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The DU women’s basketball team is projected to finish first in the Sun Belt Conference’s West Division after it received six 1st place votes in a preseason poll by the league’s coaches.
The Pioneers begin this season after a 2010-2011 campaign where the team advanced to the 2011 Women’s National Invitational Tournament with a 19-12 season record, losing 60-75 to Brigham Young University in the first round.
“I think it’s a high honor just to be recognized with this title,” said senior forward Kaetlyn Murdoch, a native of Temple, Texas. “But it’s just a title. We still have to work hard and put in as many hours. Some of the talent we go up against is incredible. It’s great to be honored, but it also brings a lot of responsibility.”
The Pioneers also collected two individual preseason honors. Murdoch was selected as the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Co-Player of the Year. In the all-conference selections, Murdoch was named to the preseason first team and junior point guard Emiko Smith was named to the preseason third team.
Murdoch averaged 16.3 points and 6.97 rebounds per game last season, establishing herself as one of the best forwards in the nation. She ranked 4th in the country in field goal percentage while leading the conference. She led the team in both points and rebounds and became the 20th Pioneer to break 1,000 career points.
As for Smith, the third-year starting point guard is highly experienced after finishing last season ranked 1st on the team and 17th in the nation in assists as well as leading the Pioneers in minutes played.
In addition to Murdoch and Smith, sophomore guard Quincey Noonan is a returning starter from last season’s squad. Noonan ranked second on the team and 15th in the Sun Belt Conference in both assists (73) and steals (46).
“Emiko is the best point guard in our conference and absolutely makes the team go,” said head coach Erik Johnson. “She’s on track to break the career assists record [at DU] before she even reaches her senior year. Quincey started every game as a freshman last year. She’s an extremely athletic and physical guard. And Kaetlyn was very deservedly projected to be the best player in the conference.”
The Pioneers are joined this season by three freshmen, including guards Morgan Van Riper-Rose and Jordan Johnston and forward Theresa Wirth.
Van Riper-Rose adds another deep shooting threat to the Pioneer offense, replacing the graduated guard Britteni Rice, the fourth-best three-point shooter in the program’s history.
“Morgan is one of the best three-point shooters in the country,” said Johnson. “She’s a very poised, controlled freshman who can learn quickly and just play. Jordan Johnston is extremely athletic and quick and has a very nice skill set. Those two will be very important because our guard depth is very thin right now. Theresa has a nice inside-outside game, and she can do all the things we need her to do.”
Murdoch said she also sees promise in the team’s new members and is optimistic about their contributions.
“They are three unbelievably talented freshmen,” said Murdoch. “They are understanding everything so quickly and are really latching on to the new concepts. We are so lucky to have them.”
Wirth joins a front court that includes the team’s captain, Murdoch, along with a trio of sophomores: Desiree Hunter, Alison Janecek and Maiya Michel.
Besides Murdoch, Michel is the group’s veteran and will be relied upon to replace the graduated Brianna Culberson, who was 2nd on the team in scoring last season with 14.3 points per game.
Tough road ahead
Despite the preseason accolades, the team is focused on a challenging schedule that will test the Pioneers from the non-conference schedule into conference play, where the Pioneers look to battle with East Division foes Middle Tennessee and Arkansas-Little Rock.
Murdoch and Johnson both stressed the importance of treating the preseason rankings as an honor rather than an indication of how the upcoming season will unfold.
“Any preseason ranking is a great compliment to what we did last year,” said Johnson. “But it has nothing to do with what’s going to happen this year. That’s what we keep telling our players.”
The Pioneers begin their season Friday with a home game against Loyola Marymount at 5 p.m. in Magness Arena. Johnson said he intentionally scheduled a challenging non-conference season in an effort to establish the Pioneers’ presence in the national scene.
“We have to play Vanderbilt on the road this year,” said Johnson. “After beating them here last year, they’ll be reeling to get us. We’ve also made a point of scheduling all of the in-state rivals plus Wyoming, with a goal of being the undisputed champions of the Front Range.”
Johnson, who is in his fourth year as head coach for the Pioneers, said he has focused each year on taking small steps to improve the team. In his first year, the team went 16-15, improving to 18-13 the following year and ranking 2nd in the nation in field goal percentage.
“Last year, we really improved defensively,” said Johnson, who coached the team to a 19-12 record. “We definitely proved we belong in the national scene. So now the question is, how do you go from being a conference contender to a conference winner? It really comes down to little details.”
This year, Johnson hopes to continue that tradition of progress and live up to the team’s preseason rankings. Murdoch predicts that this will require coming out strong from the very first game.
“As a team, our goal is just to perform as well as possible,” said Murdoch. “We are already gelling so well. We need to be able to come out with intensity and own up to the title of being number one in the [SBC] West.”
With the season nearly here, Johnson said he needs every player on the team to be prepared.
“All of our young players need to step up and be ready to play,” said Johnson. “We lost two 1,000-point scorers and a huge leader, but we have a lot of potential on our team and plenty of talent in the gym.”
Johnson said he admires his team for their dedication both on and off the court, where they excel both as athletes and as students.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that for the last two years we have been ranked in the top 25 in the nation in GPA,” said Johnson. “Our athletes are proud to represent DU as both students and basketball players.”
