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Friday, December 22, 2000
Gators don't want to be bait this March
By Mechelle Voepel
Special to ESPN.com
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Years from now at some Florida women's basketball reunion, they're probably
not going to be breaking out the tape of the 2000 NCAA Tournament selection
show.
"Hey, guys, look! There's us when we realize there are only
16 spots left! ... Wow! Here's us looking about ready to throw up ... Oh,
there's Coach Ross with the granite face, wondering how she got 'Sue
Gunter-ed' while Piddily U. got in ... Yippee! There's us with that 'We're
goin' to the NIT!' look of frozen horror. Please, turn it off ..."
You might think perhaps Florida coach Carol Ross wishes she hadn't agreed
to have ESPN there live in Gainesville to show what she hoped would be joy
and relief, not abject disappointment. When the bracket of 64 was announced
last March with Florida not making the cut, it was difficult to watch. The
same thing had happened to Gunter and LSU in 1996 on ESPN.
But Ross said she doesn't regret that her team's heartbreak moment was on
live TV.
"I knew we were a bubble team, and I prepared myself for the worst,"
Ross said. "I didn't want to show a lack of class if we were to be
disappointed. But at the same time, it's hard to be disappointed publicly.
"But I also think that maybe it did work for us. I really think maybe it
helped us."
As they say, even an ill wind can blow some good. After this happened to
LSU, Gunter and her team came out fired up the next season and made the NCAA
field.
Ross looks for a similar flame from her bunch this year. So far, it's been
burning as if Ross has discovered a lot of that fuel our new Prez and Veep
want to go find in "protected" areas.
(Wildlife and nature's beauty are probably overrated anyway. As Texans
know, there's nothing like the enchanting glow of a refinery's lights to
brighten the coastline. Come on -- you knew a story about Florida would have
some political commentary, didn't you?)
At any rate, Florida is 9-0 going into Friday's game at Colorado, its last
contest before the holiday break. Admittedly, Florida hasn't had the world's
most difficult nonconference schedule, but it has beaten Penn State and
could face Rutgers next week in the State Farm Classic in Gainesville.
And then there's the Southeastern Conference schedule.
Now, everyone who follows women's basketball knows the deal here. The SEC
has earned its reputation as -- to put it in soccer terms -- the "league of
death."
The SEC's record in the NCAA Tournament -- there's been at least one SEC
team in the Final Four every year except 1992 -- is indisputable. The
breakdown in the Elite Eight last season: SEC (three teams), Big East (two),
Big 12, Big Ten and Sun Belt (one each).
The thing is, the national media often find themselves in the position of
feeling like the PR mouthpiece for the SEC. Is it possible to secure a
comfortable middle ground here -- to give the SEC the praise it warrants
without feeling like you're insulting the other leagues?
And, on the flip side, give credit to the other leagues without taking
baseless shots at the SEC?
I'll try. I do think the NCAA selection committee, even though it claims
not to pay any attention to conference affiliation, must take into account
the difficulty of playing the SEC's schedule.
At the same time, it isn't automatic that the SEC is always on some kind
of higher plane of existence than the other power leagues. However, I don't
blame the SEC coaches and players one bit for trying to maintain that idea.
Florida guard Brandi McCain, a native of Texas, rather innocently sent
this dagger out to her home state.
"I looked at Texas and Texas Tech, and they're really good programs,"
she said. "But I knew I wanted to play in the SEC. If one of those teams
had been in the SEC, I probably would have gone there."
Sorry, Brandi, but the SEC is not the NFC East, which includes a Texas
team and even an Arizona team (the former ST. LOUIS Cardinals, a hopeless
franchise but huge part of my childhood taken away, not that I'll hold a
grudge until I croak ...)
Anyway, this is part of how the SEC wins some recruiting wars and stakes
its claim on NCAA Tournament bids. Every SEC coach has perfected that little
patronizing chuckle when you ask about league play.
Well, you know, this is just what we have to deal with. We're
facing 10 All-Americans every night in the SEC. It's something you sort of
have to go through to understand ...
The SEC coaches who made the NCAA field last season all took up the
"Florida was robbed" mantra -- knowing, of course, that they could be in
similar shoes in the future.
