CLEVELAND — For the third straight season, the University of Toledo women’s basketball team exited the Mid-American Conference tournament in the semifinals, falling March 15 to Central Michigan 66-61.

“It was a hard-fought game with what I feel are two of the best teams in the league; unfortunately we came up on the short end of the stick,” said Rockets head coach Tricia Cullop. “This one hurt because we know how badly we would liked to have make it to the final game and see what could’ve happened there. In my opinion, this was like a championship game because of the caliber of teams that were on the court.”

The Chippewas opened up the game, making their first four three-pointers and held onto the lead from the first 46 seconds on.

Despite being down by 10 at halftime, the Rockets came back in the second stanza and cut the deficit to one with 1:12 left in regulation.

Senior point guard Naama Shafir had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds with a three-pointer, but forward Jessica Schroll blocked the shot and eventually hit the final two free-throws to put it out of reach.

“We obviously needed a three and we had a play and I felt like my man was going, so I was trying to take the three,” Shafir said. “It wasn’t a good read and she blocked the shot. I don’t know.”

Shafir finished with 15 points, shooting 6-of-21 from the field.

The Rockets shot 37 percent from the field throughout the game and made just seven of their 23 attempts in the second half.

Despite the Chippewas shooting 50 percent (6-of-12) from beyond the arc in the first half, they failed to convert on any of their five attempts in the second.

Leading the way for Central Michigan was guard Crystal Bradford, who scored 20 points and had three blocks and three steals.

“Look at her height and her perimeter skills; she’s a great rebounder, she’s a great defender, she’s tough when she rotates over and she is a great shot blocker,” Cullop said. “She’s just a tough matchup in our league. She is capable of playing at a higher level and she’s a concern.”

When Bradford sat down after committing her fourth foul of the game, the Rockets were able to take advantage of her absence and cut the deficit down from nine to two.

Shafir drilled a three-pointer with 12:29 left in the second half, sparking a 9-0 run over the next 3:34.

The loss ends Toledo’s biggest chance to make the NCAA tournament, as the winner of tomorrow’s final game receives an automatic bid to the big dance.

Cullop said she is optimistic the Rockets can still sneak into the tournament with an at-large bid.

“Upsets happen and it’s unfortunate; it’s not what we planned, but it doesn’t mean we failed either,” she said. “We had a tremendous regular season and we lost one game in this postseason tournament and yeah it stings, but there are other teams in leagues across the country that are going to make the NCAA tournament that got upset in their conference tournament.”

This is the third time the Rockets faced Central Michigan, with the Chippewas winning the first game Jan. 10 at Savage Arena and Toledo winning in Mount Pleasant on Feb. 24.

The Rockets have lost in the semifinals of the MAC Tournament for three years. The last two trips to Cleveland resulted in losses to Eastern Michigan University.

“I don’t necessarily think it’s a common thing; it’s not a curse,” said forward Lecretia Smith, who finished with eight rebounds. “We come here, we compete, we play great teams; we give up a great fight every year. We just come up short.”

Tags: Naama Shafir, Tricia Cullop, University of Toledo, women's basketball

This entry was posted on Friday, March 15th, 2013 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Rocket Basketball, Sports.
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Two years ago, the Glass City got caught in a frenzy when the Toledo Rockets women’s basketball team worked their way through the Women’s NIT, culminating in a memorable championship game at Savage Arena against USC. The Trojans came in ready to flex their muscle, but Naama Shafir put up 40 points to lead the Rockets to the 76-68 win.

Last year, nearly the same frenzy enveloped the town as the Rockets re-entered the WNIT. The ending wasn’t as nice as in 2011; the Syracuse Orange invaded Savage Arena and handed Toledo a 74-73 overtime loss in the quarterfinal round. The fans, however, still came to support the ladies as they tore their way through the postseason.

If you were one of those fans who started buying tickets for the WNIT, I’m going to implore you to get to a game now. I guarantee you that this year’s Rockets team will not be playing WNIT games at Savage, because they’ll be playing in the NCAA Tournament. They are that good.

20 wins already, 8 wins in a row. This year’s team is something special. Shafir came back to the team after missing most of the 2011-12 campaign with an injury. The only missing pieces from last year have been Courntey Ingersoll and Haylie Lynn, and names like Inma Zanoguera have stepped up to fill those gaps. Tricia Cullop has these women playing tougher than they ever have.

For example, Feb. 6 was supposed to be a difficult road date against the Miami Redhawks. Toledo had a share for the lead for the MAC West, while the Redhawks were the leaders in the East Division. How did Toledo fare? Oh, they only used a 38-2 run to drill Miami by 31 points.

Okay, maybe I cherry picked that game. It hasn’t always been easy. Just Feb. 3, they had a grind-out win over Western Michigan. An ug-uh-ly start that any team is capable of: 4 of 16 shooting and 8 turnovers in the first 11 minutes of play would sink any team, and they were staring at a 6 point hole before a Shafir bucket sparked a 21-3 run. The Rockets would win it 65-54.

