A Look Ahead At The 2005 Women?s Basketball Season

Click here to see the women's basketball non-conference opponents in 2005.

Post Season: Colorado State appeared in post-season play for the seventh consecutive season and 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 both 1997-98 and 1998-99.

Failing To Hit 20: For the first time in nine seasons, the Colorado State women?s basketball team did not reach 20 wins in a season. The Rams finished the year 17-12 and are the first team to miss the 20 win plateau since the 1994-95 team posted a 14-13 overall record. The eight consecutive seasons of 20-plus wins was the longest active streak in the Mountain West Conference, with the next longest being New Mexico which has hit 20 wins in the last four seasons.

Sharing The Scoring Load: Colorado State?s offense did not center around one player. The Rams had at least three players score in double figures in 23 of the 29 games and on 12 occasions four or more 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.

Starting Five: All five starters for Colorado State were honored by the league?s coaches as all-conference selections. Sophomore guard Vanessa Espinoza was named to the Second Team while sophomores Melissa Dennett and Lindsay Thomas were Third Team selections and seniors Jasai Ferrucho and Joy Jenkins were honorable mention selections.

Playing The Field: 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 which was in the WNIT. Among NCAA teams, CSU defeated Loyola Marymount and Montana, split the series with New Mexico and lost games to Boston College, Colorado and Notre Dame.

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 to lose just four home games and posted a 44-4 record over that span (.917).

Sophomore Scoring: The four sophomores on the team, Melissa Dennett, Vanessa Espinoza, Lindsay Thomas and center Msur Tor-Agbidye collectively averaged 42.68 points per game this 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 16.06 points (9.98 as freshmen to 26.04 as sophomores). That trio was freshmen in 1979-80 and sophomores for the 1980-81 season.

Block Party: Colorado State recorded at least one blocked shot in the last 22 games and had at least one block in all but one game this year (Denver). The Rams combined for 95 blocks, which ranks fifth on the CSU single-season chart. The record for blocks 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). 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. This season joins 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 this 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 just 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. 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. This season the Rams are 6-2, while last year?s 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). Individually, Jasai Ferrucho led in assists (6.86) and Melissa Dennett led in blocks with 1.29 per game.

It?s Offensive: Lindsay Thomas finished the year ranked third on the Colorado State single-season charts with 84 offensive rebounds, while Melissa Dennett tied for fourth with 74 o-boards. The record is 92 held by Shannon Randles from the 1996-97 team. The duo 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).

Made To Be Broken: Vanessa Espinoza broke the single-season record for three-point field goal percentage at CSU. The sophomore shot .455 from beyond the arc (50-107), which breaks 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.

The Long Ball: Freshman guard Annika Walseth attempted 71 three-pointers this season and just 19 two-pointers. She nailed 27 of those 71 three-point attempts for a .380 average, but was just 7-of-19 from within the arc (.368).

She?s Smart Too: Lindsay Thomas was named to the 2003-04 Verizon Academic All America Women?s Basketball Third Team. Of the 15 student-athletes honored on the first, second and third teams, Thomas is one of only two with a perfect 4.00 grade point average (Lindsay Shearer, Kent State, Integrated Mathematics). Thomas is majoring in both English and Spanish and is the second Ram in two seasons (Shannon Strecker) to be honored.

Close Count: In games decided by 10-points or less, the Rams were 4-8, however in games decided by more than 10 points, the Rams were 13-4. Since Chris Denker started at CSU, the Rams are 11-12 in games within 10 points and are 27-13 in games over 10 points.

