Region Roundball Review

October, 1999
News & Updates
      

The Terre Haute Tribune Star is carrying a preview article on the Rose Hulman women's basketball team.  The Engineers are expecting vast improvements over their 1-24 campaign last season.

Check out the Fifth Quarter News Board for Randy Beckett's Top 50 Teams in the state.  It's an excellent preview on some of FQ's top choices in the preseason.  Check back soon for FQ's Top 50 Seniors, Top 50 Juniors, and Top 50 Sophomores, which we will be posting on the Fifth Quarter subsite over the next few days.

From our RRR Noblesville correspondent:  As of Thursday, the new roster for the Lady Millers is not available.  However, the girls are working very hard under new coach Leah Wooldridge and learning her style of play.  The look should be a bit different this year as Coach Wooldridge prefers a "run and gun" style of play, which she assures us will be fun to watch.  Two players from last year's varsity squad choosing not to go out this year are juniors Leigh Marcum and Becky Blessing.  They have decided to concentrate on volleyball and soccer, respectively.  The Lady Millers will participate in their annual scrimmage with Hamilton Heights on Saturday, November 6th at 11am. at Heights.

Ironically, the day we posted the link to Sara Nord's web page, a newer one popped up.  Looks like updates will be made to this one throughout the season.

The Big East Conference had its media day and Connecticut's Kennitra Johnson (New Albany) was voted preseason Rookie of the Year in the Big East Conference, while Notre Dame's Ruth Riley (North Miami) was voted to the preseason Big East First Team.  Also, Notre Dame was selected to finish third in the conference, behind Connecticut and Rutgers.  You can read about Coach Muffet McGraw's philosophy about the conference preseason vote in the South Bend Tribune. 

The South Bend Tribune is also carrying an interview with former Mishawaka standout Janea Skeeters, now at Villanova.  The returning high scorer for the Wildcats, Skeeters is expected to play a major part in the Villanova game plan this season.  You can view Skeeters'  player profile on the official Villanova website.  

According to Randy Beckett of FQ, two basketball standouts have been named to the Indy All-City Soccer Team.  Sophomore defender Cindi Merrill (Noblesville) had 10 goals 13 assists on the season, while junior Keely Dowling (Carmel) had 12 goals and a school record 22 assists.

Not much news today...

We have posted our 2002 Players to Watch for the 1999-2000 season.

Two Indiana seniors who are considered to be top candidates for Miss Basketball this season are featuring their own web pages on the Internet.  Sara Nord (5'5 G) of Jeffersonville has her web page at the website of the Jeffersonville Red Devils, and Anna Waugh (5'8 G) of Franklin has a stand-alone web page. 

Hanover Central, ranked No. 4 in 2A in Hoosier Basketball Magazine, is looking for an assistant coach.  Interested parties should call head coach Denny Foster at 219-374-6838.

Northwest Indiana coaches should be on the lookout for Calumet College women's head coach Andy Juscik this season, as he will be recruiting for the first-ever girls basketball team at Calumet College.  Juscik states in The Times that he will be looking for Region-area players to fill his roster for the women's team that will make Calumet College history as its first.

According to  the Terre Haute Tribune-Star, the Indiana State Sycamores were voted to finish 7th in the Missouri Valley Conference.  Coach Cheryl Reeve has a few things to say about that, and is hoping that her sophomore-laden team can step up their game for a shot at the NCAA tournament in March.  Hoping to surprise the MVC this season are Cris Shelton (East Chicago), Shana Sparks (Connersville), April Kirby (Mt. Vernon), Abbe Brauman (Brownsburg), and Shameka Robinson (Lew Wallace).  You can view the player profiles of each of these former Indiana high school players, as well as a preview to the 1999-2000 season, at the Sycamores official website.

The new Conseco Fieldhouse is getting rave reviews from reporters around the state who were invited to a 2-hour tour yesterday.  The best description we came across was in the Crawfordsville Journal Review, giving the mind's eye the best picture possible.  The Pacers will christen the new facility, which replaces Market Square Arena as home base, at their first game at Conseco on November 6.

 The Munster girls basketball team is getting a late start after their upset of favorite Highland in the volleyball sectional final last weekend.  Four players on that team, Margaret Schaum,  Rachel Merkell, Amanda Salinas and Stephanie Gill, are starters on the Mustang basketball team, but are enjoying every last minute of their chance to advance in volleyball -- basically because they knocked off sectional favorite Highland to get there.  The Highland/Munster rivalry is one of those that goes very, very deep, with both vying for conference titles and sectional championships in just about every sport.  Highland knocked Munster out of the running in the both  basketball and softball sectional championship games last season.  This latest Munster volleyball victory gives them inspiration heading into the basketball season against again-favored Highland.  Mark your calendar for November 19, when these two teams go at each other in Munster for what could be a conference/sectional-preview showdown at 9.0 on the Richter scale.

We recently reported that Highland will be appearing in the prestigious Chicagoland Classic in January.  Add Kokomo as an invitee to that event, as well, when the Kats will face yet unnamed opponents on January 14 and 15.  To see the entire Kokomo schedule, go to their official web page.  Kokomo will be reloading and rebuilding this season with the loss of key seniors Heather Cusick (Miami) and Tia Davis (Toledo).  But the return of key players Hillary Beck and Latisha Poulard, together with a highly-touted freshman class that is expected to impact immediately, will have Coach Charlie Hall's Kats back on line by the middle of the season. 

