YPSILANTI, Mich.(EMUEagles.com) – Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball Head Coach AnnMarie Gilbert described her team’s 2008-09 season as a reloading year. It was her second season at the helm of the program, and Gilbert was faced with the tall task of fitting 10 newcomers into a scheme which had won a share of the Mid-American Conference West Division title just a year prior.
As a result of the transition, the team fought its way to an 8-21 record overall and a 4-12 mark in MAC play, good for a fifth place finish in the West.
This year’s squad is also a relatively young one, with just two seniors, and nine freshmen and sophomores, but the difference will be the team’s experience. In her first two seasons, Gilbert only had one returning starter for each campaign. For the 2009-10 campaign, she will have the luxury of four returning starters.
“The experience that our returning starters bring to our team is imperative to our success,” Gilbert said. “Our leadership role lies predominantly in the hands of one player this year, but we’re looking for everyone to do their part and help build this program into the legacy we’re envisioning.”
Gilbert said she feels her squad is more talented than either team she’s had in her first two campaigns here, and the combination of talent and experience has the third-year coach eyeing another MAC West Title.
“We have solid and attainable goals,” Gilbert said. “Getting tougher in the post and tightening up our defense are two of the things we must do in order to reach those goals, but we have some players in here who can really help us shore up those areas with their toughness and discipline and grit. Last year we gave up a lot more points than we would’ve liked to. These players have a better understanding of what we are hoping to accomplish and I’m sure we’re going to get there.”
Gilbert said the ultimate goal is to double the teams’ win total from last year and to return to the ways of her successful first season by capturing a MAC West crown and taking her team to the NCAA Tournament.
Eagle Veterans
Junior guard Cassie Schrock will take on the bulk of the leadership role now that seniors and her co-leaders from last year, Amber Land and Shana McKinney, have departed. Schrock, a 2008-09 All-MAC honorable mention led the team in rebounding with 7.4 per contest, and was second on the team in scoring last year averaging 13.3 points. Her backcourt mate, Tavelyn James, also garnered All-MAC accolades as she topped the conference’s All-Freshman team. James led the team in scoring with 14.7 points per game, and finished the year with the sixth-highest scoring average among the nation’s freshmen.
“Amber is one player in particular who will be missed,” said Gilbert. “Statistically you couldn’t always tell how valuable she was to this team, but she set an example on and off the court for the rest of her teammates. She was a tough leader for us and she will be missed.”
Gilbert echoed those sentiments about McKinney, saying her interior toughness, defense and rebounding really anchored last year’s young team.
With the loss of McKinney and Land, Amanda Tretheway and Kayla Vantil assume the roles as the teams’ only seniors. The six-foot two-inch forwards both transferred to EMU last year from Foothill Community College in Los Altos Hills, Calif. The pair played in a system similar to what the Eagles run now, explained Gilbert.
“We’re really going to look for them to alter a lot of shots in the middle and provide length for us on defense,” Gilbert added. “Their style really fits into our game. They both averaged near double-doubles in high school and contributed a lot to their very successful college team.”
James and fellow guard, junior De’Ja Wills, will anchor a deadly outside game for the Eagles, as the duo combined to hit 95 three-pointers last year. Wills started 21 games for the Green and White in 2008-09 and averaged more than a steal per game to go along with her sharp shooting.
James and Wills, along with Paige Redditt and Sydney Huntley-Rogers formed what Gilbert called a “nucleus” and did “some really good things to help the team make a statement in the MAC last year.”
Huntley-Rogers was instrumental in some key wins for the Eagles last year with her ability to make big defensive plays and find open players. She led the team in steals and assists and was also the third leading scorer. She will also add to that outside shooting, having made 39 shots from beyond the arc last season.
“Sydney really stepped up for us last year when we needed her,” Gilbert said of the junior guard. “She was able to get the ball in the hands of other playmakers if she wasn’t able to make a play herself.”
Redditt is another highly touted returner for Gilbert and her coaching staff. She had one of her best performances of the season last year in a loss to Bowling Green, another school where she was heavily recruited. The sophomore averaged just shy of four points and four rebounds for Eastern, and she also led the team in blocked shots with almost one per contest. Coach Gilbert said Redditt will be looked upon to re-establish the interior defense which the team lacked last year.
Tara Johnson will be in her junior campaign for the Eagles and has improved since last year. Gilbert said she feels Johnson is competing for a starting position on a team that is deep at the forward position.
“She’s improved her ball handling and shooting since last year and we’re counting on her to continue to improve in the post, offensively and defensively,” said Gilbert. “I honestly believe she’s capable of being a double-double machine for us.”
