Colorado State University Athletics
Women?s Basketball Preview: Exhibition Games
10/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Up Next: Women?s Basketball - Exhibition Games
Game 1: November 5 - Western State College 7 p.m. MT
Game 2: November 13 - UC Colorado Springs 7 p.m. MT
Radio: KCOL 600 AM Brian Roth - Play-by-Play. Corbu Stathes - Color Commentator
Webcast: Broadcast by Yahoo! Sports. Go to CSURams.com and click on the schedule to listen live.
Season Opener: Colorado State will kick off the season with an exhibition game against Western State College. This will also be a season opening game for Western State. This is the second meeting between the two teams, with the Rams leading the all-time series 1-0. Last season Western State finished 3-24 overall and 2-17 in the RMAC.
Fresh Faces: This year?s team welcomes two freshmen to the roster. Sara Hunter, a Fort Collins native and Casie Shepherd from Prior Lake, Minn. will be looking to make significant contributions to this year?s team.
Hunter, a 5-8 guard, played her high school ball at Rocky Mountain High School where she was a four sport athlete, lettering four years in basketball and volleyball. Hunter also lettered once in tennis and track. At Rocky Mountain she was a three-year captain and earned all-conference honors all four years. Hunter was also named Northern Conference Player of the Year once and earned All-State honors twice. In 2004 she was named All-Colorado and was a nominee for the USA Junior Olympics.
Shepherd, who joins the team as a forward, attended Prior Lake High School in Prior Lake, Minn., where she lettered in basketball three times and twice in volleyball. Shepherd earned all-conference honors three times and was named to the all-state team once. Shepard also helped lead her team to two Minnesota Conference championships as well as third and fourth place finishes in the state championship her junior and senior years, respectively. In 2003-04 she was named to the Top-20 Miss Basketball in the state of Minnesota.
New Faces on the Bench: In the offseason Coach Denker added some new faces to his staff. Replacing Krista Poehler (who took an assistant coaching position at San Diego State) is Marcy Myers. Myers graduated from Dickinson State University in 2001. At DSU, Myers played one year of basketball, after transferring from Black Hills State University. Prior to joining the staff at CSU she was an assistant coach for the basketball and volleyball teams at Chadron State College. Also joining the Rams is Ryan Johnson who was named the director of basketball operations in the offseason. His responsibilities will include coordinating team camps, as well as serving as liaison for the Slam Dunk Club. Prior to coming to Colorado State Johnson spent the last eight years as a club coach in Colorado. He has spent time working with a wide variety of athletes on the fundamentals needed to compete at the high school level. Johnson spent the the 2000-2001 season as an assistant for the Arvada West High School girl?s basketball team, where he helped the team to a Sweet 16 appearance in the Colorado State High School tournament. From 1995-1999 he was an assistant coach at Wheat Ridge High School. Johnson graduated with a bachelor?s degree from DePauw University in 1995 and a master?s degree in sports management from Denver University in 2001.
Sticking Together: In addition to adding two freshmen to the roster, the Rams also added three transfers. Sophomores Brianna Willhite and Liz Kramer join the squad after transferring from Cloud County Community College in Concordia, Kan. and juniorJustine Square joins the team after playing one year at Otero Junior College in La Junta, Colo. The duo of Kramer and Willhite led their team to a 25-7 record a year ago, including 11-5 in league. Last year Kramer was team captain and was sixth in the Jayhawk Conference in three-point field goal percentage and 10th in three point field goals made (60). Willhite averaged 13.5 points a game and was named to the All-Conference and All-Region second teams.
Season Preview: After finishing 17-12 a year ago, and making it to the WNIT tournament for the second straight year, the team will look to match and hopefully improve upon that this year. The Rams lost two letterwinners from a year ago and return a solid nucleus of players, expected to compete for a conference title. After opening the year with two exhibition games the team will play the first of 13 non-conference games it will play this season at home against San Francisco. Other notable nonconference games on the Rams? schedule this season include Notre Dame on Nov. 22 in South Bend, Ind., as well as Colorado (12/8), Oregon (12/12) and defending National Champions UConn (12/23) at Moby Arena. The Rams will return their top three scorers from a year ago, marking only the fourth time in school history that has occurred. The most recent time this occurred was in the 2000-01 season when the Rams went 25-7 overall. In the 1998-99 season the team finished 33-3 after bringing back its top three scorers and in the 1987-88 season the team went 13-15.
Venekamp Ends Career: Rams senior Ashley Venekamp returned to the roster for a short time this season, but unfortunately suffered an injury in practice the week of October 18 and has taken a medical hardship. Venekamp will remain an active member of the team.The Fort Collins native sat out much of her sophomore year and all of last year after suffering a concussion. The last game Venekamp played in was against San Diego State on February 6, 2003. She averaged 3.1 points and 17.1 minutes for her career at Colorado State.
Denker at CSU: Since arriving in Fort Collins in 2002 Head Coach Chris Denker has compiled quite a resume. At CSU his overall record is 38-25 (.603) which includes a 16-12 conference record.
Coors-Rocky Mountain Invitational: For the 10th straight year Colorado State will play host to the Coors-Rocky Mountain Invitational tournament on November 26-27. This year?s field includes Holy Cross, UAB, Iona and Colorado State. There will be two games each day, the first at 5 p.m. and the second at 7 p.m., both nights. Last year Boston College won the tournament.
Starting Five: The Rams return three starters to the lineup this year. Junior Vanessa Espinosa, who led the team in scoring (12.9) as well as free throw percentage (.810) and three point efficiency (.455) a year ago will start at point guard. Junior Melissa Dennett, who was second on the team in scoring a year ago (12.6) will start at one forward position where she will be joined by three-year starter Lindsay Thomas at the other forward spot. A year ago Thomas led the team in both rebounds(209) and shooting percentage (.519) and was third in scoring average (12.0). Coach Denker has not made a decision as to who will fill the other two starting spots.
