Kentucky and West Virginia women aim for an elusive trip to March Madness Sweet 16
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks knows star center Clara Strack doesn’t have to focus on scoring because there’s plenty of talent surrounding her.
Kentucky’s imposing length with three starters who are 6-foot-4 or taller, including Strack, will match up against West Virginia’s full-throttle defense Monday in the second round of the women’s NCAA Tournament on the Mountaineers’ home court.
The winner will earn a trip to the Sweet 16. Kentucky (24-10), the No. 5 seed in the Fort Worth Region 3, has advanced to the regional semifinals six times but not since 2016. No. 4 seed West Virginia (28-6) made its only trip in 1992, when the Mountaineers earned a first-round bye and needed just one win in a field of 48 teams to get there.
The Mountaineers have never won twice in the same women’s NCAA Tournament in 16 previous trips. Kentucky has lost the last four times it played in the second round, including last season when it was a tournament host.
Solid Strack
The 6-5 Strack earned honorable mention honors on The Associated Press all-America team. She’s averaging a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds as well as 2.5 blocks per game.
“She’s unbelievable,” Brooks said Sunday. “Clara will do whatever Clara has to do to help us win a basketball game. When you have a superstar like Clara, they want the basketball all the time. And she wants the basketball.
“But she’s so much more to us than scoring. She’s our leader on the defensive end. She’s one of the best defensive players I’ve ever coached in my life. And not only because she can block shots. She really understands what’s going on. She helps out a lot. She quarterbacks our defense.”
Strack has 15 double-doubles this season. On Saturday she had 10 points and 14 rebounds despite being hounded by multiple defenders in a 71-56 win over No. 12 seed James Madison in the first round. She also had four assists, two steals and two blocked shots. The taller Wildcats as a team had eight blocks.
Brooks said Strack expects to be double-teamed and “she’s fine with that as long as she can find her teammates and they can step up and they can score.”
Often, they do. Four other Kentucky players are averaging double figures in scoring. On Saturday, Tonie Morgan had 18 points, Amelia Hassett 14 and Jordan Obi 12.
“I always try to be locked in,” Strack said. “I’m just willing to do whatever it takes for the team to win, whether that’s rebounding, scoring. Really anything on the floor. I think that just also comes with playing hard.”
Getting defensive
West Virginia’s defense that suffocates opponents and forces them to cough up the ball almost at will has its biggest test yet in Kentucky’s length and the ability of Strack and others to score from almost anywhere on the floor.
West Virginia coach Mark Kellogg wants to make sure Kentucky doesn’t get the chance to repeat what it did on Saturday, when it raced to a 32-10 first-quarter lead against the Dukes.
“That first quarter won them the game,” Kellogg said. “If you’re not careful and you’re not on it, teams go on big runs. I think you’ve got to be dialed in. You just don’t want them to find rhythm early.”
West Virginia’s full-court press could help preventing that. On Saturday, West Virginia forced five turnovers in a three-minute stretch and took control with a 17-0 run to beat No. 13 seed Miami (Ohio) 82-54.
“They’re just relentless. Their tenacity is unbelievable,” Brooks said. “They just keep going. They know how to create opportunities for themselves.”
The Mountaineers have won seven straight, including the Big 12 tournament title over TCU. They are forcing 22 turnovers per game and limiting opponents to an average of under 59 points.
“We’re going to try our best to turn Kentucky over and get out on offense,” said West Virginia’s Gia Cooke.
No shooting allowed
Both as a player at James Madison and as a head coach at Virginia Tech, Brooks remembers playing West Virginia in Morgantown and being told about the buckskin-wearing Mountaineer mascot, who fires a muzzleloader — with black powder but minus ammunition — before every game.
“That damn gun going off,” Brooks said. “My freshman year, we got warned. Everybody’s like, ‘hey, they’re going to shoot that gun off. Don’t let it scare you.’ That gun went off and we all ducked for cover.”
Fortunately for Kentucky, the only shooting will come from the players on the court. The muzzleloader must remain silent in the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m glad this is a neutral floor and they can’t do that,” Brooks said.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness