San Francisco Dons Basketball

A roller-coaster season on the Hilltop started with a depressing start to the season with the Dons of San Francisco going 4-9 to open the season.

After the big dip, however, USF stormed back with its best WCC record since 1982, going an impressive 11-4, including sweeps of Portland and Santa Clara and a split with Gonzaga.

Nevertheless, like any good roller coaster, they dipped back down again with one of those "we should have beaten them" losses against Gonzaga, where mental errors doomed USF's comeback effort. Season over at 17-14.

Not so fast, Dons faithful! The 2011 College Insider Tournament (created to allow more teams into postseason action) threw USF a lifeline. The Dons open up play Wednesday night at home against the Idaho Vandals of the WAC.

While the Vandals toppled conference powerhouse Utah State, it is their only true quality win of the year. Nothing really stands out about this Idaho team...well, aside from a 75-33 loss at Montana, a team USF beat.

This presents a wonderful opportunity for USF's young freshmen and sophomores to gain some valuable postseason experience without the grand pressure that the NCAA tournament brings with it, and without having to play a probable one-and-done against the likes of Kansas, Kentucky and Duke.

The CIT is filled with teams that the Dons can compete with and should win against. This is a good testing ground for a young team that sees itself as a challenger in the WCC and a team searching for an NCAA tournament bid next season. USF's road to the NCAA tournament starts with the CIT.

How much have they grown as a team? How much have Perris Blackwell and Mikey Williams grown as individuals on both sides of the ball? How much work is left to be done? These are all questions that will be answered through playing in the CIT.

If USF cannot compete with and beat the likes of Iona, Marshall and Idaho here, it says a lot about how much work needs to be done. Win a couple of games against above-average mid-major competition, and the grass looks a bit greener for next year's prospects.

Though pundits may write off the tournaments as "losers" tournaments, do not try telling that to these teams. A team like the Dons, whose goals may have been "oh please let us win a few" at the beginning of the season, probably did not even have postseason play marked on their calendars. The CIT presents a great opportunity for San Francisco to see how far it's come and how much further it needs to progress.

Wednesday Night's Game

Idaho (18-13; 9-7 WAC) at USF (17-14; 11-4 WCC)

War Memorial Gym, San Francisco, CA

7:00PM (PST) tip-off

For a University of San Francisco men's basketball team that fielded only one senior player, center Moustapha Diarra, the future looks big and bright on the Hilltop.  After starting out a miserable 4-9 to start the 2010-2011 season, something suddenly clicked.  The Dons rocketed up the WCC standings going 13-4 in their final 17 games, including 10-4 in league play. This was the first time since Quintin Dailey suited up for USF in 1982 that they had won 10 games in conference play.

Young freshmen like Cody Doolin, who scored 23 against Gonzaga in an upset win, and Marko Petrovic, who earned substantial play in conference games, matured down the stretch and provided head coach Rex Walters with the ability to mix-and-match his line-up more effectively against opposing teams.  Sophomores Mikey Williams and Perris Blackwell contributed consistent efforts on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, showing how their game had grown by leaps and bounds over the course of the year.

Everything seems to be looking up for a team that had been mired in well over a decade of mediocrity.  Only one graduating senior means no real roster turnover and a consistency and familiarity which should allow the young players to grow even more.  It all points to bigger and better things, along with greater success next season.  The competition with Gonzaga and St. Mary's will be as fierce as always, but more maturity on the roster could mean more wins against both.

However, three letters stand to spoil USF's potential rise to the top of the WCC next season: BYU.  One of the best, if not the best at the moment, teams in all of NCAA basketball joins the WCC next season.  Despite the talent on St. Mary's and Gonzaga, neither of them possess the skill that BYU currently has.  The Dons of San Francisco, despite the great promise and talent of their young players, probably don't have the ability to beat BYU given the problems both St. Mary's and Gonzaga give the Dons.

For USF this means their bright future needs to shine brightly now.  A No. 3 seed in the WCC Tournament starting next weekend is nothing to gloss over and USF must capitalize on the opportunity they have before them. 