Streaks, Milestones and Notes:
* Vanessa Espinoza and Joy Jenkins hit at least one three-pointer each in the last 14 games.
* Espinoza had at least one steal in the last 11 games.
* Espinoza made her last 13 free throws on the season.
* Espinoza scored in double figures in 11 of the last 12 games (eight straight) and scored nine points or more in the last 13 and in 27 of the 29 games.
* Ferrucho ended her career with 22 straight games with at least one rebound.
* Annika Walseth ended the year with seven straight games bringing down at least one board.
* Kylee O?Dwyer ended the year with 25 straight games with a rebound.
* Thomas has had at least one rebound all but one game in her career (62 of 63 games) and in 59 straight.
* Thomas had at least five rebounds in 10 of the last 11 games of the year.

Ball Handling: Freshman guard Molly Nohr ended with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 6.0. She dished out 18 assists and had just three turnovers in 23 games (134 minutes). Five other players had positive assist-to-turnover ratios for the season. Jasai Ferrucho (2.16 - 158a-73t), Vanessa Espinoza (1.02 - 84a-82t), Kylee O?Dwyer (1.12 - 57a-51t), Annika Walseth (1.13 - 35a-31t) and freshman guard Sara Brown (1.14 - 8a-7t) all had more assists than turnovers on the year.

Hitting The Freebies: After starting the season just 12-for-21 from the free throw line (.571), freshman forward Kylee O?Dwyer nailed 16 of her last 18 attempts (.889) and ended the year shooting .718 (28-39) from the line.

Guard Duty: Colorado State went 16-4 when the two starting guards combine for 20 or more points. The four losses came at the hands of Boston College, Colorado, Wyoming in the MWC Tournament and Creighton in the WNIT. With Vanessa Espinoza and Jasai Ferrucho combining for 20 or more, the Rams were 14-4 and were just 1-8 when the pair failed to reach the 20-point barrier.

Home Court Advantage: Since the inception of the Mountain West, Colorado State is 31-4 in Moby Arena against league opponents. The Rams posted perfect 7-0 records in 2002 and 2003 and were 6-1 in 2004. New Mexico also has a 31-4 at home over that time span.

Extremely Loyal: Colorado State has played in front of at least 1,200 fans in its last 109 games in Moby Arena, dating back to Dec. 30, 1997 against Eastern Washington where only 1,178 people were in the stands. The last game with less than 1,000 fans in Moby Arena came way back on Jan. 5, 1996 when there were 811 in the stands for a game against Idaho State -- a span of 133 games.

Sour Note: Very few teams in the country end their seasons on a positive note -- with a win. This season, the Rams lost their last three contests, marking the first time since 1992-93 a Ram team lost that many to end the season. The 1992-93 team lost its last four games and ended the year with a 13-14 overall record.

Early Signings: Colorado State signed two student-athletes to National Letters of Intent during the early signing period in Nov.:
? Sara Hunter, a 5-6 guard from Fort Collins, Colo. (Rocky Mountain High School)
? Casie Shepherd, a 6-2 forward/center from Prior Lake, Minn. (Prior Lake High School)

Thrice Honored:
*Lindsay Thomas was named Mountain West Player of the Week for the week of Jan. 11, recording a career-high 19 points and 12 rebounds vs. Montana. Thomas added 12 points and seven rebounds in just 20 minutes against IPFW, hitting 6-of-9 shots from the field. For the week, Thomas averaged 15.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, while shooting 60.9 percent (14-of-23) from the field.
*Melissa Dennett was named the Mountain West Player of the Week for the week of Dec. 15. Dennett scored a career-high 24 points at Denver. Dennett scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds in a 71-63 victory at San Francisco. For the week, Dennett averaged 19.5 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, while shooting 53.1 percent from the floor.
*Vanessa Espinoza was named co-Mountain West Conference Player of the Week along with New Mexico?s Lindsey Arndt for the week of Feb. 23. Espinoza averaged 19.0 points, 4.0 assists and 3.5 steals per game, along with shooting .522 from the field, .500 from the three-point line (5-of-10) and .818 from the free throw line. Espinoza scored a career-high 22 points against UNLV and had five steals in the contest. Against San Diego State, she led the team with 16 points and in 72 minutes of play in the two games, committed just two turnovers.

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