Just a bit more information on the verbal commitment of Kirsti Holloway.   A number of D1 schools were in the running for the New Washington senior's nod, including University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, Butler, West Point and Harvard.  Her main reason for choosing St. Louis over the others was the SLU educational program and campus.  Holloway stated that when she visited there, the members of the women's team treated her like she was already one of them and, of course, their colors are blue  & white!

South Central has hired a new girls basketball coach, just in the nick of time, we'd say.  Wanatah resident Dan Dunbar will be at the helm of the Satellite bench this season, and expects to run an uptempo offense and aggressive defense with some experienced height and a talented incoming freshman class.  You can read more about Dunbar's appointment in the LaPorte Herald-Argus.

Valparaiso University senior Sarrah Stricklett (Valparaiso) was recently named Mid-Continent Conference Preseason First Team All-Conference.  The Lady Crusaders were also picked to finish third in conference voting and are coming off of an 18-11 season with hopes to make it to the big NCAA dance with a conference tournament championship.  At media day yesterday, six players who are seniors indicated that this season is their last chance, and they are determined to make an NCAA go of it.  Five of those six seniors are former Indiana high school players, including Stricklett, Carrie Wickham (Avon), Allison Kissinger (Valparaiso), Megan Newcomer (NorthWood) and Jill Campbell (Chesterton).  Also from that high school graduating class is 1996 Miss  Basketball Lisa Winter (Huntington North), who sat out one year when she transferred to VU from Ball State and is considered a junior.  Making an appearance on the VU roster for the first time is 1999 All-Star Jeanette Gray (Valparaiso), who is expected to get a lot of playing time.  You can read about the team's media day comments in The Times, or visit the Lady Crusaders' official website for more information.

After resigning under duress as head coach of the Hammond Noll girls' basketball team last spring, Andy Juscik has been named as the athletic director and head basketball coach at Calumet College of St. Joseph.  More info available in The Times.

The Indiana University women's team will scrimmage on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. at Assembly Hall.  The scrimmage is open to the public and no admission will be charged.  IU will be looking to improve on last season's dismal campaign.  The return of Rachel Honegger (Lafayette Jeff), after being red-shirted for a year, should help the Hoosiers improve.

We found an interesting recruiting article at Beth DellaValle's Fast Break that might be of help to players and parents who are interested in seeking out a basketball scholarship.  It contains some helpful hints.

With the national signing week looming near, we are hearing of more and more verbal commitments from around the state.  A regular visitor who is a relative of Kirsti Holloway, tells us that the New Washington senior has verbally committed to St. Louis University.  Holloway, who impressed at last season's 1A state final, is a tall 6'0 guard/forward with long-range skills that make her a tough defensive matchup away from the paint.  Holloway was invited to the prestigious WBCA Select Camp in Georgia this past summer, where she impressed coaches from a number of D1 programs. The Billikens of SLU were 13-14 last season and feature eight freshmen on this season's roster.  Three former Indiana players play for the Billikens, including freshman Kia Jones (Ft. Wayne Snider), and seniors Kara Wile (Anderson) and Mandy Lueking (Austin).  (Lueking set the single-season scoring record for SLU in 1998-99, and averaged 17.7 ppg.)  More information about SLU, as well as player profiles on the Indiana players mentioned, is available at the Billikens official website.

Yesterday's Green Bay News-Chronicle featured an article about the verbal commitment of Portage senior Natalie Yudt to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay women's program.  Some nice quotes from Yudt and Portage coach Reneé Turpa appear in the article.

Rival's Hoop Planet has Ben Davis ranked as the No. 10 high school team in the country.

Connecticut freshman Kennitra Johnson (New Albany) made her presence known at a competition in front of 5,232 Huskies fans who came to the UConn Supershow, an intersquad event, at Gampel Pavilion last Sunday.  The only freshman on the roster knocked down 18 treys in 60 seconds to walk away with the 3-point shooting contest over teammate finalist Svetlana Abrosimova.   Mark Lewis of About.com has put out his Top 25 NCAA picks for the upcoming season, and he indicates that his No. 3 choice, Connecticut, could see KJ starting at the point.  Although Lewis may be on to something after last season's disaster at that position for the Huskies, coach Geno Auriemma is looking for a point guard tandem as a prescription for last season's train wreck.  He describes those expectations in a Husky Hardcore article about sophomore point guard Sue Bird.  Bird has a lot of nice things to say about KJ and judging from the comments made by Bird and Auriemma, the New Albany native is going to be a big part of the Huskies game plan this season.

  According to The Times, Portage senior Natalie Yudt (6'1 G/F), an Indiana Junior All-Star last summer, made a verbal commitment to University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Sunday.  Yudt is considered one of the top seniors in the Northwest Indiana area, was highly recruited by Ball State, as well as by Toledo, Miami (Ohio), and Butler.  Yudt averaged almost 13 ppg in 1998-99 for the Indians, and will use her quiet scoring and big all-around game to lead her Lady Indians toward a second Duneland Athletic Conference title.  The UWGB Phoenix went 19-10 during the 1998-99 season, including 13-1 in Midwestern Collegiate Conference competition.  The Phoenix women's team was also the MCC Tournament Champion.  UWGB has a number of Indiana schools on its schedule, including Butler, Valparaiso, Indiana State, and Evansville.  You can view more information on the UWGB Phoenix women's basketball program at their official website.  You can also read what Yudt has to say about her decision on our Region Roundball Review Message Board.

