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Women's college basketball: Color the top turnaround Orange

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published January 12, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT [AP photo] Arkansas senior Lauren Ervin, left, was averaging a double double (16.2 points, 11.4 rebounds) for the second year in a row, before tearing the ACL in her right knee Thursday night. She is out for the rest of the season.

Best turnaround in women's college basketball? It's hard to argue with Syracuse, which comes to Tampa to play USF tonight, looking nothing like the team that went 9-20 last season.

The Orange is 13-2 and had won a school-record 12 in a row before losing 85-75 at Pittsburgh on Wednesday. The 13 wins include Penn State and Louisville, ranked in CollegeRPI.com's top 25; the other loss came at North Carolina.

Leading the way is 5-foot-9 junior guard Chandrea Jones, who led Odessa Texas College to a junior college national championship last year and is averaging 16.0 points and 8.4 rebounds. If you're working on a "Sixth Woman" award for the nation's top sub, it might be Syracuse senior Fantasia Goodwin, averaging a double double (14.5 ppg, 10.3 rpg) despite not starting a game this season.

Syracuse will be a handful for the Bulls, who are 0-5 against RPI top 100 opponents, but there's a bigger challenge ahead for the Orange. It plays at No. 1 Connecticut on Tuesday, hoping to fare better than last year's 31-point loss.

Nutty indeed

Another team battling for national respect is Arkansas, ranked just 20th despite a 15-0 start entering the week. No. 11 LSU handed Arkansas its first loss Thursday night, 76-54, which has doubters pointing to last season, when the Razorbacks opened 15-1, only to lose their final 10 games and finish 18-13 and miss the postseason.

The Razorbacks won their first 14 games by at least 10 points each this season and aren't completely unproven, having beaten Texas Tech by 23 last week. Senior Lauren Ervin, a 6-3 center, was averaging a double double (16.2 points, 11.4 rebounds) for the second year in a row, but she sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee Thursday night and is out for the rest of the season.

Most awkward Hogs fan this weekend? That might be former Arkansas football coach Houston Nutt, now at Mississippi, whose daughter Hailey is a freshman walk-on guard at his old school. The Hogs visit Ole Miss on Sunday, making for a no-win situation for the coach, who plans to attend: Do you not cheer for your daughter? Cheer for the school you just bolted from? Cheer against your new employer?

Now this is big

ESPN2 launches its Big Monday programming next week with No. 12 Duke playing at No. 4 Maryland, the first of eight Monday TV games in the next two months. Former Florida coach Carolyn Peck and former UConn standout Rebecca Lobo will be part of ESPN2's broadcast team.

Maryland, whose only loss came at Rutgers, has four wins against ranked opponents in LSU, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Notre Dame. Since losing three straight to Connecticut, Vanderbilt and Penn State, Duke had won seven straight entering Friday's game against FSU, including a win against Rutgers.

Block party

Last season's shot-blocking freshman phenom was Michigan State's Allyssa DeHaan, but she now ranks second nationally in blocks behind another rookie. Saint Mary's freshman Louella Tomlinson, a 6-4 center from Australia, is averaging 5.1 blocks. She had 10 blocks in a loss to Alabama and is holding pace ahead of DeHaan, who's averaging 4.8.

Greg Auman can be reached at auman@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3346.

[Last modified January 12, 2008, 02:48:05]