TTN: Alumna returns to North Broad for pro game

http://temple-news.com/living/2012/02/28/alumna-returns-to-north-broad-for-pro-game/

(February 28, 2012)

Fatima Maddox will return to North Broad Street, but this time wearing a Harlem Globetrotters’ jersey.

For the first time since 2007, Fatima Maddox will play on the court where she helped the Owls win their third consecutive Atlantic Ten Conference Championship. But instead of donning the Cherry and White, she’ll be wearing Harlem Globetrotters’ red, white and blue.

The last time Maddox stepped onto the court in the Liacouras Center, she was playing her final home game on senior night. She went on to score nine points on four of 10 shooting, grabbed three rebounds, and dished out four assists in a 74-64 Owls’ victory over Saint Louis.

The Owls were 11-0 in the conference at the time and looked for their fourth consecutive title.

Now Maddox returns to North Broad Street on March 9 to continue another winning streak, the one the Globetrotters have over the Washington Generals. She said she never thought she’d get another opportunity to play in a place she calls her second home.

“I wasn’t sure if I’d ever play there again, so for me to be able to go back there as a Harlem Globetrotter, I’m ecstatic,” Maddox said.

“Just to be back in that environment, I mean, I remember it like it was yesterday,” she added. “Those are some of my best years of my life, playing in that gym.”

And instead of using crossovers on defenders to get an open shot, she’ll be using some of the flashier moves she’s learned the past few months to entertain a crowd full of young children and their families.

“I thought I was pretty good at dribbling and stuff like that, but [the Globetrotters] kind of showed me there’s different levels you can take each trick,” Maddox said. “It’s a lot of fun though.”

Maddox made history last fall when the Globetrotters selected her to be the first woman on the team since 1993. Since then, she’s spent plenty of time learning the tricks of the Globetrotters’ trade, putting in hours of philanthropy with the team’s “C.H.E.E.R. for Character” campaign and growing close to her teammates, separate locker room and all.

“Actually it’s not as bad as one might imagine,” Maddox said. “I get my own space, obviously, I get my own locker room. And the guys, truly they’ve embraced me and made feel like one of the family.”

The Globetrotters play three games in Philadelphia, two in the Wells Fargo Center on March 11, and another in Maddox’s old stomping grounds two days earlier. She said she’s excited to return and hopeful to get some time off to see friends and family and revisit Main Campus.

“I definitely would like to step in there and see how Temple has evolved,” Maddox said of potentially practicing in the renovated McGonigle Hall. “I hope we practice in there, I think that would be pretty cool.”

Since becoming the first Globetrottess in 18 years, Maddox said she’s received great support from Temple, but she also tries to stay up-to-date on the women’s basketball team.

“I definitely have faith in the program and what coach [Tonya] Cardoza is doing,” Maddox said. “And I’m pretty confident that they’ll finish out strong.”

So as the Owls rest from the A-10 tournament and potentially prepare for an NCAA Tournament appearance, Maddox will be preparing for her first of possibly many visits back to North Broad Street with the Globetrotters.

“For me to be a part of something so legendary, and a part of a team with such great athletes that played on the team – I’m on a team that Wilt Chamberlain played on – so I don’t know if it’s sunk in all the way,” she said. “But I hope that I’m around for a long time.”

Jake Adams can be reached at jake.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Cardoza prepares team for title run

http://temple-news.com/sports/2012/02/28/cardoza-prepares-team-for-title-run/

(February 28, 2012)

The Owls’ seniors hope to capture the A-10 title.

Temple’s 71-44 win against La Salle on Saturday was just a formality as the women’s basketball team (20-8, 13-1 Atlantic Ten Conference) already clinched the second seed in the A-10 Tournament well before tip-off.

The Owls’ second-place finish for the regular season capped off another productive season with coach Tonya Cardoza at the helm.

“Right now we’re playing really good basketball,” Cardoza said. “It’s the last opportunity these seniors have to win a championship and I think their mindset is one that they don’t want to lose, they want to win and you can tell by the way that they’re playing the last few games that they’re really determined.”