According to Boiler Station, Stephanie McCarty will be a familiar face once again on the Seeger basketball court this upcoming season, where she will be coaching sister, senior standout Stacy White, from the sidelines as an assistant coach with the Seeger Patriots.  McCarty was interviewed after the NCAA Woman of the Year Award banquet in Indianapolis, and indicated that she is eager to spend the season watching her sister play after being unable to do so the past few years.  McCarty has been back in Indiana since the WNBA season ended for Charlotte, for whom she played this summer.  A full schedule of substitute teaching at Seeger, golf and, interestingly, modeling an athletic line of clothing in New York, has kept the former Purdue great busy for the past couple of months.  McCarty openly admits that she would welcome an offer to play for the new Indianapolis WNBA expansion team next summer if something could be worked out during the spring draft with a trade.  She would be close to her new permanent home, which McCarty and her husband are currently building in southern Tippecanoe County.

The continuing news series at the South Bend Tribune on the possible expansion of Northern Indiana Conference ends today with articles about Lake Central's distance from other NIC members, and how Penn has dominated NIC competition with its huge enrollment of almost 3,000 students.  Lake Central is considered by some South Bend schools as the "Penn of Lake County," making reference to Penn's domination of sports in the area, especially football with 97 consecutive conference wins for Penn.  Although Merrillville might contest that Lake County title, the feeling by a number of NIC members is that Lake Central would be just another conference bully to beat up on the small schools in the conference.  Others welcome the competition of another large school, and yet others say that not only should LC be denied, but Penn should remove itself from the NIC as well.  The Penn Lady Kingsmen (kind of an oxymoron, huh?) made a trip to the semi-state last season and look to be contenders out of the 4A South Bend area again this season with a number of key players returning, including seniors Jessica Reiter and Angela Knight, and juniors Keri Certisimo and Kate Doll.  Lake Central, while still in rebuilding mode after the Komara/Kuhn dynasty, are no slouches with senior returnees Mariel Yekich, Kristin Rucinski and Sara Sikich.  Expect an announcement by the NIC membership soon on this pending vote.

The NCAA has released figures regarding scholarship and sports participation equity in its member colleges and universities.  Men still outnumber women 6-4 in participation, up from about 7-3 in 1991.   "Any growth or gain is a positive action for female student-athletes," said Cheryl Levick, chair of the Committee on Women's Athletics and senior associate athletics director at Stanford University. "But the rate of growth in participation numbers and dollars spent is much too slow. In the new millennium, every university, conference and the NCAA must have a primary goal of equalizing these numbers."  Coaching salaries, which work into budget comparisons, show that the average salary for a head men's basketball coach in DI-AA is $88,439, while the average for a head woman's basketball coach is $56,377.

  We encourage you to take a look at our current Featured Player, Michele Pickering of Portage.  This season Pickering and the Lady Indians are very serious contenders for a repeat at the Duneland Athletic Conference title, as well as a sectional championship in a very tough sectional.  Sectional 3, which Portage will be hosting in February, also includes Valparaiso, newcomer South Bend Washington, Chesterton, LaPorte and Michigan City.

The South Bend Tribune is running a series of articles on the proposed expansion of the Northern Indiana Conference, with applications from Lake Central, Marian and St. Joseph's to join.  Lake Central, long denied an opportunity to join the Duneland Athletic Conference after many attempts to do so, is looking to get into the NIC, which consists of schools mainly from the South Bend area, including all-sport powerhouse Penn.   The NIC membership for Lake Central would definitely be a long-distance one at best, but according to comments made by LC athletic officials to the Tribune, the Indians are looking to shake their "Independent" identity to give teams and athletes an incentive to compete for conference titles and all-conference honors during the season.  The Tribune is also carrying another article about the private status of the other two schools seeking NIC membership and whether or not the issue of alleged recruiting practices would impact member voting to allow them into the NIC.

According to Evansville University Assistant Coach Trish Betthauser, three underclassmen are probable starters for the Lady Aces this season.  Sophomores Tami Masterson (Plainfield), Lisa Eckart (Center Grove) and Latasha Austin (Perry Meridian) are leading the pack at their positions at this point.  Last season, Eckert (6'0 F) was a member of the 1999 MVC Freshmen Team, and Austin (5'8 G) and Masterson (5'7 G) started the final four games of the season as freshmen.  The Aces will be heading into the 1999-2000 campaign with a roster that includes nine letter winners and all of its starters back from last season.  In 1998-99, they won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and posted their first winning season since 1992 with a record of 20-11.  The future looks bright for the Lady Aces with only one senior on this year's team and verbals from Mary Blessing (Decatur Central) and Jamie Gray (6'1 PF) of Kenosha, Wisconsin, from the Class of 2000.  You can read more about the Lady Aces at their official site, or for a more personal look at the team, visit the team site maintained by Coach Betthauser.

The NCAA Woman of the Year award announced yesterday did not go to Purdue standout Stephanie McCarty (Seeger).  Jamila Demby, a track and field standout from the University of California, was named as winner of the honor.

We've been asked by Nick Ray of Hoosierland Report to let you know that his website will be down due to maintenance issues at the Go Network, where his website is housed.  The HR will be back on line after 6:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Blue Star has posted its 1999-2000 Blue Star Top 100 Seniors and 1999-2000 Blue Star Index Top 80 with only two Indiana players listed.  The only senior mentioned in the Top 100 Seniors is Shalicia Hurns (Broad Ripple) at No. 47, and in the Index Top 80, junior Shyra Ely (Ben Davis) ranks in at No. 14, while Hurns shows up at the No. 50 spot.  Ely is one of nine underclassmen that appear in the Top 80, and is the second-highest rated underclassman on the list.  We have added these two national ranking lists on our Rankings & Statistics page for future reference.

