The Huskies have a whole new face to their team, a new Coaching Staff. New Head Coach Kevin McGuff came from Xavier where he was the Head Coach for the past 9 seasons. Before that he was an Assistant at Notre Dame when they won the NCAA Title. McGuff had a record of 213-73 including last season’s 28-3 at Xavier. He is a huge upgrade and probably the biggest name among the 4 new Head Coaches into the now old Pac 10.
The new Top Assistant is Mike Neighbors who coached with McGuff at Xavier for the past 4 seasons. He will probably have a lot to do with the defensive scheme and coach the post players as he did at Xavier.
Kevin Morrison was the 2nd Coach hired, not long after Cal and Kevin parted ways. Kevin was at Cal for 4 years and will be the Recruiting Co-ordinator at Washington. He was the President and Head Coach of the West Coast Elite, a well known Southern California Travel team, producing 74 Division 1 players and 17 McDonalds All Americans. He also worked as a social worker. He is known as an excellent recruiter.
Adia Barnes is also a new Assistant. Adia is the all time leading scorer at Arizona, and played Pro Basketball for 12 seasons, including 7 in the WNBA. This is her first year as a college coach, but has been prominent as a coach and mentor in the Seattle area.
Last season Washington was 11-17 overall and 6-12 in Pac 10 play.
Losses:
The Huskies lost only one player, starting Guard Sarah Morton. Morton averaged 9 points and a team leading 5 assists per game. She was also the only Husky with a positive assist to turnover ratio.
Returning Players:
Kristi Kingma is an outstanding 5-10 Sr Guard. She was the leading scorer at 15.6 point per game and close to their leading rebounder with 5 per game. She made 79 threes at 41%, while no other returning player made more than 7.
Regina Rogers is a 6-3 Sr who was 2nd on the team in scoring and rebounding at 10 and 5 per game. She made 52% of her shots. The problem she must overcome is playing only 18 minutes per game.
Mackenzie Argens is a 6-3 Sr who plays both Center and Forward. She averaged 6 rebounds per game to lead the team and scored 7 points per game. Argens started every game last season.
Charmine Barlow started all but one game and averaged 4 points and 4 rebounds per game. She is a 5-10 Sr Forward.
Marjorie Heard is a 6-1 Soph Forward who was the 4th leading scorer, 7 per game and the 4th leading rebounder, 5 per game.
Mollie Williams is a 6-2 Sr Forward who averaged 4 points and 4 rebounds per game.
Mercedes Wetmore is a 5-7 Soph Guard who looks to be the starting Point Guard. She averaged 3.5 points per game but shot just 29%.
Four players played briefly last year. Kassia Fortier a 5-8 Soph Guard, Amanda Johnson a 5-5 Soph Guard, Jeneva Anderson a 6-0 Jr Forward and Ashley Moore a 5-10 Soph Wing. Of these four look for Moore to step up.
Newcomers:
This is a pretty good class, especially considering it was no secret that former Head Coach Tia Jackson was on the very hot seat.
Jazmine Davis, from San Jose’s Valley Christian High School should step in as the back up Point Guard. She a 5-7 Frosh. Davis was the # 25 Point Guard in the country and shot 55% from three in High School. She was the # 10 player in Northern California and played travel ball with Stanford’s Erica Payne.
Talia Walton is a 6-2 Forward, the # 32 Forward in the country out of High School. She’s a top rebounder and should be a solid player in the paint.
Aminah Williams is a 6-0 Forward, the # 27 Forward in the country out of High School.
Kellie McCann-Smith is McGuff’s first recruit, a transfer from Nebraska. Kellie is from Eastern Washington and was All State as a Sr averaging 21 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists per game. At Nebraska she was bothered by a bad back but did hit 4 threes in one game. She averaged 3 points per game but had a high of 13 and a high of 5 steals. She will sit out this season after the transfer.
The Schedule:
To Be Announced
The Season:
Going to be a tough one until they have a couple of recruiting years under the new Staff. Kingma will be outstanding and a fan favorite wherever she plays.
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