Welcome to a new ERA of women's basketball. We have three players returning from last year's squad. 3 point sharp shooter Victoria Morris, forward Dejah Carter, and Taylor Edwards. Edwards is the only player who played under coach Barefoot as a walk on. So for the fans it will be a lot of new faces to learn, and it will give us more insight into Nikki's style of coaching. I am excited about this season and looking forward to seeing what this team has to offer on the court. The season starts at home this Friday.
The Captains of CNU went 25-5 and went to the sweet 16. Two years ago they made it the Div-III NCAA Final Four. In preseason polls, they are ranked 20th. However this will be a new team for CNU as well. They had eight seniors graduate. They will be lead by senior Zhara Tannor, a 5'5" PG who averaged 6.5 ppg, 3.6 apg, and 3.0 rpg. They are a team that lead the nation in steals last year, lead by Tannor. So look for lots of traps on defense.
For those that follow, ODU was picked 11th overall in the Con USA standings
2018-19 WBB Preseason Poll
1. UAB (8)
2. Rice (5)
3. Middle Tennessee (1)
4. WKU
5. Charlotte
6 Louisiana Tech
7. North Texas
8. Southern Miss
9. Florida Atlantic
10. UTEP
11. Old Dominion
12. UTSA
13. Marshall
14. FIU
http://www.conferenceusa.com/news/2018/1...-poll.aspx
I don't put a lot of stock in preseason rankings. With this much new talent, ODU is very much a wildcard team. Nobody is really sure what to expect. And what we see at the start of the season is never the end product.
With that said, I think Rice at two might be underselling them. Erica Ogwumike is the star on that team, but if 6'9" Nancy Mulkey is as good as advertised...watch out.