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Bluder rights Iowa’s ship
■ First-year coach Lisa Bluder
led Iowa past Purdue to win
the BigTen championship
By Scott Pesznecker
Oregon Daily Emerald
Oregon head coach Jody Runge
is from Iowa.
Last season, her name was even
mentioned as a possible candidate
for the Hawkeyes’ vacant coaching
position.
But as of a Sunday afternoon
press conference, Runge claimed to
know little
about Iowa’s
players. How
ever, she said
she was well
aware of Lisa
Bluder, the
No. 16 Hawkeyes’ first-year coach
who led her team to the Big Ten
Tournament Championship with a
75-70 upset of No. 9 Purdue.
“She’s a great coach,” Runge
said. “She’s taken up some time
adjusting to a new system, and
now they’re playing their best bas
ketball. They won their conference
tournament and are doing a
tremendous job with the players
that they have.”
On the flip side, Bluder is not
from Oregon.
However, the 1983 Northern Iowa
graduate says she remembers Ore
gon. Bluder, who coached Drake for
10 seasons from 1990 to 2000, took
the Bulldogs to McArthur Court to
compete at an Oregon tournament
in November 1994. Drake won, 76
67.
“It’s neat that she’s from the state
of Iowa, and she’s done an excep
tional job at Oregon with her
team,” said Bluder, whose team is
a No. 4 seed in the Big Dance.
“They’re well coached, and they’ll
be well prepared for the NCAA
Tournament.
“And I know Jenny Mowe from
U.S.A. basketball tryouts. She used
to beat up on my kid Tammy
Blackstone from Drake.”
Bluder has turned Iowa around
since taking over as head coach.
Last season, Iowa finished with a
dismal 9-18 overall record.
Bluder said her team has a bal
anced offensive attack but likes to
push the ball up the floor. The
Hawkeyes are led by three seniors
— point guard Cara Consuegra,
center Randi Peterson and reserve
shooting guard Mary Berdo.
Shooting guard Lindsey Meder
is the team’s top scorer, averaging
16.8 points per game. She also
shoots 41.1 percent from the field,
leads Iowa with 406 field goal at
tempts (at least 120 more than any
of her teammates), and her assist -
to-turnover ratio is less than per
fect — she’s dished 49 assists but
has 71 turnovers.
Oregon and Iowa each faced
Wisconsin and Utah this season.
Utah was victorious in its single
games against the Ducks and
Hawkeyes, winning 63-48 and 66
42, respectively. Oregon beat Wis
consin 71-57, while Iowa split two
games with the Badgers.
Based on Iowa’s records of 20-9
overall and 12-2 in the Big 10, the
Hawkeyes could have — maybe
should have — hosted first- and sec
ond-round games. Unfortunately,
Iowa is also “the wrestling capital of
the world,” Bluder said, and
wrestling holds its NCAA Champi
onships in Iowa’s gym this week
end.
“We’re disappointed because
we’d love to host, but there’s noth
ing much you can do about it,”
Bluder said. “We’ve known all
year that we’ll never have the op
portunity to host, so it’s something
we’re fully prepared for.”
Rematch with Utah may occur
■Oregon’s potential second-round opponent
is a familiar one, the No. 5 seed Utah Utes
By Robbie McCallum
Oregon Daily Emerald
Sometimes after disappointing losses, you want a
second chance to prove yourself. If the Oregon
women’s basketball team makes it into the second
round of the NCAA Tournament, they may get a sec
ond chance aUJtah.
Flashback to Dec. 16, 2000. The then-No. 14 Ducks
make their first trip of the season to Salt Lake City for a
non-conference game against Utah.
A well-scouted and road-weary
Oregon team never leads and falls
to the Utes, 63-48.
“Utah had a great game plan and
executed it well,” Oregon head
coach Jody Runge said. “They're
tough to defend and are a great
passing team.”
The loss was Oregon’s third in a row at the time and
was considered the first stumble in its shaky season.