Yes, there are those two pesky losses on their schedule. The first was against Dayton, a nationally ranked squad whom Toledo nearly beat anyways; the Flyers outscored Toledo 9-5 in the final two minutes to beat the Rockets 79-76. The second was on the very first conference game against Central Michigan, where foul trouble kept many of the playmakers off the court and allowed the Chippewas to score at will. Keep in mind, that’s only the 3rd conference loss Coach Cullop has suffered in her five seasons on the sidelines of Bob Nicholls court.

Throughout this season, I’ve talked to the radio voice of the women’s team, Jim Heller. At the start of the season, even after the first loss, he told me “Young Shaggy,” (if you’ve never heard Jim on the call, then you’re not hearing this in his voice, so just bear with me on this) “I tell you what, my good friend, this group of ladies could do something really special this season.” I tend to believe him; he’s got a championship ring. Not for playing, mind you, he was on the call when the Findlay Oilers team won the Division II title 2009. But if a man who watched a team go 36-0 says that this Rockets team can ball, then I tend to believe him.

If you’re a basketball fan, you need to take in a women’s game out at Savage. They put on a heck of a show, and you’re going to want to be familiar when this team as they start tearing through the MAC Tournament. The players or coaches won’t say this, but I will: no more early exits from the conference tourney. This team is going to the big dance.

Matt “Shaggy” Culbreath is sports director at 1370 WSPD. Email him at shaggy@wspd.com.

Tags: Matt Culbreath, Naama Shafir, Rockets, Shaggy, Shaggy Culbreath, Toledo Rockets, University of Toledo, WNIT, women's basketball

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2013 at 5:11 pm and is filed under Opinion, Rocket Basketball, Shag on Sports, Sports.
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When the Rockets entered Savage Arena on Dec. 20 to take on Evansville in the inaugural Toledo Invite, they did so with an 8-1 record, which included back-to-back wins over Milwaukee and Marquette. In its matchup with the Purple Aces, Toledo showed why it’s off to its best start in 16 years with a 60-50 victory.

In the first half, UT’s defense took several charges and forced 12 Evansville turnovers, limiting the Purple Aces to one field goal in the first nine-plus minutes of the contest as it jumped out to a 17-4 lead.

“We took six charges by the half, and I’d say that’s probably the best half as far as charges we’ve done all year,” Rockets’ head coach Tricia Cullop said. “I was extremely proud of that because I think that’s an unselfish act that really goes a long way to take the momentum away from a team.

“There’s nothing worse than when you think you’ve got to drive to the hole and somebody steps in front of you and takes a charge. I’m really proud that we have more than one person doing that now.”

That defense led to offense as eight different Toledo players scored in the game’s first 20 minutes. The Rockets (9-1, 0-0 Mid-American Conference) were led in the contest by senior guard Naama Shafir, who notched her fourth career double-double with 12 points and 10 assists.

“I tried to find my open teammates, and they were able to make shots,” Shafir said.

Sophomore guard/forward Inma Zanoguera also finished with 12 points. Evansville was led by Samantha Heck’s game-high 16 points, while her teammate Mallory Ladd chipped in 11 points.

“She’s a player that I watched as she was younger growing up,” Cullop said of Ladd, a player she had seen when she was the head coach at Evansville, her prior stop to Toledo. “She grew up a couple blocks from the University of Evansville. She’s got a great future ahead of her.”

In the first half, Toledo jumped out to an early 9-0 lead over the Purple Aces after a three-pointer from junior guard Andola Dortch with 17:18 on the clock. Though Evansville’s Khristian Hart countered with a bucket on the Purple Aces’ ensuing possession, it would be more than six minutes until her team got another field goal as Toledo jumped out to a 17-6 lead by the 10:53 mark of the first half.

The Rockets outscored Evansville 20-10 from that point to lead 37-16 at the break. Toledo also outscored the Purple Aces (2-8, 0-0 Missouri Valley Conference) 14-4 in the paint and notched 10 points off Evansville’s 12 turnovers. The Purple Aces, meanwhile, shot just 17.4 percent from the field.

“I thought our intensity defensively the first half was very good, limiting them to one shot and getting out and running,” Cullop said. “It was also — and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention this — but Naama having a double-double tonight, a very quiet double-double. I thought she really did a nice job of feeding her teammates.”

After the Purple Aces went on a 10-4 run in the second half to make it 56-38 with 5:26 remaining, Shafir was subbed back in and scored four-straight for Toledo, giving UT a 60-40 lead at the 4:15 mark. Evansville ended the game on a 10-0 run as the Rockets picked up their ninth victory.

“I mean, we can always do a better job,” Shafir said. “We started pretty good the first half, but we need to a better job in the second half. Last game [against Marquette], we didn’t really show up for the first half but we came back in the second half. We need to do 40 minutes together if we want to continue to win.”

