Recap of the Year

[xu_fan]

I was thinking about ranting and raving about just how bad this year has been and then I thought.....

1) 4/5 starters graduate including two All Americans
2) Kevin McGuff leaves and Amy Waugh is named head coach.
3) Katie Rutan transfers
4) Taj Wilson decides not to play for whatever reason (transfer from Mich St)
5) Freshman recruit from Washington State rated in ESPN Top 100 decides not to come.
6) Transfer recruit from Arkansas (some community college) tears her ACL.
7) Liz Stratman leaves half way through the year and transfers to Butler.
8) Lynette Holmes is suspended half way through the year never to be seen again.
9) Hawkes misses three games throughout the year for unknown reasons. (home against Morehead, @Dayton, and A-10 first round against LaSalle.


Chances are I'm missing something else too. Some of the blame has to be put on Amy but being a first year coach is a hard thing and I think she has a bright future. I think Xavier made the right choice in hiring her and am looking forward to what HER teams can accomplish. This team had to work through extreme adversity with only 6-7 players the entire year. I can confidently say next year I think they will be better and much tougher. They lost a lot of close games this year that I feel could be different next year. Hopefully the incoming group can really help this program start building back up where they deserve to be.

Thanks so much to Moss and Johnson for fighting through this year! May the rest of their lives be wonderful and I hope they know they always have a Xavier family to come back home too. Hopefully the coaches get on the recruiting trail and bring in some top notch talent over the next couple of years.

:D

:logo:

[Bigbluebrotha]

Well written. When it comes down to it, these ladies gave what they had. The reality is they didn't have all that much to compete on an elite level. They split their last 10 games and showed some significant signs of progress.

Thanks to Tyeasha for her play through four years and Sabrina, who I thought gave great effort every time out.

It was a unique season for this program and it will be an odd March without NCAA tourney play.

I think the most important achievement was Waugh establishing the principles on which she will move this program forward. How many first-year coaches possess the fortitude to suspend a second leading scorer with a team clearly struggling? Same situation with Hawkes at the end of the season.

It will be interesting watching recruiting news and this program make progress in the coming seasons. A foundation has been established, I'm curious to see how high the skyscraper rises.

Thanks again ladies. Let's Go X!