That this team had potential was never in doubt, even when the Jeffs opened the season with only five returning players, just two of whom were upperclassmen. Through 14 games, the Jeffs were an impressive 12-2, including an overtime win at Williams College that seemed to defy all probability.
Then, in one of the wildest games of the year, the Jeffs hit a roadblock in the return trip against Williams, mounting a dramatic rally only to be victimized by a last-second shot in an 81-79 loss. The loss, which came in the squad's conference opener, could've sent such a young team spiraling in the wrong direction.
Instead, the Jeffs have been perfect since, finding ways to win in every conceivable situation. The
afternoon after the demoralizing loss to Williams, the Jeffs trailed in the final 30 seconds at Middlebury College, only to knot the game and eventually win in overtime. The Jeffs trailed at halftime in each of their two conference games the following weekend against Bates College-whom they had never defeated before-and Tufts University. Again, they rallied. Again, they won.
At Wesleyan University the following Friday, they trailed by seven with less than four minutes to play. One at a time, the Jeffs took turns making dramatic plays. Shannon Russell '04 hit a three-pointer, Co-captain Charlotte Taylor '01 hit a three-pointer, Co-captain Hallison Putnam '02 hit a three pointer-just like that, the game was tied. Two possessions later, Sara Bozorg '03 hit a pretty, spinning layup to put the Jeffs ahead for good, before Sarah Walker '03 helped to ice the game with a huge block on Wesleyan's next possession.
The win over Wesleyan wasn't particularly unique insofar as the Jeffs' season is concerned, but it serves as the perfect microcosm for the kind of year they've had. Another example of the Jeff season is their statistics-Amherst players are at the top of the NESCAC rankings in every conceivable statistical category except one, scoring.
What am I getting at? What I've realized is that what is extraordinary about this team is simple-there is nothing extraordinary about them. There is no player scoring 30 points per game-there isn't even one averaging 15 points per game. There is no secret weapon that comes off the bench in the last five minutes. There isn't even a regular player shooting over 42 percent from the field. This is a team that wins because they are all absolutely sure of one simple premise-the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
This is not something unique to Amherst's women's basketball team, and it's certainly not a profound discovery. It does explain, however, why this team hasn't gotten a lot of recognition from outside the NESCAC, let alone from within its own conference, which has only named an Amherst player as the league's Player of the Week once all season.
Now, the individual accolades-or lack thereof-hardly matter, since the Jeffs are, even without a NESCAC conference championship, a good bet for an NCAA tournament bid, a postseason fate that seemed unlikely, if not impossible, at the beginning of the season. But everything that happens from this point on is really just a bonus on top of what has been, without question, the best season an Amherst women's basketball team has ever had.
I'm not trying to downplay the accomplishments of Amherst's other winter teams. After all, entering last night, the men's basketball team was still in good position for their second-straight NCAA tournament bid, and the men's ice hockey team has been all but unbeatable down the stretch, including their first win over Williams since 1996. But both of those teams have enjoyed this kind of success in the last few years; the women's basketball team never has, and that's perhaps the biggest reason why this is all so remarkable.
A few weeks ago, I ran out of adjectives to use in describing the 2000-01 women's basketball campaign. It's been an amazing, exceptional, extraordinary, improbable, incredible, sensational and surprising season, just to use a few possible adjectives, and, with two more wins, there will be one more title to throw on top-championship.