- Boston College on Saturday morning at 10:00 am PT. All-Access will stream a live video of the game. Click here to buy a monthly subscription ($9.95) and to watch the game.
- Connecticut on Monday afternoon at 4:00 pm PT. ESPN2 will televise the game.
Ready to go!BC (Boston College) plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), a very powerful league that sent five teams to the NCAA Tournament last season. The ACC was led by Duke, Maryland and North Carolina, and BC finished ninth (of 12) with a 12-19 win-loss record.
The ACC gets no easier this season with the addition of Notre Dame, Syracuse and Pittsburgh. BC has been picked to finish 11th (of 15).
The Eagles' road has been rough in another respect — they've had two head coaching changes in the past six years.
Cathy Inglese headed a successful program at BC for 15 years that included eight 20+ win seasons and seven NCAA Tournament appearances. She resigned after the 2007-08 season. It was rumored that she was ordered to do so by the BC Director of Athletics.
Sylvia Crawley headed the program for the next four years, with moderate success. However, her last season was dreadful (7-23 overall), and she resigned in 2012 for health reasons.
Erik Johnson and Yvonne Hawkins, who had both been assistant coaches under Inglese, returned to BC last season as head coach and associate head coach.
The Eagles are optimistic about the upcoming season. Hawkins says, "The kids are buying into the way we teach and the confidence they gained every day helped us finish off the season strong. We still have room for improvement and the players know it. They have welcomed the hard work it takes to be a champion."
The Eagles did not play any exhibition games, so I don't know who will start against the Cardinal. But the starting five will certainly include these returning starters:
- #21, 5'11" senior guard/forward Kristen Doherty played in every BC game of the past three seasons and started in all but two of them. She led the Eagles in scoring (12.3 ppg) and steals (1.5 spg) last season and was second in rebounds (5.8 rpg) and assists (2.7 apg).
- #45, 6'3" senior forward/center Katie Zenevitch also played in every BC game of the past three seasons and started in all but one of them. She was the Eagles' best rebounder (6.6 rpg) and their second-best scorer last season (12.1 ppg).
- #11, 5'9" sophomore guard Nicole Boudreau started in every game last season and was named to the ACC All-Freshman team. She averaged 11.1 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.4 steals last season. The Eagles' most prolific 3-pt shooter has graduated, but Nicole was the second-best — she took 62% of her shots from beyond the arc and made 37% of them.
- #20, 5'9" senior guard/forward Shayra Brown will probably get the first crack at playing the point. She came off the bench last season as backup to the Eagles' senior point guard.
- #15, 5'11" redshirt junior guard Lauren Engein transferred to BC after two years at UConn and sat out last season. She's expected to be a strong shooter from the outside.
- #25, 6'2" redshirt sophomore forward/center Karima Gabriel transferred from DePaul and sat out last season. She's a strong inside player who can block shots and score inside.
- #5, 6'4" redshirt freshman center Amber Cooper sat out last season with a knee injury. She's healthy now and can provide much-needed height and strength in the post.
In case you don't already know everything there is to know about UConn, here is Mechelle Voepel's espnW preview:
The Huskies are playing in a new conference, but other than that, it's the same old, same old.UConn has played two exhibition games this season. They defeated Gannon 101-35 and Philadelphia 93-28.The American will strive not to be known as the "leftover league," comprised of schools that didn't get invited to so-called big conferences in the past few years of the nationwide conference swap meet.
UConn might feel a bit like the established superstar on a show that watches as all its top co-stars go on to other shows -- yet still has more than enough wattage to keep the marquee perpetually well lit. Which is to say that in women's basketball, UConn will make the American matter right from the start.
[Here's a] look at the main characters in what could be another march to perfection for the Huskies.
Breanna Stewart, a 6-foot-4 sophomore post player who can do pretty much everything, had her rough days and weeks as a rookie. But when it came to the most important part of the season, the NCAA tournament, she was dialed in like a veteran. Stewart missed UConn's first-round game (which it won by only 68 points), and then she proceeded to score 105 points in the next five. That included 23 in the championship game, which she really took over. Stewart has been projected as the latest in a long line of transcendent UConn stars, but she did something that those immediately before her -- Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi -- didn't do. She got a championship as a freshman. But will she be able to equal or exceed Taurasi's three career NCAA titles?Stewart, who averaged 13.8 points and 6.4 rebounds last season, won't have to do it alone this year, of course.
Junior Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis returns as the Huskies' leading scorer (17.6 PPG) and one of the best 3-point threats you'll see. She shot 49.2 percent (118-of-240) from behind the arc last season, and was a consistent performer throughout the season.
Senior guard Bria Hartley missed time last season because of a lingering ankle injury, and that somewhat slowed what was projecting as a fantastic season for her. Yet by tournament time, she was in high gear, too, and had 28 points combined in the two games at the Final Four.
Hartley's fellow senior, center Stefanie Dolson, has steadily improved her skill set and stamina each of her first three seasons. She averaged 13.6 points and 7.1 rebounds last season, and provides the Huskies both effervescent and edgy personality traits. Dolson won't back down from anyone inside, and she has evolved as a dangerous passing threat, too, with 117 assists last season -- almost twice as many as her first two years combined.
The Huskies lost the gritty leadership of graduated guards Kelly Faris and Caroline Doty. The versatility and hustle of Faris' defense, in particular, will be a hole that UConn has to fill. But sophomore Moriah Jefferson ...
... and junior Brianna Banks are ready step into bigger roles. Banks is back after suffering a knee injury Feb. 2 that prematurely ended her 2012-13 season.
The Huskies also expect to get backcourt help from freshman Saniya Chong.
Here are UConn's roster and last season's statistics.
No comments:
Post a Comment