She’s the essential go-getter for the George Washington women’s basketball team. While much of the team watched the Colonial men beat Marshall last weekend, junior forward and Woodbridge High graduate Whitney Allen worked security for the game at Smith Center.
“Normally I’m inside the gym where I can watch the game,” said Allen, but she wasn’t unhappy about missing the men erase a 21-point deficit against Marshall or that the George Washington women landed at No. 16 in last week’s Associated Press rankings, right behind No. 15 Georgia — a team the Colonials defeated four days before.
After all, the Colonials women (11-2) moved up four spots to No. 12 this week without having played a game. They’ll open their campaign for a sixth straight Atlantic-10 regular season title tonight at home against Richmond (6-9).
“It’s tough to lose when you don’t play,” said head coach Joe McKeown. “I’ve been here for so long, it seems like we’ve been in and out of the top 20 every year for the last 17 years so I don’t pay a lot of attention to it.”
The Colonials have reached their highest ranking since the 1992-93season, but they still have 20-point losses to No. 1 Maryland and No. 5 Tennessee, two of five teams that appear to have opened a massive gap between themselves and the rest of women’s college basketball.
Both Allen and McKeown maintain the Colonials shouldn’t be counted out of the Final Four race just yet.
“I think those games come down to the last five or 10 minutes, who has better conditioning and who can focus for a full 40 minutes,” said Allen. “I wouldn’t say that we couldn’t focus for the whole 40 minutes, but we didn’t have the chemistry that we have now.”
McKeown pointed to Ohio State, which was bounced in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year despite being a No. 1 seed, and to the Volunteers, which haven’t won a championship since 1998. Neither Tennessee nor Connecticut have reached the Final Four the last two seasons.
“I think it’s a little more wide open than people realize,” said McKeown. “You think about Utah missed a free throw, otherwise Maryland wouldn’t have advanced. It’s just one of those things. Our tournament is getting better. There’s parity, but not enough.”
RICHMOND (6-9) AT NO. 12 GEORGE WASHINGTON (11-2)
» Where: Charles E. Smith Center
» When: Tonight, 7