For Cullop, the game was also a little more personal. She spent eight seasons coaching Evansville, which included a 73-48 record in her last four years with the Purple Aces.

“I didn’t even have a grey hair back then,” Cullop said of her time at Evansville, who made her a head coach when she was 29 years old. “I learned a lot — a lot through mistakes — and they lived with my mistakes, and I was really able to grow as a coach in that program.”

The Rockets will play Prairie View A&M (3-5, 0-0 Southwestern Athletic Conference) at 7 p.m. Dec. 21 in Savage Arena for the championship game of the Toledo Invite.

Tags: Naama Shafir, Toledo Invite, University of Toledo, women's basketball

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2012 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Rocket Basketball, Sports.
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The potentially game-tying 3-pointer rattled off the rim in the closing seconds of overtime, sealing the University of Toledo’s elimination from the 2012 Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT).

Injured point guard Naama Shafir could only watch from the sideline, as she had virtually all season, while the Rockets were ousted by the Syracuse squad she had sliced and diced for 22 points the year before en route to WNIT MVP honors and Toledo’s first postseason tournament title.

“It was very hard,” Shafir said. “Especially when the game wasn’t going so well or it wasn’t really close, I just wanted to be out there on the court to help the team.”

Shafir, a native of Hoshaya, Israel, tore her right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) on an awkward landing after driving to the basket in the first minute of an early season game at Indiana on Nov. 25, 2011.

“When it happened, it was really painful, but then after a minute it didn’t hurt anymore,” Shafir said.

The three-time All-Mid-American Conference selection returned to the game, but her knee promptly gave out when she tried cutting across the court.

“In that moment I just knew,” Shafir said. “I could feel that I tore my ACL.”

MRI results confirmed her fears and in mid-December she underwent reconstructive surgery on her right knee at ProMedica Toledo Hospital. The rehabilitation that followed was tough, according to Shafir, but the choice forced upon her by the injury was perhaps even more difficult.

Extra eligibility

A senior during the 2011-12 season, the frontrunner to win Mid-American Conference player of the year was set to graduate and return to Israel in May. Because she competed in fewerthan 30 percent of the Rockets’ games and did not play past the midway point of the season, Shafir was granted a medical hardship waiver, giving her an extra year of eligibility.

Speculation swirled, however, that Shafir would bypass her last year of college eligibility to rejoin her parents, four brothers and four sisters. Already a member of the Israeli national team, some expected Shafir to begin her professional career back home.

After weeks of deliberation, a feeling of gratitude and the desire to complete unfinished business won out and Shafir announced her decision to return to the University of Toledo.

Naama Shafir

“It took me a while to make a choice,” Shafir said. “But I got to thinking, ‘That’s not how I want to finish here. I still want the chance to play at Savage for Toledo, in front of so many people and amazing fans and still be part of that team.’”

UT head coach Tricia Cullop, who made Shafir part of her first recruiting class in 2008, said the program was behind Shafir regardless of what she chose.

“We would’ve supported her no matter what,” Cullop said. “She’s given an awful lot to our program and we’re very thankful.”

Top players

After finishing high school at Ulpanit Tiberias and solidifying herself as one of the top players in her age group on the international circuit, Shafir decided to pursue a basketball scholarship in the United States.

Cullop was among those who received a copy of the game tape Shafir sent to schools. Hired away from Evansville in April 2008, Cullop got a late jump on recruiting. When an incoming freshman point guard pulled out of Toledo, she and her staff were left scrambling to find someone else to run their offense. Shafir emerged as the leading contender to fill the void.

A devout Orthodox Jew, Shafir was intent on making certain the school she chose would allow her to further her education, play basketball and respect her religious observances.

“That’s one of the main reasons I came here,” Shafir said. “I know there are some things I have to do, and some things I’m not allowed to do, so I had to be at a school that would help me with that.”

Shafir has to eat kosher food, wear a T-shirt underneath her jersey and out of respect for the Shabbat — the sacred day of rest in Judaism — she cannot practice or ride in a motorized vehicle from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

Her rabbi gave her permission to play on Saturdays and for road contests on Shabbat it was decided Shafir would travel with an assistant coach the day before and stay in a hotel within walking distance of the arena.

The extra effort on behalf of the Rockets staff has paid off in abundance. Garnering all-conference accolades, the floor general averaged a team-best in assists each of her first three complete season, leading the Rockets in scoring (15.3) her junior year in 2010-11 on her way to first-team honors.

The road back

The road back to center stage began slowly for Shafir, consisting of light leg stretches and testing range of motion prior to her knee surgery.

In the months following her surgery, the point guard began exercises to strengthen muscle groups in her legs, improving flexibility in her reconstructed knee.

Shafir spent most of her summer break rehabilitating with the help of former UT trainer Sara Meserth. The Rockets star continued redeveloping her range of motion and retraining her muscles with stretching, running and mobility exercises.

