Alright party people! We’re back and excited to follow another season of UW WBB! Welcome all you newcomers who saw the Huskies take TCU to overtime in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last March and went “oh hey, this is some good basketball with some good players and good coaches.”
I’m so happy that Sayvia Sellers is a senior and on the Naismith watchlist. Avery Howell is back as a junior in her second year with the team; she’s also on the Naismith watchlist as well as the Ann Meyers Drysdale
Shooting Guard of the Year watchlist. We lost a solid group of seniors, but I’m excited about our freshman 4 star recruit Amayah Garcia.Tina Langley signed a big contract renewal for 7 years and got paid appropriately. We’re here, we’re back.
Keys to the Season:
Mental Breakdowns – New Coach Tasha Brown
A consistent struggle last year was that the team seemed to crumble at inopportune times, making it look like they didn’t have the competitive edge to finish some games out. Honestly, it was a bit tough to watch some games slip away. BUT! Tina Langley hired Tasha Brown this off-season!
Tasha Brown was most recently at UCLA for the past 8 years, helping that program to win and championship yada yada. Brown developed a coaching philosophy called “Mind Gym”, which, according to UW’s website, is “a structured approach to mental performance that emphasizes intentional language, daily routines, and competition focus.” Let’s hope this help! Oh, and Brown worked with Langley already at Rice, when that team made the NCAA Tournament.
Sayvia’s fouls (again)
I’m not sure what to say about this, because this situation didn’t really get better last year. Sayvia had 103 fouls her sophomore season and 92 fouls last year. Avery Howell had 78 fouls and Brynn McGaughy had 79 fouls. The team had 516 total fouls, up from 485 total fouls the year prior. Sayvia continued to get herself in foul trouble early, forcing Tina Langley to sit her best player for parts of the first half, which hurt the team in close games. Avery Howell was able to pick up the slack last year, but it was still tough to watch. I do think there’s a balance between protecting the player (particularly a Black player on a mostly white, blond team) and letting the player figure it out. Maybe Sayvia should be allowed to foul out a couple of times?
Keeping the momentum
Tina Langley has been building a program over the last few years and each year the team has gotten further and further into the NCAA tournament. Two years ago they made the tournament and lost in the first round and last year they made the NCAA tournament and lost to TCU in overtime in the 2nd round. They were thisclose to making the Sweet 16. Hopefully they can keep the momentum and make it to the Sweet 16 (or further?) this year. An interesting scheduling strategy I’ve noticed that plays into this is how Langley has scheduled her non-conference games. The last two seasons she scheduled all those games against mid-major teams who had made the NCAA tournament the year before, adding weight to the team’s schedule and giving the team practice against tournament-caliber teams.This year though, the women are playing all west coast teams, some who aren’t historically tournament material. I’m guessing the play is to be able to keep the team in the same time zone more frequently because the Big 10 conference has many teams already that will make the tournament. We’ll see how it plays out.
A few words about the New Folks:
Brooke Carlson, G, Junior, from Colorado State
Averaged 17 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 3 assists last year in the Mountain West Conference Tournament. She finished the season as the second-leading scorer with 11.7 ppg. In the first two UW games she had 13 minutes and 5 points and then 14 minutes and 5 points. She was fun to watch play – thoughtful, aware, and a team player (the Langley Way, some might say). She should be a good backup for Sayvia.
Amayah Garcia, G, Freshman
In her first two UW games, she had 7 points and 2 points. The way she plays is not like the rest of Langley’s recruits – she’s aggressive, available, and willing to get in and get messy. It looked like her defense wasn’t fully developed yet, but Langley’s staff will work on that.
Tilda Trygger, F, Junior, from Sweden via NC State (a team I love to watch play)
She’s been selected to the Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Preseason Watch List. She averaged 10.6 points and 7 rebounds last year and is 6’6” – height that UW desperately needs. We were missing an inside presence last year and hopefully she can fill the void.
Not sure she’ll play much, but Macey Huard joined the team this year. Yes, that Huard. However, it’s her mom that matters more here – Molly Hills played 4 years for UW Women’s basketball between 1995-1999. Her teams made two trips to the NCAA tournament.
Last week:
On Monday at 11 am of all times, UW opened their season at home vs. UCSD, winning 79-63. Sayvia Sellers notched a triple-double, which was the third ever for the WBB program.
On Thursday, UW kept the train rolling and beat Pacific 75-54. UW couldn’t shake Pacific until the 4th quarter, where it looked like UW was in better shape and had better stamina than Pacific. Langley tried out lots of player combinations in both games and it was fun to see Devin Coppinger get the start.
Next up – Cal State Bakersfield on Thursday at 7pm.
