Pac-10 Preview: Cal, The Bear is Back

(Cal roster)

The Bear is back, as Cal announcer Joe Starkey likes to shout. The addition of the Fab 5 last year brought Cal women's basketball back into the limelight as a winning team and with a trip to the Dance. But much has happened since their NCAA first round loss.

Strong Forward Renee Wright graduated, which was Cal's only planned loss. Then Guard Sarah Pool decided not to play her 5th season; followed by Jessica Lawson's transfer to Central Florida; then Jene Morris thought the grass was greener with Beth Burns and off she went to San Diego State. Poof, there went the depth.

Cal starts off the season with one of the smaller Pac 10 rosters, 11 players, but they also return three sophs, who are outstanding. The pressure will be on 2nd year coach Joanne Boyle to keep her Big Three (shades of the Terrific Trio at UCLA these past years) healthy. Hampton, Walker and Gray-Lawson all suffered injuries during the summer, although they should be healthy for the start of the season.

At Center, 6-3 Devanei Hampton is an outstanding player. She has great offensive skills, and the quickness and jumping ability to be a strong defensive presence. Behind her is 6-2 Emmelie Geraedts, who hasn't played much, and 6-5 frosh Rama N'diaye. Rama's background is not strong, and she's not a Center by personality. She seems better suited as a 4, and may play there also. The big question is, will she be ready for Pac 10 play? That's quite a jump for her, and judging by what I saw in the summer league, it might be rushing her.

Ashley Walker, a 6-1 Soph, is a strong player with quickness and a desire to mix it up under the basket. Walker and Hampton form an outstanding pair of Post players, who will do a lot of damage on offense near the basket, and be ferocious rebounders. Backing up Walker will be 6-0 Jr Krista Foster, who should be solid as the back up.

At the Small Forward will be 6-0 Soph Shantrell Snead. Shantrell was very highly recruited and a part of the Fab 5. However, injuries have left her trying to make a comeback of sorts. If 100% healthy, she will be a major contributor. An outstanding rebounder for a 3, she is also a strong offensive weapon, although not a 3 point shooter. Backing up Snead will be one of the five Guards. Therefore a lot of pressure on Snead and her comeback from injuries.

At the Point will be the outstanding 5-8 Alexis Gray-Lawson. Gray-Lawson is really an ideal 2 Guard. She has outstanding offensive skills from the three point line to under the basket. She's a score first PG, not ideal when your other two offensive weapons are post players. But she is exciting, and definitely a leader.

There are four Guards who could play and, the Bears hope, contribute. 5-7 Frosh Natasha Vital comes in as about the #55 HSer from last year and can play the Point. Another Point will be 5-5 Soph Kelly O'Connell.

At the 2 Guard will be 5-10 Sr Keanna Levy. Levy has played well the past two summers in the Pro Am, but didn't see much playing time last season for Cal. This could be the year she breaks out, and the Bears need her to step up. Backing up Levy will be 5-10 frosh Lauren "Bring the Opposition" Greif. An outstanding HSer from Oregon, she brings that Oregon mentality with her, always at the right place at the right time. Lauren could also play the 3.

Last year the top three scorers were Hampton at 15.4, Gray-Lawson 14.6, and Walker at 13.3. These three account for 43.3 of the 51.5 returning points or 84% of the offensive production. Hampton averaged 7.9 rebounds per game, Walker 7.7. Both are truly outstanding rebounders.

Recruiting: This year's class includes two # 50 -100 type recruits in Greif and Vital, and a project in Rama.

In the current recruiting cycle, Cal has landed the outstanding 6-2 Post Lenita Sanford, a 5 star player. Other than that, 6-1 Kelsey Adrian is now rated in the 90's and unknown 6-0 Rachelle Federico from Arizona has also verbaled to Cal. Despite six scholarships to give, it appears Cal is done for this signing period. They might be looking for late bloomers for the April signing period.

Pac-10 Preview: Arizona, Tall and Deep

(Arizona roster)

This week we'll look at the Arizona Wildcats as they emerge from the darkness that was the season of 2005-06. Normally I don't like to talk about who was lost from the previous season other than mentioning them, but the loss of Polkey loomed over all, and this program is ready for a more joyful 2006-07 season.

Having said all that, last year's team shot and rebounded poorly but played hard. This year the Wildcats welcome four new players who will help immensely in the areas of shooting and rebounding. In fact the incoming players are two sets of twins, the 6-6 and 6-7 Bofia sisters from Cameroon, by way of Illinois Central JC, and the 6-1 Neabors twins from Pomona. The two sets of twins will give instant rebounding, post defense, post offense and depth. Arizona also returns all seven of their leading scorers, except top scorer, Guard Natalie Jones.

