Columnist Dean Juipe: WNIT berth can disguise some faults

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, March 18, 2003 | 10:16 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

It's generally accepted that a team can call its season a success if it qualifies for postseason play.

Hence, there has been a "more the merrier" proliferation of teams qualifying for postseason playoffs at the collegiate and professional levels. Administrators like it for the financial benefits, and coaches see it as a godsend in that it puts them in a comfort zone that years ago simply didn't exist when playoffs were streamlined for the truly deserving.

The ever-increasing number of playoff teams allows many a mediocre coach to gloat at a time when they should rightfully be seeking cover.

It's also misleading to the fans, who see their favorite team in a playoff environment and are lulled into contentedness by its apparent status.

Yet it can be successfully argued that many of the combined 32 teams that will qualify for this year's NBA and NHL playoffs are mere filler, just as a few dozen of the 104 men's collegiate basketball teams taking part in either the NCAA or National Invitation tournaments hardly warrant serious plaudits or accolades.

Same with the 96 women's teams in either the NCAA or WNIT. There are those -- and UNLV is among them -- that inspire no awe or sense of jubilation whatsoever.

I'm sorry, because I like head coach Regina Miller and enjoy the Lady Rebels on the whole, but I'm not going to be fooled into thinking they had a satisfactory season just because they're in the WNIT. With an RPI of 102, their 17-11 record has to be seen for what it is: a collection of wins against low-level teams and a season devoid of startling successes.

If anything, despite having a 21-points-per-game scorer in Constance Jinks and the conference defensive player of the year in Julia Gray, the Lady Rebels underachieved. They had a couple of terrible games down the stretch and were beaten at home by a lower seed in the conference tournament.

They'll play Friday in Corvallis, Ore., against a 14-14 Oregon State team.

But let's take a critical look at the bigger picture.

Yes, Miller has been a marked improvement and has four consecutive winning seasons after inheriting a program that had three successive seasons with only four wins apiece.

But does it seem as if UNLV even remotely capitalized -- from a recruiting standpoint -- on having an All-America player in Linda Frohlich, as it did from 1998 through 2002?

And isn't its fan base landlocked at around 800 or so?

And how is it that not a single local player is on the roster, even though Rachael Schein from Centennial High School recently signed a scholarship with Arizona and the Mountain West Conference tournament's most valuable player was Overton's Jordan Adams, who plays for New Mexico?

In short, the Lady Rebels failed to strike while the recruiting iron was hot and they've failed to attract a couple of local players with obvious Division I ability. As such, they -- and Miller -- run the risk of stagnating, of forever being a 17-11 team content with a spot in the Women's NIT.

Maybe that's good enough and maybe those are sufficient aspirations. And maybe we should throw a party, just as the New York Islanders will do if they finish eighth in the NHL's Eastern Conference.