2007-08 PREVIEW
October 02, 2007 03:38 PM | General
October 12, 2007
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| West Virginia coach Mike Carey has guided the Mountaineers to two NCAA tournament trips since 2004.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
By nature Mike Carey has always been a cautious man. You tell him he’s got all of the pieces needed to make a run at the Big East championship and he’ll give you five good reasons why it might not happen. But this year, even the cautious seventh-year coach admits he’s got enough firepower to give Rutgers and Connecticut a run for their money.
All five starters including all-Big East center Olayinka Sanni return from last year’s team that won 21 games and put a scare into LSU in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Sanni isn’t the tallest center in the country standing just 6-2, but she provides a powerful presence in the paint that Carey has been able to develop over the last four years. The Chicago Heights, Ill., resident averaged 14 points and 6.7 rebounds per game last year and has spent the last two summers playing for the Nigerian National Team.
Complimenting Sanni inside is 5-foot-10-inch, do-everything senior Chakhia Cole. The Marlboro, N.J., resident is one of only two players in the conference to score 300 points, grab 200 rebounds and hand out 100 assists in the same year. The other player to do that was Big East defensive player of the year Essence Carson of Rutgers.
Streaky LaQuita Owens had some big nights for the Mountaineers last year averaging 13.5 points per game and leading the Big East with 91 3-point field goals. Owens also grabbed 5.8 rebounds per game.
Guards Ashley Powell and Sparkle Davis are coming off solid years in the backcourt. Davis, a one-time Auburn transfer, averaged 8.6 points per game and made 53 3-point field goals. Powell isn’t a big scorer averaging only 2.6 points per game, but she does have one-on-one skills and had the best game of her career against LSU in the second round of the NCAA tournament. In that game the junior scored 13 points and kept the Mountaineers in the game in the second half when her teammates couldn’t find their shooting touch.
Athletic 5-foot-11-inch senior Lateefah Joye gives Carey a viable option off the bench at both the guard and small forward positions. Joye’s speed and quickness is an asset on both ends of the floor.
Meg Bulger returns for her fifth season after sitting out the last year and a half with two knee injuries. The 6-foot forward was a two-time all-Big East performer and the league’s rookie of the year in 2004. She has scored 1,285 points in two and a half seasons and when healthy is considered one of the conference’s premier players. Anything remotely close to her 19-points-per-game average in 2006 will be a tremendous boost to a team that can always use another scorer.
Guard Kelly Smith, a redshirt last year, showed that she can shoot the basketball and score on the team’s tour of Australia last August.
Kendra Goodley, Ranisha White and Melanie Small are quality backups.
Carey brought in a five-player recruiting class that will provide additional competition for playing time. All-Ohio guard Liz Repella from Steubenville, Ohio, was the state’s Division II player of the year and appears to have the toughness that Carey likes in his players. Texas point guard Sarah Miles averaged 15 points and four assists per game to make the San Antonio Express-News Super Team.
Junior college transfers Marie Malone and Ashley Murphy are expected to provide needed help in the front court. Malone, a 6-foot-2-inch center, averaged 11.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game and was once a top-rated center coming out of Kellam High School in Virginia Beach, Va.
Vanessa Abel is a quality walk-on guard from Scottsdale, Pa., who scored more than 2,000 points for her high school career.
Carey’s remodeled coaching staff includes former Cincinnati assistant Dave Dagostino and former Tennessee All-American guard Semeka Randall, who came to WVU from Michigan State.
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