Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Prepare For 2002-03 Regular Season
November 14, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Nov. 14, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's basketball team is in the midst of preparations for the regular-season opener. The Falcons will open the season with a home game vs. Youngstown State on Friday, Nov. 22, beginning at 7:00 p.m. BGSU continues a three-game season-opening homestand with a 1:00 p.m. contest vs. Iona on Sunday, Nov. 24. Both games will be played at Anderson Arena.
The following is the 2002-03 season outlook ...
As 9-19 seasons go, it really wasn't too bad.
Sure, that statement seems strange. And sure, Curt Miller would have preferred a better record in his first season as a head coach. But, the 2001-02 edition of the Bowling Green State University women's basketball team showed some glimpses of greatness, as well as some positive signs for the future.
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Now, in 2002-03, the program may not be quite at the level Miller would prefer, but the Falcons are headed in that direction.
Miller promised no quick fixes when he took the reins of the Falcons on May 8, 2001, but he did vow to make his team the hardest-working squad in the Mid-American Conference.
"I'm excited about year two," said Miller. "In year one, we spent a lot of time speaking about working hard, learning how to win, and all the intangibles other than just the win-loss record. Last year, we ran a skeleton form of our system, just to get it up and running in the first year.
"Now, we have a core group of players that understand the system we would like to run. We are going to expand the system and add to it, and we are excited to move forward with the returning players and the four freshmen that we add to that mix."
When Miller met the masses at his first MAC media day, he said that, while his Falcons had potential, an injury could greatly hurt the team's chances. Unfortunately for Miller, that injury struck early in the season's second game, and the player who limped off the court was all-league performer Francine Miller. The Falcons had the services of the senior for only three-plus games, including just two conference contests.
That injury, however, forced several other Falcons to take on bigger roles, and a number of players gained valuable experience that could pay off for BGSU this season.
"Our 9-19 record may not look glowing to a lot of people," said the second-year head coach. "But, after the injuries we sustained and the positions that we put ourselves in nightly, we take a lot of pride in some of the accomplishments that we had last year.
"We finished in ninth place (overall), and were probably 10 or 15 seconds away from hosting a MAC Tournament first-round game. If we find a way to win the Ohio game at home, which we led by three points with 15 seconds to go, we host a first-round MAC game despite our injuries.
"We have had a number of our veteran players battling injuries, and the health of our team will be the key to our season. But, we know that the honeymoon is over and the Miller Era is officially underway now. We hope to continue to take steps toward becoming the championship-style team that this program has seen before, and we think we'll see in the near future."
In addition to the injuries, the Falcons will have the challenge of competing in the MAC's West Division for the first time. Five teams from the West Division were 10-6 or better in league play and won 16 or more overall games last year.
"We're excited about the move to the West. The West Division certainly has some very strong teams at this time, but we're excited about the challenge.
"But, we can only take care of so much. No matter who we are playing, we must continue to prepare, play hard, go out every night and try to give ourselves an opportunity to win. Whether it's an East or West Division foe, we have to scout and prepare in order to win games."
The following is a position-by-position look at the 2002-03 Falcons.
POINT GUARD
The Falcons have a solid returnee and a talented newcomer vying for time at the point-guard spot. Junior Lindsay Austin and freshman Molly Martin will hold down the position. Austin already has two years of starting experience under her belt, and is one of the top returnees in the conference in several categories. Among returning players in the MAC, Austin ranks second in both assists per game and assist/turnover ratio, and she is tied for fourth in steals per game.
"Lindsay Austin has played herself into one of the best point guards in the MAC," said Miller. "Her statistics are typical of players you would normally see on all-conference teams. I don't think that Lindsay has been given the credit that she deserves for the high quality of play that she has accomplished in two short years.
"Lindsay has a chance to end her career as one of the statistical leaders in multiple categories in Falcon history, and that doesn't just happen by mistake. She may not have been our team MVP on paper, but she was the one kid that we could least afford to lose last year. I believe that is the case again this year.
