Chris Whitaker
SALINA, Kan. — Let the madness begin.
As South Georgia Tech makes its first appearance in the NJCAA Tournament, the Lady Jets face perennial power Gulf Coast in a David vs. Goliath matchup at 3 p.m. Eastern as the No. 15 seed.
The Lady Commodores (28-1) have averaged 29.9 wins over the last 14 seasons and have won two national championships.
But Lady Jets coach Brandan Harrell said none of the tradition is fazing his team.
“We’re definitely the underdog, and if we win, it would be huge,” he said. “It would probably be the win of the tournament. If we lose, in everybody else’s eyes but mine, we’re supposed to lose. That takes some pressure off. We don’t have to play tight, and we don’t have to feel like we have to go out and win by 20. We’ll go do our thing and however it falls, falls.”
The Lady Jets (29-5) reached the NJCAA Tournament by beating Guilford Tech (N.C.) 64-50 on March 6 to win the district championship. And even with the nation’s top scoring defense (49.3), SGTC managed only a 15 seed.
“That’s something we don’t have any control over,” said Harrell. “I think the seeding committee sometimes looks at tradition as much as or more as the present. We haven’t been in the polls all year and are kind of an unknown. I was a little disappointed when it first came out, but after I thought about it, it’s probably about where we deserve it.
“The thing is, our (district) hasn’t done well here the last three or four years. That has as much to do with where we play as anything. I think as a district we’ve got to come out here and win a game or two to get up where the other teams are. No matter where we are, we’ve got to come out and play to win the game.”
SGTC arrived in Salina on Sunday and held two practices on Monday. Harrell said they had a good practice, despite a bit of silliness.
“We’ve been silly all year, and I think that will be good for us,” he said. “I’d much rather us be a little excited and a little up instead of a little down. I’m pretty happy where we are right now.”
Gulf Coast isn’t a stranger. The two teams scrimmaged to start the season with the Lady Jets losing by double-digits.
While SGTC has improved since the beginning of the season, Harrell is concerned with the Lady Commodores’ depth. He said their first four players off the bench are as good as the starting five.
The Lady Jets hope to decrease the number of possessions in the game so they won’t fatigue easily.
“They want to play uptempo, and they’re able to do it because they have eight or nine very good quality players,” said Harrell. “They wear teams down. I think that’s the hardest thing for us to do. We’ve got to control the tempo a little bit and keep our best players on the floor. We have very little room for error or foul trouble.”
Gulf Coast is led by Andrea Smith, who is averaging 17.3 points, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals while making 55 3-pointers on the season at a 38.2 percent mark. Kyra Crosby is scoring 10.9 points game, and seven others are averaging at least five.
Harrell said Dee Smith, the GJCAA Player of the Year, is very comparable to Andrea Smith. He said they will be matched up at times, and both will probably try to get the other in foul trouble.
The Lady Commodores have had only three games decided by single digits this season, including the Region VIII championship where they beat Tallahassee 54-51.
Harrell said keys for them are limiting turnovers and offensive rebounds.
“We’ve got to make them make tough baskets early,” he said. “If they spurt out because we turn it over or spurt out because of offensive rebounds, we’re going to have to talk about that. If we can control the ball early and not give up offensive rebounds, that keeps us in the game that much longer.”
The Lady Jets have done most of their damage on the defensive end. Gulf Coast’s defense isn’t too shabby either as it is 10th in the country in scoring defense.
Harrell said the district win was a positive reinforcement that the Lady Jets can play in a different environment. He also said the Gulf Coast prowess has to be thrown out the door.
A win could possibly make the Lady Jets the Cinderella of the NJCAA.
“We got out of our element last weekend riding a bus for nine hours,” he said. “We practiced, we slept, had shot around and played at 1, and we played pretty well. That’s about as far from the normal routine you can get, and we still played pretty well. We don’t have to be in our element to play well. We can play well under difficult and unusual circumstances.
“From a program standpoint, we’ve got to throw it out and play the next play. We do our job on the next play and not worry about their tradition, their program and national championships. If we take it one play at a time, we’ll be OK.”
The game will be broadcast on WISK 98.7 and will be televised at www.njcaa.org/tv. Live stats can be found at: www.cybersportsusa.com/tourney.asp?tc_id=2314.
