By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com

There are 16 head coaches remaining on each side, 16 teams feeling spring coming. They're just as optimistic as they were at the beginning of the season, if not more so. 

And why shouldn't they be? 

They can see a national championship within reach.

Basketball life is good for the Grogan family of Cincinnati, who have two siblings in the Sweet 16, playing 354 miles apart. Except for the part when Ginny Grogan tries to figure out how, if things break right this weekend, she, her husband Mike, and their son Ryan, are going to attend two Final Fours.

Kacee Grogan (right) outscored Michael Grogan Saturday with 8 in 17 minutes against Johns Hopkins. Michael scored 7 in 19 minutes against Wittenberg.

Mike Grogan, a junior, starts at guard, ranks third on the John Carroll men’s team in scoring at 10.2 points per game, leads the team in minutes played and ranks in the top three in rebounding, assists, and 3-pointers made. Shooting struggles in midseason brought his field goal percentage down to a career low 33.7%, but he has played better recently and scored 12-first half points in the first-round win against Calvin.

“When he was in a slump, I told mom to tell him that I expect more from him,” his younger sister Kacee said with a laugh. “But I know that Mike is a very important part of that team.”

Kacee, a freshman forward at Marymount, is averaging 4.7 points per game and 4.0 rebounds, and has had her playing time off the bench increase as the season has progressed.

“She’s been a crucial part of the team,” said Saints head coach Bill Finney. “She’s averaging about 15 minutes a game, which is significant in that she’s finished out the last couple of games for us. She has a beautiful touch around the basket and a very good fadeaway shot. She’s a great rebounder and she’s always around the ball.”

Mike Grogan, who at 21 is two years older than Kacee, offered a nice compliment as well.

“She’s like a Dennis Rodman-type on the court,” he said. “She does all the dirty work.”

When Mike entered high school, kids used to tease him all the time, asking of Kacee “Is this your older sister?” Mike was only 5-3 his freshman year, nearly a foot shorter than he is now. When the two would play one-on-one in the backyard, he had a hard time shooting over the taller Kacee, who now stands 5-11, which eventually helped him get better.

“I did usually win when we played one-on-one though,” Mike said with a laugh. “I won’t give her that much credit.”

Kacee retaliated: “After a while he would say I was no competition, but I think I held my own pretty well. I think we made each other tougher.”

"I think so highly of Mike Grogan as a person that if I had an inkling of how talented his sister was in the sport of basketball, I would have recruited her as well," said John Carroll men's coach Mike Moran. "I'm pretty sure the Marymount program is as happy with their Grogan as we are with ours, both as players and people."

Mom and Dad will switch their usual places this weekend. Ginny Grogan will head to Wooster with oldest brother Ryan to watch John Carroll play Maryville (Tenn.), while Mike will head to Virginia to see his daughter’s team take on McDaniel. The family will keep in touch, updating scores by cellular phone, though no one’s figured out yet what they’ll do next week if both teams win twice.

Mike and Kacee Grogan will talk by phone as well, as is tradition the night before a game. They may be competitive, but they both want the best for each other.

“I tell her to keep her head up,” Mike said. “She’s playing a lot better and a lot more now.”

“I always let him know that I’m supporting him,” Kacee said.

The road continues for Sul Ross
Doug Davalos’ wife Kim is due with the couple’s third child later this month, so the Sul Ross State men’s coach is on pins and needles as it is. He’s hopeful he’ll be able to get the best of both worlds.

“I want to be with my team every step of the way, and with my wife in the delivery room,” Davalos, lower left, said. “Let’s see how far we can stretch it out.”

Davalos’ team is the last men’s squad standing from the state of Texas, which was one of the Lobos goals earlier this season. They’ll board a plane for Tacoma for a matchup with MWC champ Lawrence on Friday night.

“We feel like there’s some good basketball still in front of us,” said Davalos, whose team caught our attention last season when it posted the first winning record at the school since the 1978-79 season, then won the ASC this season.

Sul Ross (a school record 21-8, with two losses to Division I foes) has thrived in close games, according to Davalos, because of the team’s belief in each other. The ASC title game win over Mississippi and NCAA wins over University of Dallas and Trinity (Texas) have come by a combined nine points.

