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Automatic bids have PAC teams swimming
Sports Editor
PITTSBURGH - Many of the Presidents' Athletic Conference basketball coaches have spent more time over the last decade learning about and analyzing pools than Mark Spitz during his prime.
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For the first time since the 1996-97 season, it's everyone out of the pools for the expanding PAC. The winners of the PAC tournaments this season will receive an automatic berth to the national playoffs. That fact was a source of great pride Tuesday for the league's coaches during the PAC's annual media day at Mellon Arena.
"The automatic bid is something that is going to be a tremendous boost in recruiting," said Thiel men's coach Tim Loomis.
Added W&J men's coach Glenn Gutierrez, "It definitely helps in that area. We go head-to-head in recruiting with schools like Mount Union and Wooster, schools that have an automatic bid, and now it's a definite plus for us. It's something we can throw out there for a recruit."
The champion in most PAC-sponsored sports will receive automatic berths to the national tournaments this school year. Joe Onderko, the conference's executive director, said it has been a boon for the league.
"For our Olympic sports, such as volleyball, soccer and baseball, it has been tremendous," Onderko said. "We're getting access to championships that we've never had before. I know there was some concern about football, that we will never have a season like we did a few years ago when Thiel, which won the championship, and W&J both made the playoffs through Pool B. But if Waynesburg (7-1) wins out, we might have two teams in the football playoffs again this year."
Last season, the PAC put two women's basketball teams - Thomas More and Westminster - in the NCAA tournament. The W&J women along with the men's teams at Grove City, Bethany and Westminster received ECAC playoff berths.
Grove City, which edged W&J 60-58 in a thrilling PAC men's tournament final last season, was tabbed as the preseason favorite in voting by coaches, media and sports information directors. In what was the closest men's voting in PAC history, five teams received first-place votes and there was little separation between Grove City and fourth-place W&J. The Presidents return the low-post combination of 6-4 junior Wahab Owolabi (11.5 points, 7.5 rebounds) and 6-8 junior Josip Lucic-Jozak (10.7 ppg and 5.6 ppg).
"It's anybody's league, as the PAC is extremely well-balanced," Grove City coach Steve Lamie said. "Every night will be a challenge for us and every team in the league."
The W&J women, who won 20 games last season with an inexperienced and freshman-laden team, were tabbed as the favorite. The Presidents return four starters, including sophomore point guard Kennan Killeen (10.4 ppg).
Defending champion Thomas More was picked to finish second and Westminster third.
"I think our kids are definitely ready for the challenge," W&J coach Jina DeRubbo said. "It's a different mindset coming in favored to win the conference. We have a group that works hard and is a little more balanced than in past years."
DeRubbo said having the automatic berth might allow teams to play tougher non-conference schedules. That is, if they can find open dates. With provisional Division III members St. Vincent and Geneva playing full PAC schedules for the first time - neither school is eligible for the conference title - men's teams will play 16 league games and the women 18. Conference play begins Dec. 1.
"My first year, we didn't play a PAC game until Jan. 21," Bethany coach Aaron Huffman said. "Those games in December now have a lot of meaning because you're playing for seeding and home-court advantage in the conference tournament."
Notes
Nate Stoner, a Waynesburg High School graduate who averaged 4.3 points per game last year for Bethany, has transferred. ... W&J's Kaleigh Bangor (7.6 ppg) has taken the season off to attend school in Germany. ... Rachel Phillips, the Observer-Reporter Girls Player of the Year in 2004-05 as a junior at West Greene, where she averaged 29.7 points per game, has transferred to Waynesburg. Phillips missed much of her senior season because of a knee injury. She spent last year at West Liberty State.