"Lindsay will continue to thrive in our up-tempo style of play, and, with the number of shooters around her, opposing defenses may have to pick their poison on how they will defend everyone.
"She is at her best when she's in the open floor and driving to the basket. She also has a chance to be a terrific on-ball defender and to really disrupt teams' offenses. And, most importantly for us, she's worked very hard over the summer to improve her outside perimeter game. I believe that we will see her statistical numbers really skyrocket her last two years."
Martin is a heralded player from Noblesville, Ind. She participated in the elite Adidas Camp in Pittsburgh, Pa., over the summer, and brings depth to the Falcons' point-guard position.
"Molly will provide us with a deeper option at point guard than the Falcons have had in recent years," said Miller. "Her strength is her ability to get the ball to the open teammate.
"She is a tremendous passer, has great court vision, and thrives on finding people in transition. Molly is a solid defender and will make quick adjustments to the speed at which the college game is played. I'm very pleased with our two point guards."
WINGS
As has been the case in recent years, the wing position should provide the Falcons with great talent and depth. BG's five returnees at the wing include seniors Francine Miller, Kim Griech and Megan Jerome along with junior Stefanie Wenzel and sophomore Tene Lewis, and the Falcons also have several newcomers that will look for time as well.
"The wing position is absolutely the strength of our program," said Curt Miller. "We are excited about not only the quantity of wings we have, but also the quality. We have the ability to put a smaller lineup on the floor, to play three wings at a time and be very talented offensively. And, our depth at the wing position is very good."
Francine Miller returns for one final season, having been named to the Preseason All-MAC Team for the third consecutive year. An All-MAC First-Team selection as a sophomore, she earned second-team honors two years ago before being sidelined for most of last season.
Miller enters her final winter in Anderson Arena already ranked among the school's scoring and three-point field goal leaders. She ranks 13th in BGSU history in career scoring, and is third all-time in scoring average. She could battle some pain in her knee, however, and will likely begin the season at less than 100 percent health.
"Francine, arguably, could be considered still one of the top players in the league, and a candidate for MAC Player of the Year," said her head coach. "When healthy, she is an offensive scoring machine that scores every way that you could imagine. She can score from the arc, and is a high-percentage three-point shooter.
"Francine is also a fearless driver who can get herself to the foul line. And, she is a wing player that can post up most wing defenders in this league. When healthy, she is one of the best players that will ever go through the Falcon program. A great deal of our success could depend upon the health of Francine Miller."
Griech, like Francine Miller, enters her final winter already ranked on the BGSU three-point lists, as her career total of 115 successful treys places her fourth in school history. The lone returnee to have started every game last year, Griech averaged 10.4 points and drained 43 triples. She attempted 155 three-pointers last year, the second-highest total in a season in BG history.
"Kim is an outstanding shooter, and thrives in the system that we run," said Miller. "Our system gives her a lot of freedom and the green light from the three-point line. We will rely on her to continue to be an outside threat for the Falcons.
"Kim continues to work at being better at attacking the basket and getting herself to the foul line, and I believe will show that continued improvement in other areas in her senior year. But, it would not shock me to see Kim Griech make 50 'threes' this season."
Unfortunately for the Falcons, Griech's similarities to Francine Miller are not solely in the area of three-point field goals. Griech also is looking to recover from an injury. She missed most of the team's preseason conditioning with a high ankle sprain, but was expected to be at or near 100 percent by the season opener.
Francine Miller's injury last season opened the door for Wenzel to see more playing time, and Wenzel showed that she was ready for the spotlight. Wenzel led the team in scoring, averaging 11.6 points per outing, and was voted the Falcons' Player of the Year by her teammates. She had a team-best six games of 20 points or more, including a 30-point effort vs. Buffalo. That total tied her for the second-best scoring performance by a MAC player in a conference game last year.
On the season, Wenzel increased her scoring average by nearly nine-and-a-half points per game over the previous winter, the biggest improvement among all MAC players. She also averaged 4.3 rebounds last season.
