Southern Mississippi (last year 14-13) A staple in Southern Mississippi's attack last year was 3 pt. shooting. Due to graduation, most of that is GONE. A good matchup to work on post game plays as no one should be able to stop Fowles, Willis, Jones, or White. Temple (last year 21-10): A good matchup of young coaches. Pokey vs WNBA star and US Olympian Dawn Staley. A couple of reasons this game is dangerous. One, the game is in Philadephia. Two, it precedes a rematch with Maryland. If LSU is overlooking the Owls, they could be in trouble. Probably a big crowd on hand for this game. Temple has a solid post player in Candice Dupree and a solid point guard in Cynthia Jordan. The frosh class has some size. This should be a very well-disciplined team looking for an upset. Maryland (18-13): Flashback to last March. A very precocious Terp team led by two Freshman guards, were taking it hard and heavy to LSU, leading the Tigers by one at the half. Seimone and company, getting solid play from Wendolyn Jones and Tillie Willis, ended up winning the NCAA game. But Shay Doron and Kalika France are back and they have a very good freshman class with them. In truth, Maryland is probably a year away from being able to make a credible run at an NCAA title. Maryland's freshmen class are going to be very good with experience. 6'3" Crystal Langhorne and 6'4" Laura Harper are tow of the best post players in last year's recruiting class...behind Fowles. Throw in 6'1" Jade Perry and guard Ashleigh Newman and you're got a good class. The Terps are missing a legit point guard. That could hurt them more than anything against teams like LSU. The Tigers should press early and often to disrupt the Maryland game plan. It should be entertaining to see Langhorne and Harper go up against Fowles. Also, France against Augustus should be fun to watch. Ultimately, I suspect a repeat of last year's result except maybe a lower scoring affair. This will be in Colorado. Penn or Colorado Colorado will seriously be challenges to get to the championship game of its own tournament. Graduation took the top three scorers from the team, including super post player Tera Bjorklund. Defections took several other players including Emily Waner (Duke) and Amber Metoyer (La Tech.). This team is a shadow of the team that went 22-8 last season. Penn went (17-11)and lost to UCONN in the opening round of the NCAAs. They return excellent three point shooting in Karen Habrukosch (43%) and balanced rebounding ans scoring provided by Jenn Fleister. It's safe to say whichever team LSU ends up playing, neither will provide the challenge of Maryland. N. Texas A nice reprieve before the matchup with Minnesota. 'Nuff said. Minnesota. (Last year: Final Four) I am personally very excited for this game as these are the two teams I hoped would break the UCONN-Tenn hold on the championship game. i am a fan of both these teams and as this game is in Williams Arena, expect it to be LOUD. Of course, Minnesota will be trying to make it in the post-Whalen era and when they had to go without Whalen last season due to injury, it was a struggle. Don't expect that to be the case this year. The bread and butter will be McCarville, perhaps the best post player in the game. Not many folks will be able to show up Fowles, especially after this year with the experience that she will gain. But McCarville is two good. She can score going either direction with her back to the basket. She can rebound. And she is superb at passing out of the low post to the open shooter. She commands double teams. And defensively she is rock solid: smart, moves her feet well, and just is difficult to move. She's not the team though. Shannon Schonrock returns to the point. She's feisty, a good three point threat, and see the floor well. Shannon Bolden is a defensive specialist. Sh did a number on Alana Beard when Minnesota beat Duke and she'll draw the Seimone assignment. Kelly Roysland is a plucky guard from the timberland who will probably drive the bucket all day and Katie Alsdurf is a 6'0" wing player who can hit the pull up and provide a tall obstacle on perimeter defense. McCarville isn't the only threat down low as Liz Podominick provides some muscle and a couple of frosh will provide some rebounding size. Temeka should razz Schonrock the length of the court to make it difficult for the Gophers to set up their offense. that will severely limit Minnesota's opportunities. I think a box zone around McCarville might be a good thing..more so than man-to man as she will burn anyone who tries to guard her solo. Pressuring the perimeter is also a must as Alsdurf, Schonrock, and Bolden are decent shots. Expect Minnesota to zone...they have tall perimeter players and Bolden can follow Augustus. It will be necessary for the Tigers to hit some outside shots because if they don't and Minnesota controls tempo, this will be a hard game to win. Especially in Williams.
Minnesota's McCarville out 4 weeks McCarville, the 6'2" AA post from Minnesota will miss the first 4 weeks as she broke her hand. Should be back for the LSU game though.
