Setting the Scene:
The Wittenberg women's basketball team got back on track in 2005-06, putting together a 19-8 overall record, including a 14-2 in the North Coast Athletic Conference. That was good for the program's 11th NCAC regular season title in just 17 years in the league - easily tops among member institutions.
The only losses in the final two months of the season were on the road against eventual NCAC Tournament champion Denison, at defending NCAC regular season medalist Kenyon and at home in the conference tournament semifinals against the Ladies.
Postseason Awards:
To the victors go the spoils, and no one enjoyed a better postseason than Wittenberg junior post Kathy Hittle (Noblesville, Ind./Noblesville). After leading the team in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots for a second straight year, Hittle was honored with coveted NCAC Player of the Year and first-team all-conference honors. Just the second Wittenberg player to garner the NCAC Player of the Year award, Hittle was also named third-team All-Great Lakes Region by d3hoops.com.
Sophomore post Katie Gregorevich (Northfield, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) was honored for her stellar play during the 2005-06 season with a second-team All-NCAC award. Gregorevich was second on the team in scoring and third in rebounding. Junior wing Megan Miller (Lancaster, Ohio/Lancaster) was named honorable mention All-NCAC after leading the Tigers with 44 three-pointers.
In addition, Head Coach Pam Smith was named NCAC Coach of the Year. Smith collected her sixth NCAC Coach of the Year honor after leading the Tigers to the program's 11th NCAC regular season championship.
A Lotta Class:
Kathy Hittle was also recognized for the combination of her athletic and academic performance with second-team CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District IV honors. It was the first such academic award of Hittle's fine collegiate career.
Super Seniors:
There were just two of them, but both will be missed in years to come.
Statistics told only part of the story for wing Carrie Jones (Greenville, Ohio/Greenville) and guard Brittany Landreth (Mantua, Ohio/Valparaiso (Ind.)). Both were leaders in the program. Landreth worked her way from a reserve team member her first year at Wittenberg to a starter in the last 54 games of her career in the Red & White. One key measure of a point guard's success is a player's ability to take care of the basketball. In 75 career games, Landreth finished with 131 assists versus 108 turnovers, including a tremendous 53-37 ratio in 2006-07.
Jones missed most of the 2005-06 season with a knee injury, short-circuiting what had been a promising collegiate career. She wound up appearing in 16 games and making one start in 2005-06 after appearing in 79 games and making four starts in the three seasons prior. She finished her career with 372 points and 181 rebounds.
A Bright(er) Future:
The 2005-06 season was a good one, and the immediate future appears to be promising as well. The future appears bright for the Tigers, who are expected to return 13 letterwinners in 2006-07, including four starters, and the team's top seven scorers.
Kathy Hittle headlines a deep, talented senior class that also includes Megan Miller, wing Rachel Clark-Haggy (South Charelston, Ohio/Southeastern), guard Andrea Hackett (Springfield, Ohio/Catholic Central), guard Tosha Johnson (Cincinnati, Ohio/North College Hill) and wing Gina Carney (Lexington, Ky./Catholic). Clark-Haggy shared team MVP honors in 2005-06, while Hackett ranked among the team leaders in assists and steals off the bench for a second straight season. Johnson missed the season with an injury, while Carney saw her first extended playing time.
The program's junior class in 2006-07 will be headlined by Katie Gregorevich and post Ali Rohlfs (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mount Notre Dame), who has been a starter since midway through her freshman season and has been among the team leaders in scoring and rebounding each of the last two years. The sophomore class will include wing Rachel Dixon (West-Liberty, Ohio/Salem), who averaged more than 15 minutes while playing in all 27 games off the bench in 2005-06 and guard Kristin Donawerth (Harrison, Ohio/Harrison), who appeared in all 27 games off the bench as well.
Steady At The Point:
For two years, the Wittenberg Tigers were in good hands with the pass-first point guard tandem of Christina Fischer and Kari Kitchen. Upon their graduation, the Tigers had to break in a pair of unproven players at that position.
Never fear, junior Brittany Landreth (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) and Hackett were here to save the day. Landreth started all 27 games, and her play steadily improved throughout the 2004-05 season. She led the Tigers with 53 assists (countered by 54 turnovers for a decent ratio) and 59 steals. Hackett finished with 37 assists against 40 turnovers, also a respectable ratio.
The Coach:
Head Coach Pam Smith (Wittenberg 1982) completed her 20th season at the helm of the women's basketball program at her alma mater. She has a 386-158 career record, and she ranks among the top active coaches in NCAA Division III in terms of total wins and win percentage. The 19-8 finish in 2005-06 marks the program's 17th consecutive winning season under Smith's tutelage.
Smith has guided the Tigers to twelve 20-win seasons, eight appearances in the NCAA tournament and 11 NCAC regular season championships since 1989. Wittenberg has never finished lower than third in an NCAC regular season since joining the league that same year. The 2006 NCAC Coach of the Year award was the seventh of Smith's illustrious career.
A 1999 Wittenberg Athletic Hall of Honor inductee, Smith was a record-setting forward at Wittenberg, a three-time team Most Valuable Player and an Academic All-America selection. The school record-holder for season scoring average, she also serves as Wittenberg's associate athletics director and senior woman administrator.