We missed it earlier, but the Lafayette Journal & Courier had an article about Shalicia Hurns' verbal commitment to Purdue last week.  The article is worth a read, however, with some insightful comments by Hurns as to why she felt Purdue was the place for her to continue her basketball career.

As you may have read on a number of basketball message boards, the 1999-2000 edition of Hoosier Basketball Magazine is out.  When we get our copy, we'll let your know which NWI teams and players have received preseason HBM recognition.  The preseason team rankings in HBM are actually determined by the Indiana Basketball Coaches Association, and this week we will be bringing you an RRR original article on the voting process used by the IBCA for its girls basketball poll.

For those of you who don't get this particular comic in your local newspaper, we thought we'd pass it along to you for a chuckle or two about the game of basketball and a variety of other sports.  The comic strip, In the Bleachers, is created daily by Steve Moore, who has an uncanny sense of catching the nuances of "sports-isms."  You can view In the Bleachers daily on-line, but if you only want basketball humor, we've clipped out a few that we liked from last season that you might enjoy. We'll be changing them from time to time on our new Just for Laughs page, which you will be able to access from our home page on a regular basis.

In its news release of today, the IHSAA has released sectional assignments, as well as the tournament format, for this season's state tournament in girls basketball.  Given a choice of multiple sectional sites or a central sectional site, 55 of the 64 sectional site administrators opted for a central site.  However, nine sectionals opted for first-round sectional games to be played at multiple sites, which will be determined by blind draw.  Regionals will be played at the site of the even-numbered sectional winner.  For example, the regional featuring the winners of Sectional 1 and Sectional 2 will be played at the Sectional 2 winner's school.  Also, regionals will be played at eight sites on Tuesday, February 22, and 24 sites on Wednesday, February 23.  (A list of those who will be playing the 22nd can be found in the IHSAA news release.)  Semi-states will be on Saturday, February 26, at the same sites for all classes as last season.  Those sites are: Warsaw and Southport in Class 4A; Peru and Jasper in Class 3A; Maconaquah and a southern site to be determined in Class 2A; Triton and Loogootee in Class A.  Of course, as announced earlier, the state finals for all four classes will be at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Saturday, March 4.  We have updated our Teams by Class & Sectionals page to show sectional host sites.  Northwest Indiana sectionals will be hosted at the following sites:

Articles regarding sectional site assignments are already appearing on-line at the Michigan City News-Dispatch and the Crawfordsville Journal Review.

According to the Crown Point Star, the early meeting of Hanover Central and North Judson, a barn burner at least, has been postponed due to the number of volleyball players still out for both programs at these 2A schools.  So when you get your schedules in Hoosier Basketball Magazine, be sure to note that one.  

We recently received a note from Notre Dame Head Coach Muffet McGraw, reminding us that junior Ruth Riley (North Miami) will be making her mark in the NCAA this season.  The 6'5 center was recently named a preseason Naismith finalist and, as we reported earlier, has been named to several preseason All-American teams by a number of basketball publications and/or organizations.  The Notre Dame website is carrying an extensive season preview, as well as a story about Riley's Naismith nomination, and has updated its roster and player profiles for the 1999-2000 season.  Although Riley is currently the only Indiana player on the Lady Irish roster this season, Coach McGraw tells us that she plans "to continue updating myself with your news on Indiana juniors...  We would like to recruit more Indiana players and this seems like a good place to find them!"  Notre Dame will be graduating three players in 2000 and four in 2001.

As always, there is no shortage of coverage on the Lady Boilermakers.  The Purdue women's official website is carrying a promotional piece for Stephanie McCarty (Seeger), who is in contention for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award with nine other senior NCAA athletes from various sports.  The announcement will be made on Sunday at an awards banquet in Indianapolis.  Also, the Lafayette Journal & Courier is carrying a preview piece on the Lady Boilermakers and how they plan on contending with the title of "defending NCAA champions."

For anyone interested in getting a description of the features at the new Conseco Fieldhouse, which sounds very nice, the Anderson Herald Bulletin is carrying a piece about a tour one its reporters took recently in the new stadium.  The only high school girls basketball event taking place there this season is the Indianapolis Cathedral v. Ben Davis game slated for December.  The girls state finals will not be held at Conseco due to a conflict with the Big Ten Women's Tournament that same weekend, however indications are that it will be the site of future high school girls basketball state finals.  Also, Conseco will be the home of the Indianapolis WNBA team scheduled to begin play next summer.  For more info, you can also visit the official website of the Conseco Fieldhouse and take a virtual tour there.

Two of this season's Region powers, Highland and Valparaiso, will meet in a preseason scrimmage on November 4 at 6:00 p.m. at Highland.  (Note:  We previously reported in error that this was to be at Valpo.)  Those dropping in to watch will see two of the area's top players in junior Jenny DeMuth (5'11 F) of Highland and senior Erin Sampsel (5'11 G) of Valparaiso.  Although they may not match up position-for-position, these two are bound to tangle within the framework of the tight Vikings defense.  Watch for 5'11 forward tandem Courtney Rosenbaum and Lee Traynham to pitch in on the defensive effort against DeMuth's signature penetrations to the bucket.  Valpo and Highland have not played each other in the regular season for years, although they have met in the preseason for the past two.  Hopefully this will be a precursor to an eventual regular season meeting between the Vikings and the Trojans, where the score will count.  Also, the Highland schedule is showing two games in the competitive, invitation-only Chicagoland Girls Prep Classic on January 15.  No word yet on who the Trojans will face in that event, which attracts some of the top teams in the country.

