After 16-year hiatus, USU women take the floor Friday
There is no doubt people will show up for the Utah State men’s basketball season opener Friday evening in the Spectrum. The real question is, will they stay for the first Aggie women’s basketball game in 16 years?
After about a month of organized practice, the women are ready to hit the court as they welcome Southern Utah University to Logan. The game is slated to begin at 8 p.m.
It will be the first Division I contest for every player except Virginia Jennings, who was a member of the University of Buffalo squad.
“I know they are excited,” said Utah State Head Coach Raegan Pebley of her team. “I just don’t know if we are ready. They need to be able to play. They are anxious and they are tired of playing against each other. We are excited that this moment has finally come for our fans, for the administration and for the students.”
The program was discontinued after the 1986-87 season because of statewide budget cuts, but under the direction of university President Kermit L. Hall and Athletics Director Rance Pugmire, the sport was reinstated in the spring of 2002.
Because of the newness of the team, there are nine freshmen, two sophomores, two juniors and no seniors.
“Everyone’s learning a new system,” Pebley said. “Everything is practically new. We try to keep it simple. Those simple things make you think a lot and when you think a lot, you’re not going to play with your instincts. We’re at a point where we are starting to play with our instincts.”
And the women are working on getting a little tougher. Pebley said the players are “nice kids,” and they’ve been beating up on big pads.
She said the coaching staff, consisting of herself, John Bartleson, Tricia Bader-Binford and Bradley Dance will challenge the team to get after one another and encourage them to rise to the challenge of competing at the next level.
It will come with time, though, she said.
Even though Pebley would like the women to harden up a little, their niceness is carrying over to great team chemistry.
“I’ve never played on a team that has gotten along so well,” Jennings said. “Chemistry is such an important thing. We expect a lot from each other. It’s intense. We can leave it on the floor and still be best friends off the court.”
Pebley said, “We’ve got the talent. We just have to couple that with some intelligence and intensity.”
And Pebley is holding nothing back when it comes to helping the players adjust to jumping to the Division I level.
Southern Utah is returning all of its starters this season, and Big West Conference foe UC Santa Barbara is nationally ranked.
“It’s going to be a tough schedule,” she said. “We did not take it easy this year at all. … We did that on purpose because I want these kids to learn quickly. That has kind of been our motto all year – to get as much Division I experience as possible as soon as possible. It’s not just about getting wins, it’s about creating a tradition and a program that this community can be proud of. If we just play easy wins every night, that isn’t going to help us get better.”
A key to helping the Aggies reach the Division I mentality is Jennings’ leadership. Pebley said she notices the other players looking to Jennings as an example of how to represent themselves, the team and the university.
The junior was a two-year starter and 2002 co-captain at Buffalo where the team went 28-28 during her time there. She started 50 of the 53 games she played in and averaged 6.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
Despite her experience, Jennings is still a little nervous for the first contest of the season because she sat out last year because of redshirt transfer rules.
“It’s completely different [here than at UB],” she said. “I went into the ideal situation. I had a great senior point guard to learn from and the squad already knew the offenses. It made it really easy … Sometimes it’s hard here because rolls aren’t really established.”
Jennings said she doesn’t see herself as any different from the rest of the team, but she does know the ropes around the town and the university a little better because she was on campus last year.
Jessica Freeman, Stephanie Peterson and Brittany Tressler were also at Utah State last year.
Although the injury bug had hit the Aggies earlier in the year, including a hamstring injury to Jennings, Pebley said the team is getting back to full strength. Now, it’s not so much a matter of having people sitting on the sidelines, but it’s just getting everyone up to speed now.
“We are definitely banged up a little, but we are starting to pull it together now,” Jennings said.
With the team inching back to normal, who will be the starters for the Aggies? Pebley said she thinks about it on a daily basis, but she isn’t talking about it yet.
-juag@cc.usu.edu
Christina Zdenek faces off with Virginia Jennings. Jennings, who played two seasons at Buffalo, is the only Aggie player with Division I experience. (Photo by Ryan Talbot)
Virginia Jennings drives past Ali Aird in practice. The Aggie women´s basketball team was discontinued after the 1986-1987 season due to statewide budget cuts, but will return to action Friday for its first game in 17 years. (Photo by Ryan Talbot)