This past season, Allison Coleman had the kind of freshman year that most players dream about. A 5-9 forward, she led her league in scoring with 17.3 points per game while helping Eastern Connecticut to a 22-4 record and a spot in the NCAA Division III playoffs.

But even after a debut season like that, Coleman was not prepared for the accolades that followed. The highest honor came when she was the only freshman named to the Kodak/Women's Basketball Coaches Association Division III All-American team. She also garnered New England Division III Player of the Year award and was the first freshman ever to be named the Little East Conference Player of the Year.

In this interview, Coleman talks about her amazing rookie season, making the adjustment from high school to college basketball, and the disappointment of losing in the conference and NCAA tournaments.

Gball: Did you have any idea what was in store for you this season?
Coleman: I never expected to come in and even start or get the amount of playing time I got, much less do the things I did. I know Coach [Denise] Bierly didn't expect that either. My high school didn't get a lot of exposure as far as the college level. I played AAU level for two years, but I really didn't get a lot of exposure out of that either. Eastern Connecticut is about 20 minutes from my house and my high school coach introduced me to the school. So we were both pretty happy with the way I performed this year.

Was there a point when you began to feel more comfortable with the team?
I had played against our point guard in high school and she's two years ahead of me, so I knew some of the players and was really comfortable with that. In high school, I played all these different positions and here I am a three, so I was able to use a lot of the different things I learned. It was really comfortable right from the beginning.

Sometimes it can be tough for a freshman coming into a team with junior and seniors and other established players. Was that a problem for you or did your teammates accept you quickly?
They accepted me right away. We would play in open gym before the season and I would always be on their team. Last year, they graduated a lot of people, so we only had one starter coming back, who was our point guard. The other players didn't have a lot of experience, so we were all fighting for positions. It wasn't like the upperclassmen had the upper hand. They had more experience, but we knew it was open to anybody.

With a lot of new faces in the line up, were you surprised with the way things went this season?
I had no idea what to expect coming in. We were picked to finish fourth or fifth in our conference and we ended up winning the regular season title with a 12-2 record. I was very surprised and I think everyone was surprised with how well we did. But we have a lot of skill on our team.

Why do you think the team was able to put things together pretty quickly despite not having a lot people who had played together before?
We didn't have any seniority. We had two junior captains who were new to the captain's role and we didn't have any seniors. I think some people came in thinking it was a building year, but a lot of us thought with the skill and good players we had we could do something really good this year, and we did.

Was there a point during the season when the team really began to feel you could do something special?
Probably when we won our tipoff tournament. That set the pace for us during the rest of the season. We were never really happy with a win. If we won it was good, but if we won by 20 and we did things wrong, we knew we could do better. Everyone was focused this year and determined to get better. I think that's why we did so well.

Were there any times during the regular season where you struggled?
When we played our conference rivals, Southern Maine, we shot about 29 percent from the floor. I think we all went through a tough time after that game. We beat them by 16 earlier in the season and didn't understand how there could be such a big turnaround. But the thing about this team was we bounced right back, forgot about the losses, and worked on what we need to work on for the next game.

How disappointing was the loss in the conference semifinals?
It was very disappointing, because we lost to Western Connecticut and I think we got a little ahead of ourselves. We were thinking about playing in the championship game since we had home court after winning the regular season title.

How did you regroup after that loss?
We talked about it. I talked about it with some of my teammates. We talked each other through it and tried to be there for each other and offer support and not let us get down on ourselves.

What was it like when you found out you were in the NCAAs?
We were on the bubble to get into the NCAA tournament, and we all got together and listened to the selection show. We were ecstatic as soon as they announced it. We didn't even know who we were playing because we were screaming when they said who we were playing against, so we had to listen to it again.

What was it like playing in that NCAA tournament game?
It's a whole different scene. We had more fans at that game than we ever had all season. It was so loud in the gym, it was crazy. We led 10-0 and they came back then stayed ahead the rest of the game. We got within three points and I missed the front end of a one-and-one, which I'll never forget because that could have made it a one-point game and changed the whole game. That was a tough game. I was disappointed after that loss because it was a season ender.

How do you reconcile finishing the season with a loss like that and looking back on the season as a whole?
For me, losses are tough because in my four years of high school I lost eight games total. I'm not used to it. But, I try to think of it positively--that we had one of the greatest seasons in the program's history. We had 22 wins, which is a program record, and then we look at the team and no one is leaving us. We have no seniors and everyone is returning. It kind of takes away from the pain of losing, but there's still the fact that we lost.

How long did it take after the NCAA game until you could begin to look at the season as a whole and see the good parts of it?
I think I'm still trying, actually. Some people took a week off to get a break from basketball, but I'm not like that. I need to keep playing and I was in the gym the next day shooting around. It was tough, but it was such a great season and I still think about it every day.

What do you think the team can learn from this past season going into next year?
I think we didn't know what to expect going in last year. Now, we just need to focus not on the good things that we do, but on the stuff that we did wrong. We do have to get a lot better at rebounding and different aspects of the game. I went to the Division III championship game with Darcy Mund, our point guard. We saved our tickets and we're hanging them by our locker next year for motivation.

Were you surprised by being named an All-American?
Yes, I was. I'm not really excited about getting get personal awards. During the season, Coach would tell me if I got rookie of the week or something like that. But when she told me about being All-American I was just like, "Wow!" I tried to blow it off like it was no big deal, but then I realized it's the highest award I can get. It's a great award and it just shows that I did help the team in some way. I was an asset to the team, which is all I wanted to do. I don't care if I come in and score 20 points a game or five points a game as long as we get the wins.

Does being an All-American put any pressure on you going into next season?
I won't feel any pressure personally. I think teams will look at me more and I'll have to get stronger because they're going to be draped all over me. I'm going to have to learn new moves because they'll watch tape and see what I can do. I just have to get better. I'm not going to feel pressure, though.

How much of an adjustment was it going from high school basketball to college basketball?
In some ways it was different and in some ways it wasn't. In high school, I played with my twin sister and everyone on the team lived about three blocks from each other, so we were always playing. On campus, it's kind of the same thing, because we're all here together and we're always playing together. The biggest adjustment was that it's a lot harder work in college. You get up and you go to class on your own. There's no one there to get you up to go to class and practices. You have lifting and conditioning to do on your own and I wasn't used to that.

Is your sister on the team?
No. She goes to St. Leo University in Florida.

So you won't be playing against each other then?
No. But we've talked about that because she wants to play somewhere down in Florida next year. I'm the more competitive of the two of us, and I'll talk smack to her. She's not competitive in that sense, but we would definitely go at each other hard.

Did you want to play Division I?
Maybe when I was a sophomore or junior in high school. But I don't think I'm at the level to play Division I at this point. I also think that would be too much stress and pressure on me. I realized that in my senior year. I used to get letters from Division III schools and just throw them away. But I started realizing that I needed to go somewhere where I would be happy and that's why Eastern is the place for me.

You're just a year out of high school basketball. What kind of advice would you have for high school players who want to play in college?
Explore all of your options. Don't just look at Division I schools. Look at all the schools and go where you're going to be happy. Look at academics and what you want to do when you graduate, because you're not going to be playing basketball your whole life.

Interview conducted by Gball Assistant Editor Dennis Read.

Photos: Courtesy of Eastern Connecticut Sports Information.


Check out last year's q&a's by clicking here