"Stefanie is coming off an outstanding year," said Miller. "She just did everything that you could ask of her. Stefanie is arguably the hardest worker on the team, and remains our best-conditioned athlete.
"Her trademark will continue to be her stand-still shooting ability, but Stefanie proved that she could score in multiple ways. She showed that she is a capable driver, and a person who finds ways to get herself to the foul line. She will play the two or the three (position), and we will ask her to continue to raise her rebounding numbers, one of the Falcons' weaknesses in the recent past."
Jerome has a heady court presence, with a good understanding of the game as well as the ability to play at several positions. She is yet another long-range threat for the Brown and Orange, as evidenced by her performance at Marshall. In that contest, Jerome was a perfect 3-for-3 from three-point land en route to a season-high 16 points.
"Megan Jerome has the ability to play the 2 or 3 for the Falcons, and will also be the emergency third-string point guard," said Miller. "She has had the best off-season and preseason of any of the returning Falcons, and looks ready to have a breakout senior season.
"We can always count on Megan to be a calming influence to the younger players, and she is always in the right place on the floor. She understands the game as well as any player on the team."
Lewis returns after being named the Falcons' Most Improved Player in her initial season. Lewis played in 24 games a year ago, making three starts. She averaged 1.6 points per game, and showed glimpses of her potential at the defensive end of the floor.
"Tene Lewis has improved dramatically since her freshman year," said Miller. "She has improved her conditioning and her strength, and will be counted on to be a defensive stopper for the Falcons.
"Tene, one of the best one-on-one players on the team, will thrive in the up-tempo style of play. She finds open players in traffic as well as anyone in the league."
Two freshmen, Marisa Smith and Britt Anderson, join the Brown and Orange and will look to crack the lineup at wing. Smith, a native of Arnold, Pa., averaged at least 16 points in all four years of her high school career, and became her school's all-time scoring leader in her junior season.
Anderson, from Fort Collins, Colo., led her entire state in three-point field goals made, and joined Martin at the Adidas Camp in Pittsburgh. Anderson, who also plays for the BG women's soccer team, will join the hoopsters full-time at the end of the soccer campaign in November.
"Marisa has been a gym rat her whole basketball career," said Miller. "She is a tireless worker who has the ability to be one of the best shooters on the roster. Marisa will make an impact as a freshman at the offensive end of the floor. She will be fun; I think the fans will really like her.
"Britt had a tremendous prep career as a big wing. She understands the game and maximizes her talent level. She will be behind due to missing much of the preseason due to soccer, but her knowledge of the game will allow Britt to get back into the mix early in the season."
An additional wing, Casey McDowell, started 20 games and averaged 4.2 points per contest as a freshman at Indiana State last year. A native of Hudson, Ohio, she will sit out this season and retain three years of eligibility.
"Casey will be a valuable member of the scout team throughout the season, and will push our starting group," said Miller. "We will probably rely on her to act as the opponent's top shooter in practice.
"Casey is a tremendous stand-still shooter, and is a good player to have in the wings with the impending graduation of Miller, Griech and Jerome. It will be nice to have a veteran shooter in the wings that will know the system already."
Giani Bowles, who sat out last season as a transfer, has decided to end her playing career due to recurring injuries. She will remain active with the Falcons as a student assistant coach/manager.
POSTS
The Falcons suffered several losses at the post positions, as Dana Western completed her eligibility last year and Kelly Kapferer opted not to return to the team. Those two players combined to average 14.2 points and 9.6 rebounds per game a year ago.
Miller and his staff will rely heavily on a trio of returnees and a single newcomer to man the post. Senior Karen Stocz, junior Pam Brown and sophomore Sakima Smith will battle for time, and will be pushed by freshman Jill Lause.
Brown was limited to 18 games last year due to injuries, but averaged 7.3 points and a team-high 6.0 rebounds. She had 14 rebounds in back-to-back home games during MAC play last year.
