Alright folks, we’re back at it with the UW Women’s basketball season. I have some hope that they will be the best basketball team in town here real soon.
For starters, they showed out against Seattle U
last week, beating them 90-43. This earned them, as far as I can tell, their first AP ranking (#25) since the Kelsey Plum years. Let’s go!
This is my third season doing write ups for the women and I’m stoked to see how this season unfolds. This is the beginning of Tina Langley’s 5th seasons as head coach, and she’s slowly but surely built talent and rebuilt the program. I remember watching a game at the end of her second season and realizing that she had her team running the good ol’ fashioned Flex offense and laughing because it was working and the other team was having a hard time defending it. Her offense has evolved since then, but I still find myself engaged and entertained by her coaching style. Her coaching prowess helped UW get back to the NCAA tournament last year for the first time since the Kelsey Plum/Chantel Osahor Final Four run in the 2015-2016 season.
Keys to the Season
Keeping the Core Together – UW was one of a few teams that weren’t dismantled/re-imaged by the transfer portal this past spring. Dalayah Daniels graduated, but the rest of the core UW group stayed intact. We were also able to keep Sayvia Sellers (rumor has it for some money and a car) which, if true, was worth it and will be clutch, clutch, clutch. It’s an underrated skill in the transfer portal era for a coach to be able to keep a team together. For example, USC’s #1 ranked team lost 8 players this past season and they’ll have to see if they can rebuild this season (same with the UW Men’s team, while we’re at it).
Avery Effing Howell – Speaking of USC, one of the players who exited was Avery Howell. I am not sure why more people aren’t talking about her landing with UW and how much that will add to the team. As we saw in the exhibition game against Seattle U where Avery was 5-5 from FG, 4-4 from 3 pt, and 4-5 from from FT in 19 minutes, this player is no joke. She spent the summer playing with Canada’s FIBA U19 team and showed out there too. It’ll be important for the team to incorporate Avery into the already strong back court of Sayvia Sellers, Hannah Stines, and Elle Ladine, which it looked like they were doing seamlessly against SU.
Scoring More than 65 Points – Last year UW almost always lost when they didn’t score over 65 points. It was painful to watch. They will need to find multiple ways to score this season.
Loss of Dalayah Daniels’ Leadership – Dalayah came back to UW for Tina Langley’s first year; the first one of Tina’s recruits to believe in what she was building. Dalayah also wanted to come home to Seattle to help rebuild her hometown program and she did. She even got drafted into the WNBA by the Minnesota Lynx (she got cut, but, still)! Dalayah provided the senior leadership that the team needed and going forward, UW will need to find someone (Sayvia, hopefully) who can be the on court general and keep spirits up, direct traffic, and advocate with the refs.
Sayvia’s Fouls – Speaking of the refs and developing leadership, Sayvia Sellers had 103 personal fouls of the team’s total 485 fouls last year. Dalayah had 84, but after that, the rest of the players had significantly less fouls. I have some theories about why she fouled/got called for fouls so much and believe a part of it has to do with racism (a Black player on a very white, very blond team), but bottom line is it took her out of a lot of first halves of games last year, a detriment to the team. If Sayvia wants to emerge as the team floor leader (which she should), she will need to learn to butter up the refs and get them to see the game from her point of view. Tina Langley needs to advocate for her as well, especially when the foul called wasn’t a foul.
A Few Words about the New Folks
Transfers
We already talked about Avery Howell. She is good.
Yulia Grabovskaia joins us from Michigan and Middle Tennessee. She’s a 6’5” post player, average 5.4 points per game and 4.1 rebounds last year, with a 4 game stretch of double doubles. She adds much needed height to the team, as well as a post presence after Dalayah left.
Freshman Class
Daniella McClean – 6’3” Forward, from Canada, can’t find much about her besides that she played at a charter school in Syracuse last year
Brynn McGaughy – 6’3” Forward, Tina Langley’s first 5 star recruit and from Central Valley, WA, no less (school of Lexie Hull). She’s coming off winning the state championship, is a Gatorade Player of the Year, yada yada she is good. We are excited about her ceiling. She played with Avery Howell on an AAU team, so I’m guessing that’s one of the reasons we landed Avery.
Nina Cain – 6’3” Forward, Sacramento’s Player of the Year last year, 4 star prospect.
Sienna Harvey – 5’10” guard from Australia, played for the Australia U19 team, I was surprised she is a Freshman based on her turnout against Seattle U last week.
The coaching staff is the same as last year.
Next Up
The women play tonight at 6pm against Montana. Last year, UW suffered their first lost to Montana in close to 30 years 82-68. Montana went on to make the tournament, largely because of their win over UW. Langley has cleverly scheduled non-conference games against mid-major teams who made the tournament last year, giving the team an opportunity to play against tournament teams, but not be trounced by the likes of UConn or South Carolina.
