Expectations running high for state basketball teams

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Authors: DAN MANOYAN

Wafer cookies served with vanilla comments are bill of fare staples at

most conference media days. But every decade or so, something memorable

disrupts the blandness of these affairs.

For instance, no one at the Big Ten meeting Sunday at the O'Hare Airport

Marriott will soon forget the brooding Bob Knight giving the cold shoulder

to his onetime protege and new Iowa men's basketball coach, Steve Alford.

Diners at the Conference USA luncheon at the Westin Hotel, a mile down

Higgins Road from the Big Ten meeting, will remember having to talk over

the blaring music from the bar mitzvah in the next room.

For followers of women's basketball in the state of Wisconsin, however,

the dueling media days had a different significance. They served as the

launching pad for what promises to be perhaps the most promising season

in the sport.

At the Marriott, Wisconsin coach Jane Albright was struggling to temper

her excitement over the upcoming season by saying that her team is still

relatively young and Penn State and Illinois are formidable roadblocks.

At the Westin, Marquette's Terri Mitchell was unabashedly grinning from

ear to ear.

And back home in Milwaukee and Green Bay, UWM coach Sandy Botham and UW-Green

Bay coach Kevin Borseth were plotting their paths to the NCAA tournament.

It would be the Phoenix's third straight trip, should it make it, but it

will have to get past the up-and-coming Panthers in the Midwestern Collegiate

Conference tournament in March.

It isn't a stretch to think the state could have three NCAA qualifiers,

as was the case in 1998.

After three consecutive trips to the tournament, Mitchell leaves no doubt

that anything short of advancing deep into the tournament would be a disappointment

for her senior-laden team.

"I don't think my expectations have ever been so high going into a season,"

said Mitchell, who has a 64-25 record in her three seasons at Marquette.

"We've been to the tournament three years in a row, we've finished at the

top of our conference and everybody is back from last year.

"We're fine with it. The players want it. We're ready."

The Conference USA coaches apparently agree with Mitchell's assessment,

anointing the Golden Eagles as the team to beat in the American Division.

Marquette and Tulane were picked as co-favorites for the overall title.

Mitchell scheduled the upcoming season keeping in mind the team's anticipated

success. Non-conference opponents include Iowa, Dayton, Brigham Young,

Wisconsin, Syracuse and Arkansas State.

"This is the strongest schedule we could line up," Mitchell said. "RPI

is the name of the game. We can't expect a high seeding in the tournament

if we don't play anybody outside the conference.

"That's the type of coach I am and that's the type of player I recruit.

You can't recruit that sort of player if you're not going to play a challenging

schedule."

Wisconsin, which last season failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament

for only the second time in Albright's five seasons in Madison, has more

to prove than the Golden Eagles but there is no preventing their anticipation

from bubbling to the surface.

"My degree of excitement is like I've never experienced before," said Albright,

who like Mitchell returns all five starters from last season. "But on the

other hand, we had some very clear weaknesses last year, so we've got a

lot of room for improvement.

"I know we've got a lot of talent but we still may be on the young side

in a lot of areas. Last year our ability to make decisions quickly was

poor and resulted in a lot of turnovers. Plus we were poor rebounders early

in the year."

Adding 6-foot-4 Nina Smith, the No. 1 recruit in the nation, should solve

Wisconsin's rebounding problems. It is up to an older and hopefully wiser

Dee Dee Pate, now a senior, to effectively distribute the basketball.

"This is Dee Dee's second year in quarterbacking the show, but she didn't

have a lot of experience in running things before that," Albright said.

"So far in practice, she is the most improved player on the team and now

she has to do that in games."

To start the season, Albright plans to rotate starting assignments among

Pate, Kelly Paulus, LaTonya Sims, Jessie Stomski, Tamara Moore, Kyle Black

and Smith.

"I think it's safe to say that we have more great players than we've ever

had here," Albright said. "The challenge will be to find enough minutes

to keep everybody happy."

In the dance