"Pam is still fighting some lingering effects of her knee injury last season," said Miller. "But, she looks healthy enough to regain the starting position that she had during the 2001-02 season.
"Pam's versatility creates matchup problems for opponents. She is explosive off the dribble and can score facing the basket, but also is hard to defend in the post because of her strength as an undersized center."
Smith played in every game off the bench a year ago, and averaged 2.6 points and 2.6 boards. According to the coaching staff, she has improved her strength and conditioning during the offseason, and could make a push for a starting role.
"Sakima Smith had a very valuable freshman year, and has learned how hard you have to work day-in and day-out to be successful at the Division-I level," said Miller. "She is a talented offensive player with the ability to score facing the basket and extend opposing defenses, or slash to the basket in transition or set offenses.
"And, she contains the best post moves with her back to the basket on the team. With the graduation of Dana Western, we will rely on Sakima to have a good year on the boards."
Stocz averaged 3.3 points a year ago, and has been a team leader on and off the floor for the Falcons. She has been selected a team captain for the 2002-03 season, along with fellow seniors Griech, Jerome and Miller.
"Karen had an outstanding offseason and is in the best shape of her career," said Miller. "She remains the most physical post player on the team and will continue to fill the enforcer's role on defense. I expect her to have the best year of her career."
Lause, a native of Dublin, Ohio, was ranked as one of the top players in the state by several sources, and was ranked in the top-60 post players in the nation by Mike White's All-Star Girls Basketball Report. At 6-2, she is the tallest player on the 2002-03 team.
"Jill brings us legitimate size and strength that the Falcons need," said Miller. "She will have a learning curve early on at the Division-I level, in terms of the speed and strength of each opponent. But, her strengths include the ability to score facing the basket, and she has a great shooting touch."
THE SCHEDULE
Last year, the Falcons opened the season with four games on the road. By the time BGSU returned for the home opener, two starters were hobbled with injuries. This year, the Brown and Orange have three home games to open the slate, which Coach Miller hopes will help his team to get off to a quicker start.
The Falcons will open the season on Nov. 22 against Youngstown State. BG then faces Iona (Nov. 24) and Butler (Dec. 4) before playing the next six games away from home. That rigorous December stretch is highlighted by tournaments at Florida Atlantic (Dec. 6-7) and Cincinnati (Dec. 21-22). In between the two tourneys, the Brown and Orange will travel to IPFW (Dec. 11) and Cleveland State (Dec. 14).
The Falcons finish the non-conference slate with a home game vs. IUPUI (Dec. 30) and a contest at Oakland (Jan. 3).
"We are excited about opening the season in front of our home fans, and about the possibility of playing well and building some confidence right out of the gate," said Miller.
"We play in two challenging tournaments, at Florida Atlantic and Cincinnati. UC should be ranked in the top-25 in the country in the preseason polls, and another opponent, Oakland, went to the NCAA Tournament a year ago. FAU, too, is a very good team, as is IUPUI.
"Overall, our non-conference schedule contains some nationally-recognized teams, but it also has some regional teams that we need to play and beat to take the program in a forward direction. Last year, we went 3-8 in non-conference play. This year, we would like to improve that record by at least several games. We hope to be above .500 heading into league play this season."
That MAC slate begins Jan. 8, with a home game against Ohio. BGSU will play home-and-home series against four schools from the West - Ball State, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois and Toledo - and one contest apiece against the other two West Division schools. BGSU will travel to meet Western Michigan, and the Falcons will host Eastern Michigan. The latter contest, scheduled for March 4, marks the Falcons' regular-season final‚.
BGSU will meet each of the six East Division schools once. The Brown and Orange will host Marshall, Miami and OU, while travelling to face Akron, Buffalo and defending MAC Tournament champion Kent State.
Just two of the Falcons' seven January games (including six MAC matchups) will take place at home. BGSU will play six home contests among the final 10 MAC regular-season games.
