Bowdoin went streaking for a long, long time.

When Bowdoin’s 76-game home winning streak started, Feb. 10, 2001, echoes of Dari Magyar’s Miracle in Manhattan were still ringing in our ears. Listen: audio clip. Remember when it was a big deal to beat Wash U?

When the streak began, George Fox had just taken the throne as the No. 1 team in women’s basketball — thanks to Dari Magyar. They stayed there two weeks before Wash U took it back.

When Bowdoin’s sreak started, the counter on the front page had yet to reach 2.5 million.

At that time, we had a survey on the front page asking what men’s team would win the WIAC. We offered UW-Eau Claire, Oshkosh, River Falls, Stevens Point, Superior and Whitewater as possibilities.

Columbus Multimedia had just ceased covering Division III. Of course, for some reason some schools still link to them.

At that time, Millikin had the longest homecourt winning streak in D-III women’s basketball. They had just won their 48th in a row at home. They lost a few days later.

Otterbein men’s coach Dick Reynolds won his 500th career game that day. He won his 600th earlier this season.

Averett’s men had beaten Christopher Newport for the first time since February 1990.

Just a quick look back at how time has passed. Now let me look back at the two kids and the numerous gray hairs that have come into my life since then. 🙂

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I know we don’t like to reference D-I hoops here (what’s that?), but if you happened to be watching Texas-Oklahoma State instead of heading to your local gym to check out a D-III game, you probably are still amazed by the “Shot of the Year.” (If you haven’t seen it, you will on your favorite highlights show)

Got me to thinking…what’s the most improbable shot I’ve ever seen…

Mine didn’t count on the scoreboard. It came in the 2000 PAC title game when Alvernia’s Chad Kratzer threw one in from out-of-bounds, underneath his own hoop, at the first-half buzzer. if I remember right, Kratzer was 5-for-5 on 3’s in the half. He literally could not miss.

I know there’s a PAC full-court championship-winner that should be on the list too…

Any other improbable shot memories?

Three upsets in the top 10 have finally broken up the icejam at the top of the women’s poll. Baldwin-Wallace lost at Wilmington and fell out of the top 10 for the first time this season; and NYU upended Brandeis, sending the Judges out of the top 10 for the first time since the preseason poll. Replacing B-W and Brandeis in the poll’s upper echelon are #9 Wilmington and #8 Calvin, the first visiting team of either gender to win a game in Hope College’s DeVos Fieldhouse. Hope slipped to 4th, ceding its 11 first place votes to #1 Bowdoin (which received 9, upping their total to 21) and #2 Rochester. The women’s top 10 is not only changed, but also less dominant, garnering “only” 96.8% of the possible vote, versus 98.2% and 98.9% the past two weeks.

Way down at the bottom of the list, the Washington U. Bears slipped to a mere 4 votes this week. Wash. U.’s women’s team is one of four programs that has received votes in every poll in D3Hoops.com’s polling history (the others being #3 Scranton and #15 Hardin-Simmons on the women’s side, and #4 Wooster on the men’s), but the vultures are circling, especially with the Bears hosting unbeaten #2 Rochester this Friday. The spotlight on St. Louis’ west side is now shining on the men’s team, which moved up to #13 this week with a 12-1 record.

On the men’s side, Ohio Northern lost for the second week in a row, and has now given back all of the boost it received by beating #4 Wooster and #6 Wittenberg over the holidays. Prior to those signature wins, the Polar Bears were ranked seventh with 434 votes; after climing as high as #2, this week they are eighth with 426 points. Glory is fleeting in this business.

Little East Conference members Rhode Island College and Keene St. entered the men’s top 25 poll this week, marking the first time that any Northeast Region conference apart from the NESCAC has had two ranked teams in the same week. This is the first time any LEC member has been ranked since the end of the 2003-04 season. The two-team entry is unlikely to last, however, as these LEC powers square off this Saturday in New Hampshire.

Debutantes:
Women: #21 Kean broke into the top 25 for the first time ever. Fitchburg State received votes for the first time.
Men: #20 Guilford and #22 Rhode Island College are top 25 teams for the first time. Greensboro cracked the voting rolls for the first time this week.
Congratulations to these five programs on their achievements!

Streakers:
Women: #5 Southern Maine is in the top 25 for the 70th consecutive week; #13 McMurry is ranked for the 20th straight week; and #14 UW-Stout is in the rankings for the 10th week in a row.
Men: #3 St. Thomas is in the top 25 for the 10th straight week; Baldwin-Wallace received votes for the 25th consecutive week; and Lawrence fell out of the voting this week, snapping a streak that had reached 51 consecutive weeks.