“Some days were good and some were really hard,” Shafir said. “But knowing I have a teammate, Andola Dortch, that went through it twice and could explain things helped me a lot.”

Dortch suffered a left ACL tear during a pickup game with her teammates in the summer of 2009. Weeks after the guard rehabilitated and was cleared to compete, Dortch participated in another offseason game, resulting in a right ACL tear.

“You know you’re getting better during rehab, but not actually seeing it going anywhere plays a trick on your mind,” Dortch said. “Having someone who’s been there really helps.”

While Dortch established herself as a leader on the floor, leading Toledo to its second-straight WNIT, Shafir continued growing from the sideline.

“She was still a great leader, giving a lot of energy from the bench and helping some of our younger players,” Cullop said. “I also think she was able to learn from seeing parts of the game that you don’t see when you’re on the court.”

Shafir said she was prepared to play by June, but was cautious and did not fully exert herself until the fall. She admits, however, that she was not in peak condition for the Rockets’ Nov. 9 season-opening win at Arkansas State.

“I was really excited for the first game, but it still takes time to come back,” Shafir explained. “Now I feel much better. I feel like I did before the injury.”

The fear of reinjury is a common psychological obstacle for athletes returning from major surgery, but such concerns have not inhibited Shafir’s high-energy playing style.

“Every once in a while you think about it, but as soon as the game starts you just think about the game,” Shafir said.

Save for surgical scars, the only remaining sign of Shafir’s injury is the precautionary brace on her knee during games and the ice pack on it afterward. She suspects the former will no longer be needed by the start of conference play in January.

All cylinders

Shafir’s scoring average (10.4 ppg) is down but her assists per game (5.3) are up from her junior season, a testament to both her heightened basketball IQ and a roster that is firing on all cylinders.

Off to its best start (8-1) since the 1996-97 season, the team has already won the John Ascuaga’s Nugget Classic and the Glass City Tournament. Shafir captured MVP honors in both and has the opportunity to lead Toledo to another pair of tournament crowns before the regular season ends.

Shafir stopped short of calling this the most talented Rockets team she has been on, but she understands her second chance at a final campaign with Toledo could result in a special run.

“It’s hard to compare, but I do feel like we have a really good team and we can do some great things this year,” Shafir said. “We have five people on the court that can score and do a lot of other good things, so I’m just trying to fit in and do what I need to do to help the team get where we want to go.”

Tags: Naama Shafir, Tricia Cullop, University of Toledo, Women’s National Invitation Tournament

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2012 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Featured, Rocket Basketball, Sports.
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Although it was a near certainty that she would be allowed to return to Toledo, senior Naama Shafir officially heard from the NCAA and the Mid-American Conference this week that her medical hardship waiver has been granted.

The UT star point guard played in just four games last season before suffering a torn right ACL in a win over Indiana on Nov. 25.

UT senior point guard Naama Shafir, taken by Nick Kneer

Shafir played in 106 straight games before her injury and averaged 13.7 points, 5.4 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals in her career at Toledo. The three-time All-MAC selection enters the 2012-13 season ranked fourth in school history in assists (569), fifth in free throws (441) and 10th in points (1,452) and steals (168).

An instrumental part of the Rockets’ WNIT championship team, Shafir led the Rockets with a career-high 40 points in an eight-point victory over USC in the championship game. The title was the first postseason championship for a school from the MAC.

Without Shafir in the lineup in 2012, Toledo finished with a 24-10 record and won a share of the MAC West Division crown for the third straight year. The Rockets also got the chance to defend their WNIT title, advancing to the “Sweet 16” round before losing in overtime to Syracuse. From that team, UT will return all but two players: guards Courtney Ingersoll and Haylie Linn.

Tags: medical hardship waiver, Mid-American Conference, Naama Shafir, NCAA, Rockets basketball, Zach Davis

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 19th, 2012 at 9:52 am and is filed under College sports, Rocket Basketball, Sports.
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It’s hard turning your back on unfinished business. Toledo point guard Naama Shafir had every intention to return home to Hoshaya, Israel, in May after tearing her right ACL four games into her senior basketball season. But with an extra season of eligibility on the table, the temptation to fulfill unreached goals won out and Shafir decided to delay her homecoming one more year.

“At the beginning, I was kind of shocked,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do. To be honest, at first I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m coming back.’ After a couple of weeks, I started to think that’s not how I want to finish here. I feel like I still have a lot to give here. I’m excited to come back for another year with amazing fans, an amazing team and coaches. I see it as an opportunity for me, and I’m happy to have a chance to come back for one more year.”

Shafir tore her ACL in the first minute of a 69-58 win at Indiana on Nov. 25 and had surgery Dec. 14 to repair the injury. Shafir started the previous 106 games in her career at UT and had never missed a game in her life due to injury.

