The Whitman Women’s Basketball team’s run in the NCAA tournament has come to a close in heartbreaking fashion. They lost to their pod’s host, the University of Wisconsin-Stout Blue Devils, 69-75 in the Round of 32.
I had the pleasure to sit down with NWC Coach of the Year, Michelle Ferenz, to not only talk about their game against Wisconsin-Stout, but to really appreciate the incredible season of Whitman Women’s Basketball we were all able to witness.
Whitman’s game against the Wisconsin-Stout ended with Whitman shooting 8 free throw attempts, going 8-8, while Wisconsin-Stout had 24 free throws, only missing a single shot. Only 4 of Wisconsin-Stout’s free throw attempts are due to the intentional fouling that happens at the end of close games. Discounting those shots, it was 8-20 in terms of free throw attempts, and 8-19 for points off of free throws.
“I felt that calls were inconsistent and favored the home team. I mean, that’s the home court advantage,” Michelle Ferenz said. “It’s not just playing in front of a home crowd, but it’s also that you’re playing with officials from that region. That’s one of the difficulties of going that far away.”
Whitman was the highest ranked team and one of only two teams ranked in the top 10 who were not given the opportunity to host the first and second round of the tournament. The other team, Christopher Newport, didn’t get to host because they were drawn in the same pot as New York University, who were last year’s national champions and the No.1 seed this season.
“It was heartbreaking. The bottom line was we had earned a No. 5 ranking in NCAA Power Index (NPI), but the NCAA has policies around geography and travel, the 500 mile rule, that affect the first and second round,” Coach Ferenz said.
The 500 mile rule in the tournament states that if multiple teams have to travel 500 miles to reach the team which has earned the hosting opportunity based on NPI, then the NCAA can change who gets to host the first and second round.
“They just absolutely kill the West Coast teams because we’re just isolated. The only 500 mile rule is in our conference. We had done the work, we had not lost to any Division III teams,” said Coach Ferenz. “We had played teams from the East Coast, Midwest, the South, California, and we had beaten them all. We thought we were gonna have a chance to host because we were deprived of that in 2022.”
Not only does this deprive Whitman and larger Walla Walla community of the chance to watch the NCAA tournament live and in person, it also creates a bigger challenge for Whitman to progress.
“It’s hard to play on someone else’s court, and it’s hard to play with someone else’s officials. It’s a challenge,” Coach Ferenz said. “Now, we had our chances. We battled back and if we make one three and tie it, you know, it might have been a different story. I’m really proud of how the kids competed, but try not to let it take away from the fact they had an amazing season.”
NWC regular season champs and NWC tournament champs. 16-0 in the NWC. 27-1 against Division III competition. This is how good this team was.
Korin Baker broke both the career scoring and rebounding records at Whitman College. She won the NWC Player of the Year 3 seasons in a row. She scored her career high of 34 points in their final game against Wisconsin-Stout.
“She’s had a great career. She’s the first player in conference history to win Player of the Year 3 times in a row, as far as I’m aware, that’s pretty amazing. She really stepped up and played awesome in that last game, obviously,” Coach Ferenz said.
The team goes past just their star player as well. The five starters all played their part in willing this team to success. Carly Martin made the NWC All-Conference First Team for the second season in a row. Natalie Lundberg was recognized with the NWC Defensive Player of the Year award this season.
“Natalie has been a spark plug for her whole career. Teams planned around her because she’s so disruptive defensively. It was nice she got recognized for that finally. There’s no quit in her at all,” Coach Ferenz said. “This class, our 5 seniors, will graduate with the most career wins out of any class in our program’s history. Three out of four years they went to the NCAA tournament. They won three conference titles and three tournament titles. It’s a pretty impressive run,” Coach Ferenz said.
Knowing how talented and special this team is, I had to ask Ferenz what her favorite moment with the team was.
“I had a moment after the NWC tournament when we were cutting down the nets, and I just told them ‘I’m just so incredibly proud of you guys,'” Coach Ferenz said. “We didn’t need to win to make the NCAA tournament, so it was a moment where you saw how focussed and tough and committed to each other this group is.”
Thank you to Natalie Lundberg, Carly Martin, Christiane Carlisle, Lindsey Drango and Korin Baker for your time here at Whitman College. You have made us all incredibly proud to be a part of the Blues. To the upcoming sophomores and freshman of the team, we can’t wait for what you all bring to the table.