To be the best, you've got to play the best, and in the arena of Div. III women's basketball, it doesn't get any better than Bates College.
The Bobcats are currently ranked No. 1 nationally, enjoying their second week atop the rankings and their sixth straight week in the country's top 10. Leading the NESCAC in almost all meaningful categories - points scored, points allowed, shooting percentage, steals, rebounds, and assists - Bates is highly favored both in the NESCAC and NCAA tournaments, and a loss in the first round of the conference tournament would certainly be an upset to remember.
But that's just the upset coach Carla Berube and the Jumbos are set on as they travel to Lewiston, Maine on Saturday for their first-round NESCAC tournament game against the top-seeded Bobcats.
After a weekend of intense action around the league, the final NESCAC rankings were released on Monday, and along with them, the matchups for this weekends' opening round of the postseason tournament. The Jumbos came in at the number seven spot, picking up two spots on a 3-0 week with wins over Trinity, Amherst, and non-league Salve Regina. The top two slots went predictably to Bowdoin and Bates, ranking No. 3 and No. 1 in the nation, respectively. The Tufts-Bates matchup is one of four opening-round games being played on Saturday.
The two teams will meet for the second time in two weeks, as the Bobcats came away from Medford on Feb. 5 with a 76-66 win over the Jumbos. A slow start from the home team afforded the Bobcats large first-half leads that would prove too much to overcome, even though Tufts rallied to outscore Bates by a slim margin 35-32 in the second half.
"Our slow start last time definitely hurt us along the way," sophomore guard Taryn Miller-Stevens said. "We want to be in it right from the start, not give an inch, and play our game."
The Jumbos were shut out from the floor for nearly the first six minutes in the loss, and getting into an offensive pattern early on will be crucial on Saturday. But for Berube, who has centered her strategy on defense, the early tempo of the game will be set on the defensive end.
"Offensive rhythm is definitely important, but we really need to come out in with defensive pressure and intensity," she said. "Defensive transition is really important and we can't give them quick, easy baskets."
Coming out strong from the whistle has been part of Berube's game plan all year. Aggressive defense and full-court pressure have been staples on the court this season and will likely appear in Saturday's game as the Jumbos will look to get some early steals, shake up Bates' offensive rotation, and put the Bobcats on the defensive early on.
But the Jumbos are under no illusions about what they are up against this weekend. Bates boasts the NCAA's 7th-ranked offense and three-time NESCAC Player-of-the-Week Olivia Zurek, whose athleticism is actually under-represented by her per-game average of 17 points and 16 rebounds. But while the Jumbos are something of a dark horse in the NESCAC tournament, it is a role they wholly embrace.
"We're definitely the underdog," said senior co-captain Alison Love, whose trifecta of 20-plus performances last week earned her NESCAC Player-of-the-Week honors. "But I think we're in a good position. We have nothing to lose, and they have the pressure of being No.1 right now."
Berube commented on the odds against the Jumbos.
"Nobody expects us to win," she said. "Bates is a tough place to compete, but it really just comes down to playing basketball. We've never won a NESCAC tournament game, and that's been our goal since the start of the season."
While the Jumbos are now just one slot up from the bottom, their presence in the tournament at all is a result of a strong finish in last weekend's league schedule. Heading into the weekend, Tufts was 1-6 against NESCAC teams and the promise which had characterized the beginning of the season had all but evaporated.
But after huge conference wins over Trinity and Amherst, the Jumbos seem to be playing with the intensity, cohesion and purpose that had been missing during their unprecedented mid-season seven-game losing streak. The team's turnaround heading into the culmination of the 2004-2005 season is as striking as the nosedive that endangered their playoff chances to begin with. The Jumbos have now won six of their last seven, and this momentum and confidence boost could not have come at a better time.
The NESCAC records of Bates and Tufts shed little light on what to expect tomorrow. The Bobcats came away with a narrow 70-69 victory over Trinity last weekend, which, when taken with Trinity's blowout loss to Tufts and the Jumbos' closer-than-it-looked loss to Bates two weeks ago, could have one of many implications for the NESCAC tournament. Maybe Trinity just got lucky, maybe Tufts is a better team than they showed against Bates, or maybe it's an encouraging sign for the Jumbos in their first round matchup.
But what it most likely signifies is that the competition among NESCAC teams, from the top of the rankings to the bottom, is some of the best and most unpredictable in the nation. On any given night, it's anybody's game, and the Jumbos are determined to make tomorrow theirs.
"We're all on the same page right now," Miller-Stevens said. "Coach told us that this is what you play for - the chance to pull off an upset - and I think it's within our reach."