Naama Shafir

“I’m elated that she’s coming back,” Toledo head coach Tricia Cullop said. “She is a wonderful kid and a great player. She brings an awful lot of leadership to our program. She also has a lot of unfinished business. I can’t wait to see her have the senior year she deserves to have.”

Shafir joins a senior class with fellow co-captain forward Lecretia Smith along with guard Riley McCormick and centers Kyle Baumgartner and Yolanda Richardson.

“I’m actually going to graduate with Naama,” Richardson said. “It’s a great feeling to know that we have another year together. We’re going to go out with a bang together.”

For Shafir, one difficult part of the decision to return will be watching senior guards Courtney Ingersoll and Haylie Linn graduate without her.

“It’s really weird,” Shafir said. “I talked to both of them about it. Before I made a final decision, I was like, ‘There’s no way they’re going to walk on senior night without me.’ It’s part of it. I can’t change it. Those are the little things that make it a little upsetting for me. But I’m so happy for them, and I know that they’re happy I’m staying.”

“I’m so excited for her,” Ingersoll said. “I’m more excited for our community because they get another chance to come and watch one of the best players in Toledo’s history. I’m going to miss playing alongside her, but it’s going to be another fantastic year because of her.”

Shafir, a three-time All-MAC selection, led the Rockets last season with 15.3 points and 5.1 assists per game. She earned WNIT MVP honors after scoring a career-high 40 points against USC in the championship game. Shafir was averaging 9.3 points, 3.5 assists and 2.3 steals per game before her injury this season.

Shafir was named the 2012 Marty Glickman Outstanding Jewish Scholastic Female of the Year by the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame & Museum Committee. Shafir will receive the award at the 20th annual National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum Induction Ceremony on April 29 at the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center in Commack, N.Y.

Sophomore point guard Andola Dortch has picked up her offense to help replace Shafir, leading the Rockets with 13.5 points and 4.6 assists per game this season. Shafir and Dortch frequently teamed up in the backcourt last season, and Cullop is excited to get her dynamic duo back together.

“Those two did a great job last year feeding off each other, and I know that played into her decision, having her sidekick back,” Cullop said. “Andola is going to be a great mentor for her coming back from rehab and the injury, because she’s been through it. They are going to be a great tandem going forward. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed coaching both of them, and I can’t wait to have them both on the court again.”

Cullop is also excited to see what Shafir can do after learning from a coach’s perspective this season.

There is no set timetable for Shafir’s return, but Cullop is encouraged by what the doctors have reported.

“They are really excited about where she is at right now,” Cullop said. “If she was going to have this injury, I’m glad it happened as early as it did. In my history with players who have had it, you don’t see them back mentally for a year. It takes a long time. Your body is ready, but your mind says, ‘Don’t cut hard.’”

“It’s not just about my knee being ready,” Shafir said. “It’s not going to be easy mentally to come back. It takes a while.”

Cullop said the main mental obstacle to overcome is fear of reinjury, which is made worse by scar tissue.

“She’s got to learn how to retrain her mind to know she’s going to be OK, and to break up some scar tissue and realize that’s not the ACL tear again,” she said. “When you break up some of that scar tissue, believe me it’s a scary moment. She’ll have plenty of time to fight through that and get strong before we put her back out there.”

Once Shafir is back out there, Cullop expects her to play stronger.

“Any kid I’ve ever had that comes back from an ACL comes back with a vengeance,” Cullop said. “They cannot wait to get back on the court and they value every second. I think that’s the Naama Shafir you’re going to see when she comes back.”

Tags: Naama Shafir, Rocket basketball, Tricia Cullop, University of Toledo

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 3:30 pm and is filed under Rocket Basketball, Sports.
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The 2010-11 UT women’s basketball team won the first postseason title in school history with a WNIT Championship.

“It was a great confidence builder to know that we can play with anyone and beat anyone,” Toledo head coach Tricia Cullop said.

The Rockets were undefeated at home, 22-7 overall and 14-2 in the Mid-American Conference last season including a 66-65 win at Bowling Green State University. Toledo ended the regular season with a win over Central Michigan to secure the MAC regular season title.

Tricia Cullop

UT lost 51-46 to Eastern Michigan in the semifinals of the conference tournament, ending the team’s goal of making the NCAA Tournament. The Rockets accepted a bid to the WNIT for the second straight year and hosted Delaware in the opening round.

Despite 6-foot-5 forward Elena Della Donne scoring 31 points for Delaware, the Rockets advanced with a 58-55 victory, led by 14 points and nine rebounds off the bench from center Yolanda Richardson. Richardson led the Rockets again in the second round with 20 points and eight rebounds in a 67-52 win over Auburn. In the third round, UT beat Alabama 74-59.

The Rockets narrowly escaped the quarterfinals with a 71-68 win in overtime against Syracuse. Toledo cruised into the championship game with an 83-60 blowout of Charlotte as all five starters scored in double figures.

Naama Shafir dominated offensively in the title game with 40 points against USC in front of a MAC-record attendance of 7,301. The Trojans cut the lead to 70-66 with 36 seconds to go, but Shafir made six free throws down the stretch for a 76-68 win.

