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By Doug Flanagan
State Press
In ASU women's basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne's mind, there's no doubt about it: Her squad's upcoming schedule will be the toughest it has played during her four-year tenure.
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Leah Fasten of the State Press Sophomore forward Theresa Jantzen and the Sun Devils face a tough schedule this season and possibly an even tougher one next season. |
In addition to a rigorous Pac-10 schedule (the conference is generally considered one of the toughest in the country) beginning in January, the Sun Devils' non-conference schedule is what has Turner Thorne and her team dreaming of an NCAA Tournament berth.
On Thursday, ASU hits the road to take on Wake Forest and will face No. 8 North Carolina -- which won a national championship in 1994 -- two days later. Also on ASU's preseason docket is a trip through the Midwest where they will play Texas on Dec. 21 and Kansas on Jan. 2.
The Tar Heels, along with fellow top-10 squad UCLA, will be the toughest teams the Sun Devils face this year. The Demon Deacons, Longhorns (who ASU lost to last season in overtime) and Jayhawks are not ranked, but are respected opponents.
Last season, ASU's non-conference schedule featured only two teams of note: Rutgers, which advanced to the Elite Eight, and St. Joseph's, an NCAA Tournament team which ASU beat in the Wells Fargo Classic last December.
According to Turner Thorne, the reason for her team's tougher schedule this year is because she thinks her team is better and the potential rewards outweigh the potential risks.
"It's great for visibility," she said about the North Carolina trip. "It'll be Pac-10 caliber basketball. Doing well in the preseason can really go a long way."
The Sun Devils' strength of schedule will only get tougher: Next year they are slated to take on perennial power Old Dominion at home and they are negotiating to bring 1993 national champion and current No. 23 Texas Tech to play in a future Wells Fargo Classic.
Force on the boards
Despite not having a player over 6-foot-3 on her roster, Turner Thorne thinks her squad can be one of the conference's better rebounding teams. On Friday against UC-Irvine, that claim was fortified when the Sun Devils outrebounded the Anteaters, 47-31.
Last season, ASU finished sixth in the Pac-10 in rebounding with 38 per contest. But Turner Thorne said she thinks this year it can do better.
"It's our No. 1 emphasis every day," she said. "I'm a believer that nine out of 10 times the team who gets more rebounds wins the game."
Turner Thorne said that while her team doesn't have a lot of size in the post, the fact that it has size on the wings (6-foot-1 Sarah Allen, 6-foot Kristine Sand, 6-foot-1 Aubrey McFadyen) could help even things out and create matchup problems.
"We have a talented group in terms of rebounding, and I think a light bulb has gone off for some of them," Turner Thorne said. "Also, they realize that if they rebound, they get to play more."
Baby steps
ASU received three votes in the latest ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll after its season-opening 78-62 victory over UC-Irvine on Friday. The Pac-10 has three ranked teams: No. 4 UCLA, No. 16 Oregon and No. 24 UofA. Stanford, which knocked off then-No. 6 Iowa State 95-82 on Sunday, received 103 votes and just missed the poll, coming in 26th.
