February 24, 2005

     NEW HAVEN: Joe Frager was late for an appointment at Southern Connecticut State University Wednesday, so in his haste, he "might" have cut off another motorist. The guy flipped me off," Frager said. "If it was Geno (Auriemma), he would have flipped him off - then asked for an autograph."
     Such is life under the radar screen for Frager, a scholarly looking sort who could blend into a crowd of two without getting noticed. All he does is crank out teams that overachieve in one of the toughest Division II conferences in the country.
     This has been Frager's masterpiece season, that is, since he stopped toying with the competition at Seymour High in 1998 - when he and star guard Maria Conlon trotted off into the sunset on a 52-game winning streak that included back-to-back unbeaten, championship seasons.
     As Southern awaits Tuesday’s start to the Northeast-10 Conference postseason tournament, the Owls own the best record in Connecticut women’s basketball this season (23-4), are viable contenders for a national title … and yet they still draw less attention than an Auriemma trip to the men’s room.
     Oh well, as they say in Coachspeak 101, you can only worry about the things that are in your control. That’s not to say Frager doesn’t talk about it with his team and purposely construct a nice little chip on his team’s shoulder.
     Even the Owls’ national ranking — 16th — reflects a national disrespect, but that’s just added motivation for the one thing they can control — winning basketball games.
     At one point of the season, the Owls ran off 16 straight wins, which got them 15 minutes of local fame before falling back into the land of indifference. So cozy is the typical crowd at Southern’s Moore Fieldhouse that captain Kim Jackle actually notices, and appreciates, every fresh new face in the crowd.
     "There’s definitely a high degree of anonymity," said Frager, a coach that Yale would be shrewd to put on its short list as it moves on without Amy Backus next year. "I don’t get stopped in malls. On a personal level, it’s not something I care about, but I think anybody who says they don’t like recognition is lying … somebody saying you’re doing a good job. And I like it for the kids. I think they enjoy picking up the paper and reading a story on the team or themselves or a teammate."
     "But if we think we’re doing the best we can do, if I think we’re preparing and working as hard as we can, that’s what’s important."
     This is a one-school women’s basketball state, and deservedly so. But lack of attention shouldn’t detract from what the Owls have accomplished. Southern came into the season picked to finish fifth in the Northeast-10, with only Jackle and Anabel Perdomo considered as upper-echelon players in the conference. Even after finishing in a three-way tie for first with Merrimack (ranked No. 9 nationally) and Bentley (ranked 15th), some might suggest they’ve done it with mirrors.
     "Basically every game we play, there’s somebody in this league that thinks we’re going to lose," said Jackle, the league’s leading scorer (18.8), but also the team’s only double-figure scorer. "We never got the credit … and it definitely gives us a chip on our shoulder."
     The Owls don’t have the most overall talent in the league and they rarely dominate. But there’s something about a team that knows how to win close games, that knows how to pick itself up under adverse situations and that withstands closing runs by the opposition.
     That goes to coaching and a team’s character.
     "During the year, we’ve had to come from behind on at least seven or eight occasions," said Frager, whose team enters the league tournament as the No. 1 seed and will host throughout. "And we’ve had games where we’ve had substantial leads and teams have made runs at us and we’ve held them off. That’s the biggest difference between last year and this year."
     "Last year we went 19-10, but I don’t know how well they handled adversity when push came to shove during the course of a game. These kids have responded tremendously well."
     Whether that’s enough to carry them through the Northeast-10 postseason tournament, and the NCAAs after that, is anyone’s guess — but I’m guessing a lot of outsiders don’t think they’ve got what it takes to go far enough.
     "We can win (the national championship) if we lean on each other," Jackle said.
     For those who haven’t noticed — which is practically everyone — that’s what got them to here.