Arizona State has been to the Elite Eight two of the past three seasons. Their record for the three seasons has been 79-25 and 45-9 in the Pac 10. Stanford Grad Charli Turner Thorne enters her thirteenth as the Sun Devil Head Coach and is on a roll with five straight 20 win seasons, joining Tara and “Sit Down” Chris Gobrecht as the only Pac 10 Coaches to do this in the past 24 years. Also ASU has had the same staff together for seven seasons.
Then there is the bad news. Two Sun Devils will miss the season. Standout Guard Dymond Simon suffered her second knee injury in three years last March at Stanford, and will sit out this season, returning for her final season next year. Simon was ASU’s leading scorer last season with a 13.8 average per game and shot 38 % from three. She will really be missed.
JC transfer Markisha Patterson will also sit out this season with a knee injury. Patterson was a top JC recruit and the 5-9 Guard will be counted on next season.
Also gone is Guard Jazlyn Davis, a 5-9 Guard who played in just 3 games last year then hurt her knee. She has left due to academics.
Now the graduation losses, all six of them. Sybil Dosty and Lauren Lacy both graduated from the Post positions. Dosty averaged 8 points and 7 rebounds in 19 minutes and Lacy averaged 7 points and 4 rebounds in 17 minutes. The big loss is Briann January, All Pac 10 and certainly one of the top players in the league over the past several years. She averaged 14 points almost 5 assists in 27 minutes and made nearly twice as many three point shots than anyone else while shooting a great 45% from Three. Also graduating were Kristen Thompson, Nia Fanaika and Kate Englebrecht who was 3rd on the team in minutes per game.
Nine big losses must leave Charli scratching her head, OK she wouldn’t do that.
However the losses are huge and it’ll take all her wiles to get the Sun Devils near the top of the Pac 10 again.
At Center will be 6-5 Jr Becca Tobin who averaged almost 19 minutes, 5 points and 5 rebounds a game. The other post will be 6-2 Sr Kayli Murphy. Kayli’s brother is a freshman football player at Stanford. Except for missing the first 6 games last year with a hand injury, she has played in every game during her three year ASU career. Last season Kayli averaged 5 points and 4 rebounds in 19 minutes.
Two newcomers will see lots of playing team at the post positions as Charli runs her players in and out of games with her ice hockey style substitutions. Kali Bennett transferred from Washington a year ago and is now ready to play. She is 6-5 with 3 years left. At Washington she averaged 5 points and 5 rebounds two years ago. Her best game? 11 points and 11 rebounds against Stanford. Kali was a High School All American and will immediately help the Sun Devils. Joy Burke is a 6-5 frosh, highly recruited after averaging 20 points, 14.5 rebounds, and 5.5 blocks per game as a High School Sr... Joy suffered a knee injury last year, but is expected to be ready to practice by mid October.
Kim Brandon is a 6-2 Soph, her sister is at Cal, who can play both the 3 and the 4. Last year she averaged 6 minutes per game. however she was the # 27 Forward out of High School.
The Point Guard will be 5-10 soph Alex Earl. Alex was the High School teammate of JJ Hones and during Alex’s 4 years at Southridge they won four straight State titles. She also played soccer with Kelsy Hones, JJ sister. Last year as a frosh Alex only played 99 minutes. So she lacks experience, but has talent. Other Point Guards are 5-5 frosh Sabrina McKinney, and 5-5 redshirt frosh Haley Parsons. McKinney was not a big scorer in High School, but Charli loves her passing and defense.
5-9 5th year Sr Danielle Orsillo returned last season from her knee injury suffered in the previous season and averaged 9 points per game, the top returning scorer. She scored 21 points in her only Jr game and 10 points per game as a true Soph. She shot 38% from Three last season, making only 37, but expect her to double that number or more. Frosh Deja Mann is a 5-7 frosh, who could play either Guard position. Deja averaged 16 points per game as a High School soph, then missed her Jr season with a knee injury. Hoop Gurlz ranked her as the # 37 shooting guard, and mentions that she appears to have recovered from her injury.
Tenaya Watson is a 5-9 JC transfer who is expected to contribute right away. Playing the Point for the number one team in the country, she averaged 16 points and 8 assists. Charli called Tenaya the top JC Guard in the country.
Janae Fulcher is a 6-3 Soph with 4 years left to play . She sat out last season. She’ll be in the mix at a post position. Another who will see action is 5-11 Sr Gaby Fage.
ASU has a fairly easy non conference schedule, the big games are at Xavier early in the season, then games 9 and 10 against Texas A&M and Baylor at a tournament in Las Vegas. The Sun Devils open the Pac 10 at home against the LA schools, then close against them in LA. It’ll be an interesting season for the young Sun Devils.
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