The up-and-down Ducks went on to win seven
straight, then dropped eight of their next 10 Pacific
10 Conference games.
Utah (26-3) went on to dominate the Mountain West
Conference, compiling a 14-0 conference record along
with a 15-game winning streak.
The Utes are led by junior power forward Lauren
Beckman, who leads Utah in four statistical cate
gories. Senior Kristina Andersen adds depth in the
front court with 9.7 points per game and a 5.1 re
bound average. Each had 12 points in the pre-season
win over Oregon.
Flash forward to next Monday. Should the Ducks up
set No. 4 seed Iowa in the first round Saturday, and if
fifth-seeded Utah defeats Fairfield as expected, Oregon
and the Utes will clash for a second time.
Although the Ducks will have little time to prepare
for the Utes if they do advance, Oregon already knows
what went wrong in Salt Lake City the first time. Ore
gon’s front-line of Brianne Meharry, Angelina Wolvert
and Jenny Mowe combined for only seven points and
eight rebounds and eight turnovers.
The Ducks will have a secret weapon this time. In
the Dec. 16 loss, Wolvert played only eight minutes,
going scoreless and grabbing no rebounds. In the past
four games, though, Wolvert has been on a tear, aver
aging 18 points and 8.7 rebounds in four Oregon
wins.
Another factor the Ducks will have to overcome if
they want a rematch with Utah is playing on the road.
Oregon is 6-9 away from McArthur Court.
“[The road] certainly has been our nemesis,” Runge
said. “But it’s not like a new place; it’s not a place
where our players haven’t been. They’ve played on
that floor in the Utah game and they’re used to the en
vironment, and that really has to be a positive to us.”
Fairfield Stags prance into Dance
■ Fairfield survived the agony
of waiting and found itself in
the tournament as 12th seed
By Jeff Smith
Oregon Daily Emerald
Fairfield knows that its name
won’t be mentioned in too many
women’s NCAA Tournament pools
this week.
But 12th-seeded Fairfield doesn’t
p.m. Saturday night following Ore
gon’s game against Iowa. Utah is
the host team in this section of the
Midwest region.
Fairfield finished 25-5 overall
this past season, and an impressive
care as it pre
pares to head to
Salt Lake City for
the Big Dance.
All the Stags
are concerned
with is No. 5
seed Utah, who
they play at 8:30
16-2 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic
Conference. But because of its
crushing 70-68 defeat to Siena in
the MAAC Tournament Champi
onship game, it was forced to sit on
that dreaded do-or-die bubble and
await the tournament pairings.
Finally, the ESPN Selection
show started Sunday afternoon,
and when the name Fairfield
popped on that screen 15 minutes
into the show...
“We just jumped on each other,”
senior Allison Thorne said.
The emotion began pouring out
as the team, who had been watch
ing it all together, jumped all
around and hugged one another in
a scene that typifies what March
Madness is all about.
“When they started announcing
the West region I started to cry,”
said, senior Gail Strumpf, who is
the Stags’ all-time leading scorer
with 1,858 points and who has a ca
reer total of 1,100 rebounds. “It was
projected that we were going to go
somewhere out [west], so right then
and there I knew I was going to cry
because I’d be real, real happy, or
because I’d be real, real sad.
“It’s been torture trying to guess
whether or not we were going to
go-”
This will be Fairfield’s fourth
trip to the Big Dance, and while a
No. 12 seed is viewed as low by
some, it is the highest ever placing
for the Stags.
“It’s just pleasing to see the com
mittee think of this program the
way it does by selecting us as a 12
seed,” head coach Dianne Nolan
said. “And it’s really exciting to me
that Fairfield was on that [TV]
screen.”
Fairfield, who became the first
MAAC women’s team to capture
an at-large berth to the tourney
since La Salle in 1989, has faced
Utah once before. The Utes beat
the Stags 78-48 back in the 1987
88 season.