Spring Break
Women's b-ball positive going into tournament
David Worford
Sure, it was disappointing Sunday to find out there would be no appearance in the NCAA Tournament - but for players and coaches alike, the Women's National Invitation Tournament is an opportunity for CSU (20-9) to start its future. That chance begins today when Arizona State (14-14) visits Moby Arena for a first-round game at 7 p.m.
"We look at this as an opportunity to build our program," CSU coach Tom Collen said. "It's a do-or-die tournament. That's a lot of pressure. I don't care what anyone tells you about the NIT. If we lose one, our season is over."
And it is good experience to play in a postseason tournament, even if it isn't the NCAA. The Rams have a young team with only two seniors and seven freshmen.
Collen thinks that CSU is one of the top teams in the 32-team WNIT field and has a chance to go deep into the tournament. And despite ending the season on a bit of a sour note, he said the team doesn't have anything to prove.
For the players, it might have taken a while to get over missing the bigger field - but they want to keep a positive outlook on things, whether that outlook is for the future or succeeding in the WNIT.
"It's great to keep playing," soph-omore Angie Gorton said. "This week we worked just as hard as any other week. It's still a basketball game. We have to look at the opportunity we have here."
Gorton also feels the Rams have a shot to do well in the tournament - with a chance to win it - and said CSU has the right outlooking heading into it.
"Mentally you can't say it's over and I think a lot of teams in this tournament feel that it is over," she said. "It just helps us prepare us for next year. It's the exclamation mark on this season."
And if the WNIT is going to be the final statement for the Rams, the first round is not going to be as easy as it might appear on the first glance.
ASU may only have a .500 record but the Sun Devils played a tough schedule. They played 11 games against teams in this year's NCAA Tournament and went 1-10.
That record may be a bit deceiving considering the only team that blew out the Sun Devils was Stanford, but ASU also recorded its only win against the Cardinal.
Collen also said that ASU may be as excited as anyone to be in this tournament.
"They're just a very competitive team," Collen said. "They're very enthused to be in the NIT. They're in a position where they haven't been in the postseason in seven or eight years, so they're very excited." The Sun Devils finished seventh in the Pacific-10 Conference. Despite that, Collen said ASU appears ready to move up to the upper echelon of the league that sent four teams to the NCAA Tourn-ament and another two to the WNIT.
ASU is led by sophomore forward Theresa Jantzen and senior center Rachel Holt who average 12.4 and 11.8 points a game, respectively.
So, the Sun Devils will be a formidable opponent standing in front of the Rams, but CSU still wants to use this tournament as a spring board to bigger things.
"There are some very good teams in this tournament and I think we're one of them," Gorton said. "(CSU) better get used to playing in postseason games."