“It was an amazing performance,” Cullop said. “It is probably one of the most special individual performances I’ve seen.”

The performance earned Shafir Tournament MVP honors as she was named to the All-Tournament Team along with Richardson.

The experience the Rockets gained in the WNIT will be crucial to Toledo’s success this season with Shafir out for the year after tearing the ACL in her right knee Nov. 25 at Indiana. The Rockets are 3-3 since losing Shafir and 6-4 overall this season.

“You look at all these things through different lenses,” Cullop said. “It was a blow to lose Naama. Now that we’re in this situation, we have to do the best we can with it.”

Tags: Naama Shafir, Rocket basketball, Tricia Cullop

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 27th, 2011 at 2:27 pm and is filed under College sports, Rocket Basketball, Sports.
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The senior season of storied point guard Naama Shafir came to an abrupt end when a knee injury suffered Nov. 25 at Indiana was diagnosed as an ACL tear.

“It is probably the lowest,” Shafir said. “It’s hard. I never thought I’d be injured like that. You can’t really prepare for it. I’m trying to stay positive and be there for the team and my teammates.”

“When I saw the injury occur, it was pretty obvious that was going to be the outcome,” Toledo head coach Tricia Cullop said. “She’s not one to get hurt, lie on the floor and not get up. She’s a very tough kid, and we’ve all witnessed her take hundreds of charges in her career, get up and act like it wasn’t a big deal. When she laid there, we knew it was serious.”

Shafir, a native of Hoshaya, Israel, displayed that toughness when she attempted to return to the game.

“I think out of adrenaline, she was able to move laterally for the trainer before she went back in,” Cullop said. “It was obvious the first time the play went the other way she couldn’t do it. I know how she normally moves, and it just wasn’t the same.”

‘Let’s win this game’

Naama Shafir

Cullop didn’t have much time to react to the injury, which happened in the first minute of play, as the Rockets rallied for a 69-58 win.

“My heart sank in the moment, but then the coach in me had to click back over to coaching the rest of the team,” she said. “Unfortunately, the game wasn’t going to stop just because she got injured. My immediate reaction was ‘OK, let’s win this game.’ I was proud of our players for pushing through and getting a win despite her injury. Afterward, my heart broke for her. She’s worked so hard to put herself in this position. Especially her senior year, to get that taken away from you is very difficult to stomach. She means an awful lot to our team.”

Senior guard Courtney Ingersoll stepped up in Shafir’s absence against Indiana with 20 points and eight rebounds, including shooting 5 of 8 from three-point range.

“Courtney can score, but she can score in a different way than Naama,” Cullop said. “It’s our coaching staff’s job to put Courtney in positions to score whether she’s playing the wing or playing the one. She had to play some point in that game, and she doesn’t practice the point. That just tells you what a great kid she is. She pays attention to all those positions and knew how to run everything we ran.

“I think she is a determined senior that’s going to give it everything she has. Whether she does or she doesn’t [score], there’s no question in my mind that she’s going to die trying.”

Tricia Cullop

Sophomore point guard Andola Dortch scored 13 points with seven steals against Indiana. She will be counted on to distribute the ball to players like Ingersoll and to create her own chances.

“Andola has always been important,” Cullop said. “She and I had a talk when we got home from the trip. I noticed that she’s been waiting until the second half to score the majority of her points.

“I talked to her about being more of a threat from the tip. She’s not afraid in crunch time. She’s hit some big baskets late in games, but she has to do that from the tip.”

Dortch scored 10 points with five assists Nov. 27 as the Rockets lost 64-56 at Arkansas State in the first full game without Shafir. Ingersoll led the team again with 15 points and five rebounds in 37 minutes.

“We just had some questions,” Cullop said. “One advantage to our program is that we’ve never based it on one person. We’ve always created opportunities for everyone to score.”

With Shafir out, Cullop will have to tweak the offense to continue creating opportunities for everyone.

“We have to learn how to win in different ways now,” she said. “The good thing is she hasn’t been someone that’s had to score 20 or 30 for us to win. We’ve had other people scoring all along. We just have to score in different ways now. Now the pressure is on the coaching staff, and that’s fine. That’s what we get paid to do.”

Shafir led the Rockets last season with averages of 15.3 points and 5.1 assists per game. She was named the tournament MVP after scoring a career-high 40 points against USC in the WNIT championship game April 2. She is fourth in school history with 569 assists, fifth with 441 free throws made and 10th with 1,452 career points.

“Anytime any player has ever been injured, we talk about their statistics and how if we all divide them up amongst the whole team, it’s not as demanding to fill those shoes,” Cullop said. “If everybody makes a few more assists and takes a few more charges and make up for all the little things Naama did, not one person has to fill the shoes. We all fill them.”

Shafir has the option of redshirting, sitting out this year and returning next season, but she has not decided.

