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SOU aims for NAIA hoop titles By DON HUNT March Madness at the small college level gets underway today for the highly-regarded Southern Oregon University men's and women's basketball teams. The Raider men meet Bluefield College of Bluefield, Va., at 12:45 p.m. PST at Nampa, Idaho, in the NAIA Division II men's national tournament. The Raider women take on Husson College of Maine at 3:45 p.m. (PST) in the opening round of the NAIA Division II women's tourney at Sioux City, Iowa. Both games can be heard on KTMT Radio (580-AM). The SOU men are making their first national tournament appearance since the 1967-68 season but have high expectations. The Raiders head into the 32-team extravaganza with a nine-game winning streak, a 22-8 overall record and a No. 3 national ranking. "We're a very confident team right now," SOU coach Brian McDermott says. "We've played a demanding schedule and we've beaten a lot of good teams on the road." McDermott admits the Raiders could be nervous in their first national tournament experience, but says his team's greatest strength -- man-to-man defense -- should serve them well. "You can be nervous and still play good defense," McDermott says. "That's essentially what happened to us against Oregon Tech last week, and we still won the game." The Raiders have held their opponents to 37 percent field goal shooting and an even more stingy 27 percent from the 3-point line. "Our big guys can handle their defensive assignments without any help and that allows our guards to stay on the perimeter and defend," McDermott says. "We don't give up a lot of good looks anywhere on the court. Our guys take pride in their defense and hopefully that will serve us well at the tournament." Offensively, sophomore guard Tom Chipps leads the Raiders with a 13.2 average and has hit at an 18.3 clip over the past four games. The Raiders have five other players who average between seven and 11 points per contest. Forward Amos Baker, a 6-foot-6 senior, has produced six double-doubles this season, including a 10-point, 12-rebound performance in the Raiders' 58-52 victory over Oregon Tech in the Cascade Conference Tournament championship game on March 2. The Raiders look to be a solid favorite over Bluefield, which has won only 13 games while losing 17. However, the Ramblin' Rams do have two fine players in Jimmy Stemple, who leads the nation in assists at 11 per game, and Toby Curry, who averages 23.2 points per contest. Bluefield marched into the tournament based on a late-season surge that included a second-place finish in the Tennessee-Virginia Athletic Conference. "They can score a lot of points but they're below average defensively," McDermott says of the Rams. "I'm guessing they're going to come out in a zone against us, because their big guys aren't very physical." Along with the athletic Baker at power forward, SOU will send rapidly improving small forward Shavon Haynes and 6-8, 230-pound post Ryan Valley at the Rams. "I don't think they can guard us inside," McDermott says. McDermott is no stranger to the NAIA national tournament. He guided South Dakota State to the Final Four in 1992. The Raider women, meanwhile, are in the postseason for the third straight year. They, too, have some lofty expectations. SOU (26-4) takes the No. 1 seed into the 32-team bracket and has won 13 of its past 14 games. Nada Janackovic leads the Raiders in scoring (21 points per game) and rebounding (6.1) and is a leading candidate for NAIA player-of-the-year honors. Husson -- SOU's first-round foe -- enters the tourney with a 14-13 record, the second-worst mark in the women's field. The Braves got hot in the second half of the season after picking up two players that had been academically ineligible. They qualified for the national tournament by defeating Maine Farmington 60-57 in the Maine Athletic Conference championship game. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.