The 3rd year’s the charm

For the first time in the modern era of Utah State women’s basketball, there will be a senior class.

After surviving the first two years of the new program, this year’s team has a somewhat different challenge than those in year’s past.

First, the team will be playing in the Western Athletic Conference.

“The WAC is a welcome bump in the road,” Utah State Head Coach Reagan Pebley said. “It’s one of the premier women’s basketball conferences.”

The WAC was seventh last year in conference RPI, Pebley said. The Big West was 17th in the RPI rankings for last year.

The new conference will put more eyes on the Aggies, although those eyes don’t seem to have been focused on them until now. The Aggies were picked last by the coaches and seventh by the media, and Pebley said the Ags are still anonymous to the rest of the conference.

“Those teams don’t know us,” she said. “They don’t know our players or what we do. All they know is that we’re a program in its third year, I think we’re better than that.”

Last season in its second year, the Ags went 14-14 and ended on a bit of a sour note as the team lost its last three regular season games and were bounced out of the conference tournament in the first round.

“We didn’t finish strong,” Pebley said. “We didn’t have enough experience yet to know how to finish the season strong.”

This year’s team goals include winning nine of the 12 home games and advancing into the post season. The Ags have a better shot at playing in the NCAA Tournament or in the WNIT playing in the WAC.

The WAC sent five teams to the two post-season tournaments last year with two teams going to the NCAA’s. For the Ags to make it to the post season, the seniors will have to step into different roles than they have had.

With this year’s senior class, the dynamic has changed with regards to the different roles that can be found on the team.

Since the team won’t depend as much on the younger players as it has in the past, the senior players have the opportunity to act as mentors for the four incoming freshmen.

The freshmen have people they can look up to and the seniors have players they can be a mentor to, Pebley said. The mentor system adds a new look as the seniors can pass on the knowledge they’ve gained in the past two years and counting as Aggies. The freshmen, on the other hand, get to push the seniors since more and more talented players continue to come to Logan.

Having people who know what’s going on because of experience and knowledge during a game is a big factor in this third year.

“Communication is the biggest thing,” senior forward Ali Marchant said. “It helps when you know what you’re supposed to do and you can talk things out on the court.”

The senior leadership will need to show up as the WAC and the tough non-conference schedule will provide a test for the Ags in their third year. One of the keys to this season will be the level of the Ags’ competition, Pebley said.

“We’ve got to really do well competing with everybody else,” she said. “We’ve got a tough enough pre-season schedule that if we have a good showing, we can pick some wins that maybe people aren’t expecting.”

The Ags will play not only against the upper-tier teams of the WAC, but will travel to play against Illinois, Texas A&M and St. Louis and they’ll take on Air Force and Wyoming at home.

“Right now, we’re young enough that we still have a tendency to play to our opponent’s level,” Pebley said. “If we’re going to have that be an issue, we’ll just go and play the best teams.”

Although the majority of the starters will have at least one year in the program under their belts, the post players are more experienced than the guards.

Marchant and Jessica Freeman have played since the program was brought back. Both averaged more than six rebounds per game while Freeman averaged eight points per game and Marchant averaged 10.

The starter at point guard will be sophomore Taylor Richards, who started every game as a freshman last year. Junior Camille Brox started all but five games last year and will see a lot of time on the court.

“We need consistency out of the guards,” Pebley said. “We need them to make good decisions.”

Part of that only comes with game experience, which was a big reason for the Aggies’ trip to Australia this off-season.

The number one reason the Ags went to Australia was for the extra practice time, Pebley said. The competition in Australia and the extra games they got to play helped to develop some of the Ags’ individual talents, she said.

This season comes down to the seniors and the impact they will have on the team, which shouldn’t be a problem with this group, Pebley said.

“They’re great seniors,” she said. “This is a group that are great leaders and great players. They’re doing a lot for us right now.”

-krn@cc.usu.edu