Big 4 Women’s preview
Big 4 women's basketball preview: A rising tide
Success of Bonnies, Griffs may be good news for all of WNY’s Division I women’s basketball teams
Published: November 18, 2009, 12:30 am
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Every day, Jim Crowley walks into his office and sees the photo framed above his desk. It’s a picture of the on-court celebration after his St. Bonaventure basketball team edged West Virginia, 68-63, in the Women’s National Invitation Tournament.
That win was thrilling, exiting, and history making.
It was the first postseason win for a Big 4 women’s team in the Division I era and kick-started a ride that carried the Bonnies to where they lost to eventual champion South Florida but drew the largest crowd ever for a non-doubleheader women’s basketball game in Western New York.
The Bonnies weren’t alone in the party though. Canisius also was in the WNIT field, losing its opening-round game at Syracuse. And lest we forget, it was the Golden Griffins in 2005 who first broke into the postseason with a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship and automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament field.
While Canisius and Niagara in particular had success in the 1970s and early 1980s when the AIAW still governed women’s sports, nothing compares with the Division I success of an NCAA or WNIT bid.
And so the question arises: Has women’s basketball arrived in Western New York?
For Crowley, that’s a question with an open-ended answer.
“I can’t wait to see what it’s done, to be honest with you,” Crowley said. “What’s the follow-up? Certainly, we’re more well-known around here. People are speaking to me or talking to the kids or asking about things I’ve never had people ask about. But what happens next? Do people come back out?
“It’s our responsibility to keep them coming. And I don’t know what we’re going to do wins and losses [wise] this year, but I know you’ll see a team that plays really hard and will play for one another. That’s who these kids are. I think people appreciate that, and they’ll
come back.”
There was a definite buzz that grew in Olean as the Bona women put together a 23-11 season, which included going 13-3 in the Reilly Center and knocking off the likes of nationally ranked Michigan State. There were 621 fans in the stands for that game. By the time Bona hosted its regular season finale, an overtime loss to Duquesne, they had 789 fans in the stands.
For that West Virginia WNIT game, attendance was 1,962 and by the time they were host to South Florida, the Bonnies were drawing standing ovations during introductions with 4,133 fans in the stands.
And with more fans and more buzz, both for the Bonnies and for Canisius, comes more media coverage and more exposure to the game for fans and young girls—something Canisius coach Terry Zeh sees as pivotal.
“I do think it exposes how good women’s basketball is to a lot of people, particularly young girls,” Zeh said. “There are a lot of young athletes that are coming up through the high school ranks and the grade school ranks who get to watch that and they can say, ‘that’s something I can do. They went to the WNIT. They’ve been to the NCAAs. I’m going to work hard to do that.’ And I think that’s the most important thing. It lets young women pick up The Buffalo News and see themselves in that position.”
Increased attendance and media coverage is one way to measure the arrival of women’s basketball: another is the world of recruiting.
Canisius has found that success of teams in its league, particularly the popularity of Marist as a mid-major success story, has helped with courting potential student-athletes to Buffalo.
“When you have a team like Marist going to the Sweet 16 it allows us to speak to our recruits about ‘hey you can come here, we’re building and we can build to that level,’ ” Zeh said. “ ‘We can go to that tournament and win. Teams in our league have done it.’ I think it definitely helps.”
The Atlantic 10 annually places teams in the NCAA Tournament, has powerhouses and emerging faces. For Crowley, the success his team enjoyed last year opened some doors, but didn’t necessarily change his philosophy when it comes to recruiting.
“We’ve been able to get in the door with more people,” Crowley said. “We’re still who we are. So while it gets us in the door, we have to be conscious of the fact we may not win those battles. We have to make sure we’re recruiting the kinds of kids that have gotten us here. Maybe we can get some that have a little more athletic talent, but the bottom line is: For us to stay successful we’ve got to get kids who are tough, love to play and who are more about the team [more] than about themselves. That’s what we’re going to keep doing.”
While individual teams reap benefits in terms of attendance, coverage and recruiting, one school’s success raises the tide, lifting other programs in Western New York.
“I think any time things happen, it doesn’t matter which women’s team, when good things happen in women’s basketball in general, it’s good for everybody,” said Buffalo coach Linda Hill-MacDonald. “We all ride the coattails, and I think it’s exciting. I want our players to be seeing those things happen so the fact that there was that attention, now they can look and say we need for that to be us. It’s a great motivator.”
“It is exciting,” said Niagara coach Kendra Faustin. “Do I want that success for us? Absolutely I do. That’s what we all strive for. Do I think it’s good for Western New York basketball and growing women’s basketball in Western New York? Yes, I think it’s huge. I think that is for the greater good as well.”
amoritz@buffnews.com
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