“We’re a very unselfish team, with a chemistry and depth that makes us unique,” Davalos said. “Our conference prepared us so well, because with so many teams and only four playoff spots, every game is do or die. That mentality helped ready us for the NCAAs.”

The Lobos play at a fast pace, averaging 85.8 points per game with six players averaging at least 9.6 points per game, though Davlaos says they are just as comfortable in the halfcourt game both on offense and defense. Leading scorer, senior guard Larry Morales (14.5 points per game), is one of a couple of remaining players from the squad that won only three games his freshman season. No. 2 scorer, forward Sid Hooper, comes off the bench and brings instant offense. Senior forward Chris Packer has emerged as the big-game player, scoring 28 points in the second-round upset of Trinity. Six-foot-eight center Justin Steward (11.2 points per game, 6.4 rebounds) adds a significant presence.

“Steward is tough to guard,” Davalos said of his transfer from Central Arizona Junior College. “He’s big and strong, and gives us a dimension we didn’t have last season.”

The thought that a child is on the way has kept Davalos thinking not so much about wins and losses, but about what the moment of stepping on the floor for the Sweet 16 is going to be like.

“I just want the players to be able to soak all this in, to enjoy the game and the experience,” Davalos said. “We don’t take anything for granted.”

Gwynedd-Mercy, Gaye breaking through
John Baron had a hunch about two months ago that the Gwynedd-Mercy men’s basketball team was going to end up facing Franklin & Marshall sometime this season. One Sunday afternoon in January, he suggested taking a shopping trip at the Lancaster outlet stores some 90 minutes from their home outside Philadelphia. Baron went willingly, then casually mentioned on the way home that they might as well stop by Mayser Gymnasium to watch F&M host Pennsylvania Athletic Conference rival Alvernia. That gave Baron an advance look at this Friday’s opponent.

“I knew somehow we’d be stuck playing them,” Baron said with a laugh. “I did that towards the end of the season too. If we had an off night, instead of going out recruiting, I went to see (potential NCAA foes) Ursinus and DeSales.”

When we spoke with Baron a year ago, his team was hovering around .500 and powered by the raw talent of 6-8 Senegal-born center Badou Gaye. Now, the Griffins are 26-2, nationally ranked with a potential All American in Gaye (21.6 points per game, 12.3 rpg, 4.4 blocks, shooting 61.5% from the field), and visiting Franklin and Marshall in the Sweet 16.

The Griffins have four freshmen playing a significant role, chief among them 5-6 starting point guard Rashid Santiago, who averages nearly five assists and only two turnovers, playing nearly 32 minutes per game. The team’s No. 2 scorer, freshman shooting guard Chris DelBrocco (9.2 points per game) comes off the bench. Returning forward Jeff Thomas, who averages 7.0 points per game, has doubled that in his last two games, tallying a combined 30 points in the PAC Championship win over Alvernia and the 70-68 overtime triumph over Catholic in the NCAA Tournament.

“I remember when we spoke, you asked us why we were only 11-11,” Baron said. “I told you that basketball was about more than one guy. We recruited hard. Now they can’t sag on Badou any more. I really think that’s why we’re 26-2. We surrounded him with the pieces he needs, plus the five kids we had back got better”

As for Gaye, now a junior, all he did was win PAC Player of the Year honors, putting up 25 points, 15 rebounds and seven blocks in the championship game win.

“Badou has gotten better in three ways,” Gaye said. “He doesn’t try to power over two or three guys and force things. He understands now that he’s not the only guy on offense. He tries to get the rest of our guys involved. He’s worked on becoming a solid post player — now he can shoot the short jumper in the lane. His free throw shooting looks a lot better too. His percentage (55%, the one weak spot in his game) doesn’t show how much better he’s gotten.”

Gwynedd has played with a little chip on its shoulder the last several weeks and has benefited from its two defeats to the point where the team feels like it belongs with the nation’s elite. This weekend, they’ll get a chance to show it.

