Quentin Hillsman crouches along the sideline during women’s basketball practice Sunday, one day after his team’s loss to Rutgers and one day before its win over West Virginia. Practice was supposed to be finished at this point, but Hillsman kept his team almost an hour longer than scheduled.

During water breaks, the players rushed toward the Gatorade coolers exasperating for breath. Sniffles mixed into the heavy breathing with tissues at a premium. It’s March, and Hillsman isn’t ready to let up. Not now, as Syracuse embarks on a month that is all so relevant for the team. So he works his players, running the drills, going over different scenarios. This is what made them relevant in the first place. And this is the only way Hillsman knows.

Syracuse is embarking on unprecedented territory for this particular team. Hillsman never coached in the Big East tournament, much less the NCAA Tournament. Senior Vaida Sipaviciute is the only major contributor who has experienced a postseason, and that was her freshman year when all 12 teams from the Big East advanced.

With a spot in this weekend’s Big East tournament already clinched and a bid to the NCAA Tournament within grasp, Hillsman is preparing his team for something he’s never prepared for himself.

‘We have a lot of basketball left,’ Hillsman said. ‘We just talk about, ‘Keep playing.’ Play into March. Play into April, hopefully.’

‘Hopefully’ seems to be an operative word, although a study of this year’s team indicates hope isn’t so far-fetched. When Hillsman was asked at the team’s preseason Media Day if reaching the Big East tournament would be a tangible goal, he shot back winning every game and the national title is the goal. This is Hillsman’s thinking. Tangible must not be used, because with Hillsman, everything is tangible. Nothing is out of the realm of possibility.

That is how he took this program into the top 25 rankings. Everything surrounding the team, surrounding the program, is fresh.

‘I think it’s a good thing,’ Sipaviciute said. ‘When you get too comfortable, it’s not a good thing. You’re like, ‘Oh, we’re just going to go,’ and you settle.’

Like most coaches, Hillsman offered the ‘one game at a time’ approach, even extending the cliché to ‘one tournament at a time.’ Yet in this case, it seems within reason. Sophomore Nicole Michael admitted the players think about the postseason possibilities – how can they not? – yet right now it’s all just thoughts. They have no basis of comparison for these next few weeks, so they’re left with no choice but to continue doing what they’ve always done.

‘I’ve never been there, so I don’t know what it takes to get there,’ Sipaviciute said. ‘Who knows what’s going to happen?’

When Sipaviciute reflected on her past Big East tournament experience, she discussed the banquet all teams are invited to and the postseason awards distributed. She mentioned the win over Georgetown in 2005. And then it was Syracuse’s date with powerhouse Connecticut.

‘Of course we lost that,’ Sipaviciute said.

Those five words are somewhat emblematic about the shift in the program under Hillsman. He hasn’t just made them factors on the national scale. He’s made them believe it, too. When SU almost upset UConn in January, it was as if they hadn’t realized they were supposed to lose.

‘It’s night and day,’ Sipaviciute said. ‘Winning improved a lot. The people have changed, the coaches have changed. I don’t know, it’s been great.’

So this new team, with Hillsman, Sipaviciute, Michael and company will be Syracuse’s hope this March. With the men’s team appearing as if they’ll find their postseason destination on the NIT Selection show, hope has fallen on the women’s team to represent SU this March.

And the men’s team is enough to make Hillsman nervous. He saw last year’s squad finish 22-10 in the regular season and pundits wondering seed – not bubble – before the Orange was snubbed. You can imagine how Hillsman must have felt when The Daily Orange declared in a sub-headline yesterday morning, ‘NCAAs all but certain after upset.’

This, by the way, is the same newspaper that had the following sub-headline after the men’s team shocked Georgetown last season: ‘SU upsets No. 9 Georgetown to likely seal NCAA Tournament bid.’ (Maybe we should re-evaluate our headline writing.)

‘I don’t want to read the papers,’ Hillsman said. ‘I don’t want to look at bracketologists who say we’re good. You’re never good until your name is up on the board on Selection Monday.’

If that happens – and it’s safe to say it likely will happen – Hillsman will continue with what he’s always done. And the players will continue to listen. Together, they don’t know any other way.

Zach Berman is the featured sports columnist for The Daily Orange, where his column appears weekly. E-mail him at zberman@syr.edu.

Published on March 4, 2008 at 12:00 pm