Looks like a good first win for the Polar Bears tonight. Any fans at the game can give us a scouting report?

Hot off the press:
BRUNSWICK, Maine - Adrienne Shibles has been named the sixth head coach in the history of the Bowdoin Women's Basketball program. Shibles, most recently the Athletic Director at Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, was the head coach at Swarthmore (Pa.) College from 1996-2005.

"I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the amazing student-athletes at Bowdoin College," according to Shibles. "Their passion, strength, and sincerity inspires me, and I confident that these women will help to make my transition seamless. Together with this team, I am certain that we can strengthen the high standards and unique traditions that have been synonymous with Bowdoin women's basketball."

"We are ecstatic that Adrienne has agreed to take over the leadership of our Women's Basketball program," according to Bowdoin Athletic Director Jeff Ward. "She is a great coach and teacher who will maintain and build upon the traditions of our program. It was a very competitive process, but Adrienne clearly distinguished herself as the top candidate."

A 1991 graduate of Bates College, Shibles is a native of Knox, Maine, and a graduate of Mount View High School. At Bates she was a two-time captain of the women's basketball team, and a 1,000-point scorer, graduating with a degree in history. After coaching basketball at Babson College and basketball and soccer at Colby College, Shibles enrolled in a graduate program in exercise and sports studies at Smith College, where she earned a master's degree in 1996. While at Smith, she served as assistant and then head basketball coach at Elms College in Massachusetts.

At Swarthmore, she sparked a dramatic turnaround that saw the Garnet go from 7-17 one year prior to her arrival in 1997 to a school-record 23 wins and a Centennial Conference Championship just four years later. In her last five seasons at Swarthmore, Shibles averaged over 19 wins per year, qualified for the Centennial Conference Tournament four times, claimed the 2001 conference title and earned the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. Overall, in nine years at Swarthmore, Shibles accumulated a school-record 138 wins against 96 losses and was named the WBCA District 4 Coach of the Year in 2001. During her tenure, she recruited and coached two Kodak All-Americans, an Academic All-American, a Josten's Trophy Recipient and two Conference Players of the Year. In addition, Swarthmore was a perennial member of the WBCA's Top-25 Academic Honor Roll under Shibles.

Shibles and her husband moved their family back to Maine in 2006, where she became the Dean of Athletics and Co-Curricular Programs at Gould Academy. While coaching the girl's basketball team to three-straight Maine State Tournaments, she also served as the school's Athletic Director, managing a program of 40 teams including nationally competitive on-snow squads.

Married to Kirk Daulerio, Shibles has two children, Madeline (5) and Elsa (4). She takes over one of the premiere programs in Division III basketball, as Bowdoin has qualified for the NCAA Tournament in each season since 2001, winning seven NESCAC Championships. She succeeds Stefanie Pemper, who accepted the head coaching position at the Naval Academy in May. Bowdoin will return 11 of 12 letter-winners from their
2007-08 squad that went 19-9 and reached the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.

"This opportunity is most certainly a dream come true for me," says Shibles. "Growing up in Maine, I have always admired Bowdoin as a united community that truly values the whole person, a place where students are respected for their contributions on the basketball court, in the community and in the classroom. My husband and I are truly excited to join the Bowdoin community, and look forward to raising our young family in Brunswick."

Gordon, it sounds like the rationale and the "placement" of the Pool C's is correct for the Polar Bears. Now I face the alumni director's dilemma -- my alma mater and my employer are both in -- likely on both the men's and women's sides. Let's hope Rochester and Bowdoin don't align to play each other again this year!

Well, if the Polar Bears do get in, it will certainly mark the first time ever that an NCAA selection committee has put a team in a tourney based in no small part on their history. Yep, this would be a first.

Congrats to the Lord Jeffs on the title. Let's hope for great NESCAC representation in the tourney.

For those of you who've seen lots of the games this year, any predictions for NESCAC tourney play this weekend? As a board-described Bowdoin apologist, I shall refrain.
*backs away slowly*

floorgeneral, even if what you say is correct, I would think that the athletic director and/or dean of students would have been involved. If you have a beef about this, have you brought it up with them?

There's a wonderful piece from the Bowdoin alumni magazine a few years ago that gives some detail on the team and on Pemper's coaching philosophy. I do not think it mentions her thoughts on travel arrangements. 

http://www.bowdoin.edu/bowdoinmagazine/archives/features/000056.shtml

JeffRookie2, here are the tie-breaker procedures from the NESCAC women's basketball handbook:

QuoteThe following tie-breaking procedure (listed in priority order) will be used to determine participants and seeding.
2-way tie:
1. Head-to-head result (if teams play each other more than once during the regular season, the game that appears on the
league schedule will be the game that is counted).
3-way or more tie:
1. Best record among tying teams, against one another (head-to-head).
2. Most conference wins (in games that are part of the conference schedule and count toward league standings).
3. Comparison of results of conference games played against top 4 teams (including all teams at the 4th spot).
4. Comparison of results of conference games played against top 8 teams (including all teams at the 8th spot).
5. Comparison of results of conference games played against conference teams in rank order. Comparisons shall be
made one team at a time starting with the highest ranked team.
6. If the tie remains after comparing results against the highest ranked team, the results against the next team in rank
order shall be used. This process is continued until a winner is determined.
7. Coin flip (or similar random action involving all tied teams).

