This is the first of 11 stories on the Pac 12 Women’s basketball teams. Of note is how many will opt out for the season of not come from another country? Big question. Stanford has had Maya Dodson opt out but both Alyssa Jerome, a Canadian and Agnes Emma Nnopu are at Stanford. So for each story I’ll point out how many foreign players are on a roster and do Updates on rosters that have been posted.
Pac 12 Previews:
Arizona State University Last Season: The Sun Devils were 20-11 and 10-8 in Pac 12 Play. They advanced to the Sweet 16 before losing to Mississippi State. The Coaching Staff: Charli Turner Thorne returns for her 23th season as the Head Coach, and has taken the Sun Devils to the NCAAs 10 of her last 12 years of coaching. Charli sat out the 2012 season on a sabbatical.
Jackie Moore is in her 8th year as an Assistant at ASU and is now the Associate Head Coach. She has been an assistant at Miami of Florida, Boston College and Nevada.
Angie Nelp is in her 4th year coming from Rice.
Nikki Blue the former UCLA star will be in her 2nd year as an assistant. Blue has Stanford connections having coached the past two years with Nicole Powell at Grand Canyon and then for three year prior for Coach McCall at Cal State Bakersfield.
Meg Saunders is a special assistant to Charli. This is Saunders 17th year on the staff .
The Losses:
Sara Bejedi, 5-7 2020 Frosh Guard from Finland has left the team. Reili Richardson a 4 year starter at Point Guard. This past season she averaged 10 points, 3 rebounds and 3 ½ assists per game. Kiara Russell averaged 5 points and 4 rebounds. Robbi Ryan averaged 10 points and 3 rebounds and was a starter for most of her career. Ja’Tavia Tapley was a starter after she Grad Transferred from USC. She averaged 11 points and 6 rebounds. Jamie Ruden averaged 7 points per game. 43 of 65 points per game lost.
The Additions:
Keeli Burton-Oliver, 6-3 Post, WA, ranked # 90 Jaddan Simmons, 5-9 PG, WI ranked # 113 Sydney Erikstrup, 6-1 W, OR ranked # 138 Katelyn Levings, 6-3 F, OR, ranked # 54 Maggie Besselink, 6-3 F From Canada Imogen Greenslade, 6-4 Post from Australia. Gabriela Bosquez, 5-7 Guard from a Texas JC She’s a JR. Last season at her JC she averaged 12 points and 5 rebounds.
The Schedule: Unknown
The Team: The 2020-21 Roster of Players & Coaches
Sydnei Caldwell, 5-9 Soph Guard who averaged 1 point in 6 minutes. Eboni Walker, 5-11 Soph Wing who averaged 6 points and 5 rebounds. Taya Hanson is a 5-10 Jr Guard from Canada. Hanson averaged 5 points. Jamie Loera is a 5-9 Redshirt Soph Point Guard from Washington. Both sisters played D 1 basketball and did her Mom. Jamie was the Point Guard on the Stanford Hull twins Travel team. Jamie averaged 3 points two years ago and sat out most of last season with injuries. Iris Mbulito is a 6-1 Jr Wing from Spain. Iris averaged 3 points and 3 rebounds. Jayde Van Hyfte is a 6-1 Jr who averaged 5 points and 5 rebounds. Bre’yanna Sanders is a 6-0 Jr Sr Forward who averaged just 5 minutes. So the seven returnees averaged just 23 points per game in their last season of play.
Predictions:
ASU has 2 Canadians, another from Spain and a 4th from Australia. The seven returning players in total only averaged 23 points and of those American frosh only two are ranked top 100. That said Charlie is a great coach who has many times turned low ranked and unranked players into All Conference players on top 20 teams.
This year will be a struggle and hard to see ASU as a top 6 Pac 12 team or a team that makes the NCAA. 2021 Recruiting: Meg Newman, 6-3 Forward from IN ranked # 41 Jade Melbourne, 5-9 Point Guard from Australia.