And, let's face it, Florida probably was better than half the teams in the
NCAA Tournament last season. But unless the bids are completely restructured
and the "little" conference champions left out (it won't happen short of a
major Division I shakeup spurred by football and men's hoops), there's going
to be a least one team like Florida every year.
It's kind of like "The Lottery," except nowhere near that depraved and
creepy and nobody dies. OK, it's not really that much like it.
But Ross knows the score. After all, her entire collegiate basketball
experience is in this league: as a player at Mississippi, an assistant at
Auburn and head coach at Florida.
She realizes that the SEC's schedule sometimes giveth ... and sometimes
taketh away. Florida got an NCAA bid in 1999 after going 6-8 in the SEC. But
you had a feeling that 6-8 in the SEC wasn't going to work with the
committee two years in a row for Florida, and it didn't.
All this makes it a little harder for SEC coaches to schedule
nonconference games with an eye toward two major factors:
Will this get my team enough victories before the SEC battles?
Will this get my team ready for the SEC battles?
"I'd personally rather have my team be thrown in the fire, try to throw
everything at them so by January we have some idea of what reality is,"
Ross said. "I know last year, though, that probably my scheduling is what
kept us out of the tournament. But the year before, it's what kept us in."
Ross wants to make sure there's no bubble factor this season. As does
McCain.
She's yet another two-time ACL survivor. She tore the blasted ligament in
her left knee during a summer all-star camp while she was still in high
school. Then she had a superb freshman season at Florida, starting every
game and making first-team all-SEC.
Then the summer of 1999, she tore the ACL in her right knee while playing
for the United States in the World University Games. Still, she played 15
games last season, despite rehabbing from the knee injury and breaking the
fibula in her left leg late last December.
Somehow, despite all that's happened to this kid's legs, she is still one
of the fastest players in the country.
"She's a special person who has been blessed with great athletic ability
and the work ethic and IQ to push her game to a greater height," Ross said.
"What she's meant to this team is evident by the start we've had and how we
struggled last year without her.
"She can dominate on both ends with her quickness. I feel like I need to
find a better word, though, because she's quicker than quick."
She's also smaller than small: 5 feet, 3 inches. It isn't easy these days
to be that small in high-level Division I ball, especially not with the
increasing number of big guards.
But that's where McCain uses both her quickness and something else that's
inside her to make up for lack of height. Of course, she lists "Rudy" as
her favorite movie. But it's not all that corny, really.
Asked if she cries when she watches it, McCain laughs.
"Nah," she said. "I just get motivated. I liked Rudy because he was
small, like me, and he didn't give up.
"You look at me, I'm not your typical basketball player. I want to
motivate young kids, let them know you don't have to be the tallest, you
have to find other ways to help."
Florida has more than this Mighty Mite, though. It also has senior Tombi
(pronounced TOOM-bee) Bell, who's taken the point guard role as McCain has
settled in at shooting guard. They're Florida's top two scorers, combining
to average more than 37 points so far.
"Tombi and Brandi both were recruited as point guards, and it kind of
evolved that Tombi took control of that role," Ross said. "I think Brandi
felt comfortable with that, though."
Inside, there's budding star Vanessa Hayden, a 6-4 center from Orlando
whom Ross chuckled, "has been in the Gator filing cabinet for about 10
years."
"We certainly make a commitment to keeping the best players in Florida,"
Ross said. "She's got endless potential, a post player who loves being a
post player -- almost a throwback. She loves it in there. She can take it and
dish it out."
Junior forward Naomi Mobley, junior guard Monique Cardenas and senior
center Tamara Stocks all have had some big contributions thus far for
Florida, too.
Ross wasn't thrilled with her team's 79-30 victory against Chicago State on
Wednesday -- "We were extremely sloppy" -- but knows if everyone can stay
healthy, Florida has a good opportunity to avoid any crushing moments come
Selection Sunday.
Sure, Florida made the most of the consolation-prize NIT last season,
advancing to the final, where it lost 75-74 to Wisconsin. However, that
provided all the more NCAA Tournament motivation for this season.
"Any time you get disappointed, you can lay down and cry or find a way to
make sure it doesn't happen again," Ross said. "We want to be sure that
when they're passing out invitations this year, we invite ourselves."
Mechelle Voepel of the Kansas City Star is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. She can be reached via e-mail at mvoepel@kcstar.com.
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