Charli Turner Thorne -- Arizona St.'s lady coach gets national notice
Charli Turner Thorne can play a little ball.
Charli Turner Thorne led her Arizona St. Sun Devils far in the NCAA Tournament, netting them a match up against the undefeated and heavily favored University of Connecticut Huskies.But it's also putting the spotlight on one of the more innovative college coaches out there, who utilizes hockey-style rapid turnover from the bench to wear down opponants.
From an ESPN.com profile of Charlie Turner Thorne:
There is no truth to the rumor that the Grand Canyon got its start as the small patch of ground in front of the scorer's table at Arizona State. But give Charli Turner Thorne another decade or two in Tempe and her Sun Devils might just wear away the wood near midcourt at Wells Fargo Arena enough to create a cavern of their own.
Arizona State faces long odds in its regional final against top-seeded and unbeaten Connecticut on Tuesday night (ESPN, 7 ET). But at least the underdog comes in armed with a stone in its sling -- or nine or 10 stones, as the case may be. It sometimes seems that playing six or seven players at once would be the only way to realistically slow the Huskies, but even if she can only use five of her own at any one time, Turner Thorne's unique bench might be the next best thing.
"I don't know whether they play like that all year long, or whether they're just doing it because they're in a hockey arena, but they look like a hockey team," Geno Auriemma said. "They just send you out for two or three minutes, play your shift and then they bring another group in and try to wear you out. It is kind of unusual, but I think it's effective, if you let it be effective. It's going to be a challenge for us, because we don't have a deep bench."
In beating No. 2 seed Texas A&M 84-69 to advance to Tuesday's game, nine Arizona State players logged double-digit minutes -- eight of those spent between 17 and 26 minutes on the court. And in beating Georgia and Florida State just to reach Trenton, only two Sun Devils -- Briann January and Kate Engelbrecht -- played as many as 30 minutes in a game. By way of comparison, when Connecticut beat California by 24 points in Sunday's first regional semifinal, three of its players played 37-plus minutes.
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