The Lafayette Journal & Courier recently put out a feature article about Ebba Gebisa's soccer success at West Lafayette.  The 6'1 junior is the starting center for the Red Devils basketball team and credits soccer with raising the level of her footwork and overall agility on the basketball floor.  Gebisa has scored 12 goals this season for her soccer team, which is sporting a 14-1 record, with its only loss to Crown Point during the regular season.  West Lafayette has advanced to the soccer regionals, so Gebisa may have a little more time to work on that footwork before she hits the hardcourt.

The Times-Mail (link outdated) out of Bedford is carrying a piece about first-day practice happenings at Bedford North Lawrence and Mitchell.  BNL is a team that is expecting to make a mark this season.  Coach Jay Ritter, who took his team to 16-5 last season, is hoping for big things from his seniors, especially 5'8 forward Fabrianne Perez.  The Stars had about 30 bodies show up for the first day of practice, even though a number of key players are still participating in fall tournament play.  Mitchell, coached by Ross Simpson, didn't quite have the same turnout, with only 11 showing up on opening day.  Mitchell has a number of players on their highly-regarded volleyball season who will up the numbers down the line.

While we're waiting for the competitive season to start, we thought you might enjoy a couple of original RRR video clips from last season's IHSAA tournament.  (Good for a 5-second basketball fix!)  One clip is Kennitra Johnson (New Albany) going one-on-one with April McDivitt (Connersville) at the Southport Semi-State, which we rate as one of the all-time great games in girls basketball.  The second clip is the last 7 seconds of the Cathedral/NorthWood 3A State Championship game at Market Square Arena, where (then) sophomore Asjah Zinnerman of Cathedral makes her last-second, but unsuccessful, drive to the hoop, allowing NorthWood to walk away with the first place hardware.  These clips take a while to down load (over 500K), but they're fun to watch.  You need a MPG media player to watch them, which can be downloaded for free on-line from Microsoft.  To get to the clips and the Microsoft media player, go to our new Video Clips page.  We hope to bring you a number of clips throughout the season of some of the top teams and players. 

The Muncie Star Press is reporting that Ball State's women Cardinals have been picked to finish last in the Mid-American Conference by the press.  Ball State will have a tough go with a 10-woman roster that includes no seniors.  To make matters worse, two of those 10 players are out with injuries, bringing the number of players available to play down to 8.  Freshmen Amy Zercher (NorthWood) and Laurie Kitts (Eastbrook) look to be in a good position for playing time early in their college careers.

The Indianapolis Star has further information about the Indy WNBA new interim coach, Anne Donovan.

Ben Davis junior Shyra Ely is giving all a glimpse of her college interests in a recent interview given to Gold & Black.  According to her comments there, she is very intersted in Purdue, but also high on her list are Ohio State, Georgia, UConn, Tennessee, "and others."  Ely should have her pick of any school she mentioned, as the 6'1 forward is highly ranked by a number of rating services around the nation. 

According to Pat McKee of the Indianapolis Star,  Mooresville senior Christina Shrake (5'10 F) has committed to Cleveland State.  McKee also has written an article about the commitment of Shalicia Hurns (Broad Ripple) to Purdue.

If you've never been to a Midnight Madness event, you might want to read Bob Richards' review of Mackey Magic night at Purdue at the Mr. Hoops Purdue recruiting site.  A totally honest evaluation, with a few accompanying photos, tells the good and the bad regarding the event.  The most interesting coverage is the review of the women's scrimmage, player by player.  Comments on Kelly Komara (Lake Central), Mary Jo Noon (Jeffersonville), Katie Douglas (Perry Meridian) and a best guess of Purdue's starting lineup are given.  Some interesting reading for you Purdue fans.  Noon is also the subject of an article in the Indianapolis Star describing how last year's red-shirted freshman will be a focal point of the Lady Boilermakers' game this season.

Also on the college front, Ball State has updated its women's site, including a season outlook for the Cardinals and player profiles for incoming freshmen Amy Zercher (NorthWood) and Laurie Kitts (Eastbrook).  Region fans might also be interested in the coach's profile of Tracy Roller, a former Crown Point player and Valparaiso University assistant coach.  Roller is considered one of the top college recruiters in the Midwest and is expected to help the Cardinals create a winning tradition for BSU women's basketball.

Another women's site that has some updates on Indiana players is Northwestern, where fomerly red-shirted senior Kristina Divyak (Lake Central) and incoming freshmen Emily Butler (Center Grove) and Natalie Will (NorthWood) are highly mentioned in a season preview article.  

According to the Star, the Indianapolis WNBA No-Names have announced that Anne Donovan, the former coach of the ABL's Philadelphia Rage and East Carolina University, will serve as interim head coach until Team USA head coach Nell Fortner can step into her role as head coach for the No-Names.  As of yet, obviously, the team has not selected a name for itself yet.

ARE   YOU   READY   TO   
RUMMMMMMMBLE?!?

It's hardwood time again in Indiana for the girls, and it should be a great season!  The Times reports that, as they have since 1990, Gary West Side held their very own Midnight Madness practice at the stroke of midnight late last night to commemorate the opening of the new season.  West Side should be making some noise in the Region this year, but unfortunately, you probably won't hear much about them until they threaten the more high-profile NWI teams at tournament time.  Because they are locked into a weak conference schedule, the Cougars are not in many of the regular season marquee games that attract attention in NWI, let alone attention around the state.  They will be sporting a talented team, led by 5'10 junior Kim Smith, who will be a definite shoe-in for a number of local media pre-season All-Area teams.  The big question for the Cougars is can they get past the tournament hump this season?  Regionals is where they usually hit the wall, but since defending Regional Champ Highland and senior-laden Munster are now in Sectional 1, the ladies on the West Side could be facing their first sectional defeat in a long string of sectional championships.  Smith has a lot to say about their expectations for the season in The Times article.  Now THAT should be an outstanding sectional.