In four years Cardoza has continued right where former coach, and the school’s winningest, Dawn Staley, left off. Cardoza has never finished lower than third in the conference regular season and her teams have never lost more than three A-10 games in one year.

Not many coaches have that kind of success right out of the gate in their first stint as a coach, said Cardoza’s former boss, Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma.

“I think in one sense it’s surprising because usually when coaches take over programs they struggle a little bit,” Auriemma said through a media representative. “But [Cardoza’s] just kind of stepped in and Temple’s not missed a beat, and they’re in the NCAA Tournament every year that she’s been there and it looks like they’re going to be there again this year.”

But Cardoza has struggled in the postseason when considering her success during the regular season.

Don’t get me wrong, Cardoza’s credentials with the Owls are impressive. Outside of the conference record (48-8) and having the second-most wins (90) in school history, she’s also the only coach in program history to reach the NCAA Tournament second round in two consecutive years.

But Cardoza’s squads haven’t fared as well as would be expected in the A-10 Tournament. She’s just 4-3, losing twice in the semi-finals and another time in the finals, despite always having a first round bye.

Last year the team lost to Xavier in the final game of the season, finishing 13-1, but the loss essentially ended their title hopes. The Owls were upset in the semis a week later by Dayton, who went on to lose to Xavier.

“We were on such a high,” Cardoza said about going into the Xavier game. “To be that close to winning a regular season championship, and losing to those guys at home in a close game, I think that going into the tournament, mentally we weren’t at our best.”

Temple rebounded and moved on to the second round in March Madness, but missed out on recapturing the conference title for the first time since 2006.

Cardoza said doesn’t feel like she’s missing anything right now, however.

“There are a lot of people that have been coaching this game for a long time that don’t have championships,” she said. “I definitely don’t feel like it defines me in any way.”

Maybe the team hasn’t had the same success because the A-10 Tournament requires not only talent, but endurance. It takes a lot out of players to play three straight days, and Cardoza acknowledged that she has to plan game strategies to account for that.

But to her credit, Cardoza spent 14 years learning from one of the game’s best, Auriemma, when she was an assistant coach. During her time on staff, Cardoza helped the Huskies win five NCAA National Championships.

“Just how to prepare teams, how to get the most out of them, taking advantage of the moment that you’re in, and winning basketball games,” Cardoza said about what she learned. “That’s what [Auriemma] does well, he finds ways to win basketball games and that’s what we’re trying to do.”
“I think he’s done everything he possibly can to put me in this situation,” she added.

But Cardoza may have her best chance for the foreseeable future at winning the A-10, with possibly her stronger group of seniors – guards BJ Williams, Shey Peddy, Kristen McCarthy and center Joelle Connelly – in her tenure leading the team.

“I think the way that we’re playing now, hopefully we’ll carry this momentum into the tournament,” Peddy said. “That would definitely be to our advantage as well.”

Cardoza, however, doesn’t feel this is her last shot for a few years.

“I have confidence in the guys that I’ve recruited to come in here that they’re going to come in here and play well, play hard,” she said. “We’re not taking anything for granted, but next year our goals are always going to be the same.”

The team, however, doesn’t feel any added pressure to win a title for its coach. They’re focused on winning the school’s first in six years.

“It’s been a while since we’ve had an A-10 championship,” McCarthy said. “But it wouldn’t be pressure at all.”

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Owls open up scoring

http://temple-news.com/sports/2012/02/21/owls-open-up-scoring/

(February 21, 2012)
The emergence of Victoria Macaulay creates a wide-spread offense.

The women’s basketball team’s 21-point win against George Washington on Wednesday, Feb. 15 marked the second straight game the Owls had five players score in double digits.

On only two other occasions this season did four players score at least 10 points in the same game. Both of those games came during play in the Atlantic Ten Conference.