“It’s been only a few days,” she said. “I’m trying to be around people that make me happy and make me laugh and not think about it too much.

“I’m waiting. I don’t want to think about it right now.”

“The important thing is she already knows we’d love to have her back,” Cullop said. “When you have a player that’s never missed a game for an injury before, you can only imagine what she is dealing with. She has to learn how to stomach the injury before she even thinks about the future. She’s just trying to make it day by day. It’s devastating to know you spent this much time working to become the player you are and to help your team and the rug gets pulled out from underneath you.”

Whether it’s with the Rockets or a professional team, Cullop said the most important thing is for Shafir to fully heal before resuming her career.

“I told her this isn’t the end of the world,” Cullop said. “This is not the end of your career. You still have a lot of basketball to play. We’re going to give you the best medical care we can so you can come back as quickly as possible. My main thing to her was take your time coming back and let yourself heal. We’re in no hurry here. We don’t need her to come back for the end of the season. That would be unfair. She deserves to have a tremendous senior year if she chooses to come back. It’s only human to need some time. The worst thing anyone can do is try to force that on her right now.”

Shafir plans to help the team however she can while recovering.

“It’s hard when you really want to help and you don’t know how,” Shafir said. “You try and talk to them, but you want to be the one to do it. It’s hard. I don’t know how to explain. I can’t change anything. There’s nothing I can do about it. I just have to stay strong for my teammates.”

“I applaud her in still showing leadership qualities with our team,” Cullop said. “At practice she is instructing and teaching. During the game she was cheering her tail off. She’s doing everything in her power to help our team right now. When the time is right, we’ll talk about next year.”

Tags: Naama Shafir, Rockets basketball, Tricia Cullop, University of Toledo

This entry was posted on Friday, December 2nd, 2011 at 12:00 pm and is filed under College sports, Featured, Rocket Basketball, Sports.
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Naama Shafir

Three years ago, guards Courtney Ingersoll and Naama Shafir helped usher in a new era of Toledo women’s basketball when they arrived as part of Rockets’ head coach Tricia Cullop’s first recruiting class.

Three years later, Ingersoll will begin her senior season at Toledo with a trip to her former roommate’s homeland. On Aug. 7, the Rockets will depart for 10 days in Shafir’s native Israel, participating in two exhibition games and sightseeing in areas such as Tel Aviv, Bethlehem and Jerusalem before returning to the states on Aug. 18.

“I roomed with [Naama] my freshman year in the dorms,” Ingersoll said. “[Since then] she’s lived in her house and I live in an apartment, but we’ve spent so much time together it’s pretty much like we’re rooming together.”

The pair has spent a lot of time together on the court, as well. Since coming to Toledo in 2008, Ingersoll and Shafir have helped the Rockets go a combined 72-30, including a 29-8 record in 2010-11 as Toledo captured the WNIT Championship.

“It feels good to have that behind us and the WNIT leading into this,” Ingersoll said. “I guess the only other way it would have been better is if [we’d] gone to the NCAA Tournament and then go to this trip, but it’s good.”

This trip will not be the first Cullop has made overseas with her team because of an international player.

“I had a chance at the University of Evansville to go to Japan for 10 days with a player that was from Japan as well, and it was such a special experience that it really rang true today that we wanted to bring Naama back home and have our players have a chance to have that same learning experience that my team at Evansville had,” Cullop said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the community and more humbled by the response that we got to help us with this trip financially.”

No university money is being utilized for the trip to Israel. The Rockets paid for it in full through fundraising efforts by the team in the past two years, raising more than $120,000. Including the women’s basketball team, 27 UT staff members will make the trip to Israel, while others interested in going had to pay $4,000.

“It’s amazing,” junior center and Toledo native Yolanda Richardson said. “Especially going into school saying that we had just came back from Israel, it’s going to be like one of the highlights of my summer … actually, of my year … actually, of my life!”

One of nine children, Shafir is from Hoshaya, a small town of approximately 350 families in the Northern District of Israel.

The 21-year-old senior was back overseas this summer competing for the Israeli national women’s basketball team.

“She goes home and plays for her national team every summer,” Cullop said. “This summer, she played for the highest level team. She was three years younger than anybody else on the team, so it was a great experience for her. She didn’t get as much playing time, but she will as she gets older.”

Welcoming five newcomers to the 2011-12 Rockets — junior center Kyle Baumgartner (Akron), sophomore forward and Central Catholic graduate Brianna Jones (Illinois), freshman guard/forward Ana Capotosto, freshman forward Taylor Carver and freshman guard Stephanie Recker — Cullop said she hopes the trip to Israel will serve as a bonding experience for this season’s squad.

“I’m so proud of what we did last season, but that was last year, and it’s a great chance for us to start the new chapter and really kind of identify what this team’s identity is,” Cullop said. “We’ve got five new players — two that sat out from transferring and three freshmen — and I’m very excited about them, but I’m also thrilled that we have a great mentoring opportunity with our two seniors going to get a chance to really help me kind of help them along the path, not make some of the same mistakes that they made and really kind of help us gel as a team.”

