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Saturday, January 13, 2001
Islanders face new-look Lady Broncs
Coaching change has brought success for Texas-Pan American squad
By Matt Young
Caller-Times
The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team trounced Texas-Pan American in both of the teams' meetings last season. A&M-Corpus Christi coach Sheryl Estes has spent the better part of the last week trying to convince her players that those walk-overs came against a totally different team than the one they'll face at 3 p.m. today at Memorial Coliseum.
Last year's version of the Lady Broncs finished 6-21, with only three of those wins coming against Division I competition. After the disastrous season, Texas-Pan American dumped coach Kathy Halligan and brought in Karin Nicholls, who was flourishing as coach of Division II Truman State (Mo.), before heading to Texas-Pan American.
Since her arrival on campus, Nicholls has taken what is basically the same squad as last season and guided it to an 8-9 record thus far. Included in those eight wins is an upset of Wyoming, to which the Islanders lost two weeks ago.
"(Texas-Pan American) is a team that has improved immensely since last year," Estes said. "While they have the same players they had a year ago, they now have a new coach and the team is looking much more disciplined and balanced."
Discipline is the biggest improvement Nicholls has brought to the Lady Broncs. Although she had never been a Division I head coach, she came to Texas-Pan American with pretty lofty credentials. After two seasons as the top assistant at Nebraska, Nicholls turned a losing program at Truman State into a winner with a Sweet 16 appearance in the postseason. She saw the same opportunity for a turnaround when she started looking into the Texas-Pan American job opening.
"I saw a wonderful opportunity to turn around a basketball program," Nicholls said. "I saw a ton of support and a want to succeed in the administration, staff and fellow coaches at Pan American. There's a really healthy atmosphere where everyone wants everyone else to succeed."
Most impressive is the fact that Nicholls has made the turnaround with almost the same team as last year. The team's top three scorers - Alexandra Gravel, Cheveron Terry and Naima Williams - all played for the Lady Broncs last season.
The 5-foot-9 Gravel is Texas-Pan American's most dangerous weapon. Gravel is averaging 15.4 points per game with a lot of that damage coming from long range. She's made 45 of her 125 3-point attempts.
"Texas-Pan American has some great outside players . . . especially Alexandra Gravel," Estes said. "She likes to shoot the 3 and our defense is going to have to shut her down."
Staff writer Matt Young can be reached at 886-3702 or by e-mail at youngm@caller.com
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a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.
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