Shirley you saw this coming – an entry about the La Verne Leopards who are the only team to officially seal an NCAA tournament bid so far.

(Go ahead and groan, but that pun killed me when I thought it up at 2 AM last night. Be glad we already had a headline.)

Since we don’t hear much from women’s teams in that corner of the country, here are some facts about the newly crowned SCIAC champs.

Head Coach Julie Kline has been at La Verne for 16 seasons but had to wait until 2003 to capture a SCIAC title. Since then the Leopards have finished in the top four every season. The Leopards were picked fourth in the preseason behind Cal Lutheran, Occidental and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.

La Verne’s top player is Trenecca Jones, who entered the week averaging double figures in points (16.5) and rebounds (10.6) per game. But the most interesting name on the roster, phonetically at least, is Kayleen Kaaiai. Kaaiai is a 5-foot point guard from Hawaii who unofficially leads the conference in announcers induced to say “How do you pronounce that?”

La Verne’s home facility is very interesting in that it looks like a big top circus tent. Fittingly enough it’s marked on the map as “Super Tents.” Plus the dark green and orange color scheme makes for some sharp jerseys that are colorful but not too floral. Very cool.

And finally the University is the alma mater of former Kansas City Royal great Dan Quisenbery. Quiz was a spectacular reliever who inspired lots of young pitchers (myself included) to drop down on their delivery and give that funky sidearm thing a try.

Good luck to the Leopards in their NCAA future but enjoy the present first. As Quisenbery once said, “”The future is just like the present, only longer.”