The WCC sends one or two teams, typically, to the NCAA tournament.  Is this likely to change with the addition of BYU?  Possibly.  Nevertheless, with BYU a near lock for the NCAA Tournament, the WCC Tournament would still decide who else gets the bid.  The problem here being that because of BYU's clear advantage over the field BYU would be the odds-on-favorite to win the WCC Tournament. 

This would leave USF in the position of having to earn an "at-large" bid.  The Dons would have to play a much more difficult schedule and win those harder games in order to increase their RPI to get that at-large bid.  Are they good enough to do so?  Fans, players, coaches and alumni hope so.  But, given the uncertainty of the future it would be better for the Dons to play the tournament of their lives and make the NCAA Tournament this year. 

Opportunity is knocking, and the Dons need to actualize their potential in order to open the door.

The St. Mary's Gaels showed the University of San Francisco Dons why they are the team to beat Saturday night at War Memorial Gym in San Francisco.  A 14-2 St. Mary's run to start the second half propelled the mighty Gaels to an 86-68 victory over USF.

A sellout crowd of over 4,500 fans packed the tiny gym at the University of San Francisco, and while St. Mary's fans filled part of the gym and made themselves heard from tip-off to the final buzzer, it was USF's massive student sections that provided much of the noise and atmosphere starting about five minutes before tip-off as chants of "USF, USF, USF" filled the gym. 

They came expecting an upset, and for the first 22 minutes the Dons of San Francisco put on a tough-nosed and gritty performance.  USF was awarded two free-throws to start the game as St. Mary's was assessed a technical foul for dunking during the pre-game warm-ups.  Rashad Green hit one of two. 

Despite the early one point lead, St. Mary's came out shooting threes.  In the opening 10 minutes the Gaels hit six three-point shots.  However, USF kept the Gaels within sights, never allowing the Gaels to get up by double-digits. The Dons defense tightened in the second part of the first half, not allowing any more threes from St. Mary's.

The Dons, led by Mikey Williams and Rashad Green, scoring 17 points each, rebounded to close the half only down by two. The crowd at War Memorial Gym erupted with applause, still smelling that possible upset with the score 36-34, St. Mary's in the lead.

The second half opened with a Dons defensive stand which turned into an easy lay-in for Perris Blackwell.  Tie game, 36-36.  But the Gaels suddenly awoke.  Led by Mickey McConnell, 19 points, and Matthew Dellavedova, 14 points, the Gaels sprinted ahead to a 14 point lead at 50-36.  The Dons would cut the lead down to nine, but St. Mary's always had the push back ability and did not let USF get any closer; at a couple of points going up as much as 20.

In the second half, St. Mary's shot 14-21 from the floor and committed only five turnovers. The Gaels did what they do best in the second half: drive the ball down low, pass to the open man, and make the open shot. They made quick and smart passes, corralled offensive rebounds, and exploited holes in the USF defense that played most of the second half without big men Blackwell and Moustapha Diarra. 

St. Mary's taught a youthful USF team a valuable lesson: play your game, play it well, and profit from. St. Mary's didn't change the way they played in the second half, they didn't have to, they simply executed their game plan better and it was too much for the Dons.

I walked into a bustling War Memorial Gym on a pleasant Saturday evening on the University of San Francisco Campus about 15 minutes before tip-off.

The USF Dons were taking on the Broncos of Santa Clara, a classic Bay Area rivalry that is probably older than any surviving alum of either University. Both teams entered the night at 5-2 in the West Coast Conference (WCC), tied for second in the conference behind the mighty Gaels of St. Mary's College. 

Despite being 5-2 in the WCC, USF was only at .500 with an 11-11 record. Impressive?  Not from anyone looking in from the outside, but if you had told me that the Dons of San Francisco would be either playing .500 basketball or second in the WCC, I'd have laughed at you.

I went to the University of San Francisco from 2005 until graduating in 2009. During those four years I was at USF, the Dons went through three coaches, made no postseason berths and averaged just over 12 wins in those four years. 

A sorry state of affairs to be sure, but made even worse by the fact that the only basketball team in the large metropolitan hub of San Francisco could barely draw 500 fans a night. Often there were more fans of the opposing team in the stands than USF fans.

For those who are not familiar with USF, from the 1950s through the early 1980s the team was a national powerhouse.

