I ran into former Staples coach Ron Beachy at the Breakdown Tip-Off the other day. He had come directly from Augsburg where, he said, the Auggies had smacked his daughter Jessie's Concordia (Moorhead) Cobbers, defending MIAC play-off champions. He could barely contain his incredulity at the loss, much less that "they beat us by 20 points!"
I pointed out that the Auggies had defeated St. Ben's a few days previous, the first time Mike Durbin had ever lost to Augsburg in his 26 years as Bennie's coach.
How did they (Augsburg) do it, I asked Beachy. "It's the coach," he said. "He's that good."
Never exactly what you'd call a powerhouse, the Auggies in fact last had a winning record in 1985. They've won 55 games in the past decade and just 17 (with 93 losses) the past 5 years. 4-18 in the MIAC a year ago, they were picked by the coaches to finish dead last in 2011-2012.
Who ya gonna call? Billy McKee, the turnaround specialist. At least, that's what the announcement of McKee's hiring said. "McKee...has led dramatic turnarounds of several basketball programs during his coaching career." The evidence shows a real turnaround only at Mounds View high school (2008-2011). The Mustangs were 16-36 in the 2 years before Billy, 62-18 during his 3 years there (including 24-4 in 2010).
Otherwise you'd have to say he helped the rich get richer--as an assistant at St. Thomas University, at Cretin-Derham Hall, at Blaine and at Anoka-Ramsey CC. But that won't be the case at Augsburg. Here, whatever success McKee and his Auggies experience must be credited in part to St. Jude Thaddeus, patron saint of desperate causes.
And starting out 3-0 this fall had every appearance of a miracle. The Augsburg roster is essentially the same as last year's when Serenae Levine (25), Nikki Borkhuis (23), Tracee Schrank (19), Brittany Dyshaw (18), Lexi Thompson (12), Katie Ahlstrom (9) and Brittany Zins (9) accounted for 115 starts out of the team's total of 125.
I can hear the Auggie's pitch to McKee this past off-season. The bad news, coach, is that we were 4-18 last year. The good news is that everybody's back.
But, hey, that St. Jude Thaddeus is a heckuva a guy. And McKee? "He's that good." Because a starting lineup of Levine, Borkhuis, Dyshaw, Thompson and Zins, with Ahlstrom the #2 reserve, miraculously started the season 3-0. First was a 70-46 whoopin' of North Central in which Dyshaw contributed 19 points and 9 boards. Then came the historic win at St. Ben's, 61-50 no less, as Levine and Zins combined for 33 points. Third was the 62-41 shocker over Concordia in which the Auggies held the Cobbers to a 29 shooting percentage.
But a pair of close losses now have followed. How close? Well, 9 and 10. But Augsburg trailed Bethel 59-57 with 57 ticks on the clock remaining and had a shot to tie with 35 seconds left. But Bethel made 6-of-6 from the FT line thereafter to seal its win.
The stats tell a similar tale of last night's loss, though it's true that Augsburg was never closer than 7 points inside of 10 minutes. But the Auggies were out-shot just 38 percent to 35 from the field. On 2-pointers Augsburg was 14-of-35, Gustavus 14-of-36. The Gusties hit 4 3s, the Augies 3. The possession game was pretty even--8 offensive boards to 11 for Gustavus, and 16 turnovers apiece. Gustavus apparently had better ball movement--that, after all, is their schtick--with 15 assists on 18 buckets versus Augsburg's 10 assists on 17 buckets. Gustavus won the battle in the paint 24-16 but points off turnovers, 2nd chance points and fast break points (Gustavus 2 Augsburg 0) were pretty even.
The difference, again (as at Bethel), was the FT line. Gustavus made 18-of-25, Augsburg 11-of-19. But that is mostly an artifact of who's ahead at the end. With 5 minutes remaining Gustavus had hit 13-of-18 FT, Augsburg 10-of-17.
