Wednesday, October 20, 1999

Wahine looking
for right chemistry

The Hawaii women's basketball
team must deal with high expectations

By Al Chase
Star-Bulletin

The preseason conditioning is over. The informal pickup games are finished. One month from yesterday the University of Hawaii women's basketball team opens its 1999-2000 season.

Ten veterans and five newcomers have four weeks of practice to really get to know each other on the court. They must meld into a cohesive unit capable of living up to the lofty prediction made by Western Athletic Conference coaches in their preseason poll. They picked the Wahine to win the conference title.

But, while the Wahine are absorbing the X's and O's of offense and defense, they need to develop something more important -- team chemistry.

"It's a two-way thing. The veterans have to be willing to show the newcomers the way. The way meaning work ethic, this is how hard you practice," said UH head coach Vince Goo. "The newcomers need to accept constructive criticism or the praise from the older people. It's always like that."

After just three days of practice, it's too early to say how that chemistry is developing. Goo says after a couple of weeks, the coaches will have a pretty good idea.

"As coaches, we say this is the way it's going to be and they better accept it. The veterans have. They're still here," Goo said.

The Wahine will be bigger this season, but probably not as quick as the previous two years.

There is depth at every position except point guard. Filling the spot owned by BJ Itoman for three seasons is the biggest question mark for the coaches.

Senior Maj Forsberg and sophomore Ki'i Vasconcellos return. Walk-on Michelle Gabriel is in the mix. But in the early practices, senior Kyla Evers, a wing player for three years, has looked good at the point.

"We need someone to run the offense and be a leader on defense. She doesn't have to score a lot of points," Goo said.

The other four positions should be able to take care of the necessary point production.

Hawaii is loaded at the wings (2 and 3 positions). There's All-WAC first team and All-WAC Newcomer from two seasons ago Kylie Galloway, a junior; All-WAC Pacific Division Player of the Year from last season, senior Raylene Howard, and junior Crystal Lee, sophomore Kate McMeeken-Ruscoe, sophomore Karena Greeny, and Evers.

None of them will have to play the power forward or post positions as they did in the past.

Three newcomers, 6-foot-2 junior Autumn Johnson, 6-5 freshman Christen Roper and 6-4 junior Dainora Puida, are vying for the post position.

Hedy Liu, a 5-11 senior, 6-1 sophomore Aina Kohler and 6-2 freshman Natasja Allen are the candidates for the power forward spot.

Goo was quick to point out that players at the post and forward are interchangeable and the same is true for the wing positions.

As for the X's and O's, Goo said the man defense and the match-up zone will be in before the first game.

"We will have about two-thirds of the offense in. We'll add to the offense as we go along and just before conference," he said. "We'll see what the strengths are in the first 12 games and that will dictate our offense.

"We won't have full-court pressure for 40 minutes like we did with BJ, so we'll be working more with half-court situations."

Right now Goo is willing to say that Howard, Galloway and Puida will start.

That leaves the power forward and point guard positions up for grabs.

Decision time isn't far away because a starting unit has to begin working together soon.