Team focused on NCAA despite war
By Drew Irwin
Skiff Staff

Despite the outbreak of war and heightened security, the women’s basketball team is not worried about leaving today to play in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Storrs, Conn.

“Safety is always a concern,” head coach Jeff Mittie said. “But I think it’s good that the tournament will be played.”

The NCAA announced this week that the NCAA tournament will continue as scheduled.

NCAA officials met with the Department of Homeland Security and decided that there was not enough reason to postpone the tournament.

Mittie said he is comfortable with what came out of the meeting. He said the tournament will have extra security at airports and the individual arenas themselves.

“It’s just basketball,” Mittie said. “Everyone is thinking about our troops in Iraq. We just feel fortunate to play, and I’m glad that it will continue.”

Mittie said the military members are happy with the decision for the tournament to continue. He said sports can act as an important diversion for the troops during times of war.

“There’s a little fear, but I feel safe,” sophomore forward Niki Newton said. “I’m not going to worry too much about it.”

The women’s NCAA tournament begins Saturday. The ninth-seeded Lady Frogs will play against eighth-seeded Michigan State Sunday. For the third year in a row, TCU will be facing a team from the Big Ten Conference in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. With a win, the team has a chance to advance past a Big Ten team for the third straight season.

“I think it’s unusual that we’ve matched up against (the Big Ten) three-straight years,” Mittie said. “But they’ve all been different games, and we’ve just found a way to win those games. And hopefully we can do it again.”

Much like TCU, Michigan State is a balanced team. It has five players who average 10 points a game for the season.

“They have very balanced scoring,” Mittie said. “We just want to make it a full-court game so that we can utilize our depth and try to wear their players down.”

Spartan forward Syreeta Bromfield averaged a team-high 14.6 points a game for the season and scored 30 points against Kent State in December.

“We’re going to play a variety of people on her like we do with all good scorers,” Mittie said. “But we’re just going to get good guard pressure and try to stay with team defense.”

On paper, it appears that the Lady Frogs are a much larger team than Michigan State. The Spartans have only four players at 6 feet or taller, while the Lady Frogs have seven.

“One of our strengths this year has been our inside game,” junior forward Tracy Wynn said. “We just need to keep with that, and try to use that to our advantage.”

Another advantage the Lady Frogs have is depth. Newton said the team’s substitution system has helped them at the end of games.

“I think we have an advantage because we’re a deep team,” Newton said. “A lot of teams don’t have that, and it lets us run them down.”

Although Michigan State lost its first game of the Big Ten Tournament, the Spartans won 10 of their last 14 games before losing to Ohio State in the conference tournament.

And while the Spartans’ season ended with a loss, TCU’s season ended strongly. The Lady Frogs won nine of their last 10 games, including four wins in four days to win the conference tournament against Cincinnati March 9.

Newton said the excitement from winning the tournament hasn’t died down in the team’s week off.

“The excitement is still beyond recognition,” Newton said. “The closer (the tournament) gets, the more excited we get.”

Even though the team has been to the tournament the last three seasons, Newton said she is just as excited this season as she was when she went for the first time last season.

“Going back is just an amazing feeling,” Newton said. “Just walking onto the court last year was great, and you just thank God you’re there.”

Sunday’s game will start at about 1:36 p.m., 30 minutes after the conclusion of the Boston University/Connecticut game. The winners of those two games will face off against each other Tuesday.

Drew Irwin