"The Price of Greatness is Responsibly." It's a slogan on the back of UB head coach Cheryl Dozier's practice T-shirt. It's the words that the UB women's basketball team have lived by this season.
The price of a trip to Cleveland will be hard work on the boards.
After being out-rebounded 47-32 in their last game, a 78-72 home loss to Kent State Tuesday night, Buffalo's focus this week has been on their rebounding as they prepare for their Mid-American Conference Tournament First Round game with Central Michigan Saturday at 7 p.m. in Alumni Arena.
Unfortunately for UB, they may have to try to win their first conference playoff game in three years without senior forward and captain Jessica Kochendorfer. Kochendorfer suffered a mild concussion in a collision against Kent State and sat out of practice Thursday. She was re-evaluated by doctors yesterday but, at press time, her status for Saturday's game was questionable.
As for the players on the floor Thursday, three sprints up and down the court were the penalty for sloppy play on the glass and a failure to box out. Dozier watched her defensive rebounders closely, hammering home the fact that had UB done rebounding fundamentals properly, they could have beaten the Golden Flashes.
"That's been a strong point of ours throughout the season, when we've won games we've rebounded well," said forward Kim Kilpela, who had 15 rebounds and 11 points in the Bulls last game against CMU. "We (the forwards) have to step up of course because we are the big girls and we're down there getting the boards but it's also essential that our bottom guard make sure they box out the weak side guard. Everybody has to box out, it's essential."
The Bulls face a Central Michigan team that they defeated on the road 64-54 on Feb. 22. UB is 3-0 all-time against CMU. The Chippewas, with just one quality player under the basket, are a perimeter team, and appear to be an ideal match-up for UB.
"Very young team, but probably one of the best shooting teams in the conference," Dozier said. "They are more of a perimeter oriented team but they do have a post player inside that worries me, Desiree Eidson, she is a kid that definitely has the potential to go the glass hard and get a lot of put backs.
"Offensively (CMU head coach Eileen Klienfelter) is going to run a lot of four-out because their post players will put the ball on the floor and penetrate. So she is going to run a four-out offense with one post player inside. Defensively she is going to press us, whether it's full court man to man, or kind of like our 12 - which is a half-court trapping kind of defense - back to a 3-2 zone, they love a 3-2 zone. She may play some man-to-man against us because she played about half-and-half against us the first game. They are going to mix things up against us."
CMU comes in losers of their last two games and five of their last six. The Bulls were on a six-game winning streak prior to losing their final game against Kent State.
The winning streak may be gone, but the team still feels like they are on a roll.
"We are still as positive as ever ... we're still as confident, and we're just looking forward to getting this next game out of our way," senior forward Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe said.
McMeeken-Ruscoe and sophomore guard Allison Bennett, among others, will be playing the first home playoff game of their UB careers.
"I'm not nervous at all about it," Bennett said. "It's awesome that we have home court advantage, it's a lot harder to go into the tournament and play on the road. I think a lot of people on the team feel the same way. We are very comfortable here with our own baskets and stuff like that."
The Bulls, however, will not have the same home court advantage that they had Tuesday against Kent State when the 13th largest crowd in women's basketball history was on hand. UB's spring break starts this weekend and the student attendance promises to suffer.
"It was awesome to have a crowd like (Tuesday's) especially for my senior night, I saw a lot of people up there that had never been to a game before and it was nice to see that support and they were loud, it was awesome," McMeeken-Ruscoe said. "The fact that we played well ... we were able to show them that UB has a team that can win. It is going to be a little bit sad to not have that crowd there, but we have to do it for ourselves, when we are out on the floor it's us against the other team and that's what we have to focus on."
"I don't think that's really an issue because we have played games this winter, we had home games and came out with wins while everyone was on winter break," said Bennett. "With this team it's do or die every time you step on the court, you play it like it's the last game."
The last time UB hosted a MAC playoff game was 2001, when the team finished as the No. 4 seed and lost to the last-place Akron Zips on a buzzer beating 3-pointer. It's a thought that the team has tried to keep out of their heads, but something that can be learned from as well.
"We don't want to focus on it too much but we're using it to realize how important it is that no team is dead right now, every team is alive," McMeeken-Ruscoe, who was on the bench for that game because she had to sit out her first season after transferring from Hawaii, said. "Everyone realizes what's on the line."
Dozier is confident that history will not repeat itself.
"I think this team is a group of kids that care about each other. They don't want to let each other down," Dozier said. "With that, it makes these kids play at a higher level, and at a harder level, because they play for each other. Out of any team that I've had in my five years here I think the team chemistry is as good as it's ever been."
A win Saturday sends UB to Cleveland, Ohio for the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament. The Bulls would meet No. 3 Ball State at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 12 if victorious against the Chippewas.
Dozier said many coaches feel that this year's MAC Tournament is more wide open than ever.
"I don't care who it is, whether its Toledo all the way to Akron, this tournament is anybody's," Dozier said. "I think talent-wise, there is more parity in this league than there has ever been."
So what is going to be the deciding factor?
"Right now the MAC is such a close competition it's whoever comes to play on the day of the game ... that's what it's going to come down to, on game day who wants it the most and who is going to fight the hardest for it," McMeeken-Ruscoe said. "The team that's going to win is going to be the team that deals with (runs), not getting down and getting over it."
"I think we have a really good chance," Kilpela said. "A lot of other teams are playing real well right now including us, so I think it's all up in the air. It's just going to be a fight to the death, whoever comes prepared is going to get it done, and I think we're going to come prepared."