“Our first loss to Neumann humbled us, when we were 7-0,” Baron said. “Then right when we got cocky again, we got ranked in the Top 25 for the first time (at No. 22). That night we lost to Alvernia and their crowd chanted ‘Overrated!’ Two weeks later, we got ranked again, and it was a different team that got ranked. Now they think they should be in the Top 10. They keep saying ‘We’ve got to keep winning the next game to show everyone.’ ”

It’s in the genes
In the Wittenberg locker room there is a sign that reads “This is a lounge, not a dance studio” but after wins, the team turns up the music and bops around. Wittenberg head coach Pam Smith, normally low key when it comes to that sort of thing, joined in briefly after the 51-48 upset of Messiah, then walked away, laughing and muttering “You guys are crazy!” which got a roar from every one of her players.

Tigers senior forward Haley Warden, the NCAC Player of the Year, refers to herself as the leader of “a bunch of goofballs” that have now danced after 21 consecutive wins and a 25-5 mark all the way to a Sweet 16 matchup with No. 3 Scranton. Warden is all business on the floor, and drained the 3-pointer that put Wittenberg ahead of Messiah for good with under a minute remaining

Warden gets the wacky side from her father, Jon Warden, who pitched for the 1968 World Series champion Detroit Tigers and starred in both baseball and basketball at Georgia. The athletic skill comes both from her dad, and her mom, Karol, who won a national championship in synchronized swimming at Ohio State. Warden’s brother J.D. played college football at OSU and her brother, Karl, is a diver on the swim team at Tennessee (Warden’s teammate Geri Woessner, who letters in three sports, also has an athletic family — her sister Susan was an All-American swimmer at Indiana and is an Olympic hopeful).

Jon Warden roots hard for both Tigers, those at Wittenberg and the hapless major league baseball squad, with whom he lasted one season before a shoulder injury forced him to the minors and eventually retirement. He’s recognizable at games by his Tigers baseball cap, and because of his recent appearances that earned him a correspondent’s role on the ESPN2 morning show Cold Pizza.

“My dad is a prankster,” Warden said. “People say that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. With me, they say the apple doesn’t even fall off the tree. My friends always used to ask me in high school if they could come over and have dinner with my family, because they are so interesting.”

Anatomy of a game winner
Eastern Mennonite women’s coach Richard McElwee reminded his players not long ago of the drills they ran in preseason, how they were timed dribbling from one foul line to the other in 3.5 seconds.

That’s how EMU sophomore forward Laura Ludholtz knew, when she grabbed the rebound of a missed free throw with 6.9 seconds remaining, that she had the time to go the length of the floor and hit the buzzer-beating shot to beat Christopher Newport, 63-62, sending the Royals to a Sweet 16 matchup with Hardin Simmons.

Ludholtz doesn’t remember much after releasing the 5-footer from the baseline, but was able to describe the play as it developed in vivid detail, thanks to watching the video of it a few times.

“I just had a feeling the girl was going to miss the free throw,” Ludholtz said. “The rebound came to my side. I had it in my mind to haul tail and get downcourt as fast as I could.

“I dribbled out to the baseline. I could hear their coach yelling ‘Don’t foul! Don’t foul!’ They had (two players) coming to guard me and (the yelling) gave me enough room. I was (top scorer) Carrie Grandstaff running down the left side of the court, but as I was about to pass it, I saw that she had two players on her. I actually tried to bank the shot, but they pushed me too far outside to do that. Next thing I remember is everyone piling on top of me. Fans ran on the court. My family tried to get on the court, but they couldn’t get down the stairs fast enough.”

Ludholtz, a first-team All-ODAC selection, who ranked second on the team in scoring at 14.9 points per game, finished the night with 23 points, six rebounds, and five assists despite playing with a sprained right thumb.

“She had a great year, but she’s really been amazing the last two weeks,” McElwee said. “She elevated her game. We’re not a one-person team, but you want your leaders to step up in times like these and she’s done just that.”

STAT TO WATCH: Free throw shooting. Nearly half of the 32 game stories from the second round of the two tournaments cited foul shooting as making the most significant difference between victory and defeat.

FILE AWAY: Endicott’s Serbian-born freshman forward Nemanja Marinkovic (who speaks four languages, has a 3.55 GPA and teaches both French and Spanish lab) scored 24 points in Endicott’s 65-55 loss to Babson after averaging 20 points per game and 10 rpg in the Commonwealth Coast Conference tournament. Marinkovic, the CCC Rookie of the Year plays a lot bigger than his 6-4 frame and could be a major force in Division III the next three seasons.