USF won three championships. USF had featured big name coaches Pete Newell, Phil Woolpert, Bob Gaillard and Jim Brovelli. USF developed the likes Eugene Brown, KC Jones, Mike Farmer, Quintin Dailey, Phil Smith, Bill Cartwright and the legendary Bill Russell. USF was the first team to be shown on CBS's national college basketball broadcast.

However, the bigger they are the harder they fall; a phrase holding true for Dons basketball. In the late '70s and early '80s, despite great success on the court (including a 29-2 1977 season that including a No. 1 ranking), the USF basketball program was placed on probation two separate times by the NCAA as their players were given the stereotypical "special treatment" with their academics. 

It came to a climax in 1982 when All-American Quintin Dailey assaulted a female student.  An investigation discovered that Dailey had a no-show job provided by an alum who also paid him $5,000. The program, and its treatment of athletes, had gone off the rails and was voluntarily suspended by the school.

The program was revived in 1985, but since then the once storied Dons of San Francisco made the NCAA tournament only once. They have floundered in mediocrity, seemingly still in a daze and unable to recover from the scandals that crippled the program in the early '80s. Five coaches since the program restarted have tried but have not recaptured national attention.

That is, until now. Coach Rex Walters, now in his third year as head coach, had a difficult start to his tenure. He won 11 game his first year and 12 in his second. However, despite the losses, he recruited effectively, aiming to bring glory back to Dons basketball. 

His current team features only one senior, Moustapha Diarra, the backup center. His starting five features a youthful look with juniors Rashad Green and Angelo Caloiaro, sophomores Perris Blackwell and Mikey Williams and freshman Cody Doolin. 

Those names may mean nothing to those outside of the WCC, but Mikey Williams leads the Dons in scoring, Blackwell shoots 54 percent from the field, and Doolin established himself as the best freshman guard in the conference after dropping 23 on Gonzaga. All three of them will be in the Dons starting lineup for at least two more years. 

Additionally, there are eight other freshmen on the roster, many of whom were targeted by big college programs—like Dominique O'Connor, who chose USF over USC and No. 7 San Diego State.

The fans have come back, not because the team is a winner, but because students, alums and people in San Francisco see light at the end of the tunnel. Saturday night, War Memorial Gym was virtually full, and that full house left happy as USF beat Santa Clara to take hold of second place in the WCC.

USF probably will not win the WCC. St. Mary's remains the cream of the crop and is primed to make another NCAA tournament run. Nevertheless, USF has a season that they can finally build upon.

They beat quality opponents in Gonzaga, Colorado, Santa Clara (twice) and 17-7 Portland; they also stayed even with San Diego State before the Aztecs squeaked out a win at the end. The season still isn't over as they get to play St. Mary's and Gonzaga again, and if they can beat both they could make the NCAA tournament, but it will take flawless basketball from such a young team to do that.

Finally, USF has been able to recruit good talent. Finally, the city of San Francisco has fun basketball to watch. Finally, the USF Dons have appeared to shake off this 26-year malaise. This USF team has no where to go but up. Given the youth and the quality of the players that Rex Walters has brought on board, the USF Dons will be a team to watch in the WCC for the next few years. 

Look out NCAA, the program that produced Bill Russell, Bill Cartwright and KC Jones is on its way back, and it means business.

Bay Area coaching legend Pete Newell, who won NIT and NCAA titles, as well as Olympic Gold in 1960, has died at age 93, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Newell won an NIT championship with USF in 1949, when the NIT title was considered to be more prestigious than an NCAA tournament title.

After leaving the Bay Area for Michigan State, Newell returned to take the coaching job at Cal, where he won the Pac-8 title four straight years. Newell's Bears didn't always have the best talent, but they were undoubtedly among the best coached, winning the 1959 title and reaching the title game again the next year (earning the 1960 NCAA coach of the year award). Cal's court is named in his honor.

Newell would've made Jerry Tarkanian seem calm on the bench. He chain smoked off the court and was so nervous on it that he was told to retire before the age of 45 for the sake of his health.

