Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 26, 1992 TAG: 9202260018
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
MAROONS WANT WOMEN'S TITLE TO CAP SEASON
With typical coaching worry at tournament time, Susan Dunagan realizes one of her motivational tools is gone.That would be 7 a.m. practice the day after a loss for the Roanoke College women's basketball team.
It happened Feb. 8, after the Maroons' only defeat in their past 51 Old Dominion Athletic Conference regular-season games. However, Roanoke's next loss could be its last game.
Dunagan's 11th Roanoke team, the one she figured would be her best and perhaps is, starts postseason play tonight in an ODAC Tournament opener at home against Eastern Mennonite.
Dunagan, 42, knows she has the Mercedes of ODAC basketball, a program that is 72-10 and ranked nationally in the final Division III polls the past three years , but she's wondering if she can get a team that has beaten ODAC opponents by an average of 25 points per game out of cruise control.
The 11th-ranked Maroons may lack height, but that doesn't mean they won't come up big.
"She shouldn't worry," said undersized center Jennifer Jones. "Our goal is to get to the Final Four. We were a step short last year. We know what every game means now. We want to get to the Final Four."
The Maroons (20-3) can call on fear for motivation. Jones is part of a senior class - with Donna Cogar, Marce Fackler, Amy Puyear and Kristie Jones - that doesn't want to quit playing. Why should they? Dunagan's program is 92-17 in their four years.
"This is the time we've been building for," said Dunagan, whose hometown success primarily has been built on grit, emotion and class. "Last year [when the Maroons finished 28-2 and reached the NCAA quarterfinals], we were ahead of ourselves. I figured we wouldn't be ready until this year to do what we did last year."
Dunagan's program has put the ODAC on the Division III basketball map. At the same time, Roanoke has dominated the league, although the scoreboard numbers haven't been as lopsided this year as last.
So, Dunagan frets about whether her team has the competitive edge it needs for the ODAC tournament and beyond.
"A couple of games we've played very well," Dunagan said. "Other times, you know how people say you do what you have to do to win. Well, we've done that."
Jones, in her third season as a team-elected co-captain, said the program prospers because of Dunagan's work-hard, have-fun concept. The coach has based her success on selling the school and its urban location compared to many ODAC schools and on keeping talent in its backyard.
"She's a great friend off the court," Jones said. "You can go talk to her about anything in her office and you don't feel that great authority figure there. On the court, she puts that aside. The majority of the time, she's pretty stern. She can laugh. Yes, she is a screamer at times, too."
Dunagan's halftime "monologue" is sometimes heard in the Bast Center athletic offices, one floor above the locker room.
The Maroons are hoping there will be more halftime chats ahead in the quarterfinals next week for an NCAA regional game.
Whatever happens, what Dunagan won't be doing is vacationing in Maryville, Tenn., anytime soon. Four of the past six Roanoke losses have been to Maryville College, including two this season to the fifth-ranked Scots.
"We'd like to play them again," said Jones, who with her teammates, seems to have found a cure for senioritis.