Last season The Utah Utes went 16-16 overall and 8-10 in Pac 12 play. They split 2 games in the WNIT. Head Coach Anthony Levrets returns for his 3rd season. Velaida Harris returns for her 3rd season. Matt Legerski returns for his 10th season. In those 10 seasons Utah has been to 5 NCAA tournaments. Willette White returns for her 2nd season, having been at Oregon for 6 seasons.
SCHEDULE: Michigan, Utah State and BYU are the toughest non conference teams the Utes will play. In league play USC and UCLA don’t travel to Utah and Utah doesn’t travel to Washington or Washington State.
LOSSES: Utah had five players play 33 or more minutes per game and they lost only one, Point Guard Janita Badon. Badon averaged 10 points per game although only 11 threes total. She averaged 6 rebounds per game and had a fine 1.4: .9 assist to turnover ratio. Post Rachel Morris averaged 7 minutes and has left the team. Another Post Diana Rolniak has also left the team, I suspect due to injuries. Diana averaged 2 points and 3 rebounds in 14 minutes per game but could only play 13 games.
RETURNEES: Four of the five starters return from last season’s WNIT team. Michelle Plouffe is a 6-4 Jr Center who averaged 14 points and 8 rebounds per game last season. Plouffe also made 41 threes at 31%. She was on the Canadian Olympic team
Taryn Wicijowski is a 6-3 Redshirt Jr who averaged 13 points and 9 rebounds per game this past season. Like Plouffe, Taryn is Canadian and has played on their Jr National teams.
Iwalani Rodriques is 5-9 Sr Shooting Guard who averaged 11 points per game with 59 threes at 30%. The previous year she averaged 15 points with 110 threes at 45%.
Rachel Messer is a 5-9 Sr Guard who averaged 5 points per game, starting all but one game. She has been consistent hitting about 34 threes in each of her three seasons at an overall 34%.
Cheyenne Wilson is a 5-1 Soph Guard who started 7 games and averaged 4 points and 17 minutes per game.
Chelsea Bridgewater is a 6-0 Sr Forward who played sparingly last season.
NEWCOMERS: Paige Crozon is a 6-1 Frosh Guard who could start right off the bat. She is another Canadian and has played on the past 3 various Youth National teams.
Nakia Arquette is a 6-1 Frosh Froward, ranked # 220.
Ciera Dunbar is a 5-10 Redshirt Soph Point Guard who could start at the Point if healthy. However she missed last season and a great deal of her High School Jr and Sr years with knee injuries.
Awa Kalmstrom is a 5-7 Frosh Guard from Sweden. She has twice played on Swedish youth National teams.
Danielle Rodriquez is a 5-10 Frosh Guard ranked # 222. She averaged 18 points and 6 rebounds for SoCal’s Warren High School last season and qualified for the State Meet in the 1600 meters.
And then along comes transfer Krystal Forthan. Krystal has transferred from LSU and the 6-5 Soph will sit out this season. Forthan was the # 5 Player out of High School, a superstar in the making. However this is her 6th school in 6 years. Four High Schools and two Colleges.
OUTLOOK: Four returning starters and a couple of good newcomers could well spell improvement. Key is winning their non conference games to get the confidence to play against the top tier Pac 12 teams.
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