“I think if we had to start over from this point on our record would be different,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “I believe that we’re playing really good basketball right now. We have a lot of guys contributing.”

“It’s like a feeling, you know it’s getting closer,” senior guard Kristen McCarthy added. “We’re just trying to seize every moment. We’re playing with a sense of urgency right now and trying to win every game.”

For much of the season McCarthy and senior guard Shey Peddy carried the team, especially in scoring. At 16.6 points per game for Peddy, and 13.4 for McCarthy, they’re the only ones to average in double digits.

But junior center Victoria Macaulay and senior guard BJ Williams have stepped up during conference play, leading to a more diverse offensive attack and a stronger defensive unit.

Williams has 42 points during her last three games, but her job isn’t to score. Her job is to facilitate, and be the coach on the court. She leads the conference with 5.3 assists per game.

“That’s the type of point guard that you like, that knows exactly what’s going on, when to take over, when to take step back because she has other guys that are scoring and feeding them the ball,” Cardoza said. “And now she’s to the point where it’s like she’s that coach on the floor.”

But the real impact has come from Macaulay’s emergence. Once the central reason behind a struggling post game, Macaulay has now become a major threat in the paint. The 6-foot 4-inch center is averaging 10.3 points and 8.9 rebounds in conference play and leads the A-10 with 2.3 blocks per game during conference play.

Macaulay readily admits she didn’t prepare the way she needed to early in the season, but the team is happy she finally showed up.

“[Macaulay’s] emergence is definitely changing our game,” Cardoza said. “Our game plan now changes where we can throw the ball in more often and [we’re] confident that something good’s going to happen.”

“I think it’s very great,” McCarthy added. “Especially last year we had struggled in the post immensely, and now if we can get scoring in the post, and then we have three guys on the perimeter, it makes it that much harder to guard.”

The other, less noticeable, difference provided by the emergence of Macaulay and Williams has been the starting lineup. Cardoza has used the same lineup of Williams, Peddy, McCarthy, senior center Joelle Connelly and Macaulay for eight straight games.

Junior forward Brittany Lewis has lost minutes under the new lineup, but recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds against Massachusetts last week and another 15 points against George Washington as the team’s first option off the bench.

The improved play of Macaulay and Williams has solidified a once inconsistent offense. Temple averaged 60.5 points per game in the first 14 games, and has since averaged 69.1 points in their 12 conference games.

The defense has stiffened, too. The Owls lead the A-10 with 54.9 points allowed per game, rebounding margin, turnover margin, tied for first in blocked shots per game and are second in steals per game.

Even though she doesn’t consider herself a scorer, the offense clearly runs through Peddy, who’s second in the A-10 with 18.2 points per conference game. She’s also second with 3.2 steals per game during that time with conference-leading assist/turnover ratio of 2.4.

Peddy made it her mission before the season to win A-10 Defensive Player of the Year. Cardoza believes she’s still in the running, but Peddy’s offensive capabilities combined with her knack for picking pockets – she tied a school record with 10 steals on Sunday against Rhode Island – could make a case for A-10 Player of the Year instead.

“I still want Defensive Player of the Year,” Peddy said. “I don’t really think about scoring, or trying to score.”

And McCarthy is still a dual-threat with 15 points and 7.1 rebounds per A-10 game, both Top 10 in the conference. She’s an all-around complete player, capable of taking over any given night. But the team now has balance, with the recent emergence of Macaulay and Williams.

“The contributions that [Macaulay and Williams] have made this year, that’s the reason why we’re playing really good basketball, because of the emergence of these two guys,” Cardoza said.

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Macaulay steps up in A-10 play

http://temple-news.com/sports/2012/02/14/macaulay-steps-up-in-a-10-play/

(February 14, 2012)
Victoria Macaulay fills a void in the Owls’ frontcourt.

It’s night and day.

That’s what coach Tonya Cardoza called junior center Victoria Macaulay’s emergence during Atlantic Ten Conference play as a dual threat scorer and rebounder.

