Assist record hers, Zoll pushes for long stay in NCAA tourney

3/20/2008 12:35 PM

By HANK KURZ Jr.
AP Sports Writer

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - Sharnee Zoll has always worn a No. 5 jersey since arriving at Virginia four years ago. Her shoes have a different number: 729.

One of Zoll's goal was to break the Atlantic Coast Conference women's assist record set more than a decade earlier by the Cavaliers' Dawn Staley. Writing the number on her shoes was Zoll's way of taking aim at her idol's achievement.

Zoll broke the record Feb. 21 when she zipped a pass to Monica Wright, who caught it and scored to complete the record-setting play. Zoll breathed a sigh of relief, finally breaking the mark and allowing her to focus on a more pressing goal: the NCAA tournament.

The Cavaliers (23-9) are in, all right, and will play UC Santa Barbara on Sunday night in Norfolk, Va. Zoll played in the tournament as a freshman, and she's happy to be back after a two-year absence.

``It's my last go-round. Simple as that,'' she said.

And the message to her teammates is simple.

``Every possession is going to matter because if you lose, you're done,'' she said. ``There is no tomorrow. That is the main thing I will preach. There has to be a sense of urgency. I have been feeling like that all year. You never know what day is going to be your last. Every game is the last of something. I don't want this to be my last game.''

While pursuing the assist record set by the woman she patterned her game after, Zoll's basketball experience at Virginia has been vastly different.

Staley, who like Zoll is a Philadelphia native, was the nation's premier point guard on one of the top teams. A three-time All-American, she twice won the Naismith Award as the nation's best player and three times led Virginia to the Final Four.

The 5-foot-7 Zoll, meanwhile, will be playing in the NCAA tourney for the second time. But she's enjoying a final season in which the Cavaliers stayed injury free unlike the past two years.

``That's the sweetest part of this season for me,'' said Zoll, who has 772 assists and is averaging 6.3 per game this year. ``We're getting some national attention, we're playing the Dukes, the Marylands, the North Carolinas, and it's not blowouts or it's not, `Oh, Maryland had a bad game so Virginia was in it.'

``These games are down to the wire, every single game.''

The Cavaliers reached 20 regular-season victories for the first time since 1999-2000. They climbed to No. 24 in the final AP Top 25, and are 13-5 since January - with two losses each to No. 2 North Carolina and No. 5 Maryland and a loss to No. 10 Duke.

Zoll said what makes this year's success special is getting coach Debbie Ryan - a Hall of Famer whose presence convinced Zoll to attend Virginia - back to the elite level she had occupied for so long.

Before the 2003-04 season, before Zoll arrived, Virginia had been to 20 consecutive NCAA tournaments. Since then, they've been to just one in four seasons, and the point guard who can now finish her coach's sentences feels partly responsible.

Not because it's her fault, but because point guards think that way.

``I came here for coach Ryan. Everything else was gravy to me,'' Zoll said, the gravy items including the new, 15,000-seat John Paul Jones Arena that opened last season.

``There are a lot of other schools in the country that are great schools. Nobody else had coach Ryan. There are a lot of other great arenas being built. Nobody else had coach Ryan. There are other ACC basketball programs. They didn't have coach Ryan.''

In the Cavaliers' locker room, Zoll's determination is the constant.

``I don't think we could play without it,'' said Lyndra Littles, the team's second-leading scorer. ``Nobody else has the drive, passion and overall leadership on the court. She keeps us all organized and focused. We couldn't play without her.''

Like she did with Staley, Ryan sees Zoll as an extension of herself.

``She's kind of everything you want in a point guard,'' Ryan, a former point guard herself, said. ``She's articulate. She's intelligent. She's verbal on the court, vocal.

``When you have a point guard like that, it just makes your life a lot easier.''

More than anyone, Ryan knows the last few seasons have been hard on Zoll.

Virginia was 19-15 last year, 20-12 the previous year. Both ended with losses in the Women's NIT.

From the beginning, though, Ryan loved the ``Philly'' in her leader.

``Sharnee would come to me as a freshman and say `Yell at me. Yell at me about anything that goes wrong out there. Nobody else can handle it. Yell at me.' And I would do that,'' Ryan said. ``I would yell at her about everything and she would take it.''

Four years later, Ryan is wrapping up her 31st year at Virginia, and she hopes Zoll's loyalty to the program is rewarded in the coming weeks.

``She could have bolted,'' Ryan said in her spacious office at JPJ. ``She could have said, `I would like more success than this,' but she didn't. She stayed and she wanted to get this program back to where it belonged and I really, really appreciate that.''

As a No. 4 seed, the Cavaliers are favored over UC Santa Barbara, and maybe even knock off host Old Dominion or Liberty on Tuesday night.

All the while, Zoll will be finishing her coach's sentences for her, calling the same plays a few seconds earlier and trying to will her team to play another day.

Ryan would love it, and not just for herself.

``I want it,'' she said, ``as much for her as for the team.''