Aggies schedule includes thirteen ranked opponents
Denny Crum, head basketball coach at Louisville University, has long been a believer that playing a tough pre-season schedule best prepares a team for conference play.
Whoever came up with the schedule for the USU women’s softball team must have had the same thing in mind – a schedule head coach Pam McCreesh said will include 13 games against ranked opponents.
Of course, a challenging schedule is nothing new for this team.
“We play [a lot of] Big 12, Big 10 and Pac 10 schools, so there’s no easy games,” McCreesh said.
Not only is the pre-season schedule brutal, but the Big West Conference (BWC) is regarded as one of the best conferences in the country and is highly respected by the college softball world, she said.
“It’s been strong for a number of years,” she said. “Every year about four teams play in the post-season [NCAA Tournament], which says a lot about the conference.”
During the 2000 campaign, the University of the Pacific, Long Beach State University, the University of California at Fullerton and the University of California at Northridge secured NCAA bids for the BWC.
Despite the daunting task ahead, McCreesh said the team is confident it can do well and is excited to improve on last season’s 19-38 record.
“They’re not worried about what conference anyone is in or what anyone has achieved in the past,” she said. “They’re just ready to play and they know what they are capable of doing.”
Eight returning starters and a relatively young core of players – there are no seniors on this year’s squad – give the Aggies plenty of reason to believe they can compete with the big guns in the conference.
Not only that, McCreesh said there is no dominant team in the conference. Even defending BWC champion Long Beach State had seven conference losses on the season.
“There’s a lot more parity then there used to be in the conference,” McCreesh said. “You can’t overlook anyone in this conference.”
While there’s no clear-cut favorite, she said she believes Cal-State Fullerton will be the team to beat.
USU will play every team in the conference three times.
The Aggies will begin their season at the Arizona State Tournament Friday in Phoenix, Ariz. Among the teams the Aggies are scheduled to play is Arizona State University, a team McCreesh said is ranked in the top ten.
USU will also participate in tournaments in San Diego, Calif., St. George and Fullerton, Calif.