a one-week experience.

Had Rutgers "officially" won the game, the Scarlet Knights would certainly be the frontrunner to fill the vacancy, which would be the program's first-ever No. 1 ranking.

"Everybody saw the tape and everybody saw the highlights,” South Florida coach Jose Fernandez said after his team fell to Rutgers, 71-50, Saturday night in a Big East game in Tampa, the home of this season's Women's Final Four. “Those free throws should have never been shot. If they weren’t shot, they’d be the No. 1 team in the country, right now. ... You feel for Vivian and feel for her kids.”

A rise to the top of the poll would also make Stringer the first to ever coach two different teams to a No. 1 ranking, having previously achieved the feat at Iowa 1988.

That same week former Temple coach John Chaney, her longtime friend and colleague when the two were at Cheyney State, took the Owls to their first-ever No. 1 ranking.

If Rutgers gets as high as No. 2 this week, matching an all-time ranking achievement last occurring on Feb. 16, 1987, Stringer would be the first to take three different programs to either a No. 1 or No. 2 ranking in the 32-year history of the AP poll that began in 1976.

Her Cheyney team was second the last five weeks of the 1982 season when she took the Vols to the championship game of the first-ever NCAA women's tournament.

Before the nationwide media panel begins phoning, faxing or emailing ballots Sunday night to AP headquarters, three key games affecting the vote will be played Sunday.

Connecticut, which only fell to second last week, will be at No.18 Pittsburgh, while No. 4 Maryland, which edged Rutgers in the last vote by 16 points, will visit Duke in a high-powered Atlantic Coast matchup.

No. 3 North Carolina, which held of Virginia, Friday night, will host Florida State in another ACC contest, which will be in Chapel Hill.

The upper portion of the ballot will certainly give enough pause that the situation will be similar to collegiate football in the fall where No. 1 teams continued to fall.

If Tennessee is perceived with a defacto loss to Rutgers to go with its blowout by LSU, the question will be how far to drop the Vols in the mix depending on Sunday's results and how much to reward LSU.

The Vols are at No. 25 Vanderbilt, incidentaly, while LSU will be at Mississippi in Tigers' coach Van Chancellor first visit as an opponent to the place he had previously coached before moving to the WNBA in its inaugural season in 1997.

Rutgers' body of work includes wins over Connecticut, LSU, and Maryland, with evaluation to be made how to treat the Tennessee result.

Pitt coach Agnus Berenato, who was the sole voter to give the Scarlet Knights a first-place vote in last week's ESPN/WBCA poll -- the vote was after the Tennessee game -- can help their cause with an upset of Connecticut.

Rutgers' other losses are an upset setback at nationally-ranked West Virginia, a nonconfernce defeat at Duke in December, and a controversial season-opening loss at home to Stanford on another foul call at the end of the game.

North Carolina, who will note meet the Scarlet Knights in the regular season, would be miffed at being bypassed, but in a head-to-head comparison, the Tar Heels have losses to Tennessee and Connecticut.

A study of the 50-member AP panel shows nine representatives in the East, 16 each from the South and Midwest, and nine from the West. However, many media members cover leagues that cross regions.

A comparison was made among the balloting for Connecticut, Rutgers, and North Carolina to get some idea of what might happen in Sunday night's vote.

One reason Rutgers did not rise higher as week ago after the win over UConn., was the Scarlet Knights only picked up two No. 2 votes and four No. 3 votes, one of which was ours in case the readership is wondering.

Connecticut got five first-place votes -- the others went to Tennessee -- and 31 second-place votes. North Carolina got 10 second-place votes and 35 third-place votes. Rutgers was fourth or lower on 44 ballots, including 14 fourth-place and 16 fifth-place votes.

But all that was a week ago before Monday night's events began to unfold so it's possible there may not be a clear consensus in any spot. Potentially Rutgers could gain No. 1 in a close point total by landing on a majority of top-three ballots.

