Message:
I feel compelled to comment on the women's
team. The expectations of
many were raised to what I feel are
unrealistic levels and have now
been disappointed.
First, we
lost two of the greatest players in the history of the
program when
Amy Wetsel and Tere Williams graduated last spring. We
brought in our
largest freshman class ever. Here are the last 4 years
recruits (I
note ethnicity only because one poster raised the issue;
these are to
the best of my recollection):
2001
Rayna Dubose
Erin
Gibson
Fran Recchia (point guard, redshirted after injury)
Amy
Ligenfelder (transfer from Ga. Tech; blew out her knee, out for
the
year)
Kacy O'Brien
Shanda Holmes (combo guard?; African American;
did not qualify)
2000
Davina Simmons
Ieva Kublina
Lisa
Guarneri (transfer from Rutgers)
1999
Emily Lipton
Christina Strother (suspended indefinitely)
Renee Cosby (African
American; I believe she showed up, then left-
homesick)
Michelle
Garcia (point guard, Hispanic; did not qualify)
Katrina Williams
(transferred)
1998
Sarah Hicks
Mollie Owings
Nicole
Jones
Chrystal Starling (sat first year as partial qualifier)
The 2002 recruiting class is ranked 10th in the country, a
significant step-up. When you look at the list from 1998-2001,
Kublina is the closest thing to a blue-chipper that we have. You
should also remember that we lost Spoon, Michelle Houseright and
Katie O' after the '98-'99 Sweet Sixteen appearance and Tere and Amy
after last season. As you can see, we have had an incredible amount
of injuries and attrition among recruits.
We are slow, we lack
outside shooters (Ligenfelder would have helped
there), we need a Top
Twenty quality point guard (would Garcia have
helped? Guarneri was
hyped as such a point guard) and we are young.
During our winning
streak, we exceeded expectations. Now we are
coming back down to
earth. In my season preview, I said that the
Hokies could finish as
high as second and as low as sixth in the Big
East this year, but will
probably finish somewhere in between. Looks
like is going to happen.
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