After retirement from NCAA coaching, Newell returned to the bench for the 1960 Olympics, leading the United States to victory. In the 1970's, he was general manager for several NBA teams, including the Lakers, who he netted Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Newell is perhaps best known for his Big Man camps, attended by players such as James Worthy, Hakeem Olajuwon, Scotty Pippen, Shaq, and more recently, Andrew Bynum.  Newell later started an elite camp for women post players as well. Both camps were operated for free. Newell also did charitable work for the Peace Corps.

As noted in the Chronicle, Newell loved basketball so much that he gave up a potentially lucrative acting career. As a child actor, he almost became internationally famous playing opposite Charlie Chaplin in The Kid (he was ultimately not chosen for the part).

For more than ten years, Bay Area teams have participated in the Pete Newell Challenge in his honor.

Newell was a class act who represented Cal, Team USA, and the sport of basketball better than almost anyone in the history of the game.

UC-Berkeley press release: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2008/11/17_newell.shtml

Some annecdotes about Newell's career and life: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/11/17/SPGM1468HJ.DTL

University of San Francisco press release: http://usfdons.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/111708aaa.html

Santa Clara’s Chandice Cronk continued her quest for the records book when she led the Broncos to a 57-50 win over West Coast Conference foe San Francisco in a tightly contested game Saturday night at the Leavey Center.

Cronk entered the week with a SCU record 234 career three pointers and needed only three more to surpass former Pepperdine standout Damaris Hinojosa (1999-03) for first place in the WCC career three-pointer list.

The senior guard broke the record Thursday night against San Diego with four made threes and tonight verses USF she added three more.

“It’s awesome,” Cronk said being on No. 1 in the WCC for career three-pointers made.  “I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates for setting me up and putting up screens.”

The Alaska native finished the game with 15 points, three rebounds, one assist, two steals, and went 4-for-4 on the free throw line.

Bronco’s forward Jen Gottschalk had her eighth double-double of the season when she finished the game with 16 points and 12 rebounds.

Both SCU and USF entered the game tied for second place in the WCC with a 3-1 record.  With the win, Santa Clara takes over sole possession of second place in the WCC with a 4-1 record behind Gonzaga, who has a perfect 5-0 in conference play.

With the win the Broncos now are 15-4 and are on a four-game winning streak after dropping their first conference game against St. Mary's.

SCU led by as much as 16 points in the second half, but the Dons was able to fight back and cut down the deficit to as low as two points.  USF never lead the game.

“They’re a good team and that’s what good teams do, come back,” said Cronk.  “But we stuck it out and did what we need to do.  We made big shots.”

San Francisco won the opening tip off, but Broncos’ Tracey Walker had the game’s first point on a layup at 17:55.

Fueled by Walker, the Broncos got out on fast start, scoring 10 straight points before the Dons finally registered their first basket of the game at 11:30 on a jumper by Dominique Carter.

Carter led all scorers with 21 points.

Santa Clara closed out the first half strong, going on a 13-6 run.  Bronco guard Cronk’s late three right before the halftime buzzer was her first points of the game and it extended Santa Clara’s lead to 29-16.

The Broncos held the Dons to just a 25.9 field goal percentage while shooting 46.4 percent from the floor in the first half.

SCU continues to have success from beyond the arc.  The No. 1 team in three-point field goal percentage shot 25 percent in the first half.

The Dons quickly regrouped in the second half and went on a 14-2 run to get right back into the game after Bronco’s Liz Doran opened the half with a three.

USF fans who made the commute began rallying behind their team when Necolia Simmons scored on a jumper to cut Santa Clara’s lead down to just four points with 11 minutes left in the game.

Bronco players just could not secure the rebound on the next San Francisco possession as the Dons gathered offensive rebounds and had three straight chances to cut the deficit to two points.

After a foul by USF’ Carter at 8:44, Bronco’s Gottschalk had a chance to build up Santa Clara’s lead once more on a pair of free throws, the Bronco’s first free throw attempt of the night, but was 1-for-2.

The game began picking up again as both teams traded basket, but Cronk’s three just under two minutes left in the game extended SCU’s lead to seven, a lead the Broncos never relinquish as they held on to win the game.

Santa Clara will hit the road and play Portland next Wednesday January 30th.