By Nick Pipitone
Head coach Felisha Legette-Jack has always been passionate about basketball. She was passionate when she was the star forward of her high school basketball team, when she out-maneuvered, out-played, and out-willed Big East opponents for four years at Syracuse University, and especially when she received the 2003-2004 CAA Coach of the Year honors. She just hopes that passion trickles down to her young team.
"I wasn't very talented," Jack said. "But I'll just out-heart you. I'm just that passionate about the game. And that's what I hope will rub off on this team. The talent is there, they just need a little bit of my heart."
From the looks of last year's dramatic turnaround, the Pride has adopted a great deal of Jack's characteristics. In only her third season at the helm, Jack has rejuvenated a somewhat dormant program into a lively team on the cusp of Colonial Athletic Association glory.
In garnering a school-record 11 conference wins en route to a 14-14 record, the Pride finished second in the conference and accumulated the most wins for the program in a decade. Despite losing in the quarterfinals in the conference playoffs, the Pride made a lot of noise in the CAA with a 74-72 win over vaunted Old Dominion. Thanks to Jack's aggressive style and meticulous approach to the game, CAA opponents may no longer look past the Pride-every trip to Hempstead hopes to be an exhausting one.
"One of our main goals for this season is to be one of the best defending teams in the conference," Jack said. "We want to be a great defending and rebounding team and, hopefully, keep our opponents under 60 points per game. As far as winning, we don't set any targets."
Although this young team has certainly gotten better with a year of experience, the Pride was predicted to finish fifth in the CAA, which is the ninth-ranked conference in the country. But the writers' assessment of the team does not faze Jack, which is why she refuses to stamp a predicted win-total on this year's squad.
"I don't believe in predictions," she said. "I don't know my team that well yet and I'm sure the writers don't either."
What Jack and the writers do know, however, is that the Pride will miss two key contributors from last year's surprising team. The losses of graduated point guard Stacey-Ann Claxton and injured power forward Amaka Agugua puts tremendous pressure on a team that will feature only one senior and two returning starters until Agugua's return from rehab sometime in January.
Luckily, the Pride has two formidable replacements to fill the big voids left in its lineup. Team captain and senior Charlotte Baldrey-Chourio will take over at point guard after playing in 25 games last season and averaging 1.3 points and one assist per game. Her numbers from last year may be low, but her role goes beyond her stats. Without Claxton running the offense from the point, Baldrey-Chourio will have to step up as more of a vocal leader on the court-that is, as soon as she gets accustomed to making the calls.
"I'll have to make the calls on the sidelines for the first few games," Jack said. "But it shouldn't take her that long to get used to everything. She's a raw player and needs more development but she's our passion player. She's a point guard that leads."
Agugua's replacement in the starting lineup, on the other hand, is already primed. Even though the senior was picked preseason second-team All-CAA and led the team in points and rebounds per game last season, Jack feels confident that six-foot sophomore Lana Harshaw will be able to duplicate, if not surpass, the efforts of Agugua.
"Lana [Harshaw] is a strong kid. She's capable of getting a double-double for us every night," Jack said. "As far as talent goes, she's really on an island of her own."
But even with all of the talent Harshaw brings to power forward, Agugua's leadership will be missed dearly throughout the first half of the season. The senior is, as Jack said, "a microcosm of me" and the centerpiece of a team built on the foundation of strong defense. With Agugua out until at least the start of conference play, the Pride will look for several of its many underclassmen to carry a heavy workload.
"It's tough-I'm not going to sugarcoat it," Jack said. "We're going to miss her. But I believe that everything happens for a reason, and without her, a lot of our young players are going to have to step up. And, hopefully, by the time Amaka comes back, she can add on to what we have going."
Add on to a Pride team that is, truthfully, wet behind the ears but just as hungry to win than any of the previous two teams Jack has coached.
"I see players in the gym on off-days taking shots and watching film in the locker room," she said. "I haven't seen that in my past two years here. This team really wants it-you can tell."
Even though the player who may want it the most will be rehabbing a knee injury until January, Jack's infectious passion has injected a shot of adrenaline into the Pride. And when they take the court in their season-opener this Friday, they should be ready to out-maneuver, out-play, and out-will Qunnipac University at the Arena at Harbor Yard.
Said Jack, "If I had to one team to go to war with, it would be this one."
Well, consider the war declared..
Head coach Felisha Legette-Jack. (Photo Courtesy Athletic Dept.)