So in your scenario,

floorgeneral, I'm not enough of a student of the game to go head-to-head with you on each of Pemper's coaching decisions and I no longer get to see them regularly enough to comment on your questions. My earlier post also was not as eloquent as I would have liked. However, what I was trying to say is that Stef in a short time has turned that program into one of the country's elite and transformed women's hoops status at the school. I began following that program in 1986 when you'd be lucky to see 10 fans at the games, which were played in decrepit Sargent Gym, not even Morrell. Her players are active parts of the campus, go on to be successful, well-rounded individuals, and she herself, like many of Bowdoin's coaches, are supportive of students in a variety of pursuits. THAT's what I want to see out of any extra-curricular activity. I am not a Stef Pemper apologist, although I love what she has done for the school and her student-athletes. I too have heard some stories about treatment of certain players or situations, but I've heard those stories about all kinds of coaches.

Would I like to have seen them win on '04? Absolutely. Do I wish they could have moved on from their seemingly yearly Elite 8 exit? Of course. Do I care about an internal decision on how to get to a game, given budget constraints, players' desire to play the tourney, and the uncertainties of a Maine winter? Well, not really. To identify specific mistakes in games is certainly your right, but you can't really on the one hand say "her coaching decisions and not knowing how to manage the talent of her team personnel is glaringly apparent" given the team's overall success during her tenure. 

All I know is that there are an awful lot of smart, talented women who have benefitted from the Bowdoin basketball experience and who in turn have given a great deal of excitement to hundreds if not thousands of fans.  Thirty years ago, the ticket in Brunswick was to go watch the men's hockey teams play championship-level hockey under Sid Watson. Now you've got two championship-level hockey teams, an elite women's hoops program, an ever-improving men's hoops program, and, that's just the winter sports. Morrell Gym has been by far the hottest ticket in town for the last 5-7 years. Oh, by the way, check out what our field hockey team has done in the last three years.

All this is to say I think Bowdoin does it right in balancing athletics within one of the most competitive conferences in d3. I think it's safe to say that more varsity programs than ever before are in the upper reaches of their sports while admission to the student body (one of the smaller ones in NESCAC, by the way) continues to be increasingly difficult.

floorgeneral, I have to disagree with you on Pemper's game management. She relies on her players' abilities, yes, but to suggest she only cares about minutes played is absurd. And to trash her intelligence is to diminish someone who has immersed herself in the campus culture, is visible at myriad events, and supports her players' interests outside of basketball.

Why is there all this Pemper bashing on here? Is it because she's had a strong program for so long and the team is "just" having a good, solid year? Is there something more? I don't get it.

Bowdoin Polar Bears under Stef Pemper

Starters:
G Lora Trenkle '04
F Eileen Flaherty '07
F Justine Pouravelis '06
F Kristi Royer '03
G Alison Smith '05

Reserves:
G Jessie Mayol '02
G Katie Cummings '07
F Jill Anelauskas '09

A fun exercise for longtime followers of a coach at one program. Here are the rules:

Submit an eight-person all-time team for a coach during his/her tenure at 1 school.
Starting five must include at least two guards and two forwards.

I'll get it started in the next thread with a suggested Pemper-led Bowdoin Polar Bears team.

Let the flamewars begin.

Now I am admitted hometown fan here, and I do not know a lot of the ins and outs of the voting process, or whether there are any midseason strength-of-schedule rankings that are considered, but I'm curious as to why Bowdoin is not receiving at least some votes for Top 25? Of their five losses, three came to Top 25 teams (Rochester, USM, Wilmington) and the other to the conference leader. If they knock off Amherst and Tufts, does that change the story? Do the five losses just knock them out of consideration?

I know this is a semantics inquiry, but would welcome insight from David and other poll-ologists.

Off to see a Rochester doubleheader at WashU. Big tailgate and new mascot name unveiling.

I was being sarcastic. They've had an amazing run of recruiting in-state talent.

Here's a story and pic on the Polar Bear recruit in question -- Jill Henrikson of Morse HS. http://sports.mainetoday.com/highschool/stry.html?id=5691506.

And huskynan.com reports the following accolades:
2007 Maine Sunday Telegram All-State 1st team; 2007 Bangor Daily News All-State HM; 2007, 2006 All-Conference 1st team; 2006 Maine Sunday Telegram All-State HM; 2005 All-Conference 2nd team. AAU team New England Crusaders.

But really, what luck has Bowdoin had recruiting from Maine?