Women’s basketball players and coaches were on hand Wednesday to show that last year’s late season success wasn’t a fluke.
The 2002-03 team gave the media a sneak peek to show off its new squad and talk about goals for the upcoming season at Breslin Center.
Head coach Joanne P. McCallie said even with five new players, the Spartans’ ultimate goal has not changed a bit.
“We want to be one of 64, we want in the NCAA Tournament more than anything,” McCallie said. “We were denied last year. Not being selected was kind of a kick in the gut.”
MSU carried a 10-18 overall record into the National Invitation Tournament last season and advanced to the semifinal round before bowing out 65-54 to eventual champion Oregon.
Though the 12-player roster already has been trimmed by two because of preseason injuries, McCallie isn’t worried, saying last year’s squad played its best with a truncated lineup.
“You can only do so much with 10, but look at what we did with nine last year,” senior forward Syreeta Bromfield said. “This is just another challenge for us as a team.
“The freshmen, they already know what’s going on, they know what to do, we just have to come each night and bring our game, and we’re going to have a great season.”
Four freshmen and a junior transfer from Australia have been added to this year’s lineup. Freshman guard Patrice McKinney is currently sidelined with a knee injury and is expected to redshirt this season.
The remaining three freshmen - Lindsay Bowen, Liz Shimek and Megan Osmer - and junior Australian-native Caroline Nixon, are expected to contribute major minutes this season.
With first-year Spartans composing half the active roster, the pressure is on for the new players to quickly make the transition from high school to college play, but Bowen remains positive about the outlook.
“We try not to let the pressure get to us, though. I just want to go out there and work hard and do the best I can do,” Bowen said.
“As a group, we freshmen have the desire. We’re pushing each other, and we are going to get some things done.”
McCallie said it’s hard to determine specific strengths of the team because of the great balance between the guards and post players.
Bromfield, along with junior forward Julie Pagel and senior center Jennifer Callier are expected to tie down the front court for MSU.
The Spartan back court will be led by sophomore guard Kristin Haynie. In her freshman campaign, Haynie set MSU frosh records for assists (177) and steals (77), while averaging 7.8 points per contest.
Losing just one starter from last year’s squad, MSU looks stronger than ever. Its returning members combined for 77 percent of points scored and 79 percent of boards collected by the team last season.
“There are some key teams that we want to beat, but our ultimate goal is to make the NCAA Tournament,” Pagel said. “We’ve proved last year that we can play with any team, and now we just have to continue to work and finish up where we left off.
“We came close last year, but close only counts in hairdos and hand bombs. We may only have 10 people, but the 10 that we have, I would put up against any team.”
