Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993 TAG: 9303250098
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
JUST GETTING TO FINAL FOUR A VICTORY
A CRUSHING LOSS sent last year's high expectations crashing. Now, the Virginia Cavaliers' women's basketball team gets another chance but without as much pressure.\ So close to the sun last year, Debbie Ryan still feels the searing heat.Her top-ranked Virginia women's basketball team lost in a national semifinal game in Los Angeles - a loss Ryan said was "beyond devastating" for a team dragging, she said, "unhealthy" expectations.
"I watched five seniors go through months of depression," the Virginia coach said Wednesday. "Some of them are just coming out of it now."
Today, Virginia is two games away from reaching its fourth straight NCAA women's Final Four. Ryan hasn't stopped pushing.
"This is the essence of being," she said. "Getting to the Final Four is the greatest thing that can happen to you. This is why we play this game."
UVa (25-5) plays Georgetown (23-6) at approximately 9 p.m. today at the Richmond Coliseum in an NCAA East Region semifinal. In the unlikely event of a sellout, the game will be joined in progress by cable television network Home Team Sports after the Tennessee-North Carolina women's tournament game is over.
HTS will show the Virginia game on tape delay at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Saturday's 11 a.m. East Region final will be televised live by ESPN.
The UVa-Georgetown winner will play either 13th-ranked Western Kentucky (24-6) or No. 3 Ohio State (25-3), who play in tonight's 6:30 game, to earn a trip to Atlanta in April.
The Hilltoppers lost last year's championship game to Stanford 78-62. This weekend, they will be without coach Paul Sanderford, who has been hospitalized since Saturday with double pneumonia.
Virginia is not a sure thing to make the Final Four, apparently just the way Ryan wants it. Last year's team brought a 32-1 record and a No. 1 ranking into its national semifinal.
"Nothing was going to be good enough if we didn't win the national championship," Ryan said. "Some of us on that team had another chance. We made the best of a second chance. I'd put it all on the line again and experience it all over again just to get the chance."
If UVa has lessened its expectations, Georgetown has almost none. The Hoyas were Big East Conference co-champions but were not seeded in the East Region. They beat Northern Illinois in the first round and advanced to Richmond when Leni Wilson made two free throws with 5.7 seconds left and No. 8 Penn State's Katina Mack missed a layup as time expired in the teams' second-round game.
Georgetown has the Big East's coach of the year (Pat Knapp, in his seventh year), player of the year (guard Kris Witfill, who averages 19.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.3 steals) and a memory. Four years ago, these teams played and Virginia won 107-44.
"It's a totally different team, totally different program," Knapp said at a news conference Wednesday. "Virginia had 10 Parade All-Americans; we had none. That situation was a long time ago."
To turn Georgetown around, Knapp said, he relied on "the human spirit, taking charge, setting goals and working out your plan."
A little running and pressing didn't hurt, either, and that's how the Hoyas will try to annoy UVa, which has a decided size advantage.
The Cavaliers, on an 11-game winning streak, got physical to beat up-tempo, athletic Florida on Sunday in a second-round game in Charlottesville. But the Hoyas, winners of 11 of their past 12 games, are accustomed to craning their necks at opponents.
"Pressure defense, quickness is a key," Wilson said. "Our defense and our heart is definitely what makes us roll."
Like Florida, Georgetown doesn't shoot well (42.3 percent), but the Hoyas force more than 23 turnovers per game. Virginia's backcourt is hardly what it was last year with Dawn Staley and Tammi Reiss, but Knapp wasn't dogging the Cavs' main ballhandler.
"Dena Evans is a heck of a player," Knapp said. "She has had a tremendous year. I don't think a lot of people saw her stuff in the last three years because of [who] was there."
Evans said she's rid of the flu that fatigued her Sunday, and Ryan said freshman post player Wendy Palmer - playing on bum ankles - "has decided to make a contribution in the NCAA Tournament and forget the foot."
Injuries and strategies aside, it seems the Cavaliers can't get over being this deep in the NCAA Tournament without feeling they must win it all.
"You don't have people gunning for you every time you step on the floor," Evans said. "It's more relaxing, more fun."
Added Heather Burge: "It's easier to be here because of the lack of pressure."