With the 2020 NCAA tourney tipping off next month, we will spend this month taking a walk down memory lane with a choice collection of players/coaches who are celebrating an awesome anniversary this year. From some game-winning FTs in the 1955 tourney (65th anniversary) through a 17-PT comeback win in the 2015 1st 4 (5th anniversary), these legends have all carved out a little piece of history in past Marches. We continue our series with Hall of Famer Debbie Ryan, who won more than 700 games as head coach at Virginia. She made the postseason in 4 different decades, was a 7-time ACC COY, and had a ridiculous 10-year run from 1987-1996 that included 3 Sweet 16s/4 Elite 8s/2 Final 4s/3-PT OT loss to Tennessee in the 1991 NCAA title game. She coached team USA to a silver medal at the 2003 Pan American Games and was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Debbie about the 30th anniversary of beating Pat Summitt in the 1990 NCAA tourney and the 25th anniversary of 1 of the strangest finishes in tourney history.
You played PG at Ursinus: how good a player were you back in the day, and how did you get into coaching? I was definitely a PG: you have limited options when you are only 5’3”! I could penetrate and shoot from long range even though we did not have a 3-PT line back then. I always wanted to be in coaching my whole life. I swam as a child and played basketball starting in junior high school, so that became my sport of choice.
1 of your assistants while you were head coach at Virginia was Geno Auriemma: what was he like as an assistant, and what makes him such a great coach? He was great as an assistant: it was hard for him to be an assistant but he had a great demeanor and a great knowledge of the game. I learned a lot from him. There are a number of things that make him a great coach. He maximizes every single player’s potential and is very good at inspiring players to step up and get outside of their comfort zone and play against themselves.
In the 1990 NCAA tourney Dawn Staley scored 25 PTS in a 4-PT OT win over Tennessee: how were you able to finally beat Pat Summitt after losing to her in each of the previous 3 tourneys, and did that make the victory any sweeter? Obviously yes because we were going to the Final 4 in Knoxville: it was 1 of my sweetest wins ever. The whole team believed we could win and we were determined to win that game. It was an amazing accomplishment and a statement to the rest of the world that we had arrived.
In the 1991 NCAA tourney title game Staley scored 28 PTS in a 3-PT OT loss to Tennessee and became the only player from a losing team to ever be named tourney MOP: what made the 2-time national POY such a great player, and where does she rank among the greatest players that you have ever seen? I think she is the greatest that I have ever seen. She is very small but was always 1 of our top rebounders and would play any position we asked her to. She was phenomenal that night. There was a controversial call late in the game where we made a 3 but the basket was taken away because 1 of our players was blocking out too hard, and it really affected us. Dawn fouled out early in OT after cramping up earlier in the game. She knew the game so well and could see plays developing 3 or 4 plays in advance. Growing up in Philly she prepared herself so well.
In the 1993 NCAA tourney Dena Evans made what appeared to be the game-winning 3-PT shot with 0.6 seconds left, but it was disallowed because you called a timeout, then your team’s inbounds pass went out of bounds, then Ohio State’s in-bounder stepped on the end-line, and then your inbounds pass was blocked to give the Buckeyes a 2-PT win: how was your blood pressure doing by the end of that sequence? Katie Smith missed a FT and Jenny Boucek was a freshman who was dribbling up the court. I was trying to call a timeout right after we got the rebound but then decided not to because it looked like Jenny knew what she was doing. It was very poor officiating.
In the 1995 NCAA tourney you had a 1-PT lead with seconds left when Debra Williams missed the front end of a 1-and-1 for Louisiana Tech, but the scorekeeper accidentally recorded it as a made FT so the scoreboard showed 63-all: how weird was it to see both teams celebrating at the end of regulation, and how relieved were you to see referee Dee Kantner finally point to your bench to signal that you won the game? I know there was some controversy so I walked over to Coach Leon Barmore to congratulate him, but then there was a misunderstanding. I knew we won the game but I did not know what was going on.