Neither Ingersoll nor Richardson has been out of the country before, and both are looking forward to seeing Shafir and religious sites like Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

“I think actually there’s only like two people that have been out of the country, Naama being one of them,” Ingersoll said. “So it’s going to be a good experience for everyone.”

Tags: Israel, Naama Shafir, Rockets basketball, Tricia Cullop, University of Toledo, Yolanda Richardson

This entry was posted on Monday, August 8th, 2011 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Rocket Basketball, Sports.
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The Lady Rockets were the toast of Toledo April 2. The basketball team defeated USC 76-68 in front of a packed house at Savage Arena to capture the 2011 Women’s National Invitational Tournament title, the first postseason tournament championship in school history.

The city was captivated by the improbable run Toledo made to win the WNIT, and by the dazzling play of junior guard Naama Shafir, who shredded the Trojans’ defense with a career-high 40 points in the final game. The victory was indicative of how far the Rockets have come under  head coach Tricia Cullop, and how far Shafir has come on her journey from  a small-town girl in northern Israel who loved basketball to a collegiate star in Northwest Ohio.

“I remember that I was looking for schools, and I knew, I had confidence that I’m good enough at basketball to play in this level,” Shafir said. “I just didn’t know how people were going to take my religion, if they would be able to help me and to let me practice my religion and still be part of the team. I remember after we heard from Toledo and Coach Cullop, they heard about me and we said, ‘OK.’ I was like, ‘I’m interested, but there’s some things that we need to talk about.’”

An Orthodox Jew, Shafir and her family told the Rockets about her Jewish faith, about the T-shirt she had to wear underneath her jersey, about the kosher food she had to eat and the stipulations surrounding games on Saturdays, which is part of the Shabbat observation in Judaism.

“They said, ‘Oh, that’s not a problem,” Shafir said. “I was like, ‘Oh, really!?’ So I was definitely happy, and it was good to know that people will respect my religion.”

Jessica Williams, left, celebrates with Naama Shafir and Rocky the Rocket.

Shafir said when she arrived on the Toledo campus, her new teammates were immediately supportive and respectful of her beliefs, making her feel comfortable.

“I can’t even imagine how it would be without their support,” Shafir said.

It didn’t take long for Shafir’s opponents to respect her. She earned Mid-American Conference All-Freshman Team honors and was honorable mention All-MAC in her first year at Toledo, averaging 11.7 points, 4.5 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game. As a sophomore, those averages jumped to 14.3 points, 6.7 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 2.0 steals as Shafir earned Second-Team All-MAC and Academic All-MAC honors.

This year, Shafir progressed and had arguably her best season yet. Shafir averaged 15.3 points, 5.1 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game in 2010-11, receiving First-Team All-MAC honors as she helped the Rockets capture the MAC regular season title and No. 1 overall seed in the MAC Tournament. After a disappointing 61-55 loss to Eastern Michigan in the semifinals of the MAC Tournament March 11, Cullop made sure her team didn’t dwell on the defeat.

“She just said, ‘OK. We have another opportunity to do something big,’” Shafir said. “It took us like two days to recover from that loss and start to think about the NIT, but she said, ‘We can still do something special.’”

Shafir and her teammates delivered, taking out Delaware, Auburn, Alabama, Syracuse, Charlotte and USC en route to the WNIT title. Shafir averaged 19.5 points, 4.8 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game in the WNIT to garner MVP honors, saving her best for last against the Trojans.

“We all knew that we were going to give everything that we have,” Shafir said. “I just tried to help the team and do whatever it takes. I didn’t feel like I had 40 points. I actually felt like I’m missing a lot of layups and free throws.”

A native of Hoshaya, Israel — a small town of about 350 families roughly 30 minutes north of Nazareth — Shafir has made significant strides in her growth as a basketball player and a person while in the United States, all the while bringing more attention to her family back home.

“I just talked to my parents and they said, ‘Oh, my God. We feel like we’re celebrities because everybody is calling us and saying congrats and good job and tell Naama that,’ so it’s fun. It’s fun to have a lot of people who support you.”

This August, the team will accompany Shafir on a trip to Hoshaya.

“That’s amazing,” Shafir said. “I can’t wait, and I’m sure they’ll have lots of fun. They might think it’s a little bit different because it is different. That’s how I felt when I came here, but again, I’m happy they have the chance to meet my family, to see where I’m from and learn a little bit more about where I’m from.”

With a bright future on the horizon for Toledo, Shafir’s story and the Rockets’ success is a constant reminder to take a chance on the unknown and always dare to dream.

Tags: Lady Rockets, Naama Shafir, national championship, Tricia Cullop, University of Toledo, WNIT

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 7th, 2011 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Rocket Basketball, Sports.
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