The race is on for college basketball

CHARLOTTE (Steve Goldberg’s Wheel World) – The U.S. collegiate wheelchair season has tipped off and early results reinforce why coaches always tell their players that it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Though it has a half century of history, wheelchair ball on the collegiate level is still limited in the number of schools fielding varsity level programs. There are just four teams in the women’s collegiate division and seven in the men’s so  men and women compete against each other during the season as well as other NWBA women’s and men’s teams to fill out their schedules.

Last year saw the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater do the double, winning both the men’s and women’s titles.

For the women, it was, as Pat Riley likes to trademark, a three-peat. A fourth consecutive championship is most unlikely though as Whitewater is losing three of the four Paralympic stars that collected those trophies. Americans Becca Murray and Desiree Miller, along with Germany’s Mareike Adermann depart while Mariska Beijer of The Netherlands returns.

With their entire team returning, the University of Texas-Arlington (UTA) women’s coach Jay Nelms feels that last year’s runner up, the University of Alabama, is the team to beat. That would be a safe bet as the Crimson Tide boasts its own international cadre of players led by Canadians Cindy Ouellet and Maude Jacques, Aussie Cobi Crispin, Laurie Williams of Great Britain, and Lithuanian Karolina Lingyte. Both Mackenzie Soldan and Caitlin McDermott have USA national team experience.
As I wrote last month, the Lady Movin’ Mavs are only in their second season but have added considerable talent, including USA national teamer Rose Hollerman. It still takes time for that to come together.

The Texans faced off with the Crimson Tide twice in the Jim Hayes Memorial Tournament a couple weeks back and came up short both times by 17 and 16 point margins. As bitter as those defeats are now, they won’t matter if they close the gap by next spring.

The Mavs men’s side has been a contender for years and desperately want to add an eighth title to the seven national notches already on their belt. They are especially motivated after losing that chance last year on their home court in a 55-54 loss to Whitewater in the championship game.

"This is my final year," graduate student Juan Soto told the school newspaper.

"I have to give it my all and leave it all on the court so I can be remembered as one of the champions of the sport."

They’ll have to do it without last year’s leading scorer, Jorge Sanchez, who averaged a team-high 16 points and eight assists per game last season. They also started the season with a doubleheader against the Alabama men, dominating both games with scores of 70-45 and 57-13.

The University of Illinois, where this all started, travelled to Canada to test themselves in the Canadian Academy Tournament.
The Illinois squads, coached by Matt Buchi (men) and Stephanie Wheeler (women) are looking to get back into the championship conversation.

The Illini women took three games by large margins, one over Canada’s U-25 women and two over the Academy’s women’s team. The men split their four games, losing twice to the Academy men while beating the Canadian U-23 men and the University of Edinboro. It had to be a bit odd for the Illini’s Nik Goncin, who played for both Canada’s senior and junior national teams last summer.

Back home, the two teams hosted the Illinois Classic this past weekend. The Illini men finished with a record of 1-3 in the preseason tournament. The women lost both of their games, which were against male competition.

After beating their female counterparts, the Illini men fell twice to the Milwaukee Wheelchair Bucks and once to the Rehab Institute of Chicago, both strong NWBA teams featuring former college players and several Paralympians. The closest margin was 12 points to RIC while the games against the Buck s were far more humbling.

Buchi told the Daily Illini he isn’t concerned with the results and that he looks at these games as a tune-up for the ones that truly matter.

They are not the only ones to be humbled by the Bucks. The defending national champion University of Wisconsin-Whitewater men also dropped two games to the Bucks by double digit margins. They did take three games easily from the Waukesha Thunder though.

It all starts in earnest with the usual suspects heading to Whitewater for a tournament November 21-22. Alabama, Illinois, UTA will have both men and women there with Edinboro and the University of Missouri rounding out the men’s
So the race is on. Winning now is good. Winning in April is better.

Steve Goldberg

FIBA

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