Fall sports are still in full swing, which means that a number of basketball players will be missing in action until tournament play in fall sports is completed.  Oddly enough, volleyball sectionals don't even start until four days after basketball practices have started.  All these overlapping dates mean that multi-sport basketball players that go deep into the fall tournament season may not get in enough practices before their team's first basketball games, which may start as early as November 8.  The IHSAA state finals for fall sports still in progress are as follows:

Soccer - October 30

Volleyball - November 6

Cross-Country - November 6

One of the players who may be a late show for the basketball season is Highland junior Jenny DeMuth.  DeMuth's volleyball team has a good chance to go late in the season with an undefeated conference season and very few losses in the regular season.  DeMuth recently was named a Street & Smith Honorable Mention All-American and her take on that honor appears in The Times today.

Mike Detcher from Ohio tells us that freshman Heather Cusick (Kokomo) made her presence known at her new basketball home at Miami University.  As she did often for the Kats, Cusick slipped into long-range overdrive to walk away with the 3-point co-ed contest title at MU's Midnight Madness on Friday.  Cusick was teamed up with one of the sharpshooters from the men's team  for the competition, and she and her shooting partner won with 4 makes in 30 seconds.  Hope her partner wasn't feeling too embarrassed, since she saved his backside by making 3 of the 4 buckets that put them on top.  Cusick will not be lonely for Hoosier company in Ohio.  Four of her talented teammates are also Indiana natives -- freshman Beth Roederer (Indianapolis Cathedral), junior Jenny Martin (Center Grove), senior Jamie Stewart (Rushville), and senior Lindsay Winkler (Lapel).  You can view Cusick's player profile, as well as those of her Hoosier teammates, at the Miami women's website.

The Indiana State Sycamores had their first practice over the weekend, and apparently coach Cheryl Reeve was pleased.  You can read Coach Reeve's comments about freshmen Kourtney Mennen (Clinton Prairie) and Erin Rhodes (Oak Hill) in the Terre Haute Tribune-Star.  (Freshman Kristy Thomann of North Vermillion will be sitting out the season due to Prop 48 ineligibility.)

Beth Della Valle of Fast Break has put together an extremely nice evaluation piece on the incoming freshmen players in the Big East Conference.  Two former Indiana high school players covered in the article are UConn's Kennitra Johnson (New Albany) and Georgetown's Nok Duany (Bloomington North).  Della Valle also lists Johnson as a member of her "Stars of the Class" in the Big East.

United States Senator Dick Lugar is looking for stories from our high school basketball past.  As part of the Library of Congress Bicentennial Celebration, communities across the United States are being encouraged to chronicle cultural traditions of their locales. Senator Lugar has chosen the time-honored tradition of high school basketball in Indiana as a contribution for the Local Legacies project from Indiana.  The final project will be presented in December and Lugar is inviting every high school in Indiana to contribute its own "legend" for the project.  You can get additional information about the Local Legacies project in the Jackson County Life Tribune.

For those of you who are trying to make some long-range plans for next summer, the Indiana AAU website has recently added a new page there, which is an AAU calendar with important dates, including tentative slots for the Indiana regional and state tournaments for all age groups.  Also, a complete list of Indiana AAU All-Americans for the past 18 years has been posted, together with the college they attend(ed).

Well, you thought you'd read everything under the sun about basketball... that is, until you read this one.  According to The Sporting News, three University of Massachusetts former women players are suing the university for $45 million after they claim they were mentally abused by their coach, Joanie O'Brien, during their basketball years with the UMass program.  They claim that school administrators were aware of the situation, but did nothing to correct it.  Wow, if this one should have a favorable outcome for the players filing suit, Pandora's box would be awfully hard to close any time soon, all the way from peewees to the pros.

According to Gold & Black, Broad Ripple standout and Miss Basketball candidate Shalicia Hurns committed to the Boilermakers of Purdue at last night's Midnight Madness in Mackey Arena.  The 6'3 guard/forward is the fourth recruit to commit to Purdue from the Class of 2000.  Known as a versatile presence on the floor that can play any position for her high school team,  Hurns was highly recruited by Purdue and is considered a possible inducement for Ben Davis's Shyra Ely, tops on Purdue's wish list from the Class of 2001, to commit to the Boilers sometime in the future.  According to Gold & Black, Ely was there for some of last night's Madness, but missed most of festivities due to a late arrival.

With the early-season commitments of Shalicia Hurns (Broad Ripple) to Purdue, Anna Waugh (Franklin) to Indiana and Sara Nord (Jeffersonville) to Louisville, all three leading candidates for Miss Basketball have taken care of their college choices early in the season to concentrate on the immediate task at hand -- an outstanding final high school season.  With no pressure in dealing with college scouts and countless recruiting phone calls, these three can now give their best performances unhampered by the stress of choosing one college over another.  Other Miss Basketball fringe candidates include Lindsay Secrest (Bloomfield) recently committed to Northern Illinois, and Sara Strahm (Ben Davis), who has not yet committed to a college program.

We have posted our list of senior Players to Watch around the Region and state for the upcoming season.  We will be posting our list for the Class of 2001 later this week, and continue with the others in the period leading up to the first week of games.  Also, we've started a new poll on our home page for those of you who would like to venture a guess as to who will be the dominant player in NWI this season.  If your favorite player is not listed, you can add her name by voting for "Other" and putting in your own comments on who that player will be.  Also, if you are interested in following the continued results of our earlier polls, which are still active, you can view them at our Poll Archives page, always accessible on the navigation bar to the left under the Archives links.

