NCAA tournament news
Chicago. Keisha Hampton has been to the NCAA tournament and has come home a first-round loser along with the rest of her DePaul teammates the past two years.
She’s tired of it.
“The first two tournament games (2009 and 2010) we lost because we didn’t defend anybody and we didn’t rebound” – said Hampton, who leads the Blue Demons in scoring at 16 points per game. “Last year, after we lost to Vanderbilt, coach (Doug Bruno) made an emphasis that we were going to defend and rebound (this year). That’s how we’re going to win in March.”
DePaul (27-6) tied a school record for victories this season and takes a lofty No. 3 seed into Saturday’s NCAA tournament game against Patriot League champion Navy (20-10) in University Park, Pa.
The Blue Demons beat six ranked teams this season, including then-No. 2 Stanford, and finished second in the tough Big East. Their best previous seed was a No. 4 in 2006.
“The No. 3 seed put an exclamation point on the regular season” – Bruno said. “Now the real season, the postseason, starts in earnest. Now we have to go out and win.”
- NCAA tournament.
Tampa, Fla. (AP). UC Santa Barbara forward Jaime Serna left the arena in a sling and with his right wrist heavily wrapped.
The real pain came from feeling like he let his team down.
Serna broke his right wrist in the opening minutes of Thursday’s game against second-seeded Florida in the Southeast region and tried to play through the injury. Afterward, he questioned his decision. Teammates and coaches did all they could to ease his mind.
“We realized he was hurt as soon as we saw him holding his wrist” – coach Bob Williams said. And then he talked to the trainer and we just didn’t realize the severity of it. … He tried to go back in and play, and Jaime is a warrior and wanted to help his team.
“He apologized after the game because he felt like he hurt the team trying to go back in and play with it. I told him that was a bit silly.”
Serna, a 6-foot-9 junior from Laguna Beach, Calif., was the team’s third-leading scorer and rebounder. He averaged 8,0 points and 4,4 rebounds this season, and missed six games because of a groin injury. He was scoreless in 11 minutes against the Gators.
For the Gauchos, Serna’s injury was emotionally deflating.
Deirdre Naughton didn’t expect to be on the six-year plan when she left New Trier for Wake Forest in 2005.
And she didn’t expect to end her college career as a reserve for DePaul after starting all 28 games and making the Atlantic Coast Conference all-rookie team.
Or to have been studying for a master’s degree while becoming the first six-year player in Doug Bruno’s 25 years as DePaul coach.
But health problems (her own and her father’s) intervened, so here is Naughton finishing up with a DePaul team that opens the NCAA tournament Saturday against Navy at University Park, Pa.
“I think I was just meant to be back home at DePaul” – Naughton said.
Demon Deacons to Blue Demons. That fits, in a way.
Naughton left Wake Forest after her freshman season to be closer to family when her father, John, became ill with an issue she declined to discuss.
“It has continued but he’s fine” – she said.
She sat out the transfer year before moving immediately into the Demons’ starting lineup. Naughton then started 68 straight games, averaging 15 points and five rebounds and making second team All-Big East as a third-season player before tearing up her knee early last season.