Sports

PAST SUCCESS BREEDS HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR COTTON BLOSSOMS

By Sean Saunders/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 11:46 PM CDT

Arkansas-Monticello women’s basketball coach Chris Ratcliff threw down the gauntlet during his interview for the position back in 2006. He said he would have his team competing for a national championship by his fourth year on the job.

The 2009-10 season happens to be his fourth year on the job, and after the Cotton Blossoms made it to the NCAA Tournament last year for only the second time since the program moved to NCAA Division II in 1995, Ratcliff has some lofty goals for this season.

“I expect nothing less than 21 wins this year,” Ratcliff said. “My first year we had seven wins and we had 16 after that and 21 last year. We’ve done nothing but improve each year, and I don’t see why we can’t host the regional tournament this year.”

After losing in the championship game of the Gulf South Conference Tournament in overtime, one of the themes to the season, the Blossoms made the NCAA South Region Tournament in Cleveland, Miss. They beat Rollins (Fla.) College 78-66 before losing to host Delta State 80-56 to finish the year 21-9.

UAM returns every member of its frontcourt from last year, including two-thirds of what Ratcliff referred to as his “big three” by the end of the season. The Blossoms will be reliant on 5-10 athletic forward Monica Perkins-Miller, who made a splash in her first year in the GSC by averaging 12.3 points and 10.3 rebounds per game. That earned her a selection on the All-GSC Western Division first-team and a preseason All-GSC West selection this year.

But while Perkins-Miller provided matchup nightmares at the swing spot on the wing, junior Erika Brown, the other returning member of the big three, provided a dominant force on the interior. Brown averaged 12.6 points per game last year, and her 52.3 field goal percentage was fifth in the GSC West.

Ratcliff has had a little bit of misfortune to begin the year, as practice started Thursday and Perkins-Miller and Brown have yet to touch the floor because of a few minor bangs and bruises. But Ratcliff said that has given him a chance to see how the team would perform without its two stars, and he’s liked what he’s seen.

“Last year, it was all about the big three,” Ratcliff said. “This year, people might start talking about the big four or five. That’s how deep I think our team is this year. Of course, every coach thinks their team is good this time of the year, but we’ve looked good without Monica and Erika.”

The one departed member of the big three is graduated guard Andrea Dubose. Dubose joined Perkins-Miller on the All-GSC West first team after averaging 13.6 points per game and leading the league in steals with 3.8 per contest, one full theft more than the conference’s next leader in steals per game. She also hit the shot that essentially put UAM into the NCAA Tournament when she drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer against West Georgia in the conference tournament semifinals to send the game into overtime before the Blossoms won 67-65.

“I don’t know if there is any way to replace somebody like Andrea Dubose,” Ratcliff said. “Not only would she provide defensive pressure, but she would hit the big shot pretty much every time you needed it. You look at her stat sheet after every game and you would see her 3-for-12 on 3-pointers, but that last made 3-pointer would be at a crucial time.”

Ratcliff went out and signed eight guards to replace a depleted backcourt after starting point guard Nicole Lowe was forced to redshirt this year. He said he expects Nykita Gordon, a Helena-West Helena product from Arkansas Baptist, and redshirt freshman Erica Williams to pick up that slack. After Dubose’s average led the team and was only good enough for 14th in the conference, Ratcliff said Gordon and Williams are capable of scoring 15-20 points a game.

“Those are two kids doing well in practice right now,” Ratcliff said. “We didn’t have anybody who could beat you off the dribble last year, and both of them can do just that.”

As with the improvement each year, UAM’s predicted finish in the conference keeps improving each year as well. Conference coaches predicted the Blossoms to finish third behind perennial favorite Delta State and upstart Ouachita Baptist, which lost to the Lady Statesmen in the South Regional final.

“Each year, I seem to do better than I’m predicted,” Ratcliff said. “The first year, I was picked to finish last and I finished sixth. The next year, I was picked finish last again and we wound up finishing fourth. Last year, I was picked to finish fourth and we finished second. I hope we keep that trend up this year especially now that the conference tournament has been reorganized to where they only take the top four teams (of eight) from our division.”

Ratcliff said he knows he has to beat Delta State if his team has any hopes of finishing first in the regional rankings and hosting the regional tournament. The Lady Statesmen have made the Division II Final Four the last two seasons behind a senior-laden frontcourt, and Ratcliff said he has a team with a similar makeup this year.

“What they had was experience with post players, and I’ll have the same thing with my post players,” Ratcliff said. “They didn’t have to tell their players what to do, and all my inside players are upperclassmen and know what they’re doing. You can’t beat a Delta State with one- or two-year players. You’re going to need some girls who have been in your program for a while.”

The Blossoms lost to Delta State four times last year. They got blown out the two times they played in Cleveland, but they took the Lady Statesmen to overtime the two times they met outside of Walter Sillers Coliseum.

Though last year’s success wasn’t in Ratcliff’s plan, it puts more of an emphasis on this year. Given the praise he received throughout the GSC Tournament, he appears to have the program going in the direction that made it a power in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference during the ‘80s and ‘90s.

As what has become tradition for a Ratcliff team, UAM opens the season with three Division I opponents, beginning with an exhibition at Louisiana-Monroe on Nov. 5. Games start to count Nov. 20 when the Blossoms host Mobile and Arkansas-Fort Smith in the third annual Dr. Mary Jane Gilbert Classic.

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