You were diagnosed with cancer in 2000: how difficult was your recovery, and how is your health doing at the moment? It was a very very tough blow and not easy to overcome but now I am 1 of the longest living pancreatic cancer survivors in the whole world. I feel fine and got very lucky: it is miraculous and I do not know exactly why I am alive. It was even harder to overcome in terms of recruiting because some other coaches actually told high school players that I was going to die.
In your 34 years as head coach you were a 7-time ACC COY (including 1991 national COY) and only had 2 losing seasons: what made you such a great coach, and how were you able to be so successful for such a long period of time? I had really great players and we recruited some great people to come here. I gave them the freedom to play and express themselves on the court. You have to be able to change on a dime and switch direction quickly if you want longevity. If you focus only on your team you can be very good at this, which I did not learn until the latter stage of my career.
Each of your players who completed their 4 years of eligibility ended up graduating: how much importance did you place on academics? A lot: you do not coach at Virginia if you do not understand that from the get-go. This is not a place where sports come 1st: they are always 2nd to academics. Once you win and set a precedent then everyone else starts to figure out who you will recruit, so as long as they are smart enough to get in here then you are fine. I stayed away from kids who would struggle in the classroom because that would end up translating to the court.
In 2008 you were inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame: where does that rank among the highlights of your career? It is a very big highlight to be considered for the Hall of Fame by your peers. I will remember it for the rest of my life.
Staff Bracket – February 17, 2020
For John Stalica’s UTR Game of the Day between Grambling and Texas Southern – CLICK HERE
It is Chad’s turn to put together the HoopsHD Staff Bracket this week. Below you will see his projections through games of Sunday, February 16, as well as his notes on the bracket. Below Chad’s Notes are the (totally inaccurate) responses by other members of the staff.
NOTES
– The Big Ten (10 teams) and Big East (7 teams) led the way. The last four teams in (as shown in the First Four matchups) were Florida, Richmond, Utah State and Cincinnati. The top four teams out were Purdue, South Carolina, Mississippi State and UNC-Greensboro. Also considered were Arkansas, Stanford, Syracuse, SMU, Utah and NC State.
– BYU is on the 6 line, but was actually an 8 seed on my Seed List. It was impossible to bracket BYU onto the 7, 8, 9 or 10 lines, so the only remaining solution was to move the Cougars a very rare two seed lines up. Houston and Michigan both fell down a seed line due to this move. The NCAA Principles and Procedures do allow for a two-line move if absolutely necessary, which was the case this week.
– I have two Big Ten teams on the 2 line, and I feel both clearly belong there. Penn State and Maryland are both on 8 game winning streaks and both have three Tier 1-A wins away from home. These teams are playing great basketball and both have a shot at the 1 line if someone ahead slips up.
– The Pac-12 placed three teams on the 5 line or higher, which is a sign of how much better the league has been this season after its struggles the last few years. On top of that, USC and Arizona State are both on the 9 line, with Arizona State playing its best basketball at the right time of the season.
– Georgetown is a new entrant this week after the Hoyas, who were more short-handed than ever on Saturday, picked up a huge road win at Butler. Patrick Ewing’s team now has four Tier 1 true road wins, and could seriously be on their way to a tourney bid.
– Northern Iowa and East Tennessee State were both ranked above the last of the at-large teams, and have outside shots at bids if they win out. Also, keep an eye on UNC-Greensboro, a team that is in the top 4 out. Both ETSU and UNCG have home tests left against a very tough Furman team plus the SoCon tournament ahead.
– A couple of fascinating rivalry match-ups showed up in the first round. In the South Region, Butler and Indiana are matching up in a 6/11 game in St. Louis, while in the West Region, Iowa and Northern Iowa are meeting in a 5/12 game in Albany. Neither match-up occurred during the regular season this year.
STAFF COMMENTS
COMMENTS FROM JOHN
– One thing I’ve been conditioned to look for since joining the Hoops HD staff is Creighton’s annual February collapse. I don’t think it’s coming anytime soon – the Bluejays had a monster week where they not only further enhanced their profile with a road win at Seton Hall, they also smashed DePaul at home. I’d even say that the Bluejays could be as high as a 3 this week.
