WBB: Bonding spurs Bulls' breakout

[Guest HowieP1]

Women's basketball

Bonding spurs Bulls' breakout

A tight-knit women's basketball team has emerged as a surprise NCAA contender.

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer

Published December 14, 2004

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TAMPA - Ask center Nalini Miller the secret blueprint to the rise of the USF women's basketball team, and she'll point to Ocean's 12 . Ask forward Jessica Dickson the same question, and she'll say it's dinners at Olive Garden or Red Lobster.

Ask why the Bulls, two years after a 7-20 season, are close to breaking out as an NCAA Tournament-caliber team, they'll say it's because they're close to each other.

"When you have a tight-knit, close-together group of girls, it makes you feel welcome," said Dickson, the Bulls' leading scorer. "It made me feel welcome, that everybody felt like a family."

That family is 6-3 and nearly pulled off an enormous upset Dec.1, taking three-time defending national champion Connecticut to overtime and becoming the first team to force an extra period at feared Gampel Pavilion in Storrs.

Even in losing by 10 in overtime, the Bulls made a statement. USF's losses are to No.3 Duke, No.8 UConn and undefeated Eastern Michigan, who combine for a 22-2 mark.

The school record of 16 wins could fall this season, and a program that had never reached the postseason before a cameo in last season's Women's NIT has its sights fixed on the NCAA Tournament. Picked eighth among the 14 teams in the conference preseason rankings, the Bulls are openly talking about wanting a C-USA championship.

To appreciate how far the Bulls have come, consider that four years ago, in coach Jose Fernandez's first season, they went 4-24, going on to a 7-37 mark in Conference USA in his first three years.

"I don't think there are many people who could have fathomed, three years ago, us being able to go to Duke, or play in the Preseason NIT, based on where the program was," said Fernandez, 33, whose team went 14-15 with a 7-7 league mark last season.

His players - last season's seniors were inherited - give him the unique characterization of being a laid-back coach with a tireless work ethic. He'll make them sweat in practice, but he'll make them laugh as well.

"Your players have to like you, have to like playing for you," said Fernandez, a Miami native who signed a three-year extension last season. "The most talented team doesn't always win. It's the best five that play together. If your kids don't want to play for you, you can forget about it. You can hang it up."

Count the 5-foot-11 Dickson, who led the nation's freshmen in scoring last season, among those who want to play for him. Asked for her favorite Fernandez moment, she laughs and offers the time he tried - fearlessly, hopelessly tried - an impromptu rap in the locker room before a game. When practice is tight and frustrating, he'll disarm his players with a dumb joke, knowing getting them to laugh together can be a precursor to getting them to play together.

"He gets us to laugh, and that's a great quality in a coach," Dickson said. "He's just being himself."

He isn't laughing when he suggests the Bulls can contend for a conference crown this season, or even next, when they join UConn in the Big East.

"I don't just want to go in and compete. I want to win the Big East," he said. "It's not just me. I have a hard-working staff, and we just came in, rolled our sleeves up, recruited good kids and made them even better after they got here."

The Connecticut loss, though frustrating, did exactly what Fernandez hoped when he got the Huskies to agree to a home-and-home series. He's working on a date with top-ranked LSU for next season, knowing it would bring the same opportunity for national exposure.

"I think it shows the basketball world, "Hey, this is South Florida. Look at us,"' Dickson said. "We're not ranked in our conference, but it lets other people know we're a scrappy team that will fight for 40 minutes and we won't give up until the buzzer."

Fernandez is happy to see the Bulls making headlines for the right reasons. He took over the team in 2000 after the program was shrouded in controversy for more than a year, with coach Jerry Ann Winters eventually fired amid allegations from players of racial discrimination.

He was 28 when he was elevated to interim coach, having been hired six months earlier as an assistant and the team's recruiting coordinator.

After the overtime loss at Connecticut, Fernandez made a call to former Bulls athletic director Paul Griffin, now at Georgia Tech, to thank him for bringing him to USF and giving him a chance.

"Paul hired me, opened the door here. You're thankful for people who have confidence in you," said Fernandez, who was 29 when he became coach. "I was very thankful that he believed in me, that I could turn this program around, put this program on the map."

Fernandez shows the same confidence in his players, even those who lack confidence themselves. The 6-foot-2 Miller, who started 27 games as a freshman last season, said she lacked self-esteem when she came to USF, and Fernandez and his staff have helped her improve that part of her game.

"He believes in us," Miller said. "Especially for me, because I get down on myself very quickly. He and the coaches, they have more faith in me than I do. He knows we can do it, and he just wants us to believe we can do it."

The Bulls will continue to major in chemistry, spending as much time as a group off the court as they do on it, knowing any time they spend together puts them closer to each other and, in turn, closer to their aspirations for this season.

"We're always at each other's apartments," Dickson said. "Just the other night, me, Rachael (Sheats) and ChiChi (Okpaleke) were in ChiChi's room, watching a movie, Dodgeball, " Dickson said.

The subtitle of the unexpectedly appropriate Ben Stiller movie? A True Underdog Story .

[Last modified December 14, 2004, 00:31:13]

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/12/14/Sports/Bonding_spurs_Bulls__.shtml

[GarySJ]

You know, I'm starting to think that women's basketball may be the bright light of the 2004-05 USF athletics season.

The gap between elite WBB programs to the others is VERY wide. There is much more parity in men's hoops. Being competitive with Duke and UConn is a huge accomplishment, especially after all this program has been through.

[Guest BasketBull.]

People should come out and support our lady Bulls; the Bulls have earned it.

Shamefully, I have never been to a women's game. However, if I could, I'd go this season.