Release Date: November 8, 2001

Call it one of the rites of fall. Every year, the Midwest Conference women’s basketball coaches are polled on their predicted order of finish for the 10 teams in the league, and every year, Monmouth is picked in the bottom half.

Then, in a rite of winter, coach Dennis Mann upsets a team here and surprises a team there, and suddenly the Scots have an upper half finish. The scenario played out in a typical fashion a year ago, as Monmouth was picked to battle for a lower tier spot but posted an 8-8 mark in the league to take fifth place.

This year, the Scots are tabbed for seventh, but who can blame the MWC coaches, really? When they scan Monmouth’s roster, they see only two players who have been with the program for more than a year - two-time All-MWC center Melissa Jones (Port Byron, IL/East Moline) and reserve forward Vanessa Madison (Mapleton, IL/Limestone).

While Mann concedes that his players’ lack of experience in Monmouth’s system might be a problem, he feels confident his squad can again make a strong run in the league once they’ve learned to play together and if they survive a tough non-conference schedule, which includes Cornell, Western Illinois and Rockford during one three-game stretch.

“It’s a disadvantage, to be sure,” he said of the plethora of new players. “Even my two seniors, Carrie Yerkey (Alexis, IL/HS) and Tracy Nelson (Kewanee, IL/Wethersfield), have only been with us a year.”

The pair of former All-Lincoln Trail Conference players are, in some respects, the keys to the Scots’ success this year. They both transferred from Parkland Community College in Champaign and took a while to adjust to Division III basketball. While Yerkey was fairly consistent throughout the year, Nelson really clicked late in the season, averaging 9.0 points and 7.1 rebounds in her final seven games.

“I haven’t seen Tracy yet because she played volleyball,” said Mann, “but Carrie’s really come to realize the things we were talking about that are different at this level from junior college. I think you’ll see a much-improved season from her in all categories.”

Last year, Yerkey was just one of two Scots to start every game and scored 7.8 points per game while dishing out 2.4 assists.

Her backcourt mate, Becca Cook (Boswell, IN/Benton Central), should also elevate her game after handling the point guard chores last season fresh out of high school. Despite her youth, Cook played extremely well at times and finished with averages of 6.2 points and 4.0 assists.

Another sophomore that Mann is counting on for improvement is Michelle Flaar (Galesburg, IL/HS). A defensive dynamo from her playing days with the Silver Streaks, Flaar is working on improving her performance at the other end of the floor.

“She’s showed some much-improved offensive skills,” said Mann. “If she can score consistently, that will be a big plus for us.”

A year ago, Flaar connected for 5.8 points per game to go with 3.2 rebounds.

It’s scary to think it, but improvement might also be coming from Jones, who has posted nearly identical seasons in her first two years at Monmouth. At the halfway point of her career, she has amassed 620 points (14.1 ppg), 312 rebounds (7.1 rpg), 47 blocks and 72 steals. She’s made 46 percent of her field goals and 73 percent of her free throws and will be Monmouth’s third all-time leading scorer if she can repeat the numbers above in the second half of her career.

“She’s come a long way in two years,” said Mann. “In volleyball, Coach (Kari) Shimmin said she was showing an even higher level of maturity this season than she did when she made such a big jump as a sophomore. If that carries over to basketball, she’s going to be very difficult for people to deal with.

“She’s still going to be more of a center for us this year because of her height and arm length,” Mann continued. “The big key for her and Tracy down low is their quickness and the fact that they’re very athletic kids. We’re not going to beat anybody with size, but we’ll counter with our athleticism in the post.”

Mann could go with a starting lineup of Cook, Yerkey, Flaar, Nelson and Jones at the 1-5 spots, but he also feels he has an ace up his sleeve in junior transfer Tiffany Baughman (Kewanee, IL/Stark County), who’ll be asked to man the 3-4 spot previously played by her old high school teammate, Amber Kuhrts, the only starter Mann lost to graduation.

“We’ve converted Baughman to a 3,” said Mann. “She played inside in junior college. That’s an extreme change, but she’s coming along nicely. We’re seeing some real good things from her, and she’s shown some 15-foot range on her jump shot.”

Besides Madison and Baughman, Mann figures Elyse Lambert (Chicago, IL/Mother McAuley) will see time in an eight-player rotation. He called Lambert a post player with a physique much like Jones - tall and thin, but quick and athletic.

Lambert’s prep teammate, Karissa Ulanski, and sophomore Jill Lusher (Green Valley, IL/Midwest Central) will also battle for playing time at guard and forward, respectively.

“We’ll probably be more of a 15-foot-and-in team,” said Mann, when asked about scoring threats from beyond the arc. “We’ll shoot the three a little more than we did last year, but we don’t have that consistent shooter who can knock it down from there night in and night out.”

Monmouth launched just nine treys per game last year and hit on only 51 for the season during their 10-12 campaign, which left Mann with a nine-year record at Monmouth of 93-106.

“Defensively, we’ll go man-to-man and zone, depending on the opponent,” he said. “We’ll have to be very adaptable and do what works against various opponents. You can almost say it’s a matter of North and South. We have the size to match up against the South Division teams like Illinois College and Knox, but against the North, we don’t.”

Three of those North schools, Carroll, St. Norbert and Ripon, are favored to make the four-team MWC playoffs. The overall favorite is Lake Forest, even though they’ll be without three-time Player of the Year Alison Grubbs.

“I think we’ll get better as the year wears on,” said Mann. “It depends on how quickly we learn to play with each other. The team spirit and attitude is very, very good - as good or better than it’s been in quite a while.

“We’re excited to have WIU on the schedule this year,” he continued. “I think it’s a great opportunity for our kids to play against Division I talent. This is going to be the hardest non-conference schedule I’ve ever had. Our overall record is not going to get us into the national tournament.”

No, the Scots are going to have to qualify for the MWC playoffs and win the tournament to reach that goal. To do that, they’ll have to surprise a few coaches in the league.

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