The MAC Tournament is scheduled to begin on Saturday, March 8, at campus sites. All 13 MAC schools will qualify for the tournament, with the top-three seeds earning first-round byes. The remaining 10 teams will compete in first-round matches, hosted by the higher-seeded team.
The five first-round winners will join the top-three seeds at Gund Arena in Cleveland for the quarterfinal round on Wednesday, March 12. The semifinals and championship game will also be held at Gund Arena, on March 14 and 15, respectively.
"Again this year, the MAC will be as difficult as ever," said Miller. "There are no easy games in this league."
WINNING UGLY
While the Falcons did not win as many games as everyone associated with the program would have liked, Miller and his staff made huge strides forward in their initial year. The Falcons began to make Anderson Arena a difficult place for MAC opponents to play once again. BGSU was the lone team to lead all eight conference home games at halftime.
"Anderson is an arena with a great homecourt advantage," said Miller. "It can be a tough place for opponents to win. I really think that we can regain the great women's basketball atmosphere that Anderson once had. We will do all we can to increase our attendance and create an atmosphere that is very tough on opponents."
Of course, a regulation game is 40 minutes long, not 20, and Miller is hoping his team will take that next step toward playing a more complete performance in 2002-03. He hopes that last year's final home regular-season game is a harbinger of things to come.
It all came together for the Falcons in that game, as the Brown and Orange raced out to a 16-0 lead over Eastern Michigan and never let the Eagles get within single digits thereafter. Miller hopes to replay that scenario numerous times in the near future.
"We want to continue to be an up-tempo team. We pride ourselves in our defense, and I felt that we forced a lot of opponents to play the way we wanted to play. Unfortunately for our fans, the way we needed teams to play last year was ugly. If it was an ugly game for the fans, it was a pretty game for us, because it meant that we were making our opponent have to beat us in ways they don't necessarily want to play.
"We are definitely deeper in some positions than we were last year, and we should be able to run more fresh bodies in and out of the game. It will allow us to play more up-tempo, and to press a little more at the defensive end.
"I feel that our offensive productivity should go up, not only in terms of our shooting percentage, but also in terms of our overall scoring average."
SETTING GOALS
Last year, Miller and his staff did not set a great many team goals. The main goal Miller stressed to his players was being the hardest-working team in the MAC. He realized the Falcons might lose some games, but he was adamant that BGSU never lose due to a lack of effort.
This year, however, the team has additional goals.
"We were in a lot of games last year," said the coach. "We had the lead in a lot of games, but we just didn't have the confidence or depth at times to finish teams off. I feel that we have improved in both areas.
"Basically, we were much closer to having a successful year than it might seem. We hope to build upon our success at Anderson, as we continue to need Anderson to be a very good homecourt advantage for us.
"We have more win-loss goals this year. I believe we were arguably the hardest-working team in the league last year, and we might have been the most overachieving team as well. But now, we need to move away from some of those arbitrary goals and have some clear, defined win-loss goals.
"One of our main goals will be to host the first round of the MAC Tournament. We want to finish in the top-eight and get that home game for the first round. The men's team has a home game that day (March 8), and we would love to be playing at home and create a doubleheader atmosphere."
Again, however, there is one potential fly in the ointment. It may sound like an excuse, but it is a fact: the health of the Falcon players will play a critical role in the team's success.
"As a young coach, I felt the injuries to Pam and Francine in the second game of the year were both positive and negative. Initially, I didn't respond to the injuries the way we should have, and I led the cheers of 'woe is us.' But, once we got over that, we moved some other players into more predominant roles.
"We had no choice but to play without Fran and Pam. We learned to play without them, and we learned that we could be successful without them. In the long run, those injuries may have catapulted our program ahead faster than if we had had everyone healthy.
"Having said that, of course, we want and need everyone healthy this season in order to continue moving forward as a program."
If everything comes together as Miller envisions, Anderson Arena could be a fun place to be in 2002-03.
(Note: Written in mid-October, in time for inclusion in the team's 2002-03 media guide.)