Brittany Simmons rounds out the returners for Eastern. She garners high praises from the coaching staff as well.
“We all recognize her as probably the best all-around athlete on the team,” Gilbert said. “Offensively, she’s very explosive and defensively, she’s improving all the time.”
In total, Eastern returns nine players, all of which made significant contributions to the Eagles’ successes from a season ago.
Eagle Newcomers
Seven new players will don the Green and White of EMU for the first time during the 2009-10 season. Three college transfer students will join four “true” freshmen coming from the high school ranks to make up the seven new Eagles.
Kelsi Robinson is a walk-on whose strength is shooting and intensity in the transition.
Chelsea Hite is a six-foot four-inch center who can run the floor, get out on the break and finish around the basket.
Much like the emergence of James last year, Gilbert has high hopes that freshman guard Lindsey Mahone will do the same. The lefty from Corpus Christi, Texas will be counted on to be a major contributor and give a lot of production from her guard spot.
“Lindsey is really challenging for a starting spot because of her ability to do things with the basketball. She could probably sneak onto the All-MAC Freshman Team with some solid performances throughout the course of the season for us,” said Gilbert.
Chenise Miller has what Gilbert describes as an “old school low post” game. She brings grit and toughness to the interior. She didn’t start playing basketball until she was a teenager, so her best basketball is ahead of her.
“Chenise is the type of player I like to coach,” said Gilbert. “She hasn’t peaked and she hasn’t yet reached her potential. She still has a way to go, but she’s getting there extremely fast.”
Kristin Thomas will also help to provide the toughness and defensive intensity that Gilbert said her team needs to re-position at the forefront of the team’s focus.
“Physically, Kristen is the strongest player on the team, bench pressing almost 150 pounds,” said Gilbert. “She was a top 10 shot blocker in the nation at only six-feet, so that shows you what type of game she brings to the table. We were able to bring her aboard thanks to some help from men’s basketball Head Coach Charles E. Ramsey and his recruiting circuit. When he got a chance to see her play, he knew immediately that she could make an impact for us. I know she’ll be really great for us when she’s on the floor.”
India Hairston will also provide toughness and length on the interior for the Eagles. Her six-foot three-inch frame will provide an anchor with fellow newcomer Hite and the duo could become a tandem in the middle for years to come. Hairston was instrumental in leading her team to the MHSAA Class C State Championship held here at the EMU Convocation Center last year.
Raina Spencer is another transfer, from Fordham University in New York. The junior guard will be eligible in January and Gilbert said that her skill level will definitely allow her to challenge for a contributing spot.
The Schedule
The Eastern Michigan University women’s basketball team will get tested early and often throughout the 2009-10.
A Dec. 2 trip to the not-so-welcoming confines of the University of Notre Dame’s Joyce Center awaits the women’s hoop squad this season. That trip to South Bend, Ind. comes one week after the Eagles return home from a week-long pre-Thanksgiving trips against two New York schools and a perennial power in Philadelphia.
On Nov. 20, 22 and 24, respectively, EMU will battle Siena College and Niagara in the Big Apple state before heading off to Pennsylvania to take on the Temple Owls in the team’s first-ever meeting.
“We have a really challenging schedule ahead of us this year with some tough matches against the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference and the Horizon League before we get into our always-tough MAC schedule,” Gilbert said.
The Eagles won’t have time to get homesick, though, as they return to Michigan for a game at the University of Detroit Mercy, Dec. 5. Four of Eastern’s next five games are at home in the Convocation Center during which the squad will wrap up non-conference play with a contest against North Dakota, Jan. 4. Also during the home swing, the Eagles will open MAC play against Central Michigan University in the finale of the four straight home tilts.
Gilbert and squad will have two stints during the season where they play back-to-back games versus in-state rivals CMU and Western Michigan University. The first bout against Western will take place in Kalamazoo, Jan. 9. The second will be in Ypsilanti, Feb. 24, after a game against Central in Mt. Pleasant, Feb. 20. Also in February, the Eagles will travel to New York again to take on the University at Buffalo and to Muncie, Ind. to battle the defending MAC Tournament Champions Ball State Cardinals.
The Eagles will wrap up the regular season, March 2, at the Convocation Center when they host the University of Toledo. The Eagles will have the opportunity to host a post-season game, March 6, as the MAC has gone back to hosting the first round games at the campus of the higher seed. The rest of the 2009-10 MAC Tournament will be held at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, March 10-13.