Sharing The Scoring Load: Colorado State?s offense did not center around one player last season. In 2004, the Rams had at least three players score in double figures in 23 of the 29 games. Furthermore, on 12 separate occasions, four or more players scored in double digits. Five different players led the team in scoring during a game and seven Rams scored in double figures in at least one contest.
Post Season: In 2004, Colorado State appeared in post-season play for the seventh consecutive season. It was the second straight year the Rams were in the WNIT. Head coach Chris Denker is the second women?s basketball coach at Colorado State to lead his team to post-season play in his first two seasons at the helm. Former coach Tom Collen led CSU to the NCAA Tournament in five consecutive seasons 1997-2002.
Playing The Field: Last year Colorado State faced seven teams during the regular season (of 20) that advanced to post-season play. The Rams went 3-4 against teams in the NCAA Tournament and 1-1 against UNLV who played in the WNIT tournament. This year the Rams will again face seven teams that advanced to postseason play a year ago, including NCAA National Champions UConn. The Rams will play five teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament including: Notre Dame (11/22), Colorado (12/8), UConn (12/23), Montana (1/8) and New Mexico (2/5 and 3/3). The Rams will also face two teams that played in the WNIT postseason tournament in 2004. The Rams face Pepperdine on November 30 and will play 2004 WNIT runner-up UNLV on January 22 and February 17.
Moby Madness: Colorado State posted an 11-5 record in Moby Arena in 2003-04. It marks the seventh straight season the Rams have won double figure contests at home, but also marks the first time since 1993-94 the Rams dropped five home tilts. The previous three seasons the Rams combined for just four home losses and posted an overall record of 44-4 over that span (.917).
2003-04 Sophomore Scoring: The four sophomores on the team last season, Melissa Dennett, Vanessa Espinoza, Lindsay Thomas and center Msur Tor-Agbidye collectively averaged 42.68 points per game in the 2003-04 season. As freshmen, the quartet averaged just 15.21 points per game, an increase of 27.47 a contest. No other group has increased their scoring by more than 20 points per game from their freshman to sophomore seasons. The next closest group was Bregitta Meek, Janell Goldsberry and Jane Lange who increased their scoring by 16.06 points (9.98 as freshmen to 26.04 as sophomores). That group was freshmen in 1979-80 and sophomores in the 1980-81 season.
Block Party: Last year Colorado State recorded at least one blocked shot in the last 22 games and had at least one block in all but one game last season (Denver). The Rams combined for 95 blocks, which ranks fifth on the CSU single-season chart. The record for blocks in a season is 111 by the 1999-2000 team.
Balanced Attack: CSU had four players average double figures in scoring in Vanessa Espinoza (12.9), Melissa Dennett (12.6), Lindsay Thomas (12.0) and Joy Jenkins (10.4) in the 2003-04 season. The last time the Rams had four players end the year in double figures was 1999-2000 when Heather Haanen (12.7), Ashley Augspurger (12.2), Angie Gorton (12.1) and Jacque Johnson (10.5) led the Rams to a 23-10 record and the semifinals of the WNIT. The 2003-04 team joined 1979-80, 1981-82, 1992-93 and 1999-00 as the five teams with that kind of scoring balance.
Speed Limit = 60: Since the beginning of the 1995-96 season, the Rams are 111-9 (.925) when holding their opponents to 60 points or less in a game. The Rams were 11-3 last year when the opposition didn?t get to 61. The school record for most games in a season holding an opponent to 60 or less is 17 from the 2001-02 team.
It?s In The Assist: Since the arrival of head coach Chris Denker the Rams are 28-3 when recording at least 15 assists in a game (17-1 in 2002-03 and 11-2 in 2003-04) and are 10-22 when failing to dish the ball 15 times (4-12 in 2002-03 and 6-9 in 2003-04).
Crashing The Boards: Colorado State either recorded the same amount of rebounds or outrebounded 11 of the last 14 opponents to finish out the 2003-04 season. The Rams averaged 36.3 rebounds per game, compared to 34.3 for their opponents for a +2.0 rebounding margin.
Hitting Half: In the last two seasons, the Rams are 14-2 when shooting above .500 from the field for a game. Last season the Rams were 6-2, while the 2002-03 team was 8-0.
Queens Of The Mountain: The Rams won statistical titles in conference games in three-point field goal percentage (.362) and assists (15.50) a year ago. Individually, Melissa Dennett led in blocks with 1.29 per game.
It?s Offensive: Lindsay Thomas finished last year ranked third on the Colorado State single-season charts with 84 offensive rebounds, while Melissa Dennett tied for fourth with 74 offensive boards. The duo of Thomas and Dennett combined for 158 offensive rebounds which ranks second behind the 159 by Teresa James (87) and Misty Smith (72) from the 1993-94 season (since offensive rebounds were kept beginning in 1986-87).The single season record by an individual is 92 held by Shannon Randles from the 1996-97 team.
Made To Be Broken: Vanessa Espinoza broke the single-season record for three-point field goal percentage at CSU last year. The sophomore shot .455 from beyond the arc (50-107), which broke the old record of .440 by Elizabeth English (44-100) from 1999-2000. Espinoza also sits first in career three-point field goal percentage at .419 (62-148) (min. 75 attempts) and is 13th with 62 three-pointers made.
Tripled Up: CSU has made at least two three-pointers in its last 73 games, dating back to an 0-for-14 performance against San Diego State on Jan. 17, 2002. The Rams have also sunk at least one trey in 307 of the last 308 games, dating back to Nov. 25, 1994 against Penn.
