The college basketball preseason is a time to throw out words like “four starters are coming back” and have everybody assume things are looking up — especially for those four starters. That’s what those around the Georgia Lady Bulldogs figured coming into this season.
The only player Georgia graduated off a 20-12 team that advanced to coach Andy Landers’ 20th consecutive NCAA tournament was point guard Khaalidah Miller.
But to Landers, it’s not that simple.
“I’ve got four people coming back who started last year,” Landers said. “It doesn’t imply that they’re going to start again. I want to throw it open. I want there to be competition. This thing of entitlement isn’t healthy when it comes to competition in major college athletics.”
Two of those players who started last season, Shacobia Barbee and Krista Donald, smiled and nodded knowingly, when asked about that Tuesday at SEC Women’s Basketball Media Day in Charlotte, N.C.
“It’s like that every year,” said Donald, a senior forward from Lake, Miss. “You don’t have a set position. You have to work for everything. That’s why freshmen are able to play a lot. It doesn’t matter the class.”
Judging by what Landers said Tuesday, though, this time it’s more than his usual preseason pep talk. He really means it.
Landers acknowledged that he would use that trick even on his Elite Eight team two years ago that featured three future WNBA draft picks.
“We knew JJ (Jasmine James) was going to start. Anne Marie (Armstrong) is going to start at (power forward). (Jasmine) Hassell was going to start. We knew all that. The message here is we have four people coming back who started last year on a team that did not meet our standards.”
The Lady Bulldogs started last season 11-0, but lost their first four SEC games on the way to a 7-9 conference record. They were knocked out of the NCAA tournament in the first round by St. Joseph’s.
“I knew we would be young,” Landers said. “And I knew that we would be inexperienced at key positions. So I wasn’t too surprised. I guess the thing that was toughest for me was the sense that everything was OK as we went through the season, even on those days and times or games when things weren’t OK. It was like, ‘Oh we’re doing all right.’ And we were. But ‘all right’ isn’t what we’re all about.”
Landers points to an influx of six new players — including four freshmen — who have a chance to change the complexion of not just the team, but the starting lineup. And those four freshmen got a head start on the season by participating in 10 extra practices, which the NCAA granted Georgia before its exhibition trip to Italy in August.
Landers calls Nasheema Oliver, a 6-foot-3 freshman from Cordele, “one of the biggest, strongest post players we’ve ever had.” He likes Mackenzie Engram’s versatility to play either forward or the center spot. He’s seen improvement in preseason practice from guard Jasmine Carter, especially on defense. And he liked Haley Clark’s quickness enough to put her squarely in the mix to replace Miller at the point, along with Marjorie Butler and Sydnei McCaskill.
“(Point guard) is the biggest question at this point,” Landers said. “But it would not surprise me if as we move along, that one of these freshmen make a surge and create an even bigger question at another position. It’s a bigger question if one of these other kids jumps up and says, ‘Hey, I deserve to start at the 4, or 5, or 3 (position)’ and you go, ‘Whoa, I’ve got to sit somebody down like that.’”
Landers nodded his head toward the table in the hotel ballroom where both Barbee, Georgia’s leading scorer and rebounder last season (12.2 points, 7.9 rebounds), and Donald, the second-leading rebounder (7.0) had sat.
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