By Jenae Mims (@jenaemims_):
The basketball season less than two weeks from now and San Jose State falls short of players who have collegiate experience. Being tied for the second youngest team in NCAA Division I women’s basketball, the team will have to find new ways to compete.
“It’s going to be a building year,” said sophomore point guard Taylor Turney. “It’s not going to be a weak building year, it’s going to be a strong competitive year.”
Concerns emerge for the young group as 12 out of 15 players are underclassmen and over half of them are freshman.
“We are teaching constantly,” said head coach Jamie Craighead. “Every second of every practice.”
Since summer, the freshmen have been adapting to the team’s culture and have spent the last six weeks in intensive training, preparing for the upcoming season.
“They are willing to put in the work to make sure this team is at its best and that we get the wins that we need to,” said senior guard Myzhanique Ladd.
Coming into this program, the freshmen know they have big shoes to fill and will have to work hard and step up to be leaders on the team.
“As much as we lack experience at this level, they have played a lot of high school basketball,” Craighead said. “They were starters for four years, they are all-conference players, state champions, national champions. I think they bring a winners mentality to our program.”
Losing seniors from the previous year is never an easy transition — especially players who once lead the team in scoring last season like Dezz Ramos (23.5 ppg) and Jasmine Smith (12.1 ppg). The team depended on these two SJSU alums for most of its offense, but now, the Spartans will be without four of five starters from 2016-17. Ladd is the only returning starter from last season.
“Age doesn’t define how we are going to play,” Ladd said. “It’s about the hard work that we are putting in right now and that we are doing in the weight room and that we did this summer.”
With only three upperclassmen on the roster, the trio will have to take on a leadership role to teach the freshman its team culture.
“I try to motivate them to do their best and give 110 percent,” Ladd said.
The Spartans will face four other Mountain West teams that are also among the youngest at the D-I level. Utah State comes in before San Jose State on the list, with 76.9 percent underclassmen and 23.1 percent freshmen on its squad.
“Everybody is good,” Craighead said. “There’s not a game on our schedule that we can pencil in a thirty point win. Which is what some of [the freshmen] are used to in high school.”
Having finished eighth in the Mountain West Conference last season, the Spartans will be up against some tough teams.
There are high hopes for this team’s future and with such raw talent, the underclassmen have time to develop their skill to excel when they become upperclassmen.
“We’re all growing together young,” Turney said. “As we get older, we’re all going to have good history on the court and know what each other does.”