Spring Break
Turner can carry the load
Mark Osborne
Issue date: 3/18/05 Section: Sports
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The regular season was the first film - a shaky plot with inexperienced actors, but all the ingredients in place for a great story. The Big East Tournament was the second film - all the same actors from the first film, but suddenly a different script and a rousing success. Now it's up for Huskies to decide whether the last film - the NCAA Tournament - will build on the success of the second or come short of so many fans' high expectations.
The final film opens Sunday at 7 p.m. as the Huskies take on Ivy League champion Dartmouth at Gampel Pavilion.
The No. 10 Huskies (23-7) earned a No. 3 seed in the Kansas City regional in large part due to their impressive showing in the Big East Tournament. While the team was just the No. 3 seed in the Big East Tournament, they defeated both No. 2 seed Notre Dame and No. 1 seed Rutgers on their way to the conference title.
Maybe the biggest thing the Huskies learned in the conference tournament was Barbara Turner can carry the team. She may have been battered and bruised - at one point limping off the court with an apparent ankle injury - but Turner pulled her best Willis Reed impersonation to capture the Big East Tournament's Most Outstanding Player award. That's all in the past though now.
"I'm grateful for what I did in the Big East Tournament, but I'm hoping to have that carry on to the NCAA Tournament," Turner said. "At this point, [our record is] 0-0. You really can't look at any past records or anything like that. It's only how you approach things and do things now that matters."
And what comes now is Dartmouth. The Big Green are making their fifth NCAA Tournament appearance this year. In order to make the tournament this season Dartmouth (17-10) had to defeat Harvard in a one-game tiebreaker game to decide the Ivy League title. The Ivy League is the only conference in the nation that still has no conference tournament at the conclusion of the regular season.
As an Ivy League school, Dartmouth doesn't offer athletic scholarships, but they are able to attract players from all over the country with academics as an incentive. There are players on the team from Texas to Florida to Idaho.