Cowgirls hope to stick around

By Ryan Steele
Stillwater NewsPress

March 16, 2007 10:57 am

— For Oklahoma State, the thought of playing just one game this weekend doesn’t sound very appealing.
The Cowgirls, who are in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996, will take on 20th-ranked Bowling Green in a first-round game Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in East Lansing, Mich. Head coach Kurt Budke said his club isn’t looking to come home early.
“We’re not happy with just being (in the NCAAs),” the second-year boss added. “We want to do some damage while we’re there. The girls feel bad about how they performed against Kansas (in last week’s Big 12 Tournament) and I think that could be good.”
“We’ve got to play hard or go home,” said OSU senior Rashidat Sadiq, who leads the squad in scoring (12.8 points per game) and rebounding (6.2 rpg). “We want to play as many games as we can.”
Sadiq is the the only Cowgirl who has been a part of an NCAA Tournament squad. She competed for Connecticut during the 2004-05 season when the Huskies advanced to the Sweet 16.
“(Sadiq) has at least seen the (NCAA tourney) atmosphere and as a veteran on this team, she can help explain to the girls about the distractions, the open practice and things like that,” Budke said. “We don’t quite have the NCAA experience that Bowling Green does though.”
The Falcons (29-3) will be making their third consecutive appearance in the Big Dance. BGSU, who has claimed three straight Mid-American Conference titles, have the third-best winning percentage in the NCAA (90.6) and rank fifth nationally in scoring margin (19.2).
Curt Miller’s squad is also ranked sixth in the country in two categories — three-point percentage (38.5 percent) and field-goal percentage (48.2). The Falcons earned a No. 7 seed — the highest seed ever awarded to a MAC club — in the NCAAs while O-State represents the No. 10 seed.
“(BGSU) is a great team,” Budke said. “They’ve got four out of five starters that shoot the three as good as anybody we’ve played this year. It might be the smartest team we’ve played all year long.”
The Falcons are led by MAC Co-Player of the Year Ali Mann, who averages a team-high 15.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. After surviving a brutal Big 12 schedule, OSU junior Danielle Green said the Cowgirls (20-10) aren’t intimidated by anybody.
“We know we’re a 10 seed, but we’re going in to win,” the Philadelphia native added. “Whoever we face may be good, but I don’t know if they’ll be as good as what we’ve played against (in the Big 12).”
Sophomore Shaunté Smith added, “Our competition during the Big 12 season was pretty tough so we think we can play with anybody in the country. We won’t go (to the NCAAs) thinking we’re going to win the whole thing — we just don’t want to go in there, play one game and be satisfied.”
The Cowgirls finished 8-8 in the conference that had the second-best RPI in the nation. BGSU went 15-1 in the MAC and two of its losses came against NCAA Tournament teams — a four-point overtime loss at Notre Dame and a nine-point defeat at the hands of No. 1 Duke.
OSU and the Falcons have met on the hardwood just once — the Cowgirls earned a 72-57 victory in the Louisiana Tech Tournament on Dec. 3, 1993. The winner of Sunday’s game will face either No. 2 seed and ninth-ranked Vanderbilt or No. 15 Delaware State.
“We’ve earned (the NCAA bid) and we have to realize that we can’t just go in there and accidentally win — we have to take it,” Green said.