By Nick Pipitone
Out of the eleven players on the Pride's roster this season, three are freshmen. Add the injury to perennial first-team All-CAA forward Amaka Agugua and the absence Whitney Vose, another freshman forward waiting to join the team, and what do you have? That's an undermanned team in a competitive conference relying on three first-year players to shoulder a big chunk of the work load during the first half of the season. So how important are the three freshmen on this year's team?
"Extremely important," first-year assistant coach Anthony Crocitto said. "With our numbers and our injuries, they should be getting at least 15 to 25 minutes per game."
Normally, this would be a concern for most coaching staffs. But Crocitto said it with such confidence and poise, you would think these three freshmen have already experienced the throes of Division I basketball. With their high school credentials, the transition might not be that difficult.
India Ali, the heir to Charlotte Baldrey-Chourio's point guard spot, was a Street and Smith honorable mention All-America selection before her senior year, who also racked up three all-county selections and averaged eight steals per game from her sophomore to senior years.
Jenna McSpadden, the freshman from Texas, was a three-time offensive MVP, All-district selection and All-State selection. The sharp-shooting guard led her conference in three-point shooting in her junior and senior year and led her team to the state title in 2004.
Linn Quamme, the freshman from Wisconsin, was an honorable mention All-State selection, an All-Area and All-Conference selection in her junior and senior years, and the leader of a team that won the conference and regional championships in 2003 and 2004.
And the list goes on.
With the position the Pride is in right before the beginning of what hopes to be the sequel to a breakout 2003, these three freshmen will have to live up to their billing.
"They have to contribute greatly," said head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. "They are a major part of our success. They should all see significant minutes and, you know what, they asked for it."
In picking the Pride over more established programs, they mostly saw this as an opportunity to get immediate exposure. And now their wish will probably come true.
With the Pride's lack of depth at forward, the six-foot Quamme looks to get a lot of minutes backing up forwards Lana Harshaw and Lizanne Murphy.
Until Agugua returns sometime in mid-January, the Pride will count on Quamme's height and ability to play both forward positions to solidify the defense.
The same goes for Ali and McSpadden. Both guards will spend a lot of time on the court over the first half of the season before Vose is allowed to join the team.
But injuries and lack of depth are not the only reasons why they should all get major playing time-and Quamme wants that to be clear. About a week ago, the freshmen said something to coach Crocitto that might just sum up the attitude of this year's class.
"I don't want to play just because of injuries," she said after practice. "I want to play because I earned it."
And that attitude, along with their winning backgrounds, is the why Jack recruited these three last year. The coach hopes that their approach to the game and winning attitudes will be contagious to a program that is just starting to acquire a taste for winning.
"Coming from a very competitive high school, me and my fellow teammates changed the mentality at Syracuse," Jack said, alluding to her freshman year at college. "They had the same plays and the same ideas, but not the winning tradition-and that's what we brought. That's what I'm hoping will happen here. All these kids come from winning programs, so hopefully they'll carry it over."
Fortunately for Jack, she doesn't have to worry about her freshmen bringing that winning mentality to the Pride.
"When you're used to winning, you don't except losing," Quamme said. "It's contagious. And what we want to do is start a winning tradition here."
Starting tomorrow night, the most important freshman class for the Pride in a long time will get exactly what it asked for-a chance to lay the foundations for a CAA team to be reckoned with.