Concordia Tackles the Bulls’ Offense
It’s so complicated that few basketball coaches dare to try to teach the triangle offense. The Chicago Bulls have mastered it and are giving nightly clinics to NBA opponents.
Concordia women’s Coach Dave Wolter promised himself that he wouldn’t implement it until he had a team that was “intellectually ready.” Before this season, he decided this was the team.
Meet the Bulls of the Golden State Athletic Conference?
“I don’t know about that, but the kids enjoy watching Bulls games now because they know what is coming next,” Wolter said. “They also have a different appreciation than the average fan watching the Bulls on TV as to who is getting the job done.”
Concordia certainly is taking care of its business. The Eagles (24-7) have won five in a row and 12 of 13 going into their game at Biola Friday in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
“Our motto is: Whatever the defense does, they’re wrong,” Wolter said. “It’s easy to say, difficult to master.”
Wolter, who learned the triple post, as the offense was formerly known, as a high school player in Tucson, said he has been surprised how quickly his team picked it up, especially because the Eagles are so young. They usually start three sophomores, a freshman and a junior.
“It’s most difficult on the newer players,” Wolter said. “It’s a system based on the fundamentals. If you have incomplete fundamentals or a bad habit or two to break that’s going to cause you to struggle.”
After losing its first four games of the season at Alaska Anchorage and Alaska Fairbanks, Concordia has flourished. The Eagles have lost only three since--all conference games--by a total of 10 points.
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Angela Sather has thrived in the system. Sather, a junior transfer from Pima Community College in Tucson, is averaging a conference-leading 19 points and was named the conference player of the year.
“I was just amazed at how quick she acclimated,” Wolter said, “not only getting to know her teammates and them getting to know her, but her grasp of a new style of play.”
Sather said it was simply a matter of listening to the coaching staff. “We’re not Michael Jordan or Scottie Pippen,” she said, “but we have learned it, and I think we run it pretty well.”
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Stepping down: Dean Cooper, Southern California College women’s basketball coach, announced his retirement Wednesday.
The Vanguards finished the season Tuesday, losing, 79-75, to Concordia in the first round of the conference tournament. SCC led by as many as 14 points before Concordia caught up late and avoided the upset.
Cooper told his players about his retirement plans before the game. “I think that’s partly why the kids played so hard,” he said.
Cooper had a 65-55 record in four seasons at SCC. He turned the moribund program around immediately, leading the Vanguards to their first .500 record in his first season. Their previous best was 13-14.
This season was frustrating, Cooper said, because the team was young and inconsistent. The Vanguards finished 10-20, Cooper’s only losing season at the school.
Cooper, 62, said he is retiring so he can devote more time to other pursuits, such as softball, golf and fishing. He believes he is leaving the team in good shape.
“I feel like I put some stability in the program,” he said. “Teams don’t look at us as a sure win anymore.”
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Just short: If the Chapman women’s basketball team had been able to win one of two games last week, the Panthers would probably be playing in the NCAA Division III playoffs. As it was, they lost the games by a total of three points and missed the postseason by one spot.
Any way you look at it, it was tantalizingly close. Chapman, which finished 13-11, lost at home to Christian Heritage (5-17 before the game), 58-57, and at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, 71-69.
Against Claremont, which won the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title, the Panthers rallied from a six-point halftime deficit and led late in the game, but Claremont tied it and with the shot clock running out made a desperation three-pointer--that banked in--with 15 seconds left. Chapman’s Kathy Kaupu cut the deficit to one, but Chapman couldn’t get any closer.
“That game was a microcosm of our entire season,” Chapman Coach Mary Hegarty said, “a roller-coaster ride, full of ups and downs that ends with a final downhill.”
Notes
Two Chapman basketball players were named to the Division III GTE Academic All-West Region team. Monique Sweet, a senior guard on the women’s team, led the Panthers with 13.5 points. She is a liberal studies major with a 3.825 grade-point average. Jim Falletta, a senior forward on the men’s team, led the team with a 15-point scoring average. An English major, he has a 3.428 GPA. Both will graduate in the spring after four years of college--Sweet spent two years at Orange Coast; Falletta at Cypress College--and plan to become teachers. . . . Flo Luppani set a Chapman single-season women’s basketball record for three-pointers with 54. Missy Abraham had 48 in 1991-92. Kathy Kaupu’s 60.2% shooting percentage was also a single-season record, breaking Delisa Carter’s 57.6% in 1984-85. . . . For the second consecutive week, Chapman’s Mary Folino broke her women’s track and field school record in the 200 meters. Folino won the event at Caltech Saturday in 26.82 seconds, 0.1 faster than her previous mark. For the record, Folino’s record time in the first meet of the season was incorrectly reported here last week. It was 26.92. . . . Chapman running back Darnell Morgan and kick returner Oscar Ford have been named first-team NCAA Division III All-Americans by American Football Quarterly magazine.