The Utes have their work cut out for them. After making it all the way to the Women’s National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) Championship game last season, there is only one acceptable way to go this year: up.
Such was the message of head coach Anthony Levrets as his team held its first practice Monday in preparation for the season to begin in November.
“The big expectation is to get to the NCAA Tournament this year,” Levrets said. “All 340 teams in the country that started practicing today want to be in the NCAA Tournament. That is our goal and that is where we want to get to.”
Success will begin and end with Canadian forwards Michelle Plouffe and Taryn Wicijowski. Plouffe, the two-time AP honorable mention pick, is looking to have an impact during her final year at Utah. In terms of team success, she said Monday that getting off to a strong start will be key.
“We need to do extremely well in the preseason,” Plouffe said. “Just to set us up strength-wise and confidence-wise for conference play because we know conference is going to be hard, so when we get there going in with some good preseason wins under our belt, then I think that is going to help us.”
The Utes also return sophomore guard Danielle Rodriguez, who started 35 of Utah’s 37 games as a freshman a season ago. Rodriguez said that the confidence is what is going to help the Utes qualify for an NCAA Tournament berth and she is particularly looking forward to seeing how this year’s crop of freshmen will contribute.
“[We] aren’t expecting the new girls to be good at everything,” Rodriguez said. “But I think they look a lot better than I did last year. I think that that is a good sign and our returning starters are looking solid. I think that we are going to come along really well.”
Utah has five freshmen on the roster, including Malia Nawahine out of Springville High School. As a high school senior last year, Nawahine led the Red Devils to an undefeated season and the state championship. She received many accolades as a result, including Gatorade Utah Girls Basketball Player of the Year. Nawahine’s sister, Valerie, also has joined the Utes after transferring from BYU.
Utah will hold 30 practices before its season-opening exhibition game on November 1. Although the Utes now only have one practice under their belt, Levrets said he already has an idea of what kind of team spectators are going to see this year.
“We will be good defensively no matter what. It is what we do around here,” Levrets said. “Offensively, we’ll kind of wait and see what our personality is. I think we have some skilled offensive players. Putting that concept together is going to be a process. That’s the fun of this [sport].”