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Oregon Daily Emerald
Coaches would like
a reduced schedule
■ Several Pac-10 coaches say
they would welcome scheduling
changes for next season
By Hank Hager
Oregon Daily Emerald
Ever since the Pacific-10 Confer
ence began sponsoring women’s
college basketball in 1986, the con
ference schedule has included an
18-game slate.
In this schedule, each team
plays the other nine Pac-10
schools twice — once at home and
once on the road.
Now that the inaugural confer
ence tournament is here, many of
the conference’s coaches would like
to see that schedule abbreviated
— possibly to as few as 14 games.
“I’m very much in favor of a
shorter conference schedule,” Ari
zona State head coach Charli Turn
er Thome said. “Much like the Big
12 (Conference) and (Southeastern
Conference) where we would have
more flexibility in our scheduling.”
Only one Pac-10 squad has been
continually ranked this season.
Stanford, which has been in the top
10 since the season started, has be
come a rock at No. 2 in the nation.
Some believe that the parity that
has made the Pac-10 a competitive
league has also hampered its abili
ty to gain national recognition. Of
ten teams such as Arizona State
are on the cusp of a national rank
ing, only to lose that possibility be
cause of a conference loss.
If a 14- or 16-game league sea
son were to be adopted, this
would open up time for additional
nonconference games, which
some believe would enhance the
Pac-lO’s image.
The 18-game schedule “doesn’t
give you a lot to mess with,” USC
head coach Chris Gobrecht said.
However, Gobrecht did add that
she would rather play a conference
opponent if she had to choose.
Gobrecht said she was a propo
nent of keeping with the 18-game
schedule before the season, but be
cause of the conference’s parity
and the shortened amount of time
to play the games, she may change
her mind.
“Having been through the expe
rience this year, I could see going
to 16,” she said. “It was hard to
play Pac-10 teams when we
played them.”
Turner Thorne agrees with this
sentiment.
“When we are ranked and lose in
conference, we fall out of the rank
ings every time,” she said. “The
biggest way we can help ourselves
is to get away from the double
round-robin and have more presea
son nonconference games. It would
help our national image.
“We’d use them the right way.”
There is, however, some dissent
among the ranks on the issue of a
shortened season.
UCLA head coach Kathy Olivier,
who guided the Bruins to a 4-14
record and No. 8 seed in the tourna
ment, said she has wavered on the
issue. Whereas at the beginning of
the season she would have pre
ferred the shortened season, she
now questions that possibility.
“At the beginning, when we
were doing all this voting and try
ing to figure out the best way to
have the tournament, I was think
ing more of a smaller conference
(season) and to not play everyone
twice,” she said. “When I thought
of that, how do you do that? I think
that would be difficult. The reality
of it is, to be a champion, you need
to play everyone twice.
“I’m still trying to find out what
the best solution is.”
E-mail sports reporter Hank Hager
at hankhager@dailyemerald.com.
Parity reigns in Big Ten
women’s tournament
By Rick Burchfield
Daily Collegian (Pennsylvania State U.)
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (U
WIRE) — With the Big Ten
women’s basketball regular season
now over there is still one last
chance for teams to impress the
NCAA selection committee. That
chance started Thursday when the
Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tour
nament began in Indianapolis.
One can usually count on an up
set or two in any tournament, but
this one could have more than its
fair share. The Big Ten has seven
teams with at least .500 records in
the conference and only one that is
below the break-even mark overall.
The following are the teams who
will be competing in the first half of
the conference bracket.
No. 9 Michigan
The Wolverines were picked by
many experts to win the conference
and in the beginning of the season
it looked like that would prove to
be true. They won 10 out of their
first 11 games and were ranked as
high as No. 12 in the nation.
Then came conference play.
Michigan fell in six of its first sev
en Big Ten games and never
seemed to fully recover.
No. 8 Illinois
Illinois was one of the rare teams
in the conference that got worse as
the season went on. Illinois fin
ished the regular season with three
straight losses and went from a con
tender to a basement dweller in the
Big Ten. Still, Illinois is 14-12 over
all and could shake things up in
the tournament.
No. 5 Indiana
The Hoosiers might be the senti
mental pick this year. On Sunday,
Indiana head coach Kathi Bennett
coached just her first game since
the car accident that broke the sec
ond vertebra in her neck.
The team has rallied around Ben
nett and closed the season with
three straight wins. Bennett will
coach Indiana at noon on Friday in
a game against Iowa. She said she
has been impressed with her team.
No. 4 Iowa
Iowa comes into the tournament
as the conference’s second-highest
scoring team after Minnesota. The
transition game that the Hawkeyes
use has given them the edge in some
key games, including one each
against the top two teams in the con
ference (Purdue and Penn State).
No. 1 Purdue
Purdue has now won the regular
season conference crown in con
secutive seasons and has been the
most consistent team in the Big Ten
this year. However, the Boilermak
ers lost to Minnesota and defeated
Penn State in the last minute,
showing that they can be beaten.