According to President Bill Clinton, he will be sticking with peanut butter and power naps, a Lady Boilermakers championship pre-game routine, to deal with the pressures of running the country.  Well, at least that's what he said to the members of last season's Purdue National Championship Team on their visit to the White House on Thursday.  The Lady Boilermakers were honored by the White House and Congress, together with the men's team from the University of Connecticut, in special ceremonies in Washington, D.C.  Let's hope they all stayed in pairs during their tour of the President's office!  (Ba dah dum...  Sorry, couldn't resist.)  Former Region standout Kelly Komara was impressed with the honor of meeting the President, calling the meeting "historic" and something to tell her grandchildren about someday.  Purdue graduates Stephanie McCarty and Ukari Figgs, as well as former Purdue head coach Carolyn Peck, joined their former teammates to make the trip.  You can read about the Lady Boilermakers' trip to the White House in the Lafayette Journal & Courier.  You can also view the entire transcript of the President's comments to the Purdue team at Northern Light Library.

There is lots of good college teams coverage at The Sporting News today, including a mention of April McDivitt in an article about the Lady Vols.  (For you junkies who just can't get enough!)

Midnight Madness, a tradition at a number of college campuses around the country, had its beginnings at Maryland in 1970 as a way to motivate players and promote their upcoming season.  You can read the historical aspect of Midnight Madness and how some colleges have turned it into an outright media spectacle, as well as lots of fun for college students, at CNN Sports Illustrated.

Finally, we would remind everyone to edit your bookmarks for the home page of the Region Roundball Review.  We will be making the switch soon, don't get left out in cyberspace when the season is underway!  Again, the new web address is:

http://www.smallwebsolutions.com/roundball

According to The Times, Hammond Morton's Cathy Herring has announced her decision to forego college basketball to attend Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana, on a volleyball scholarship.  Herring, the first Division I volleyball player to come out of the Governers' volleyball program, will finish out her basketball career at Morton this season.  She has received numerous awards for basketball, including an invitation to the WBCA  Super Select Camp in Georgia  in July.  Next summer Herring will be devoting her time to volleyball on the club circuit in order to prepare herself for a single-sport career at Northwestern State.

The 1999-2000 college and high school issue of Street & Smith is out, and several Indiana players have received All-America recognition.  Heading the list is Ben Davis junior Shyra Ely, who was named to the S&S All-America Fourth Team.  She is one of only three juniors named in the First through Sixth teams named by S&S, and only one junior is ahead of her in ranking, that being 6'5 Kara Braxton of Beaverton, Oregon, who was named to the S&S Second Team.  The Class of 2001 makes a strong showing among the other Indiana players recognized in the All-America Honorable Mention category.  Those Indiana players include junior Ashley Allen (Ben Davis), junior Jackie Batteast (SB Washington), junior Jenny DeMuth (Highland), senior Lindsay Galbraith (Anderson), senior Shalicia Hurns (Broad Ripple), junior Erin Moran (Roncalli), senior Sara Nord (Jeffersonville) and senior Lindsay Secrest (Bloomfield).  Also, as might be expected, Ben Davis makes an appearance in the S&S Girls Top 15 Prep Teams, receiving a flattering No. 4 national ranking.  Also, New Albany makes the S&S Honorable Mention Top Prep Teams, listed 29th overall in order.

Some of you have been actively participating in our Pre-Season Sectional Fan Polls, where voting has been taking place since last month.  The 4A voting has been brisk, as well as the 3A South voting.  The other classes, however, are showing some weak numbers in voting.  If you haven't already, please vote for your favorites in each sectional.  As of today, the following teams are leading in pre-season votes for their respective sectionals:

According to the Indianapolis Star, St. Joe's senior Angie Hupfer (Pendleton Heights) has been named the Women's Division II Preseason Player of the Year by the Women's Division II Bulletin (WDIIB).  Hupfer was named the Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year as a junior, and was the only junior on the WDIIB All-American Team at the end of last season.  You can view Hupfer's career stats, including where she ranks on St. Joe's all-time lists for scoring, rebounding and steals, in the St. Joe's press release about their MVP senior.  For an all-time personal career high, Hupfer scored 48 points against Indianapolis last February.

The USA Basketball Team has scheduled a 12-game exhibition tour at top-level NCAA schools around the nation.  Included in that schedule is Purdue, when the Lady Boilermakers will get an opportunity to play today's basketball greats in the women's game as a tune-up for the regular season.  With that scheduled game, USA head coach Nell Fortner will get one more chance to coach in Mackey Arena, where she began the Lady Boilermakers on the road in 1996-97 toward last year's national championship.  For a complete schedule of the tour, as well as the roster of the USA Team, you can view the USA Basketball press release.

Speaking of Fortner, WNBA President Val Ackerman was recently in Indianapolis keeping the public relations fire burning for the new WNBA Indy franchise team poised to debut next summer.  Ackerman had nothing but high praises for Fortner, stating, "She's a rising star. There's a new generation of basketball coaches that is led by Nell."  You can read further about the Indy franchise and how the WNBA's promotion is continuing for the Indy franchise in the Indianapolis Star. 

Our first edition of In the Huddle has been posted, giving the viewpoints of players from around the state.  The topic this week is "Tryouts" and how to handle the pressure, together with advice to freshmen going out for high school basketball the first time.  Thanks to the girls who contributed to the discussion -- some very insightful and positive comments from these players.  Any and all players are still welcome to join the Huddle at anytime during the season.  For more information, click here.

