Story number one by Dick Allen special correspondent
Deja Vu … All Over Again
In a rematch almost to the exact day – a year later, the number 7 seeded FGCU Lady Eagles will face off against the number 10 seeded Cowgirls of Oklahoma State University. The only difference is that we are not at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana but rather on the campus of Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.
The rematch has a bit of irony attached to it as last year FGCU was seeded 12 while Oklahoma State was seeded 5. The Eagles took the Cowgirls into overtime before dropping a one point Heartbreaker while the Cowgirls went on to play in the sweet 16.
Tomorrow’s game finds the roles reversed with the Eagles being the higher seed and the favorite to win.
But you can’t convince the Eagle players that they are the favorites. At the pre game press conference senior captain Jenna Cobb said quite plainly “they beat us last year. We are clearly the underdogs.” The sentiment was echoed by A-Sun player of the year junior Whitney Knight, “We are going to play like the underdogs!”, she said. A-Sun coach of the year Karl Smesko praised the Oklahoma State team “They are a very, very good team”, he said several times during the press conference. When asked how he had prepared his team for the big size advantage that Oklahoma State will have, he brought smiles to the press corps and to his two players sitting next to him on the dias when he replied, “I asked the scout team to look bigger.”
Confident and focused are both Cobb and Knight. They are resolved to win the team’s first NCAA Tournament game. That’s what they came to do. We suspect the rest of the Eagles are on the same mission.