Head Coach Tia Jackson started her Washington Husky career with a 13-18 record, 8-10 in the Pac 10. After a number of young players left in the off season, Washington fell to 8-22, 3-15 in the Pac 10. However the losses from last season are minimal so Tia can hope for improvement in her 3rd season.
Graduation took Heidi McNeill, who scored 4 points a game from the Center position and wing Michelle Augustavo who also scored 4 points per game. Also Aussie Nicole Romero, who didn’t get much playing time, decided not to return.
Bottom line, 12 players return, and however one might feel about their 8-22 record, its good having that experience. Tia needs the continuity.
The schedule has some interesting games. At home against BYU and Memphis and on the road at Gonzaga and Michigan State.
Regina Rogers returns to her native Seattle after a frosh year at UCLA. She sat out last season. At UCLA she averaged about 6.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, starting half the games. Her high was 12 points and 16 rebounds against Pepperdine. She’s 6-3 and has three years remaining, and may cause Washington to revamp their offense a bit to get the Centers more involved. This will help 6-2 Sr Laura McLellan who was the Huskies second leading scorer with almost 9 points per game, leading the team by making 47% of her shots.
Liz Lay, a 6-1 Soph returns at the 4 position. Liz had knee surgery in February of her Sr year of High School and missed 10 games last season coming back from this injury. She averaged 3 points and 3 rebounds a game, but did start 9 of the last 20 games. She was a top 20 player out of High School, and with a year to recover from the surgery she will really help the Huskies. Fans have yet to see the real Liz Lay. I saw her play several games in High School and she is a skilled, extremely high energy player. Having Rogers and a healthy Lay in the post with McLellan with make the Huskies a much different team from last year.
Sami Whitcomb will start at a wing position. The 5-10 Sr was the leading scorer last season, 12.8 points per game, and hit 33% of her Three point shots, the team high for those who took more than one Three per game. She has twice been Honorable Mention All Pac 10 and also twice Honorable Mention Defensive All Pac 10. Her high game was 29 points against ASU last season.
The other wing should be Kristi Kingma a 5-10 Soph. Kingma averaged 8.2 points per game and was the # 3 scorer for the Huskies. She only shot 27% from Three, but with stronger offensive post play, she should improve quite a bit. Her high game was 25 against UCLA, and she was the Husky Defensive Player of the Year. A side note, her Dad was a small school All American basketballer and Mom qualified four times for the Olympic Marathon trials.
Christina Rozier returns as the Point Guard, she is a 5-8 Sr who transferred from a JC. She averaged 5 points per game, but her assist to turnover ration was 1:1.2, a ratio that must improve quite a bit for the Huskies to have any success. The back up appears to be 5-8 Jr Sarah Morton, who scored 2 points per game while averaging 17 minutes. However she was the only player with a 1:1 assist to turnover ration on the team.
Other Forward type players will be: Mackenzie Argens, a 6-3 So who scored 4 points per game while averaging 11 minutes; Charmaine Barlow a 5-10 Soph who played just 8 games; 6-2 Soph Mollie Williams who scored 2.6 points per game while averaging 10 minutes; 5-11 Sr Lydia Young who scored 2.5 points per game averaging 13 minutes; and 6-0 frosh Jeneva Anderson.
Argens missed her Frosh year with an ACL then missed 8 games mid season last year with an MCL knee injury. If healthy she will contribute. 15 rebounds a game as a High School Sr.
Sara Mosiman is a 5-9 Sr Guard who scored 3.5 points per game last year. She averaged 4.5 points per game as a Soph. However she has yet to make a Three.
Amanda Johnson is the Huskies top recruit, a 5-5 Guard.
So much depends on Rogers and Lay being in great shape and being able to play 28-30 minutes per game. They are the keys to this season. Kingma and Whitcomb can score from the outside, but the keys are the two post players. Washington appears to be in the 8-10th place level in the Pac 10.
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