Post play really has to start with Jr Shannon Hobson, who missed the entire previous season. She's 6-2, strong, and will be a focal point. Before her injury she was not a big scorer, but was the Wildcats most inspirational player last season, despite not playing, and can play very strong defense. Suzy Bofia, the shorter twin at 6-6, scored 12 points and had 9 rebounds per game in JC last year. Her 6-7 sister wasn't nearly the scorer, but with her height, and the depth they have, should be an important contributor.

Newcomers 6-1 Rhaya and 6-2 Rheya Neabors are frosh, and both were ranked in the Top 100 or so in the US last year in High School. They will add depth to returnees 6-1 Whitney Fields and 6-0 Ché Oh. Oh, you might remember, was having a fine game against Stanford at Maples but was injured during that game. Fields averaged 4 points and 4 rebounds per game in her frosh season and Oh averaged 8 points and nearly 6 rebounds in the 20 games she did play.

The strength of this team, especially as the two sets of twins become accustomed to the college pace, is the Guard position. Ashley Whisonant, 5-8, returns as the PG, backed by Jessica Arnold. Last year they played together at times. Whisonant averaged nearly 14 points per game and led the team in assists by quite a bit. Arnold, only 5-4, averaged 6 points per game.

The 2 Guard will be their best player, 5-9 Joy Hollingsworth, who is one of only two Seniors. Joy averaged 14.4 points per game and made 50% more 3's than anyone else. She will be the leader, backed by Kelsey Burns, 5-11, who averaged 4 points per game and hit 36.6 of 71 three-point attempts. Linda Pace, 5-9, is the only other Senior. She averaged 5 points per game and didn't attempt a three-pointer.

In summary, this team lacked posts last year and has 5 now. The younger players have gone through an ordeal and should be battle tested.

And not the least, Joan Bonvicini is a very good, successful Head Coach.

Recruiting: Well they had 8 in the Scout Database and all have committed elsewhere. This will be a problem.

Arizona State, a Thorne in Our Side

Each week, leading up to the opening of the Pac 10 season, I will write an article on each Pac10 team excluding Stanford. The big time fans here know all about our team. I'll update any recent story on schools I've already written about. Then when the Pac 10 season starts, I'll do a weekly article on that week and how each school did, and what might happen in the current week. I'm excited about this and hope you will enjoy.

This Week: Arizona State

Our first article is on Arizona State, a Thorne in our side for several years now. ASU is known for both their very physical play and Charli's ice hockey style substitution patterns. She often subs 4 or even 5 players at a time.

The key to their play is strong post play and this year the Center position belongs to 6-6 soph Kirsten Thompson. Kirsten was a McDonald's All-American and saw plenty of action last year behind the graduated and outstanding Kristen Kovesdy. The huge question is can Thompson play D and rebound like Kovesdy. Last year Thompson scored 5 points per game and had 2 rebounds per game while playing 10 minutes per game. This year she will play 25 or so minutes per game.

Forwards will be Sr Emily Westerberg who scored 11 per game with 5 rebounds per game, and strong Sr Aubree Johnson who was at 6 points and almost 5 rebounds per game. Westerberg is a fine athlete who was second in assists. She can run and slash and shot 35% from 3. Johnson is more of a defensive player/rebounder, who shared time with the graduated Amy Denson.

Back up posts/forwards will be younger players, soph and incoming frosh. The best of these could be 6-2 frosh, Kayli Murphy. Charli's biggest challenge will be getting the back up post players up to speed for Pac 10 play, and developing Thompson as she did Kovesdy.

The strength of the team will be the Guard position, a reversal for a team that last year used their solid posts to out rebound the opposition by 6.5 boards per game.

Incoming frosh dynamo Dymond Simon will make an immediate impact. A McDonald's All-American and a 5-5 bundle of energy and extreme quickness. Soph Briann January returns as the Starting PG, to be challenged by Dymond. Briann didn't shoot well last year, 34%, 22% from 3, but was tough in the clutch and did lead the team in assists. Given the hockey style substitutions, these two could play the same amount of time.

At the 2 Guard are two players who should shoot much better than last season. Sr Jill Noe, who I believe could have 2 years left, returns after an uneven season. But remember Jill has missed a lot of time with serious knee injuries. I suspect this year she will shoot and play like the younger Noe we saw several years ago. One time Stanford possibility, Soph Danielle Orsillo also returns as Noe's back up. Noe scored 8 points per game last year, Orsillo 7. Also returning is Jr Reagan Pariseau, who was the top 3 point shooter last year at 35.5%, scoring 5 points per game.

Given 5 very good Guards, and a lack of established depth in the front court, Charli may often play 3 guards at the same time. They could well run more than before, and certainly establish a fine "kick out for 3" game that we know so well.

Recruiting: ASU has only one commitment, versatile 6-1 wing, forward, Stephanie Wilber from the state of Washington. Wilber is an outstanding slasher, 3 point shooter, ranked about 80th in the nation. Two big post players have transferred in, 6-3 Lauren Lacey from Minn, and 6-3 Sybil Dosty from Tenn. Both should be outstanding post players, and each will sit out this season, then have 2 years left to play.