Concord Women's Basketball: Review/Preview

While I sat courtside at the 2009 WVIAC Tournament at the Charleston Civic Center Coliseum, a long-time league expert walked up to me and asked, “Are you the radio guy for Concord?”
After I answered in the affirmative, he said, “You guys were one player away from getting to play here.”
I knew exactly what he meant.
By “here,” he meant reaching the league quarterfinals in the CCCC. By “one player away” he meant not an individual, but a position – point guard.

The Lady Lions’ fall from a 4^th place finish in 2007-08 to 10^th this past season resulted in large part from its transition at point guard. Sarah Blevins had moved from backup to starter, following the graduation of career assists leader Jamie Cluesmann, but a knee injury ended Blevins’ season after only three games. Nearly two-thirds of the season would pass before Concord regained its bearings at the point.
In Blevins’ three games, the Lady Lions committed an average of 15.3 turnovers a game, compared to 14.7 assists. That’s an assist-turnover ratio of .96:1.
Over the next 17 games, as Concord reset its point guard rotation, the Lady Lions’ turnovers per game rose to 22.6, while the assists fell to 13.7. That’s an assist-turnover ratio of .61:1, a drop-off of 35%.
Concord went 7-10 in that 17-game stretch. Early among those 10 defeats were two that wound up being especially painful -- a 61-60 home loss to Glenville State, which wound up finishing 11^th in the league, and a 76-67 loss at Charleston in which turnovers contributed to a fade at the end for the Lions.
If Concord had hung on to win either of those games, the Lady Lions would have finished in the top eight in the WVIAC and gotten home court for the first round of the conference tournament.
Instead, Concord finished 10^th, had to go on the road to meet a red-hot Shepherd team, and got eliminated 94-79.

Head coach Kenny Osborne knew it would be a rocky road at point guard this past season. But that bumpy ride could lead to a smoother journey next year.

Blevins’ injury pressed rookie Annamarie Truckley into service, and she got better as the season progressed. Fellow freshman Sarah Boeren showed flashes of brilliance (and eye-popping speed). But by the end of the season Concord’s best ‘1’ guard was someone who earned the job almost by accident.

Sophomore Sarah Tuggle was riding the bench as a small forward, until one day in practice. Blevins was out of the lineup and classroom obligations had taken away a couple other guards. Osborne asked for a volunteer to play the point, Tuggle stepped in, and, although she had to learn on the job, the former James Monroe Lady Maverick would eventually become the starter.

Even if Osborne doesn’t bring in a new recruit who can play right away next season, point guard will be much less of a question mark. As it stands now, Tuggle, Truckley and Boeren will be back, each with a season at the point behind them. Blevins will also return after taking a medical redshirt, bringing with her the possibility Concord could have, of all things, a glut of experienced point guards when the new season begins next November 15.

Point guards are called “coaches on the floor,” but they’re not necessarily team leaders. Leadership will be an area in which Concord faces a void next season.

The Lady Lions lose Amber Schowalter, who became the team’s emotional hub on her way to leading Concord in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals and earning First Team All-WVIAC honors.
Which player or players emerge as leaders could be the biggest question facing next year’s team. There are three seniors due back – Sierra Brown (WVIAC Honorable Mention), Bre Kyle and Joanna Mills. They’ll be expected to take on added leadership roles, especially Brown, who started all 28 games last season and figures to become the focal point of Osborne’s inside-first offense following the graduations of Schowalter and small forward Cassidy Smith.
Blevins will be a junior, and she the other returning point guards will also be expected to provide leadership.
The same may be expected of Kristin Kidd, who could move into the starting lineup after sitting out a season following her transfer from Division I Presbyterian College.


How quickly Concord sorts out its point guard and leadership questions next season will dictate its chances of success.
That’s particularly true in that, if the 2009-10 campaign were to start today, Osborne would already be looking at a rotation of:

• Sarah Blevins, Annamarie Truckley, Sarah Tuggle, Bre Kyle and Holly Bibb in the backcourt;
• Meghan Cole, Sierra Brown, Jolysa Brown and Trista Thomas in the frontcourt.

Jolysa Brown made the WVIAC All-Freshmen Team last season, and Thomas is the PikeView High School star who may be the most college-ready of the incoming freshmen.

That’s a pretty solid nine-player rotation. And it doesn’t account for off-season improvements by other returning players, including Mills, Boeren and Stephanie Wallace (who worked her way into the rotation in the second half of last season). Nor does it account for the freshman class, which also includes Amanda Smith (who finished her high school career with a flourish on a Princeton team that made the WVSSAC State tournament).

Concord loses Schowalter, Smith and Repass to graduation. Schowalter and Smith were starters all season; Repass overcame a serious medical condition her junior season to begin her senior year as a starter, only to suffer an ankle injury early in the season that cost her seven lost games and plagued her for weeks after that.

Here’s how graduation will hit other WVIAC teams:

The biggest impact will be felt at West Virginia Wesleyan, West Virginia State and Charleston. The Bobcats lose four seniors, including PF Sarah Van Horn. The Yellowjackets lose five, including PG Ana Siera, SG Jennifer Setter and the always-dangerous Brittany Mingo. The reigning league champion Golden Eagles will see only two seniors leave, but they’re important – SG Veronica Carman, whose elevated play down the stretch helped lift UC into the NCAA tournament, and C Jihan Williams, “Miss Double-Double,” who was WVIAC’s most dominant inside presence.

Shepherd loses PF Katie Warehime and SG Krissy Grosselin, who torched Concord in the conference tournament. Alderson-Broaddus’ starting lineup will have to do without G Chelsea Kuehner, SF Sonya Jones and PF Katie Pollak. Glenville State will have to reconfigure its backcourt following the departures of Mallory Menendez and Christine DiSabato.

Fairmont State loses four seniors, but returns G Ashley Vavrek. West Liberty loses F Evelyn Woods and G Julie Cessna, but gets back reigning Player of the Year G Tori Hansen, F Laura Malernee and others. Wheeling Jesuit bids farewell to G Shayla Holenka, but everyone else is due to return. Davis & Elkins’s backcourt duo of Teonna Jewell and Lindsay Holliday will be back. Pitt-Johnstown, Seton Hill, Ohio Valley and Bluefield State will be largely unscathed.

I’m terrible at prognosticating, but look for West Liberty State to be the pre-season favorite going into 2009-2010, with a group of teams hard on their heels. Charleston, Pitt-Johnstown, Glenville State, Seton Hill and, yes, Concord will be in the mix.

Just think: Less than eight months to tip-off.