Each week we'll preview the other nine Pac 10 teams as we approach the pre season and continue toward the start of league play. The Pac 10 appears to have 3 Top 12 or so teams as practice starts in the world of College Basketball. Stanford, Cal and Arizona State will all be highly ranked, and USC and maybe UCLA have a chance at the Top 25. There are new Head Coaches at Washington State and Washington, and top recruits joining the Pac 10 as frosh.
We'll start with Washington State, with their old/new Coach June Daugherty. June and husband Mike have moved from Seattle to Pullman. Fired from Washington due to a lack of buzz in the Husky program, they are already creating a buzz at Washington State with a fine recruiting class who will sign their Letters of Intent next month. Change will come slowly in the Palouse, but it has started.
WSU returns their Center from last year, Ebonee Coates, a 6-4 Jr. Coates averaged 4 points and 5 rebounds a game. She will never be a scorer, her high is only 11, but she is a fine rebounder with a high of 14 and about 10 per 40 minutes last season. The back up will be 6-4 Jr Sabrina Shired. She has played little at WSU, but does provide size and some experience.
Outside of the two post players and Forward Heather Molzen a 6-3 Jr, WSU has no players with experience over 5-9. Molzen has played very little in her two years, but the opportunity has certainly presented itself. Fr Katie Calderwood at 6-0 has a chance to see a lot of playing time. She was a fine High School player in Colorado.
Another possibility at a Forward position is Gonzaga transfer Salena Dickerson. Salena is a 5-11 Frosh, not clear why a frosh after transferring from Gonzaga, where she did not play. She was the state of Washington's leading scorer as a High School Sr, averaging 26 points a game. She could add firepower to a team really looking for firepower.
The losses of Kate Benz to graduation and the transfer of top scorer Marisa Stotler of Boise State will ready hurt this year's team in the post area. Marisa transferred just before school started.
You can see why WSU will probably play a 3 guard line up. Returning is 5-8 Jr Katie Appleton who averaged 8 points per game and is a fine 3 point shooter. The other two starters should be 5-7 So Nakejia Kelly who averaged 7 points per game and 5-9 So Colleen Betteridge who averaged 5 points per game. Appleton shot 37% from 3, Kelly lettered 3 years at the famed Christ The King HS in New York City and Betteridge hit 33% from 3.
Other Guards include two frosh, 5-9 Jasmine Williams and 5-6 Kezia Kelly. Williams is a local Washington woman, and a good prospect. Kelly is a recent signee, coming from New Zealand. Kelly played for their National 19U team, and in HS played netball. A Hot Dog if you comment on what netball might be.
WSU suffered a major defection when Amanda DuRocher transferred to an NAIA school. She scored 8 points per game as a frosh last season. Dani Montgomery who scored 4 points per game last year also left the team.
June has a very young team, no Srs and 4 Jrs among the 11 player roster. But she has a fine class coming in next year, four solid players and she's on a mission to prove her past Athletic Director so very wrong. For this season however, the cellar looms for the Cougs.
WSU does have a pretty easy pre-season schedule with a game on the road against North Carolina State and a home against Texas Tech the only major opponents.
Netball is like basketball except players have fixed positions and much less freedom of movement. Only certain players can be in the paint, and there's very little blocking. I attended a local netball game in Australia a couple of years ago -- as a spectator sport, it's pretty boring.
ReplyDeleteI'll claim my hot dog at the Chico State game.