Internationally Known
As integral as Sara Guerreiro has been to the Vikings’ success over the last couple years, it’s easy to forget that she’s never received any conference or national recognition specific to her performance on the court (she was a Horizon League all-academic selection last season, of course).
That might finally be changing, as the well-known college basketball social account NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Game Winners – which, as the name suggests, typically posts clips of decisive plays from the day’s games – named the graduate student as college basketball’s best player from Portugal for the 2024-25 season.
European Close up pic.twitter.com/HRVjaJIptI
— NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Game Winners (@NCAABuzzerBters) December 29, 2024
In the past, the Iberian nation has produced notables like former Cleveland Rockers forward and current Toronto Raptors assistant coach Mery Andrade, as well as legendary point guard Ticha Penicheiro, a member of the WNBA’s 25th Anniversary Team, who primarily played for the Sacramento Monarchs. However, the most credible present-day claims to Guerreiro’s throne are likely from Ines Vieira, one of the national leaders in assists for a strong Utah team, Ines Bettencourt, who averages 7.3 points per game at Gonzaga (following two seasons at UConn), and Ana Barreto, a sniper at Queens (NC).
Obviously, the honor doesn’t carry the official weight of something like Jordana Reisma being named to the NCAA.com Starting Five a couple weeks back, but it does raise the question of whether Guerreiro deserves more official recognition. After all, she leads the Horizon League in rebounding, ranks second in assists, and averages 12.3 points per game, good for 12th place in the conference. She also rates well on numerous advanced metrics, including offensive and defensive ratings, win shares, and player efficiency rating.
Late December Grind
Programs across college basketball take a brief pause from playing games around Christmas, as no Division I contests were scheduled anywhere in the country between December 23rd and December 26th. While that hiatus might cause some withdrawal among hardcore fans, it doesn’t mean that the teams are idle.
Consider how Cleveland State spent the holiday period:
December 18: Team travel to Puerto Rico
December 19: Game against Morgan State
December 20: Practice/planned off-day activities
December 21: Game against UPR-Mayaguez
December 21-22: Players and staff travel home for Christmas
December 26: Players and staff return to Cleveland/practice
December 27-28: Practice
December 29: Game against Milwaukee
That’s essentially a lengthy amount of travel, a game, or at least a practice for nine out of 12 days. And, of course, it’s not as if anyone is laying around in recovery boots during those other three days, they’re celebrating the holiday with their families and friends.
The struggle isn’t unique to the Vikings; most Division I schools had an itinerary somewhat similar to that in late December. However, after CSU was nearly stunned by the Panthers on Sunday, head coach Chris Kielsmeier reflected a bit on that deceptively-busy period.
“Maybe we missed that as a coaching staff,” he said. “Maybe I missed that. We practiced really hard on the 26th and 27th. [On the 28th], we really pulled it back, I couldn’t have gone much lighter the day before a game, when I’m still trying to get them ready. But maybe we pushed them too hard.”
“The schedule’s tough. When you’re on the road in Puerto Rico and have a trip like that, and then you go fly everywhere…Christmas is incredible, family’s incredible, but you’re not relaxing, you’re doing things. Then you come back, and most of our players had really hard travel on the 26th to get here. It’s something that we’ll look at as a program.”
Whatever the case, Kielsmeier and his roster are undoubtedly happy to be back in the predictable rhythms (and shorter travel) of the two-games-per-week Horizon League schedule.
Full Circle
During Cleveland State’s weekly radio show on Monday, Kielsmeier and Director of Basketball Operations Hanna Zerr spoke in depth about how Zerr ended up with the Vikings, and it’s quite an interesting and illuminating tale.
For all intents and purposes, it began a dozen years ago, when Zerr was a high schooler in Shakopee, MN, and Kielsmeier attempted to recruit her to Wayne State College in Nebraska, where he coached at the time. Zerr instead chose to attend Bemidji State, a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference rival of Kielsmeier’s Wildcats. More directly related to her decision, BSU was also the school where her mother, the former Kim Babula, had a hall of fame run from 1983-87.
Wayne State, a perennial contender both in the NSIC, and nationally in Division II, tended to get the better of their matchups with the Beavers. They won six head-to-head meetings between 2013 and 2017, including a conference tournament game that ended Zerr’s playing career, and most of those contests weren’t particularly close.
BSU did manage to collect an upset victory over the Wildcats on December 12, 2015 though, thanks in part to Zerr’s eight points (including the go-ahead bucket with five minutes remaining), six rebounds, and four assists.
Yesterday was National DOBO Day! We are thankful for all @HannaJoZerr does to elevate our program! Her energy is unmatched and we are incredibly thankful to have her as a Viking!#ElevateUS | #GoVikes pic.twitter.com/xK2O56N90J
— Cleveland State Women's Basketball (@CSU_WBasketball) December 1, 2023
A little over six years after that, Kielsmeier, by then at Cleveland State, was looking to fill a relatively new role on his staff called “Special Assistant to the Head Coach,” and was at a loss. He had reviewed, by his estimate, hundreds of candidates, but none truly stood out.
“We really had a hard time finding exactly what I wanted in that role,” he said. “I just couldn’t find the person that I wanted. There were a lot of qualified candidates, good people, but it takes a unique person to work in our program. It’s not for everyone.”
Out of other ideas, Kielsmeier called up one of his former players, Clare Duwelius. Duwelius was a standout at Wayne State – she was on the first All-NSIC team as a senior in 2011-12 – but had risen to even greater heights following graduation. Just ten years after hitting a conference tournament-winning three-pointer and helping lead the Wildcats to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament, Duwelius was promoted to general manager of one of the WNBA’s most successful franchises, the Minnesota Lynx.
Did she have anyone who would be a fit for CSU?
“Hanna and Clare had formed a great relationship,” Kielsmeier explained. “Hanna worked for the Lynx for a short period of time. So ultimately, Clare came up with Hanna’s name, and the big challenge for me was to get Hanna hooked, because she already had a great job, [and] she also moved away from family.”
“She bet on us, as much as we were betting on her.”
Zerr, however, isn’t the type of person to overthink things.
“I always say that I’ll go where the wind takes me, which is how I ended up here,” she said. “[Duwelius] sent [the job] to me, I applied, and two days later I was out here.”
She brought some unusual supporting documentation to the interview as well, including a Wayne State recruiting letter from back in the day.
“I kept all of my letters that I would get from people in one of those huge buckets in my parents’ basement, and pulled them out on one of the interviews,” Zerr said. “I still don’t know if it was a letter from [Chris], or a letter from Kelly, his brother [who coached alongside Chris at Wayne State], but I still have it. It is crazy how it comes full circle.”
Kielsmeier was sold, and just three weeks after receiving the tip from Duwelius, Zerr moved to Cleveland. She did, however, have some unfinished business to settle once she began with the Vikings in 2022-23: reminding her new boss of that unusually mild Saturday afternoon in Bemidji seven seasons earlier, when she got the best of him.
“I did sign the box score and left it on his desk,” Zerr said. “It’s no longer there.”
