swiseman@heraldsun.com; 419-6671
DURHAM – They’ve been part of two ACC Tournament championships and two trips to the final eight of the NCAA Tournament.
This season, Duke seniors Shay Selby and Kathleen Scheer, along with junior Allison Vernerey, are part of a No. 5-ranked Blue Devils women’s basketball team with even grander hopes.
But, even as the team’s oldest players, they’re rarely taking the game’s biggest shots.
Heading into tonight’s game with No. 3 Connecticut at Cameron Indoor Stadium, Duke’s sophomore class has scored 62 percent of its points this season. The starting lineup routinely consists of four sophomores and a freshman.
Yet, the upperclassmen understand this bottom-up rotation and are still finding ways to make important contributions.
“I support the younger players,” said Scheer, a senior guard/forward. “I think it would be immature not to, especially as a senior player and a senior leader. I don’t really think anything of it. I can’t really say I’m frustrated that they play because I know what they do helps the team.”
Now in her 21st year as a Division I head coach, Duke coach Joanne P. McCallie calls this the youngest team she’s coached. That the Blue Devils (17-2 overall, 8-0 in the ACC) have found so much success is a testament to their obvious talents.
But McCallie credits the upperclassmen, particularly the two seniors, for their approach to a situation that more often than not leads to poor team chemistry.
“I think our seniors have been able to do whatever it takes to get us to the next level,” McCallie said. “They recognize this team’s talent and they are proud to be a part of something bigger than themselves. I’m not saying that’s an easy thing. It’s not easy. But I think that’s what we have now.”
Sophomore Haley Peters, a 6-2 starter at forward, said she appreciates the older players’ attitudes and said the Blue Devils wouldn’t have been as successful without them.
“When you think about Shay and Leener (Scheer), they are just incredibly unselfish players,” Peters said. “That has made it really easy. They are just so supportive and they are great players. I think sometimes people undervalue just how good the both of them are. They’ve won games for us, the two of them together.”
Selby fought the toughest road to find her place. A 5-9 guard from Cleveland who started Duke’s first five games, she was suspended by McCallie following the team’s November trip the Bahamas for a violation of team rules.
For most of December, until her teammates and McCallie allowed her to return, she wasn’t able to practice with the team or sit on the bench for games.
“Obviously that was a rough time for me,” Selby said. “I wasn’t used to that. It was very emotional, very hard. I tried to keep in contact with everybody. I would listen to the games and come to the games. I tried to lead by not being on the team.”
Selby worked out frequently to say in shape and played in the lunchtime pickup games Duke’s athletic department staff regularly holds.
When she saw her teammates, she made sure to encourage them about their play. Scheer, her roommate for all four of their years at Duke, could see how hard Selby worked to right her wrong.
“I knew what she was going through because I saw it a lot,” Scheer said. “But I just knew how Shay was. She came in here and worked her butt off even when she couldn’t be with the team. She made sure she was doing the little things right. She really learned from what happened and her experience with that.”
McCallie said the players were in agreement that Selby could return. She’s played in all eight of Duke’s ACC games this month.
“She respected her team enough to let her team stand up for what was right,” McCallie said. “And her team did. Coming back, she just tried to be there, do the right thing, be ready. And she has.”
The 6-2 Scheer, a forward, has played in all 19 Duke games, but has yet to start. She’s played an average of 11.5 minutes per game, contributing 3.3 points and 2.8 rebounds. In 11 of Duke’s games, she’s played 16 minutes or more.
A small-town girl from New Haven, Mo., Scheer takes a lead role in team-building off the court while providing depth with rebounding and defense on it. She helps plan get-togethers with teammates for meals or movies.
“She’s a very critical senior for us because of how she affects other people,” McCallie said. “She engenders team. She naturally thinks about what other people might be feeling. In the narcissistic world in which we live, it’s nice to have somebody who is really looking at the whole.”
While others get more minutes during games, Scheer is happy providing what she can both in practices and games.
“I think I’m a really good leader on and off the court,” she said. “I think I bring a lot of energy to practice. It’s constantly going, going, going. So you have to have a person that’s constantly pushing. I think I do that and do that well.”
Vernerey, the team’s lone junior, has played in 91 consecutive games for the Blue Devils. The 6-5 center from France, who backs up freshman center Elizabeth Williams, has become a weapon in her own right.
Vernerey averages 6.6 points and has made an impressive 64.6 percent of her shots this season. On defense, McCallie often employs the lanky Vernerey at the point because of her ability to get in the passing lanes to disrupt offenses.
Whether on the court or on the bench, her French-accented English words are familiar to her teammates.
“She’s always talking, always making sure everyone has their head in the game,” Peters said. “She’s probably the best communicator on the floor.”
Vernerey said her improved grasp of English is helping in that area this season.
“It was a language barrier,” she said. “If you have to think about it, sometimes the moment is over.”
Vernerey did not return home to France last summer, choosing to stay on campus and get heavily involved with the Duke Cancer Institute. McCallie said that decision helped Vernerey become a well-rounded person and it’s helping her game.
“Allison has unlimited potential,” McCallie said. “She’s just starting to hit it and realize `This is what I can do.’ I think it’s coming from several places. She’s a very unique and special person. I cannot stress enough that she is a gift.”
As Duke strives to improve on its last two seasons, hoping to finally break through and reach the Final Four for the first time in McCallie’s tenure, the team’s three oldest players are considered gifts that any coach would treasure.
“If you provide power to a team, does it really matter when or how?” McCallie said. “Power is power and they give us a lot of that. Not too many teams are bringing senior, senior, junior off the bench. And they are getting minutes. They are playing significant minutes. I think it all kind of makes sense and they are doing a great job.”
