Encouraging signs for UMass women's basketball as season starts
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AMHERST - As she prepared for her second season in Amherst, University of Massachusetts women's basketball coach Sharon Dawley has been encouraged by her team's development on and off the court.
A year ago, the Minutewomen and their new coach had to figure each other out on the fly and there were plenty of growing pains in their 7-23 (3-11 Atlantic 10) campaign.
But as soon as the players returned in September, Dawley could sense progress.
"Changing staffs is very emotional. We probably don't give that its time because we can't," Dawley said. "We've had the time now to develop relationships and whenever you have better relationships, things work a whole lot better. We thought we were much better than we were a year ago today and much better than we were at the end of last year. That's where we want to be.
"The returners have all gotten better in some area. They used the summer the way we want them to use the summer," she continued. "Everybody has gotten better in one or more aspects. That obviously is going to help. The returners exerting themselves and showing that this matters trickles through to the freshman class."
UMass returns five of its top six scorers led by junior big Jasmine Watson, who missed eight early games last year with an injury. Watson returned to lead the team in scoring (14.4 points per game) and rebounding (7.6 rpg). Having Watson healthy to start the season should be a boost. She'll be joined up front by fellow junior Shakia Robinson (10.7 ppg, 5.7 rpg).
Senior Megan Zullo, who was forced to play some point guard last year, will be able to concentrate on shooting and scoring more with the arrival of Carolann Cloutier, an Old Dominion transfer from Montreal who'll assume the starting point guard role in UMass' more uptempo offense. Senior Emilie Teuscher will be the third starter in the backcourt.
Zullo, who averaged 10.5 points per game last year, was granted a sixth year of eligibility by the NCAA because of an injury suffered when she was at North Carolina State. Dawley said her desire to come back was a good sign.
"That's why Meg is back. She never would have come back if she wasn't hungry," Dawley said. "She wanted to end on a good note."
The Minutewomen open Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Mullins Center against Boston University, which defeated UMass 66-49 last year in Boston. The Terriers played Providence Friday before travelling to Amherst. BU went 17-14, 12-4 in the America East last year and was picked second in its conference. Conference player of the year Chantell Alford averaged 15.0 points per game for the Terriers.
Dawley said her team is optimistic.
"I think there's a lot of hope. I think the kids think they look better than they did last year," she said. "Hope is the biggest thing you can hang your hat on."
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.