So the truth is that Gustavus was just a tiny bit better on a bunch of dimensions rather than dominant in any aspect of the game. And so, after falling behind 12-4, the Gusties came back to take their 1st lead at 17-16. Augsburg responded with a pair of buckets by Dyshaw and Levine for their final lead of the night at 20-17. A Kelsey Florian layup at 2:00 on an assist by Julia Dysthe gave the Gusties the lead for good at 22-20, and Molly Geske padded that 17 seconds later with a steal and a breakaway layup. It was 26-23 at the half.
A turning point of sorts came from the 16:17 mark of the 2nd half to 9:49, a period of about 6:30. Gustavus scored on 8-of-11 possessions for 16 points, while the Auggies scored on 5-of-10 possessions for 10 points. Down 47-40, Augsburg began to press a bit and turned the ball over on their next 3 possessions. Of course, neither team scored again until 5:06 when Abby Rothenbuehler drained a pair of throws. Now down 49-40, Augsburg pressed some more, taking a pair of ill-advised shots that were blocked by Rothenbuehler and Florian. Augsburg never got closer than 8.
On the plus side for Augsburg: The Auggies shut down Gustavus' guards--and especially leading scorer Molly Geske, who scored just 1 FG--with a total of 25 points among a 5-guard rotation. Still, the Auggies' 5 guards combined for just 19 points as only Levine had more than 1 FG.
Posts Rothenbuehler for Gustavus and Borkhuis and Dyshaw for Augsburg did little enough damage either--just 10 points among them. But Rothenbuehler led all rebounders with 11 and led her team with 4 assists. She spends much of her time on offense up at the high post, where she threw a bunch of nice high-low passes to whomever had a size advantage posting up (usually Eli Benz or Florian).
And so it was the forwards--Benz and Florian for the Gusties, Zins and Kendra Ware for the Auggies--who combined for 46 of the game's 106 points, exactly 23 for each team. The Gusties' fowards scored mostly on those high-low passes from Rothenbuehler or Florian, who also had 4 assists, while Zins and Ware scored mostly on drives from the vicinity of the FT line or the elbow at either side of the line.
As an aside, it was fun to see kids from my backyard--Dysthe from White Bear Lake, and Abby Lugar of North St. Paul--on the court. Dysthe waited patiently for minutes through her freshman year, but now they're coming, and she's doing what she did for the Bears. Moving the ball, moving without the ball, letting the game come to her, feeding her teammates and, when the stars align, shooting that quick and well-nigh unstoppable stop and pop shot from 8 feet. She will be all-MIAC before she's done.
For Luger, on the other hand, the minutes are already coming in her freshman year. And why not, she is one of the toughest kids I've ever seen on the basketball court. She was the point guard several years ago on a young and, being honest, a terrible North High team and one of the worst ball-handling teams you could ever see. The ball was in her hands all night long, night after night against quicker and more athletic teams, and the turnovers piled up to the sky. But she took the pressure of protecting the ball off of her teammates and let them do what they did best. Eventually North became a competitive team and Luger came to be recognized for what always she was--their MVP. Last night she was the 3rd guard in terms of minutes, surpassing those of the veteran, Ahlstrom. She will never be all-MIAC. If McKee is able to bring respectability to the Auggies' long-suffering program, she may never be their starter at the point. If Dysthe is the thoroughbred, then Luger is the work horse. But I've rarely seen a tougher kid nor a girl grow and improve like she has done since her freshman year at North, and I wish her well.
But the big question is, so, has the bubble already burst for the Auggies? Well, they're not sneaking up on anybody anymore, if they ever did. They're not woeful in any aspect of the game, but the fact is there are no obvious strengths--no aspect of the game on which they can reasonably expect to dominate. So, with continued hustle, tough defense and an occasional 3, something approaching a .500 record is possible.
Meanwhile, the Gusties' guards cannot get shut down like the Auggies shut 'em down last night if they're going to realize their potential of an MIAC title.
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