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Women's road tournament games bring out the best of the best

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 23, 2001

No one will be playing at home. Everyone is traveling, everyone is living out of a suitcase. No one has a built-in advantage.

This is where the NCAA Tournament gets interesting.

Thirteen of the 16 teams that will play in the region semifinals on Saturday advanced by winning at home. The result: Most of the favorites still are playing.

But they no longer have the comforts they enjoyed last weekend. They're all on a neutral court, all making the adjustments that come with being in a different environment.

North Carolina State's Mideast Region game with Connecticut at Pittsburgh will be far different than meeting the Huskies in a soldout Gampel Pavilion.

Southwest Missouri State won't have to deal with the Cameron Crazies when it plays Duke in the West Region at Spokane, Wash.

Iowa State won't have 11,000-plus fans to call on for support when it faces Vanderbilt in the Midwest at Denver.

"Now people don't talk about the home court. They talk about the game, they talk about the matchup," Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said. "People don't look at it as well, they're supposed to win because they're at home. You have 16 quality teams left. Now you just go play."

Three teams have won on the road. Missouri, the No. 10 seed in the East, was the biggest surprise, knocking off a second-seeded Georgia team that had been considered a strong Final Four contender.

Now the Tigers will take on another major player, third-seeded Louisiana Tech. They can't wait.

"We like playing these kind of teams," Missouri coach Cindy Stein said. "This is what you expect when you advance in the NCAA Tournament."

Midwest

IOWA STATE: The Cyclones' Angie Welle is getting a chance to find out just where she stands in the pecking order of centers. A third-team All-American, Welle faces a second-team pick, 6-foot-6 Chantelle Anderson, when Iowa State plays Vanderbilt in the semifinals in Denver on Saturday night.

If the Cyclones get by that one, an even bigger challenge could loom for Welle: a game with Notre Dame and its first-team All-American, 6-5 Ruth Riley.

What more could a competitor ask?

"It's really fun," Welle said. "Obviously, Chantelle will be the best player I've ever played against. But I don't want it to be, "Oh, it's Angie vs. Chantelle' or anything like that.

"I think it's a challenge and if Notre Dame wins, then it's who gets to take on the top dog, I guess."

But Welle insists she hasn't thought at all about facing Riley. She figures Anderson, averaging 21.1 points and leading the nation in field-goal percentage (.730), will be enough of a challenge.

WEST VIRGINIA: The school hired Salem International men's coach Mike Carey as its women's coach.

Carey replaces Alexis Basil, who resigned March 5 after going 5-22 in her fourth season.

Carey received a three-year contract worth $70,000 annually. At Salem, Carey was the school's most successful coach with a 287-102 record in 13 seasons. His teams won three West Virginia Conference tournament titles and made seven appearances in NAIA and NCAA Division II post-season tournaments.

Basil, a four-year starter at West Virginia from 1984-87, had a career record of 33-77. Eighteen losses this season were by double digits, and West Virginia failed to make the 12-team Big East tournament.

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