While the dream may have ended a game too soon for the LU women’s basketball team last season, Head Coach Bill Reinson is prepared to keep the ship going in the right direction.
Two seven-win seasons before last year led to a 14-19 record last season, including a few weeks spent in first place atop the Big South and a late Cinderella run ending in the Big South Championship game, a 54-45 loss to in-state archrival Liberty.
On the topic of having so many key players, such as Chelsea Coward, Erin Neal, Mieke Elkington and Crystal Smith, graduate last year, Reinson said, “It’s like having nine freshmen. Even though we only have four or five, we’ve got a lot of new faces … I think we’ll be a lot different, but we’ll still be exciting.”
At Media Day on Oct. 24, the Lancers were picked to finish sixth of 11 teams in the preseason poll, an increase from dead last a season ago. Reinson said it feels better and that “I think people understand we have talent. I think people also understand that we’re very young. I think that’s a very optimistic spot to be in and I think we can work with it. As the season goes on, we’ll get better so it could be a lot higher than that by the end of the year but I’m not disappointed.”
The Lancers, after opening at Seton Hall on Friday at 8 p.m., play the likes of William & Mary, Xavier, George Mason, Richmond and Bucknell before the Big South portion of their schedule goes into full swing.
“Our non-conference schedule is perfect,” Reinson said. “We’re a very young team; we don’t go on the road a lot. We have three road games in the non-conference and then we have six at home. Playing in front of the fans in Willett Hall, for those young kids, it’ll be very good for them, for their growing. They’ll have the support, as they make the mistakes, as opposed to going on the road and having the people get on them a little bit.”
Reinson will certainly rely on sophomore guard Daeisha Brown, who was named to the preseason all-conference team in October.
He refers to Brown as a “5-foot-2 stick of dynamite” and also said, “Individually, I just want to better myself from last year, like last year I was all left-handed, and this year I want to go both ways, right and left … She’s improved her jump shot and learned how to go right a little bit; she was really left handed heavy last year.”
The Lancers’ two games against Liberty will be on Jan. 23 in Lynchburg and March 1 in Farmville for the Lancers’ final regular season home contest.