High-Water Marks:
Women: #7 Howard Payne reached its highest-ever rank for the seventh consecutive week; #11 Chicago reached theirs for the 6th straight week. Also achieving their highest ranking ever are #8 Calvin and debutante #21 Kean.
Men: #7 Mississippi College, #16 UW-La Crosse, and debutantes #20 Guilford and #22 Rhode Island College each set new high-ranking marks this week. #3 St. Thomas and #19 Aurora tied their highest rankings.

Milestones:
Women: #6 Messiah and #12 Baldwin-Wallace each received votes for the one hundredth time this week! Brava! Lake Forest was mentioned on voters’ ballots for the 50th time; #7 Howard Payne for the 30th time; and #11 Chicago for the 25th. #25 Simpson‘s appearance in the top 25 was their 40th of all time.
Men: #2 Amherst is in the top 10 for the 60th time.

Movers and Shakers:
Women: The biggest gainers this week were #16 NYU (+133 votes and 5 poll places) and #8 Calvin (+110 points and 3 slots), both by virtue of upsetting top 10 teams. NYU’s victim, #17 Brandeis, took the biggest fall in the poll, losing 161 points and seven places. #25 Simpson lost at Luther and fell 127 points and eight positions.
Men: #9 Elmhurst beat two conference foes, one of them ranked, and soared 163 points and five places in this week’s poll. Then-#13 William Paterson dropped two games and fell out of the top 25, shedding 236 points. #21 Bates lost their first two games of the season, causing them to lose 223 points and fall nine places in the poll.

One of the most intriguing match-ups of the weekend pitted No. 6 Whitworth against No. 17 Puget Sound. The Loggers came to Whitworth off a loss to Pacific, needing a win while the Pirates were trying to get over the hump that is Puget Sound. Our Chris Johnson files this report from Spokane…

#17 Puget Sound Upsets #6 Whitworth

The University of Puget Sound just seems to have Whitworth’s number. The 17th-ranked Loggers upset the 6th-ranked Pirates 77-72 Friday night in Northwest Conference action at the Whitworth Fieldhouse, the seventh win in the last eight meetings between the two teams. The loss was the first of the season for the Pirates, who entered the contest at a perfect 13-0, and also snapped Whitworth’s 15 game home-court winning streak. Puget Sound (11-2) and Whitworth (13-1) are now tied atop the NWC standings at 4-1.

After a back and forth second half that saw seven ties and nine lead changes, the Logger’s Robert Kraul snapped a 72-72 deadlock with a leaner in the lane with just 1:10 left on the clock, giving UPS the lead for good. Pirate point guard Bryan Williams missed a leaner of his own the next time down the court and on the ensuing Loggers possession, sophomore Jason Foster hit a tough turn-around jumper over two Pirate defenders that extended the lead to 76-72. Kraul iced the game for UPS with a free-throw with just 16 seconds remaining.

Whitworth was without leading scorer James Jones (16.1 PPG) who broke a bone in his hand during practice earlier in the week and isn’t supposed to return for 4-6 weeks. The Pirates missed Jones’ ball-handling ability as much as his scoring touch as the Logger’s kept a defender on Williams at all times, who still managed to score 12 points and a dish out a game high 8 assists. “That was the game-plan all week- keep the ball out of (Williams) hands”, said Logger head coach Justin Lunt. “He’s one of the best point guards in the county.”

The Loggers’ relentless defense forced Whitworth into 23 turnovers. Despite the constant pressure and double teams, Whitworth was able to find Ryan Symes (23 points) and Kevin Hasenfus (19 points) for easy lay-ups down low. The duo combined to hit 17 of 25 shots (68%) from the floor. The Pirates finished shooting 58% for the game, just above their nation-leading average of 54%. However Whitworth failed to hit a three-pointer for the first time since Dec. 21, 2001.

Things were going well early for the Pirates as they held the high-powered Logger offense, which came into the game with the nation’s third highest scoring average at 107.9 per game, to only eight points through the first 13 minutes. But the shots eventually started to fall for the Loggers who only trailed at halftime by a score of 31-26. The Loggers caught fire in the second half hitting on 65% of their shots and closed the game on a 17-6 run.
UPS Guard Taylor Marsh kept the Loggers in the game hitting early three first half threes. “We practiced defense all week, but my shot felt great tonight”, said Marsh, who wasn’t fazed by the wide-open spaces of the fieldhouse. “My teammates found me and I was able to hit some big shots tonight.”

Perhaps his biggest shot was a three from the top of the key with only 2:36 remaining, giving the Loggers the lead at 70-68 and swinging momentum back in favor of UPS. Marsh finished with a team high 19 points, hitting 5 of 12 from behind the arc. Kraul had 13 points and Foster chipped in 11 points and 7 rebounds despite being saddled with foul trouble.

The two rivals will hook-up again February 9th in Tacoma.