Women's Basketball: WVU Picked to Finish 7th
October 27, 2005 02:05 PM | General
October 27, 2005
 |
||
| Bulger |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University women’s basketball team was predicted to finish seventh in the 16-team Big East Conference, it was announced today in New York City. Big East Conference coaches were polled.
West Virginia (21-13 last year) received 128 poll points to finish ahead of St. John’s. Rutgers, which advanced to the NCAA tournament Elite Eight, was predicted to finish first ahead of Connecticut. The Scarlet Knights got 11 first-place votes and 221 total poll points. Connecticut received the other five first-place votes.
Notre Dame was predicted to finish third, followed by DePaul, Villanova and Louisville. After West Virginia and St. John’s, the remaining order of finish was South Florida, Marquette, Georgetown, Seton Hall, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Cincinnati and Providence.
Also, West Virginia junior guard Meg Bulger was named to the 10-member preseason team, joining Rutgers guards Matee Ajavon and Cappie Pondexter, Connecticut standouts Ann Strother and Barbara Turner, Louisville center Jazz Covington, South Florida forward Jessica Dickson, Notre Dame guard Megan Duffy, DePaul forward Khara Smith, Villanova forward Liad Suez, Pitt forward Marcedes Walker and St. John’s guard Kia Wright.
Pondexter was named Big East preseason player of the year and Rutgers freshman center Kia Vaughn was named preseason freshman of the year.
Bulger led the conference in scoring last year averaging 18.6 points per game in league action. She was a unanimous all-Big East pick last year as a sophomore and was an honorable mention Kodak All-American.
The Mountaineers advanced to the WNIT finals last year where they lost to Southwest Missouri State. West Virginia finished last season in a three-way tie with St. John’s and Georgetown for sixth place in the Big East standings with a 7-9 league record.
West Virginia opens the 2005-06 regular season on Friday, Nov. 18, against Texas San Antonio in the first game of the Central Florida Golden Knights Classic. The Mountaineers will play UCF on Saturday to warp up the two-day tournament.
