DATE: Thursday, November 13, 1997           TAG: 9711090235

SECTION: SPECIAL                 PAGE: Z1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: 1997-98 BASKETBALL PREVIEW
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  144 lines

IS THE MAGIC STILL THERE? LADY MONARCHS ADMIT: ``IT'S GOING TO BE HARDER THAN IT WAS LAST YEAR.''

It's not last year anymore.

Ask Old Dominion basketball coach Wendy Larry about the biggest challenge facing her Lady Monarchs, and she will not mention replacing leading scorer Clarisse Machanguana or a Feb. 7 date with defending national champion Tennessee.

She will talk about starting over, starting anew with another team that must shoulder the expectations that come with being the national runner-up.

``You dream every night that you will have the opportunity to work with a special group like the one we had last year,'' Larry said. ``You have to recognize this team is different. But I think there still is a lot of magic, if you will, with this team.''

Larry knows these Lady Monarchs - who include All-American Ticha Penicheiro and All-American candidates in Nyree Roberts and Mery Andrade - will be asked about bettering last year's team. About crossing the finish line instead of merely reaching it. About bringing home the NCAA title after falling short by 10 points last spring in Cincinnati.

Can these Lady Monarchs win ODU's first national title in 13 years?

``We have to lay a foundation,'' Larry said. ``It might be an adobe hut or it might be a skyscraper.''

The Lady Monarchs were upstarts last season, and at times it seemed as if a magical fate would destine them to the national championship.

They survived a last-second shot by Purdue in the second round of the NCAA tournament, eked out a victory over Florida in the regional final and rallied from 17 points down to beat Stanford and advance to the national title game.

They were never on national television during the regular season. At the Final Four, Tennessee, Stanford and Notre Dame merchandise flooded the souvenir stands. But finding an ODU pennant in Cincinnati was about as easy as finding Cincinnati chili in Norfolk.

After a summer in which Larry received a lucrative contract extension and Penicheiro passed up professional opportunities and successfully applied for a fourth year of eligibility, the consensus of preseason polls has ODU ranked No. 3.

The Lady Monarchs begin the season in the State Farm Tipoff Classic, one of the game's premier events, and they play Connecticut in the coveted Martin Luther King Day telecast on ESPN. That marks one of three times ODU will be on ESPN or ESPN2; the Lady Monarchs will appear on HTS at least three times.

``Last year we were an unknown,'' Larry said. ``This year we're a known.''

They will not sneak up on anybody, as they did when they handed unanimous No. 1 Stanford its first defeat last December.

``It's going to be harder than it was last year, but we said that last year, too,'' Roberts said. ``People say, `Oh, you're in the spotlight.' You still have to play the game. That's what it boils down to.''

With fewer distractions, that was easier during last year's regular season. Then, as ODU approached the Final Four, Andrade said the increased demands on players' time became almost overwhelming because the whole experience was brand new.

This year, the Lady Monarchs have been in that limelight before the first ball has been tipped. At the recent CAA media day, the league broke with tradition and asked Penicheiro to join the men's and women's coaches - the only player from any team given that opportunity. Sports Illustrated has also been talking to Penicheiro and the Lady Monarchs for a story.

``This year, with it happening at the beginning, your body is used to it, your mind is used to it,'' Andrade said. ``We're more prepared.''

Adds Penicheiro: ``We have the experience Tennessee had last year.''

They have learned another lesson, this one directly from Tennessee, which played the toughest schedule in the nation last year and lost 10 games. That didn't prevent the Lady Vols from winning their second straight national championship.

The Lady Monarchs, who lost just once last year before the NCAA championship game, will remember that as they face Illinois, Connecticut, Texas Tech and Tennessee on the road and Louisiana Tech and Virginia at neutral sites.

``Tennessee, their schedule as brutal as it was, afforded them an opportunity to get better and better and then even to win a national championship,'' Larry said. ``There is something to be said from learning in defeat.''

``Of course, we want to win every game,'' Penicheiro said. ``But look at UConn last year. They did that and then didn't even make it to the Final Four.''

The Lady Vols remain the team to beat, with Final Four MVP Chamique Holdsclaw returning for her junior season and a spectacular recruiting class.

``They are the five best freshmen in the country and Tennessee has them sitting on their bench,'' Larry said.

Louisiana Tech, ODU's likely opponent in the title game of the Central Fidelity tournament in Richmond, is uniformly the preseason No. 2. The Lady Techsters return everybody from a team that lost in the Sweet 16.

After that, said women's basketball analyst Mel Greenberg, the picture becomes murky.

``You have two great teams at the top and great suspense to see who's behind them,'' he said. ``North Carolina, Stanford, ODU - they're all borderline. You have to look at what they have compared to what everybody else lost.''

The athletic Tar Heels return All-American Tracy Reid but lost Marion Jones. Stanford returns Kristin Folkl and plenty of experience, although Kate Starbird and Jamila Wideman have moved on to the pros.

ODU returns three starters but loses Machanguana, the leading scorer and second-leading rebounder. The leaves the Lady Monarchs without the double-post combination of Machanguana-Roberts that was the envy of so many teams.

``We have what we call aces and spaces,'' Larry said. ``We have in Ticha, Nyree and Mery individuals who have been . . . on the national level recognized as some of the finest players in the women's game right now.''

The spaces? They must be filled by new faces, such as junior-college transfer Emmora Keenan and former reserves such as Natalie Diaz, Aubrey Eblin, LaToya Small and Amber Eller-Paul.

Nancy Lieberman-Cline, forever linked with ODU's glorious women's basketball history, said the Lady Monarchs have all the pieces to make another run at it.

``Once Wendy signed her contract and Ticha came back, they have a great nucleus,'' she said. ``Mery is a year wiser and Nyree has worked very hard. She's strong, she's smart. She was at a lot of WNBA games this summer, so I think she's got to be thinking, `If I work hard, that can be me.' ''

Roberts, Penicheiro and Andrade agree that the motivation to finish what they started last year is the driving force to win this year's title in Kansas City, and Larry said no group has ever worked as hard over the summer.

Ask Penicheiro about that final night and she will recall the moment the loss set in. It was when Tennessee coach Pat Summitt, assured of victory, began taking out her seniors and putting in reserves, even Laurie Milligan, who had undergone season-ending knee surgery.

``You know you've lost,'' Penicheiro said, ``when someone who can't even run is in the game.''

When the players returned home, they were welcomed as heroes and given parades. But Andrade talks about not being able to lift her head walking around campus the week after.

``Last year it was our goal to go to the Final Four,'' she said. ``But there's a difference between going to the Final Four and being in the finals. This year, I think everybody is starting on the same page. We're not just thinking about participating in the Final Four, but going there to win.''

As one of six seniors on this year's team, Roberts is determined to match last year's accomplishments. And to go them one better.

``To walk away from college winning a national championship, not everybody gets to do that,'' Roberts said.

``For me and Ticha and Mery, that's what we really want. We really, really want that. I know we're going to be back. I know. We're going to make it happen.'' ILLUSTRATION: HUY NGUYEN/file color photo

All-American Ticha Penicheiro...

Color photo

ODU women's basketball coach Wendy Larry.

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