Seizing The Day
12/10/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 10, 2001
With time winding down in an overtime battle with Valparaiso on Nov. 28, the Miami women's basketball game was brought to a halt when an official spotted a drop of blood on the court. After a futile search for the perpetrator, who would have to come out of the game while the wound was attended to, the official gave up and allowed the game to continue with the guilty party still on the court.
That guilty party, who had discreetly wiped the tell-tale blood from her scraped knee when no one was looking, went on to hit the go-ahead shot in overtime and finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, as Miami earned a dramatic 77-74 victory over the Crusaders. There was no way Colleen Day was coming out of the game.
According to head coach Maria Fantanarosa, the tale of the mysterious drop of blood stands as one of an almost constant stream of examples that define Day as one of the most competitive, hard-nosed individuals she's worked with.
"I thought that really showed her competitiveness and how badly she wanted to be with the team when they needed her most," Fantanarosa said. "She knew her teammates needed her to win, and she wasn't coming out."
After a solid freshman season, in which she led the team in rebounds per game despite missing a month with a stress fracture in her leg, Day appears in the midst of a breakout sophomore season. In her first five games, the 6-foot forward scored in double-digits four times, rebounded in double-digits three times, amassed three double-doubles, and established new career highs for points, assists and steals.
"I think freshmen are normally tentative when they're trying to figure out their roles on a team, and a lot of times that carries into their sophomore seasons," Fantanarosa said. "Colleen is past that. She's much more confident and is really taking responsibility for where this program is headed. She's leading in all the right ways."
The competitive drive that is allowing Day to make such an impact this season has been around a long time. As a fourth grader, Day was persuaded by a friend's mother, who she describes as a basketball fanatic, to give hoops a shot. Mary Santiago, the mother who introduced Day to the game, went on to coach the Independence, Ohio, native throughout her grade school and Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) career, instilling important ideals along the way.
"Mary Santiago made us think from the beginning that no matter what anyone else said, we were talented and could compete with anyone," Day said.
Day also found ample opportunity for competition on the homefront. The second of six children, the sophomore credits a lot of her competitiveness to the sibling rivalries within her home. According to Day, there almost always was a game of one-on-one or two-on-two taking place amongst the Day family.
One of the top rebounders in the Mid-American Conference this season, Day also was challenged to be competitive on the court through her grade school and AAU days. Though never a head-topper growing up, Day often found herself occupying the four or five positions on her teams. Battling against players that usually held significant size advantages, Day was not about to back down, but she did have to learn to make adjustments.
"It seemed like I was always up against bigger players, so I had to learn how to use my quickness and really develop my fundamental boxing-out skills," Day said. "A lot of what I learned then has helped me with rebounding ever since."
At about the same time she was learning the game of basketball, Day also was developing an enduring friendship with teammate Melanie Kozlowski. Day and Kozlowski, who began playing basketball together in the fifth grade, have played together at every level since. As one of the top tandems in Ohio girl's basketball, they led Holy Name High School to a combined 83-15 overall record and a regional championship during their senior season. Though the two agreed that sticking together should not be one of the deciding factors when they chose where they would play their college ball, both players signed on the dotted line for Miami.
"We didn't want the fact that we could both go to the same school to sway our decision, but we had a lot of the same interests and were looking for the same things," Day said. "The academics, campus and players at Miami were all a part of the decision."
In a trying freshman season at Miami, Day earned a starting role during the preseason and started the first five games, culminating in a season-high 11 points in a loss to national power Vanderbilt. Unfortunately, Day was diagnosed with a stress fracture in her right tibia following the Vanderbilt game and was out of commission for the next month. Though a very discouraging time for her, Day made the most of a bad situation in trying to learn her role on the team.
"The hardest part of last season was going through all the work of conditioning and preseason practice and then getting hurt and feeling like everything I worked for was lost," Day said. "Looking back, it was probably a good thing, because I was able to step back, watch my team and learn what I could add."
Day returned in time for Miami's MAC opener and steadily worked her way back into a starting role, starting the last 13 games of the season. Day was Miami's strongest rebounder over the last two months of the season, but she knew with a little hard work she could improve upon her averages of 6.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game.
"I've always believed that working hard can be a huge factor," Day said. "I think a lot of people underestimate what hard work can do and focus too much on talent getting them by. It's important to practice hard, but I believe that in a game, a lot of things will go your way if you work hard."
Day's blue-collar work ethic, which has her constantly diving on the floor for loose balls, brought her attention in more ways than one leading into the 2001-02 season. Prior to the beginning of the season, Day was selected along with Heather Cusick as one of Miami's team captains. Her all-out style of play also drew attention from trainer Jennifer Beardslee, who now requires Day to wear knee pads at practice.
"She's always been a very aggressive player that's looking to dive after loose balls, but the team needs to have her on the floor," Beardslee said. "If she were to suffer bursitis (a swelling condition in the knees that can be caused by impact), she would be done for the year. It's just a safety precaution that helps reduce the risk of her injuring herself when she's going all-out at practice."
Five games into the season, the fruits of Day's labors have been very evident in her play. The sophomore opened the season by netting her first career double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds versus Portland and then added eight points and five assists before fouling out at Oregon. After a 13-point, nine-rebound outing at Wright State, Day strung together consecutive double-doubles of 12 points and 11 rebounds at Valparaiso and a career-high 19 points and 10 rebounds versus Butler. Perhaps most impressive has been Day's work on the offensive glass, where she's clearing a league-leading 6.0 offensive boards per game. Despite her achievements, Day is less than enamored by statistics.
"I didn't enter this season looking for numbers," Day said. "I just had it in my head that I could do more to help us win. I never expected things to turn out like they have."
Though there are still a lot of games to play, and it's almost a given that more drops of Day's blood will end up on the hardwood, her statistical contributions and willingness to leave it all on the court every night have helped pave the way for the entire team's success.
"She's probably our most consistent player both offensively and defensively," Fantanarosa said. "This season she's looking to be more aggressive on the offensive end, but she's still consistently doing all of the little things like rebounding, playing good defense, taking charges and always giving us scrappy play. Because she's so unselfish, competitive and such a hard worker, her attitude is becoming contagious with the rest of the team. She's really helped raise our level of play."
Story by Media Relations Assistant Vince Frieden
