Drake overcomes adversity to earn NCAA berth

3/13/2007 3:27 PM

By LUKE MEREDITH
AP Sports Writer

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -This was supposed to be the year the Drake Bulldogs returned to the NCAA tournament.

They did - winning four games in four days, with just eight healthy players.

Drake (14-18) capped its run with the Missouri Valley title run last Sunday, when Kelsey Keizer, who hadn't scored in regulation, hit a 3-pointer with 55 seconds left in overtime.

So forgive Drake coach Amy Stephens for gushing about her self-proclaimed underdogs, who joined Holy Cross as the only NCAA tournament teams with losing records.

``We've all heard about what it takes to overcome obstacles, and how through great adversity comes triumph, and it's all true. We believe that the greater the difficulty the more glorious the triumph,'' Stephens said. ``We're living proof that it's not how many times you get knocked down, it's how many times you get back up.''

They'll test that Sunday, when No. 16 Drake faces top-seeded Tennessee in Pittsburgh.

Prevailing wisdom last fall was that the Bulldogs would be delivering the knockout blows with four starters back, including preseason player of the year Jill Martin.

But Martin, the team's only senior and its unquestioned leader, went down for the season with a back injury after leading the team to a 4-1 start.

It was the beginning of a long run of bad luck.

In Drake's first game without Martin, sophomore point guard Jordann Plummer broke her right foot. Three weeks later, guard Lauren Dybing came back from Christmas break with bronchitis. She kept it from the coaches and tried to play through it. Soon enough, that illness and a nasty flu bug had spread throughout the locker room.

It got so bad that Drake, which went on to lose 12 of 13, did a weekend swing through Evansville and Southern Illinois with six healthy players.

That forced Stephens to change her system to fit what players she had left.

``We redefined our goals, because there was a struggle. Here we were, picked to win the conference and we started the season beautifully. You could just feel the excitement about the program in November, and then we had the difficulties with injuries and illness,'' Stephens said. ``There was a lot we had to deal with. We knew we couldn't keep doing the same things.''

So, she began to run the offense through guard Lindsay Whorton and forward Brandy Dahir, who evolved into a first-team All-Valley pick.

Then Dahir got mononucleosis, two days before the start of the conference tourney, ending her season.

``Every adversity we've faced has prepared us for this kind of weekend,'' said Whorton, who averaged 17 points a game during the Valley tournament and was selected its most outstanding player. ``We have players who are resilient and really stepped up their game, and I think that's what you have to have to win this (NCAA) tournament.''

First, they'll have to beat Tennessee.

``We envisioned ourselves being here last November. We just didn't think it would be this kind of journey,'' Stephens said. ``We're living a dream. We're redefining the word 'underdog.'''