“Her whole game has changed and I’m happy to see it, because it’s rewarding to finally see something click,” Cardoza said.

Since the A-10 season started on Jan. 7, Macaulay has averaged 10.5 points and 8.9 rebounds, which puts her in the Top 5 in those categories for the conference during that timespan. In the past two weeks, she set career highs in points (21 vs. St. Joseph’s), shots made (nine vs. Fordham) and tied her career high of 13 rebounds against Saint Louis.

Once the center of criticism in a weak frontcourt, the 6-foot-4-inch Staten Island, N.Y. native is finally living up to the promise the coaching staff saw three years ago while recruiting her from Curtis High School.

Macaulay, who received little recruiting attention from college programs, was brought in with the idea that she would quickly become a starter. But for two seasons she struggled, never averaging more than five points or five rebounds a game. Cardoza tried to give her the reigns last year, but Macaulay didn’t earn the full-time starting gig until a loss against Duke at the end of December 2011.

After starting the final 21 games last season, Macaulay started just one of the first nine games this season. She lacked focus, work ethic and most importantly, confidence.

Cardoza said Macaulay got frustrated when she didn’t see her practice translate into game success and when the coaches tried to help her it was “in one ear and out the other.”

“That was the most frustrating thing, that in practice [Macaulay] would dominate and then when it was time to play she didn’t do those same things,” Cardoza said.

“The past two years I just wasn’t as serious as I am now,” Macaulay added.

Cardoza consistently pointed out Macaulay’s inability to take over favorable matchups.

“I really feel it was my fault not producing, not helping my teammates out,” Macaulay said.

Then something clicked.

A double-double of 14 points and 10 boards against Western Michigan right before A-10 play built some confidence. Cardoza believes it happened when Macaulay finally learned to slow herself down and digest what was going on.

“You know that she could do some things but she’d try to do it too quickly and now she’s just taken a step back and slowed her game down, and now she’s blossoming,” Cardoza said.

It’s something the team needs if they want to win their first A-10 title under Cardoza. Having a dominant center opens up the court for senior guards Kristen McCarthy and Shey Peddy, the focal points of the offense.

“They don’t have to look past me,” Macaulay said. “It’s not a guard’s game anymore, that feels good for us post players. We are options now.”

“The dynamic of the team has totally changed now, because now you might have to go double-team her,” Cardoza said. “Now you can’t play us a certain way because of our guard play. So she’s just opened it up for us.”

Macaulay has always been a little different from her teammates.

“She’s a diva,” Cardoza said. “The most important thing to her is how she looks, what her hair is looking like, her outfits.”

It’s ironic considering Macaulay plays a position notorious for physical play and it was something her teammates had to adjust to at first.

“Now she’s blended in well with them, where they appreciate her humor now, they love being around her and I think she enjoys being around them more so,” Cardoza said.

The chemistry is something she’ll have to build upon the rest of the season as the rest of the team is expected to feed her the ball more as she continues to dominate the paint.

But looking past this season, it will be even more important next year when senior guard BJ Williams, along with Peddy and McCarthy are gone and the focal point will turn to Macaulay.

Cardoza was once concerned that the team would struggle next year with freshmen guards Monaye Merritt, Tyonna Williams and Rateska Brown taking over for the graduating seniors. But that’s not the case anymore.

“The thing is, what she’s shown us now, there’s no going back,” Cardoza said. “You’ve shown everybody what you can do now, you have to live up to this.”

There’s also the added dimension that fellow center, senior Joelle Connelly, will be gone as well, leaving Macaulay as the lone true center on the team. While Cardoza stresses that they don’t need a big center in the A-10, it’s clear that not having someone to take the load off Macaulay while learning under her isn’t the ideal situation.

“I’ve been thinking about that a lot, because all the pressure might be on me but I do have to produce and dominate the post,” Macaulay said. “So the pressure really is going to be on me, but I think I can handle it.”

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu.

