Texas Tech University Athletics
Lady Raider Basketball Ready for 2003-04 Season
October 15, 2003 | Women's Basketball
Oct. 15, 2003
By Claire Kinzy, Texas Tech Athletic Media Relations - If you close your eyes and concentrate, you can hear them. You can hear the bells resonating. You might ask yourself what bells you are listening for, but if you have just come from a Lady Raiders home game - the answer is easy - it's the victory bells of course and they are ringing because the Lady Raider basketball team has just bagged another home win. Now, this is not an uncommon sound to hear following a Lady Raider home game, quite the contrary actually. The ringing of the victory bells for the Lady Raiders is a regular occurrence, a tradition most Techsans have grown accustom to hearing after the Lady Raiders' home games and this year is no exception.
A celebrated team with a veteran coach, oodles of talent, and a reputation as a force to be reckon with, the Lady Raiders are set to take the Big 12 and the entire NCAA by storm. Good as they are, the Big 12 Conference is no cakewalk. The conference could easily be touted as the most, if not one of the most, difficult conferences in the nation. With opponents like Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas State and Colorado to contend with the road will be anything but easy, but if anyone can get the job done it's the Lady Raiders.
"I think we could have a really good basketball team and still not be in a position to win the Big 12 because Texas and Kansas State finished above us last year and they bring everyone back, stated head coach Marsha Sharp. "So you know it's not necessarily all about us, but what other people bring back at us. Those combinations are what make playing in the big 12 so amazing. You could be good enough to go to a Final Four but you might not win the conference because of who else is in it. That's always a challenge."
Coming off a stellar 2002-2003 season with a record of 29-6, few teams in the nation could boast that they faired better. Achieving Elite Eight status yet again for this mighty team only to taste defeat at the hands of Duke snuffed the hopes of winning another national championship. The Lady Raiders finished the season ranked sixth in the nation, which is a feat in itself, but for these ladies, perfection is the name of the game. Have no fear though, the Lady Raiders are back again, hungrier than ever having come so close to the ultimate victory. These women have their unified eye fixed on that national championship and are now in prime position to go all the way. So here's a word to the wise - this is most definitely a season no one will want to miss.
Sharp enters her 22nd season as the commander in chief of the Lady Raiders and has recently received the honor of being inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. This new honor merely tops the chart of a long list of Sharp accolades that includes a gold medal in Brazil for the 2002 USA World Championship for Young Women's Qualifying Team, over 500 career wins, excellent player graduation rates, and the new Marsha Sharp Center for Student-Athletes at Texas Tech, just to name a few.
There is one hole in this big family, and that is the one left by the departure of Plenette Pierson who was selected fourth overall in the WNBA draft by the Phoenix Mercury this past April. "Obviously when you loose a player of the quality of Plenette Pierson who stepped in and made a real contribution in the WNBA this summer, you've lost a valuable part of you're make up. She provided a lot of offense for us and particularly in big games. She was a go to player. I think the biggest question mark we have now is who is going to assume that role", stated Sharp.
The team returns this year with a powerful and experienced senior class including Natalie Ritchie, Jolee Ayers-Curry, Jia Perkins and Casey Jackson. Perkins received first team All-Big 12 honors and is the top returning scorer averaging 15.9 points a game last year, while Ayers contributed to the success this past season by shooting 52 percent from the field. Adding to the experienced veterans of the team are junior center Cisti Greenwalt, who led the team in blocks with 78 for the season, and sophomore Erin Grant who made a rather large splash onto the scene during her freshman year. Grant was fifth on the team in scoring, led the Big 12 in assists and received Big 12 Co-Freshman of the Year honors.
Alesha Robertson and Brooke Baughman are two new faces heading up the freshman class, along with Tawanne Flowers and Enrica Johnson. "I do think that Robertson and Baughman will immediately help us and they both play on the perimeter", said Sharp. "Robertson I think has a chance to be one of those real proficient scorers. She can score in lot of different ways. Brooke is a terrific passer, runs the floor, probably will play some time at our point guard position. I am anxious to see them in the mix and see how quickly they can adapt to division one".
As for the returning players, "I think we have a couple of x-factors in there", Sharp stated. "I think if Jia Perkins and Cisti Greenwalt really step up to the challenge, they are talented enough players that they can really separate us from a lot of people. We have got some great solid players around them in Jolee Ayers, Casey Jackson and Natalie Ritchie, and our sophomores are beginning to come into their own. We may be deeper than we have ever been, we just need them to really emerge as the people who will step up to the line and make big plays for us when the time comes".
The Lady Raiders begin their 2003-2004-season exhibition style and proceed through the preseason with a rigorous slate that includes Michigan, California and Stanford. For Sharp, the preseason schedule will be an important indication as to what we might be able to expect from the team during the regular season. "We are going to play in the preseason NIT for women, which this year is a good year for us to do that. We have five seniors and you really want to do that with a more experienced team, because your workout time prior to it is going to be shorter. We have some real challenges in the middle, as we go to Washington and come home and two days later play Stanford here and to me that looks like a really crucial part of the schedule. I think we can really make a statement about the strength of our team if we were able to win those two games or at least split." Conference play starts on January 10 with Oklahoma State and the uphill battle continues throughout league play. The regular season concludes at Kansas State tentatively on March 3.
We are headed towards another exciting season that will hopefully end with a second National Championship banner adorning the ceiling of the United Spirit. So pack your bags and start heading to that metropolis on the Caprock, get ready to fill out that wondrous arena, put on your game faces and warm up your voices - the Lady Raider basketball season is upon us and the Lady Raiders, much like the Texas Tech fans, are sure to not disappoint.
