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Intense week got SOU on right track Commentary By RANDY HAMMERICKSEN Southern Oregon's road to the Cascade Conference men's basketball regular-season championship started with with a fiery lecture from coach Brian McDermott. It was early December. The temperatures had turned chilly, and, to the coach, SOU's shooting percentage seemed just as cool. In addition, McDermott was not pleased with his team's defensive intensity. So McDermott put the Raiders in defensive boot camp. It was intense. And nasty. "If we were going to have a two-hour practice," says McDermott, "at least one hour and 45 minutes was devoted to defense. The only reason we had a ball out there was to guard it." The learning was infectious and fast. And it's paid off. Southern Oregon (20-8) moved up to an all-time high of No. 3 in Tuesday's final NAIA Division II men's national poll. The Raiders are assured of a national tournament spot, whether or not they win the Cascade Conference tournament. Six at-large spots are available for the highest-ranked teams that don't automatically qualify for nationals by winning their conference playoffs. Southern Oregon, making its first trip to nationals since 1967-68, hosts a conference semifinal game at 7:30 p.m. Saturday against Northwest College. But the men aren't the only success story. The SOU women's team, 24-4 and ranked second, has secured its third straight trip to nationals. It hosts Western Baptist at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a conference semifinal. SOU's men and women have joined the school's perennially powerful wrestling program -- the Raiders are ranked third -- to give all three winter programs top-three national status. Local fans should make it a point to get out and see these men's and women's games. Both teams deserve to play in front of full arenas to maximize the home-court advantage. "Being No. 3 in the nation is more than I could have hoped for," says McDermott. "The kids have exceeded all of our goals." How did a program that went 2-29 just two years ago in McDermott's first season reach these lofty heights? It was a matter of McDermott beating the bushes of small towns in Oregon, Washington, Alaska and California to recruit good players he could coach to be tough, defensive-minded athletes. "I think our season turned around after our defensive boot camp," says McDermott. "It was pretty intense." The Raiders have won seven straight games and 11 in a row at home. McDermott, who is virtually a lock to be Cascade Conference coach of the year and at least one of the front-runners to be national coach of the year, simply wills his players to play hard, physical basketball. They've grown supremely confident in the process. Fans have taken notice of their winning ways. "I remember just last year we would come out before a game to warm up and there would be about 15 people up there in the stands,'' says sophomore guard Tom Chipps, who scored 35 points in two weekend wins last week. "Now, it (McNeal Pavilion) is getting close to full for our games. The fans have been great." The end of last season was a harbinger. The Raiders made it into the conference playoffs, where they pressed eventual national runner-up Oregon Tech to the final minute on the Owls' court. The program's rise is ongoing. "We want to win it," McDermott says of the national title. "In the last four years, three of the teams in our conference have finished first or second. Northwest Nazarene won it in 1996, and Oregon Tech was two seconds from (winning) it last year." Now, maybe it's the Raiders' turn. (Randy Hammericksen is the Mail Tribune sports columnist. He can be reached at 776-4499.) Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.