TTN: Women’s basketball gears up for remaining A-10 play

http://temple-news.com/sports/2012/01/31/womens-basketball-gears-up-for-remaining-a-10-play/

(January 31, 2012)
The Owls have eight A-10 remaining in the season.

Women’s basketball’s 65-55 win against Charlotte on Sunday gave the Owls a 5-1 record in the Atlantic Ten Conference, but more importantly gave the team four wins in five meetings against conference opponents with a .500 record or better.

The Owls have survived the toughest part of their conference schedule with eight games remaining. The only team left on the schedule with a winning A-10 record is St. Joseph’s (14-6, 4-2 A-10), who the Owls will face two times.

The combined record of Temple’s next eight opponents is 18-34 in conference play. By comparison the first six games were against opponents with a combined 26-8 A-10 record.

“Obviously you want to win every game that you play in and the fact that it’s been against some of the better competition, supposedly, in the A-10,” coach Tonya Cardoza said. “Obviously that’s good for us. But there’s no cupcakes. I think that the parody in the A-10 is really great this year.”

Cardoza has traditionally been one to preach that no team is a bad team. And her team almost always buys into the philosophy.

“We don’t have one more big [game], I think we have eight,” Cardoza said about the remaining A-10 games. “We have eight big ones that we have to make sure that we take care of one at a time.”

Every win in the A-10 is a good win, while a big win against a top opponent doesn’t necessarily justify a great season. The conference is too wide open to dictate top and bottom teams.

ABI REIMOLD TTN Senior guard Shey Peddy was named Atlantic Ten Conference and Big 5 Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 23-29.

Cardoza also said the team isn’t focused on how A-10 leading St. Bonaventure is doing. The Bonnies are sitting atop the conference at 7-0, the only A-10 foe to beat the Owls this year. The Bonnies beat the Owls 74-65 on Jan. 11.

“That was our opportunity and we let it slip away and now we’re just focusing on the game in front of us,” Cardoza said. “We’re not looking and hoping.”

The third-place Owls are now a half game behind Dayton, who Temple beat on the road 61-57. They also have the tiebreaker against Charlotte and Richmond, who are the only teams outside St. Joe’s within striking distance.

Those tiebreakers will be critical down the stretch and securing a top seed in the A-10 tournament. Dayton, in many ways, holds the key to where the Owls finish the regular season. The Flyers host Charlotte and the Bonnies in back-to-back games next week. A Dayton win against St. Bonaventure – who they’re 4-1 against the past four years – and the Owls sit tie for first. And if Charlotte upsets Dayton and Temple takes care of business, the Owls take sole possession of second place.

Duquesne can also play a key role. The Dukes, at 3-3 in A-10 play, look like the most likely team outside Dayton to upset the Bonnies. During the past four seasons the series sits at 4-3 in favor of St. Bonaventure.

But this all depends on if Temple takes care of their own business and beats the teams they’re supposed to.

“There’s no easy games for us and we’re not expecting that,” Cardoza said. “We’re expecting everybody to give us their best shot and may the best team win.”

And that’s where St. Joe’s comes in. While outside forces could have a critical impact on the standings by the end of the season as the top teams beat each other up for the top seeds, the second half of the Owls’ A-10 season boils down to two matchups against the Hawks.

History favors the Owls, as they have defeated their Big-5 rival in 11 straight games. But St. Joe’s has never been an easy win as two of those wins have come in overtime and six have been decided by five points or fewer. And that’s what Cardoza is focused on.

“We know that it’s going to be a dog fight, and that’s what we expect,” Cardoza said. “We don’t expect St. Joe’s to play bad because they never do. They’re always going to play us well. We’re just hoping that we match their intensity level and do everything that we’re supposed to do and come out on top.”

Temple can’t afford to let these games get away, much less the other six on the schedule. They don’t hold their fate in their hands. Winning out secures them a top seed for the conference tournament, but they need help if they want the regular season title.

Jake Adams can be reached at jacob.adams@temple.edu.