Utah joins Colorado as the newest Pac 12 members; however Utah seems to be the much stronger team at this time, especially with their post players. The Utah Utes have made the NCAA tournament 5 times in the past 9 seasons. Without looking I believe in the former Pac 10 only Stanford can claim that many appearances over the same timeframe.
Anthony Levrets begins his 2nd season as the Head Coach after going 18-17 in his first season and then winning the Mountain West Conference Tournament and advancing to the NCAA tournament. He was an Assistant at Utah then became interim coach a year ago. He is now the permanent Head Coach. Velaida Harris returns for her 3rd year as an Assistant Coach. Matt Legerski returns for his 9th season as an Assistant. Willette White joins the staff having been an Assistant at Oregon the past 3 seasons. From 1993 to 2000 she was the Head Assistant at UCLA.
Losses:
Former Stanford player Michelle Harrison has moved on, I believe now with her Masters degree. Last season she averaged 5 points and 7 rebounds per game. Michelle is their only loss.
New Players:
Cheyenne Wilson is a 5-11 Frosh Guard from Seattle. Wilson was the State of Washington 3A Player of the Year, and averaged 19 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists in her Jr season in High School.
Rachel Morris is a 6-4 Center from Eastern Nevada, and ranked # 212 in the nation. She holds the Nevada State record for career blocks and averaged 12 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks as a Jr.
Returning Players:
11 returning players for Utah, although one, 6-3 Post Taryn Wicijowski played only three games last season due to a knee injury. First of all keep in mind that after Taryn went down Utah scored only 58 points per game. So points per game will be on the low side. Having said that, Taryn averaged 11 points and 9 rebounds in the 3 games. In the previous season, as a Frosh, she averaged 15 points and 6 rebounds and was Frosh of the year in the Mountain West. She also played for the Canadian Jr National team, 19U and in a game against the USA team had 16 rebounds. The 6-3 Redshirt Soph is a great addition to the Pac 12.
Iwalani Rodrigues is a 5-9 JR with 3 years left after redshirting as a Frosh. She averaged 3 points a game as a redshirt Frosh then last year, wow. She averaged 15 points per game this past season hitting 110 threes at an amazing 45%. Now a big time player and may be the best three point shooter in the Pac 12.
Michelle Plouffe is a 6-4 Soph who took over for Taryn W in the post last season and averaged 14 points and 7 rebounds per game as a true Frosh. I’m not sure who plays where, but Taryn W and Plouffe give the Utes two great post players. Plouffe also played on a Canadian National team last year.
The returning Point Guard is 5-7 Sr Janita Badon who averaged 13 points, 7 rebounds and nearly 6 assists per game this past season. Badon is the only Sr on the team. Many returning players and only one Sr for Utah.
Diana Rolniak is a 6-4 Jr Post player who started 24 games last season at the 4. Diana averaged 3 points and 5 rebounds per game and lead the team in blocked shots.
Rachel Messer is a 5-9 Jr guard who averaged 5 points per game and had a solid 1.5 assist to turnover ratio as a back up. Rachel did start 8 games. She was a decent three point shooter, 35 made at 31%.
Brittany Knighton is a 6-0 Soph guard who started 6 games, averaging 3 points per game.
Chelsea Bridgewater is a 6-0 Jr forward who averaged 10 minutes per game.
Three other players return, all of whom saw limited action last season.
The Schedule:
Utah plays Michigan, Arkansas, BYU and New Mexico State. In league play they don’t travel to LA, and skip the Washington schools at home. A pretty good schedule. One thing to watch is attendance and the affect of joining the Pac 12. Utah drew only 1,000 per game last season.
The Season:
I think Utah will have quite an effect in the Pac 12. Good Post players, good Guards and experience. It’ll be interesting to see who they bump down to the 2nd division.
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