Wisconsin-Whitewater, Texas-Arlington and Worcester school the opposition

CHARLOTTE (Steve Goldberg's Wheel World) - It's time for Wheel World to go back to school as universities on both sides of the Atlantic decided their national championships.

Top mention must go to the undefeated men of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for winning their third straight trophy at the 39^th NWBA Intercollegiate Division Championships hosted by Edinboro University.

Only three years in existence and just their second season eligible, the University of Texas-Arlington (UTA) claimed the school's first women's title with the promise of more to come.

Meanwhile, over in England, the University of Worcester came out on top of the field in the British Universities Wheelchair Basketball Championships. According to the Worcester News, the tournament garnered a record entry of 16 teams which included a Scottish Universities combined team and two teams from the University of Worcester.

Games were staged at the University of Worcester Arena, which is, not coincidentally, also home to British Wheelchair Basketball. 

"These two days have been incredible, from where we were just two years ago with five teams competing to now having 16 teams and over 170 people playing wheelchair basketball is brilliant," lauded British Wheelchair Basketball Education Development Officer Oli Mitchell.

Universities have really embraced the sport within Higher Education, and I’m sure that with more universities than ever before engaging in wheelchair basketball, this championship shall keep on going from strength to strength in years to come. - Mitchell

The Scottish Universities team kept the final from being an all-Worcester affair with a 25-12 win against the UW 2 side while the UW 1 team had to survive a strong challenge from the University of East London (UEL), winning 25-23 on a basket in the last seconds of the match.

A full tournament summary can be found here. 

The University of Worcester are British Wheelchair Basketball's 2016 University champions. Photo courtesy of British Wheelchair Basketball

UW 1 wasn't going to test fate again and doubled the Scottish squad 8-4 at the end of one quarter, again at the half 20-10, and 28-14 after three. The Scots took the fourth quarter but not by enough to change history and it was the University of Worcester 1 who were crowned the 2016 champions with a 34-24 decision. UEL came from behind to take third place over UW 2 23-22.

There wasn't much drama back in Pennsylvania during UWW's mad march to the title which culminated in a 73-55 win over the third-seeded University of Alabama. Click here to view the game video.

It's three championships in a row for coach Jeremy Lade and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Photo courtesy of Edinboro University/Daniel Graham.

The Crimson Tide, champions in 2013, had no answer for Wisconsin which hit 61 percent from the field for the game, or senior Derrick Bisnett who led all scorers with 32 and rebounders with 8. He assisted on another 17 baskets, making him responsible for all but 7 of the Warhawks' points.

The first team All-American was obviously the most valuable player but I'm upgrading that now to RMIP status, Ridiculously Most Influential Player. I would not be surprised to learn he swept the court between games and dished hot dogs from the concession stand when not washing and folding the uniforms.

All-American senior Derrick Bisnett dishes against Illinois at the NWBA Intercollegiate Championships. Photo courtesy of Edinboro University/Rylie Steiner

For what it's worth, I have it on good authority that Bisnett draws his inspiration from the not-so-actual ABA legend Jackie Moon who he lists as his greatest athlete of all time. Here's looking at you Will Ferrell.

Along with the three-peat, the Warhawks have 11 championships in the last 15 years. Now that's a dynasty of Woodenesque proportions.

They finished the season 27-0. Their closest game, the only one decided by less than 10 points was a 72-69 victory over UTA on January 30 where they were down by 3 at the half before surging back.

Their last loss was in mid-January of last year to Illinois. Since that time, the winning streak now stands at 45 games.

Guiding the success has been former Warhawk and USA National Team player Jeremy Lade, who has been coach since 2009 and six championship teams. You can call him Opie (actor and director Ron Howard's ever-polite and friendly small town boy character in the old Andy Griffith Show); everybody else does.

It's the first ever women's championship for coach Jay Nelms and the University of Texas-Arlington (UTA). Photo courtesy of UTA/Jeff Parkin.

On the other end of that spectrum is UTA women's coach Jay Nelms (who is kinda like Opie's mischievous friend), also a former Paralympian now working at his alma mater. But while the Mavs men's team is long established with seven national titles, Nelms is incubating a program just three years old.

Yet he fast-tracked the ascension to competitive status when he recruited Rose Hollermann to Texas. The Minnesota native went to the London Paralympic Games with the national team in 2012 while still a 16 year old high schooler so she came in with an awareness of what the top flight game should be.

 

All-American sophomore Rose Hollermann shoots against Alabama  at the NWBA Intercollegiate Championships. Photo courtesy of Edinboro University/Bob McConnell.

She's now delivered it, scoring 35 points with 9 rebounds and 7 assists in UTA's 65-51 win over top seeded Illinois. And it's not just Hollermann but also Abbie Dunkin, also just a sophomore, who joined the national team program at the Parapan American Games in Toronto with a good shot at making it to Rio. She had 10 points in the final.

"Rose is one of the best players ever," Nelms told me and he didn't stop there. "Not just in women's but in the whole game. And she has learned how to make the players around her better. She is unstoppable."

We started the team on a five year plan to be competitive, and then Rose signed with us and the five year plan quickly was changed to three. And now we have accomplished it a year earlier in two. - Nelms

The only senior on the team, Morgan Wood, probably gained the attention of Illinois and USA Women's team coach Stephanie Wheeler with her near triple-double - 13 points, 13 assists, 9 rebounds - in the championship game.

Nelms credits Wood with providing the foundation for the women's program. "If it wasn't for her coming here and being the only girl at UTA our first season, this team doesn't exist. She took a huge leap of faith and was a blessing."

Gail Gaeng led the Illini with 24 points and 9 assists with Kendra Zeman adding 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Last year's champions, Alabama finished third, defeating Wisconsin 79-31.

Boxscores, game video and recaps along for the entire NWBA tournament with a listing of All-American honors can be found here.

A job well done to the three champions as well as to British Wheelchair Basketball on continuing to grow the game on the university level.

Steve Goldberg

FIBA

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