Talk of winning not allowed at C-G

The following comment Cary-Grove senior guard-forward Jill Cole made is going to get her into trouble.

"We worked our butts off every day this season," said Cole. "Hopefully, all the wins will come into place."

The infraction? She said the word "win."

Around the Cary-Grove girls basketball team that's a word that isn't spoken.

The ban isn't because of superstition or admission of lack of talent, but rather a focus on greater matters at hand.

"Yeah, actually it should be 'The W's,' " laughed Cole. "We try to eliminate that word. It's not really in our mindset. If we play the way we are supposed to, then they will come into place."

"We call it the 'W' word," said Cary-Grove senior guard Danielle Smith. "We don't think about it. We are focused on one day at a time, one practice at a time and one game at a time. We're not thinking ahead. We're focused on going out there and having fun and playing well instead of only focusing on (wins). They will happen if we play together as a team and play smart basketball."

And the 'Ws' have rolled in so far for the Trojans, who finished 3-1 at the Dundee-Crown Thanksgiving tournament. Cary-Grove, which returns 4 players who saw significant starting action last year, beat Streamwood, Palatine and St. Viator at D-C and lost to a strong Rockton Hononegah team.

The strong start has been fueled by the contributions of many. Cary-Grove, which went 13-15 last year and finished 5-5 in Fox Valley Conference Valley Division play, has six players averaging at least 5.5 points or better and three players averaging 8.8 points or better.

Smith -- whose twin sister, Breanna (the older of the two by 5 minutes) is also on the team and averages 3.5 points -- and senior forward Jamie Kuhl are both averaging a team-high 12 points a game, while Cole averages 8.8 points. Freshman Claire Jakubicek and junior Tori Sandstrom -- two of the teams' key defenders -- were each averaging 7.5 points a game heading into Thursday's nonconference tilt with Antioch. Sophomore Liz Bart is averaging 5.5 points.

"We have a lot of depth," said second-year Cary-Grove coach Rod Saffert, who is in his 15th season with the girls program. "We plain have a lot of people that can play the game. Our lineups vary because of the depth we have. It's not about who starts. It's about how we finish. We have so many people that we can bring off the bench."

And that depth covers all four classes at the school. Saffert's roster features five seniors (Danielle Smith and Kuhl are the team captains), five juniors, two sophomores and two freshmen.

"We had a really great summer and that helped us start to develop team chemistry and gel together," said Kuhl, who is averaging a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game. "The two freshmen we have (Jakubicek and 3.5 point-per-game scorer Meg Straumann) are amazing. We've got girls helping the team at every level and that's making us better. We've really developed some good chemistry here. When we're at practice we're helping each other out and we don't feel bad telling each other how to get better. We just want to get better."

After Maine West summer league games, the team would venture out to a Dairy Queen near the Des Plaines campus. The seemingly innocuous gathering was anything but that.

"We would get ice cream and just talk," said Kuhl, who said milkshakes were the most popular fare. "That helped us bring the team closer together and showed the newer girls that we aren't only a team, but we're a family."

"Dairy Queen was always fun," said Smith. "Things like that and team sleepovers (one get-together featured some evening "landscaping" work at the coaches' homes) have really helped us. The chemistry we have now is really good."

What has also been good is the defense the Trojans have played out of the gates. Thanks to a pressure man-to-man defense, Cary-Grove limited its first 4 opponents to a 31.3 percent accuracy from the floor and registered 45 steals.

"We're putting pressure on the ball the whole game," said Saffert. "We believe in never giving a team the chance to dribble up and relax and look for what they want. We want to tire teams out. The turnovers are a plus."

One stat Saffert keeps of particular defensive importance is deflections -- or how many times a player get their hands on an opponent's pass. In their first 4 games, the Trojans had 59 deflections with Sandstrom leading the way with 15, while freshman Jakubicek had 11.

"Tori is probably our best leaper and anticipator," said Saffert, whose team held a 30-21 rebounds per game edge through the first 4 games. "Claire is just like Tori. She's very good at anticipating and reading eyes. She gets her hands on a lot of balls and creates steals."

And the players have embraced the importance of excelling on defense.

"Defense is the main offense as coach Otto says," said Kuhl.

"Our first offense is our defense," said Cole. "One of our main goals is as hard as we work we're going to make the other team work even harder."

The Otto Kuhl mentioned would be former Cary-Grove boys coach Dave Otto who joined the girls program this year as Saffert's assistant. Otto won 168 games in 12 seasons with the boys and led the 2001 team to a Class AA supersectional appearance.

"He's been a huge help. I'm not too proud to say he knows what he is talking about," said Saffert. "We bounce things off each other. It's worked beautifully."

"We've got two great coaches," said Cole. "Otto is our defensive coordinator and Saffert is great with the offense."

Speaking of offense, size and shooting prowess have helped Cary-Grove average 60 points in its first 4 contests. Cary-Grove was shooting 44 percent as a team and had taken 129 of its 209 total shots from inside of 10 feet in the first 4 games.

"We can hit inside or shoot 3s," said Saffert. "We can do a lot of things. We've got a lot of height and plenty of speed. We've got plenty of people that can shoot the ball, period."

"We have a lot of weapons this year," said Smith. "We've got a lot of people that can score. That's better than having one or two people scoring. It's better that everybody is involved. We're moving the ball around and being patient and finding the open shot and taking it."

Smith is one of 4 Cary-Grove seniors (Breanna Smith, Cole and Kuhl) that have played together since the fifth grade. Senior Amanda Papinchock has been playing with the group since her freshman year. The senior leadership has also been vital in the early going.

"We've learned from the previous senior leadership groups," said Cole. "We've learned how to make all the different (classes) click."

Cary-Grove last won a conference title 2 years ago when it tied with Crystal Lake South. Talk of being a conference title contender is something Saffert doesn't want any part of.

"We don't talk about it," said Saffert, who according to Cole, was actually caught using the long form of the "W" word recently. "I know it's cliché but we take it one day at a time. That's what we are trying to do. We want to be better today than we were yesterday."

And if that keeps happening, the "W" word will keep popping up with frequency over on Three Oaks Road.