As we reported last week, Lauren Dailey of North Vigo will be attending Eastern Illinois University next year on a basketball scholarship.  The Terre Haute Tribune-Star is carrying a feature article about the 5'10 senior and her reasons for choosing Eastern Illinois.  

The organizers of the Indiana All-Star games are trying to locate the members of the 1980 and 1990 members of the Indiana girls All-Stars for a reunion at the next All-Star series in 2000.  The  Indianapolis Star is carrying a list of those former players they are attempting to locate.  Former NWI players on the list include Sue Watts of Valparaiso (1980), Dana Drew of Valparaiso (1990) and Ellen Blackmun of Munster (1990).  As stated in the Star article, contact information should be sent to All-Star Game Director Pat Aikman by fax at (317) 633-9331, e-mail at paikman@starnews.com or by phone at 1-800-669-7827, ext. 9057 or (317) 633-9057.

The Ben Davis Giants have been ranked No. 19 in the Top 25 high school teams in the nation at Fullcourt Press, and No. 6 in the Midwest Region.  (You will not be able to access the Top 25 at Fullcourt Press unless you have a membership there.)  You can vote on who has the best chance of upsetting Ben Davis during the regular season on our current poll running on our home page.

As many of you may have noticed over the weekend, we've been experiencing some down time at our Geocities site.  We have been less than happy with the service there, and as a result are in the process of moving to what we believe will be a much more reliable service.  As of now, we are working with mirror sites, so you can access either one.  At some point in the near future, however, you will be forwarded to the new site if you try to access the Geocities site.  Some of our archived material will continue to be housed at Geocities, but will still be accessible -- as long as the service is not down there.  We are sorry for the inconvenience (to both our users and to us -- this is a major undertaking!), but we feel this situation will just be too annoying to deal with during the season.  If you should experience any trouble at the new site with links or missing graphics, please let us know as it is difficult to catch all the links that must be changed to effect the move.  The new website can be found at:

http://www.smallwebsolutions.com/roundball

Be sure to bookmark it!

Pat McKee, of the Indianapolis Star, informs us that senior Lauren Dailey, a 5'9 wing from 3A West Vigo, has verbally committed to Eastern Illinois.  According to last season's Hoosier Basketball Magazine, Dailey averaged 15 ppg  and was the leading scorer at West Vigo her freshman and sophomore years.  

The Go Lady Vols website is carrying several interesting articles, with information about Tennessee freshman April McDivitt (Connersville).  The first article is about the freshman class of four joining the Lady Vols this season, with a short bio on each player.  The second article, which might be of interest to seniors who are now debating on which college to commit to, discusses the depth of the Tennessee squad and how that might impact the team as a whole down the line in playing time and team defections.  After finding themselves short on the bench in their loss to Duke last season in the NCAA semi-finals, coach Pat Summit picked up four new freshmen to up their squad from 11 to 13 (with the exit of graduating seniors Holdsclaw and Jolly).  The Vols will be signing on three more freshmen for next season to sustain the bench and keep lively the inter-squad competition for playing time.  Some interesting reading.  Finally, the last article -- one from spring of this year -- describes the performances of the four incoming Tennessee freshman in the WBCA High School All-American game.  The most interesting part of the article is the high compliments McDivitt has for high school rival, Kennitra Johnson, and what their one-on-one history will add to the UT/UConn rivalry in the years to come.  

Indiana AAU is currently looking at reformatting its state tournaments for 10U, 11U, 12U, 13U and 14U to include two divisions.  The two divisions would be "School Division," defined as all players from the same school or same geographical high school district, and "Open Division," for all-star teams and school teams who wish to compete in the Open Division.   Only the top finishers in the Open Division would be eligible for nationals competition.  Indiana AAU Chair, Pat McKee, would like input from AAU club representatives regarding the change.  You can fill out an on-line survey regarding this topic on the Indiana AAU website.  Also, the four-page document outlining the October 10 Annual Meeting, as well as information regarding AAU national and state statistics, upcoming nationals dates and other AAU business, is now available for downloading.

For those of you following college hoops, Clay Kallem of CBS Sportsline has put together his predictions for the Sweet 16 and Final Four in women's college basketball.

We have posted our Pre-Season Top 12 for Northwest Indiana and the state.  As you might guess, Ben Davis tops the state list with a number of talented individuals, while Valparaiso, even with the loss of Jeanette Gray to graduation, tops the NWI Top 12.  To see which teams round out our dandy dozen, check it out!  We will be releasing our Top 20 Seniors later this week.

The first article on our Featured Player page is now available.  Valparaiso senior Erin Sampsel (5'11 PG) is our first subject for this new Region Roundball Review feature.  Stop by and read about the Lady Vikings floor leader for the 1999-2000 season.  We will be bringing you original articles about players in NWI and around the state throughout the season.

The Indiana Basketball Coaches Association has updated its website for members regarding the discussions to take place this fall at Regional Principal Meetings around the state regarding the IHSAA participation rules for summer basketball.  If you'd like to see the IBCA's stance on this issue, go to their IHSAA Updates page, where high school coaches are highly encouraged to talk with their respective Athletic Directors to lobby for school support of the majority of the participation rule changes.

A select number of Indiana players can now say that they were coached by a Basketball Hall of Famer.  Women's basketball great, Billie Moore, who served as a Special Guest Coach at this summer's WBCA's Premier and Super Select Camps, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame yesterday.  According to an AP article, Moore's path to basketball greatness started in Kansas, where she played for her father, the coach for both the boys and girls b