– Personally, I thought I was going to be called out as nuts when I had Georgetown as the last team in my field after this weekend. But like Xavier who had a game-changing win at Seton Hall two weeks ago, the Hoyas got their season-defining win at Butler without the services of Mac McClung and Omer Yurtseven. Normally, what the Selection Committee does with injuries is consider a) how the team played when healthy and b) evaluate the length of injuries and whether or not the players will come back fully healthy. Georgetown is the complete opposite – do we have to excuse them for being fully healthy and intact back in November?
– Arizona, Arizona State and Stanford were all big movers in the Pac-12 last weekend. Arizona and Arizona State both picked up road sweeps in the Bay Area, and in the case of the Sun Devils, it was their first once since the league expanded to 12 teams. Stanford, on the other hand, is in deep trouble now that they’ve lost seven of eight and are running out of opportunities for any kind of wins, much less signature wins.
– I know we’re all tough on our own teams – I’d probably have Xavier in my final four byes (meaning a low 10 or high 11), but I’d still have Rutgers in 8/9 territory. Normally, the Selection Committee would heavily frown upon a team that only has a single road victory (Nebraska). But while Rutgers is 17-0 at home, look at who they’ve beaten in the RAC: Seton Hall, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and Purdue. Not everyone in the country would sweep that slate (two of which are protected seeds), and that HAS to count for something here.
– Purdue’s schizophrenic ways continued last week with losses against Penn State at home and a resurgent Ohio State team on the road; I would still personally have them in the field over a team like either Cincinnati or Utah State that doesn’t have nearly the quality of nice wins that Purdue does (nor does Purdue have ugly losses weighing them down like UC/USU). Oh, and I must applaud Chad for adding Angry Frank’s bunch to serious consideration (Boston U, Stetson, really?) for the field.
– Theoretically, I’d also love to know if a Seton Hall-Hofstra matchup would be permissible in the first round. I don’t know Chad’s seed list, but I don’t think there would be any home-court disadvantage for the Pirates here since they’re actually closer to Albany than Hofstra would be.
COMMENTS FROM DAVID
-I’m starting to warm up to Maryland. Winning at Michigan State, and winning the way that they did against a team that played well, had a late lead, and had all the momentum going their way, is a sign that Maryland can answer the bell when they need to. Having said that, I still don’t understand putting them ahead of Penn State, and Florida State, and Seton Hall, who have all won even bigger road games and even more of them. I like Maryland a lot more than I did this past Thursday, but still not as much as some of the teams that Chad (and to be fair, everybody else) continues to put Maryland ahead of.
-Arizona State on the 9 line?? Wow! I guess beating a Stanford team that’s outside the bubble, and beating a Cal team that may be good enough to earn a bye in the Mountain West Tournament (brought to you boy CONEXPO CON/AGG) REALLY impressed the counselor this week!
-I’m really not big on Indiana. In comparing them to, say, Northern Iowa (who Chad did select, but seeded behind Indiana) I see an IU team that’s beaten good teams at home, but none of those good teams are particularly good in true road games, and who’s only true win is at Northwestern. I know Northern Iowa just lost at Loyola Chicago, and that does have me holding my nose some, but Indiana hasn’t beaten a team on the road as good as Loyola CHI, so I’d still have them below UNI.
-I don’t understand Saint Mary’s. I mean…everyone he considered except for Utah looks better to me than Saint Mary’s. They’ve beaten BYU at home, the win against Wisconsin came during a stretch when the Badgers, and although Arizona State had an AMAZING week in Chad’s mind with their win over a team outside the bubble and another team that’s a thousand miles away from the bubble, that hardly seems like enough to select them, especially when you look at some of their losses.
-All and all, Chad tries really hard, and I guess we should applaud the effort, but he clearly does not know what he’s doing!!!!