Now We Know What Went Down in '83 at Penn State

During the past week, we have made references to coach Stringer asking us at the postgame press conference in Knoxville to recall another painful loss at Penn State in a regional semifinal in the second year of the NCAA tournament.

Some references and paraphrases have been made in subsequent posts. However, clips have no electronically arrived of coverage of the game from our good friend Mary Jo Haverbeck, the retired sports information director of the Penn State women's program.

Here are exceprts, drawing on coverage by the Center Daily Times, The Patriot in Harrisburg, and the Daily Collegian. Some will be repetitious just as you get different angles on video replay.

To cut to the chase, Penn State had gone ahead, 73-72, in boiserous Rec Hall and Cheyney had the ball as the clock wound down. The game, incidentally, as previously noted, became the last Stringer would coach at Cheyney before moving to Iowa, where she built her second program into a national power.

Cheyney, incidentally, was the No. 1 seed in the region and had beaten Penn State twice during the regular season.

Center Daily Times: (Louise) Leimkuhler's heroics weren't over yet. Following the biggest bucket of Leimkuhler's life, Cheyney brought the ball down court. Penn State freshman Lorraine McGirt fought with Cheyney's Rosetta Guilford and forced a jump ball with 11 seconds left.

Cheyney controlled the tip and Yolanda Laney fired up a 12-footer from the left baseline. It ewas short but (Debra) Walker managed to grab the loose ball off the rim. Walker went for the gamer but missed and grabbed her own rebound in the lane. Again Walker attempted to nail down the gamer but this time Leimkuhler was on the ball and blocked the shot,.

The referees called for a jump ball on the play but it was at the buzzer ...

Daily Collegian: Then came the mess (after Laney's shot).

Four, perhaps five or maybe even six players srambled for the rebound which ended in the hands of Cheyney's Walker who attempted to get up a shot.

The referee signaled for a jump ball, but the clock read :00. Penn State had made it to the finale eight teams in the nation and will play Old Dominion (coached by Marianne Stanley), which beat Maryland ...

But let's get back to those strange 11 seconds.

Both players and coaches either saw it or didn't in a different way.

"I was jumping up and down and all I saw was 10 people jumping up and down,"(Annie) Troyan said. (She later became Rene Portland's assistant).

"It all happened so fast, I don't remember what happened," Leimkuhler said. "The rebound came down and I just went up for it."

As for Portland, she will have to wait for the game films to see what happened.

"I don't know what happened in the last second of the game," Portland said. "To be honest, I'm not great at watching the last seconds of a game."

For Cheyney coach Vivian Stringer, the final seconds was very clear. The Lady Wolves' coach said although her team may have been outplayed, her players were effected by the very closely officiated game.

"The game didn't go our way and that's the way it is," Stringer said. "I felt three fouls could have been called (in the final seconds)."

Harrisburg Patriot: "I just went up to block it," said Leimkuhler afterwards of her defense against Cheyney State's Deb Walker, who desperately tried to go up with a rebound as the final seconds ticked off. "I think I fouled her but ... "

Following Leimkuhler's rejection of Walker's shot, teammate Sharon Taylor grabbed the ball but was tied up at the buzzer, much to the dismay of Cheyney State coach Vivian Stringer.

"I believe there should have been a jump ball, not only that, a foul should have been called," voiced a disappointed Stringer afterwards.

The play began with a jump ball at the foul line controlled by Cheyney State. With five seconds left, Yolanda Laney mised a running 15-footer and that's when the board battle began.

And this little pearl from the columnist of the Patriot on the game, talking to Portland, whose program had taken a major step upsetting Cheyney. ODU, incidentally, won the next night, and got to go to its own arena back in Norfolk, Va., for the Women's Final Four.

Harrisburg Patriot: "They showed a lot of guts," Portland said. "At the beginning of the year, that's what was missing. Now when I'm recruiting, I say, `If you don't have guts don't come.' I don't want any more wimps on the team."

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