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RETURNING WAC AWARDS WINNERS Several of the WACs top performers return in 2003-04. Three first team all-WAC players return, including Louisiana Techs Trina Frierson, Rices Johnetta Hayes and San Jose States Cricket Williams. Williams is a two-time first-team all-WAC honoree. Louisiana Techs Amber Obaze and Erica Smith are the only second team all-WAC performers returning. Four of the five players named to the all-Newcomer Team return, including SMUs Sarah Davis, UTEPs Kia Dowell and Vaida Zagurskyte and the WAC Freshman of the Year Jamie Hawkins from Boise State. Only two members of the all-Defensive team return this season, Louisiana Techs Amber Obaze and Erica Smith.
PRESEASON RANKINGS Two preseason publications (Athlon and Lindys) ranked the top schools in the country. Lindys ranked the Lady Techsters No. 14 after a 31-3 finish last season. Athlon gave Louisiana Tech a No. 12 ranking for a team that lost only one starter in two-time WAC Player of the Year Cheryl Ford. Both publications pick defending national champions, UConn, first followed by Duke.
TOP STATISTICAL LEADERS RETURN Four of the WACs top 10 scorers are back, led by San Jose States Cricket Williams (20.4 ppg), who was second in the WAC in scoring last season. Two of the top five field goal percentage leaders are back, led by Louisiana Techs Trina Frierson, who led the conference with a .529 percentage. Two of the top five rebound leaders return, including first-team all-WAC honoree, Johnetta Hayes from Rice, who was third in rebounding (8.0 rpg) last season. Six of the top 10 assist leaders return, led by San Jose States Williams, who was second in the league with 6.86 assists per game. Cricket Williams is also the leading returner in steals (2.89 spg). She is one of the six steal leaders returning out of the top 10. The WAC loses all-time block leader Christen Roper of Hawaii. Rices Hayes is the leading returner, averaging 2.46 bpg.
GERVASONI TAKES REINS IN NEVADA The University of Nevada named Kim Gervasoni as its new women's head basketball coach.
Gervasoni was the top assistant the past three years at Arizona State and was the highly-successful head coach at Solano (Calif.) Community Collge for eight years prior to her stay in Tempe, Ariz. She has also been an assistant coach at DeAnza (Calif.) College and at Logan High School in Union City, Calif.
In her three years at Arizona State, she helped take the Sun Devils from the bottom half of the league to back-to-back PAC-10 titles and three straight post-season appearances during her tenure there, including two straight NCAA bids.
As a recruiter, she helped bring in two top-25 classes at Arizona State, including a top-10 group in 2003. Additionally, the team grade point average was above 3.0 each of her three years in Tempe.
WAC TOURNAMENT TRAVELS WEST TO FRESNO For the first time since the 1999-00 season, Fresno State will serve as the host for the Men and Womens WAC Basketball Tournament. The 2004 tournament will be held in the new 16,116-seat Save Mart Center. The seven through 10 teams will play on Tuesday, March 9. The remaining eight teams will play in the quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 10 with the top seed competing versus the winner of the Tuesday game, the No. 2 seed vs. No. 7, etc. The winners will play in the semifinals on Friday and the championship game will be Saturday.
PERSONNEL CAPSULE San Jose State is the only WAC team to return all five starters, while defending WAC Champion Louisiana Tech and Rice both return four starters. Boise State, Fresno State, Nevada and SMU all return three, while Hawaii, UTEP and Tulsa only return two starters. After returning only two starters last season, the Lady Techsters have four starters and eight letterwinners this season, including all-WAC honorees Trina Firerson, Erica Smith and Amber Obaze. Rice returns the most letterwinners with 10. Fresno State, Louisiana Tech and Tulsa each have eight letterwinners. Following is a list of the teams and the number of letterwinners returning and lost and starters returning and lost:
Team LR LL SR SL
Boise State 7 3 3 2
Fresno State 8 5 3 2
Hawaii 7 6 2 3
Louisiana Tech 8 3 4 1
Nevada 6 4 3 3
Rice 10 4 4 1
San Jose State 7 5 5 0
SMU 7 4 3 2
UTEP 6 7 2 3
Tulsa 8 3 2 3
NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS WAC teams could face at least 21 different non-conference opponents that played in last years NCAA Tournament and nine teams that participated in the 2003 postseason WNIT.
NCAA OpponentsRice vs. Arkansas, Nov. 24
SMU vs. TCU, Nov. 24
Rice vs. LSU, Nov. 29
Rice vs. SW Texas State, Dec. 1
Louisiana Tech vs. Tulane, Dec. 2
Nevada vs. BYU, Dec. 2
Boise State vs. Weber State, Dec. 3
SMU vs. Oklahoma, Dec. 3
UTEP vs. Alabama State, Dec. 5
Louisiana Tech at Tennessee, Dec. 7
Tulsa vs. Arkansas, Dec. 9
Louisiana Tech vs. Mississippi State, Dec. 14
Tulsa at Duke, Dec. 14
Rice vs. Stanford, Dec. 18
Louisiana Tech at Penn State, Dec. 21
WNIT OpponentsHawaii vs. Maine, Nov. 22
Nevada vs. UNLV, Dec. 6
Nevada vs. Santa Clara, Dec. 7
Fresno State vs. Santa Clara, Dec. 13
San Jose State at Santa Clara, Dec. 21
UTEP vs. Montana State, Dec. 22
Tulsa at Maine, Dec. 28
San Jose State at Oregon State, Feb. 3
WAC teams could also face the following NCAA Tournament and WNIT teams in regular-season tournaments this season:
NCAA OpponentsHawaii vs. Washington, Nov. 22-23
Fresno State vs. Utah, Nov. 28-29
Fresno State vs. W. Kentucky, Nov. 28-29
Hawaii vs. Arizona, Nov. 28-30
Hawaii vs. Texas, Nov. 28-30
Hawai vs. Virginia, Nov. 28-30
Tulsa vs. Texas Tech, Nov. 28-29
San Jose State vs. Tulane, Dec. 27-28
WNIT OpponentsHawaii vs. Montana, Nov. 28-30
Hawaii vs. Northern Iowa, Dec. 22-23