Ramstein's Jasmine Jones catches a pass during a basketball game against Stuttgart on Dec. 8, 2023, at Ramstein High School on Ramstein Air Base, Germany. ()
Robin Hess studied so well she had the answer before the question.
The Stuttgart girls basketball coach knew all too well the crazy circle of results regarding the top teams in Division I this season. The Panthers split series with SHAPE and Kaiserslautern, the Raiders and Spartans split their series and crosstown rivals Kaiserslautern and Ramstein split their meetings.
The quartet grabbed the top four seeds in this week’s DODEA European basketball championships held at the Wiesbaden Fitness Center on Clay Kaserne, Wiesbaden High School and Wiesbaden Middle School on Wednesday through Saturday in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Of those four, nobody had more than four losses and three of them – top seed Stuttgart, second-seeded Kaiserslautern and third-seeded SHAPE – ended up with double-digit victories.
“That tells you something, that there’s not one outstanding team,” Hess said. “I think it’s going to be a very competitive tournament. Everybody’s going to have to bring their A-games.”
Wide-open tournaments seem to be the theme across all divisions this year.
Vicenza’s Trishauna Lewis tries to keep pace as Naples’ Anais Navidad drives toward the basket in the Wildcats’ 34-32 victory Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. (Kent Harris/Stars and Stripes)
Even in Division III, nobody can take anybody for granted. The AFNORTH Lions ran the table with a 10-0 league mark and an 11-1 mark overall, but last year’s championships saw the seventh and eighth seeds advance to the final four.
Also, after a slow start, Hohenfels has made a late-season push into contender status, winning games over second-seeded Sigonella and third-seeded Spangdahlem. The Tigers also played the Lions the tightest during the season, with eight- and 10-point games Jan. 12-13.
“This is what makes D-III so great,” AFNORTH coach Matt Wise said. “Last year, you had an eighth seed in Brussels and a seventh seed in Baumholder making it to the semifinals. So, just when you think you got this thing figured out, you don’t.
“I can’t say enough good things about coach (Monique) Jones at Hohenfels, coach (Chris) Howard at Spangdahlem, coach (Michelle) Chandler at Sigonella. What these coaches get out of these young ladies is amazing.”
As for Division II, Naples enters as the No. 1 seed, having defeated the second and third seeds in Rota and AOSR during the regular season. The Wildcats and Admirals split on the opening weekend, while the Wildcats swept the Falcons on Jan. 26-27 by 20 and three points.
The schedules for those teams differed greatly. Naples squared off with mostly D-II opposition, Rota saw one of the best D-III has to offer in a twin bill against AFNORTH and took on Ramstein during the final weekend of the regular season.
Black Forest Academy joins the fracas having not squared off with any Division-II opponent. Add in a Vicenza squad that saw Division I opponents in Stuttgart and Vilseck, and it can be hard to gauge teams.
“Unlike any other year, we all had different schedules,” Naples coach Jim Davis said. “So, it’s hard to compare.”
New this year for Division I is a return to pool play instead of a straight round robin.
Gone are days when each team had to play six games over three days, with the top two advancing to Saturday’s final. Now, the teams are split into two pools – one of three and the other of four.
Stuttgart leads a pool with Ramstein and Wiesbaden. The other pool consists of second-seeded Kaiserslautern, third-seeded SHAPE, Lakenheath and Vilseck.
Hess welcomed the change, as it puts fewer miles on her players’ legs.
“It’s a little bit of a relief because we were playing a whole lot of games in a couple of days, and it was exhausting,” she said. “We were worried for injuries and just the mentality of that all.
“Having to play fewer games is going to help everybody. I think the way they are doing it this way is about as fair as you can make it.”
As for what it takes for any team to emerge from the packs, the coaches all differed.
For Hess, the Panthers must avoid some “freshman mistakes” her young squad have made at times. For Davis, he described his team as the tallest and longest he’s coached.
As for Wise, he called the Lions’ biggest threats as themselves.
“We need to be true to ourselves,” Wise said. “We need to do what we’ve been doing all season and just remember that each one is just another basketball game.”
Hohenfels' Anastasia Felix reaches in while Sentinel Aniya Robinson tries to catch a pass during a basketball game on Jan. 26, 2024, at Spangdahlem High School in Spangdahlem, Germany. (Matt Wagner/Stars and Stripes)
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