The 2007-08 Green Wave women's basketball team returns nine letter-winners from last season's Conference USA regular season championship squad, as Tulane will seek a second-straight appearance in the post-season.
Under the guidance of 2007 Conference USA Coach of the Year Lisa Stockton, the Green Wave finished 26-7 and advanced to the second round of the Women's National Invitation Tournament in 2006-07, the 10th time in 13 years under Stockton's leadership the Wave have reached the post-season.
Despite the departure of a pair of 1,000-point scorers and Tulane's top two leaders in points per game (Jami Montagnino, 14.3 PPG; D'Aundra Henry, 11.6 PPG), the Green Wave, picked to win Conference USA in a preseason poll of the league's coaches, will have a host of offensive options once again in 2007-08.
"The mark of a good program - not team, program - is that when you lose great players like Jami and D'Aundra, other players step in and take their place," Stockton says. "We have the players who can do that. We had good depth last year as we played a lot of players, so they are experienced. We're going to be deep again this year."
Junior point guard Ashley Langford will once again serve as floor general for the Green Wave after setting Tulane's single-season assist record for the second-straight season. Langford, a third team All-Conference USA pick out of Harrisburg, Pa., placed ninth in the NCAA in assists per game, dishing out 6.27 while scoring 7.4 points per game, already cementing her place as one of the top point guards in Tulane history.
"Ashley is the engine that makes us go," Stockton explains. "She spent a lot of time this off-season developing her game to become more of an offensive threat. You can't succeed without a point guard, and Ashley is quite possibly the best point guard we've ever had at Tulane. That's a big statement about someone who's only played for two years."
Langford, a team captain as a sophomore last season, doled out 207 assists last season, and enters 2007-08 sixth all-time in school history after just two seasons. Her ability to run the offense, see the floor and find open teammates helped the Green Wave lead Conference USA in points per game and field goal percentage. Langford's prowess also showed in crunch time, as she ranked fifth in C-USA in free throw percentage and improved her career mark to .846, which ranks second all-time at Tulane.
Most of Tulane's experienced scorers are found in the post, as Tulane returns five front-court letterwinners from last season.
Senior Alendra Brown will lock down the center position. The 6-3 New Orleans native is Tulane's top returning scorer with 8.1 points per game, and also was the Green Wave's second-leading rebounder and shot blocker in 2006-07. Brown will be relied on once again to score on the interior, where she connected at a clip of .505 last season, sinking 102 of 202 shots.
Forward Kendra Barnes, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, provides Tulane with yet another scoring option, and interior defense as Tulane's leading rebounder. The 6-2 junior led the Green Wave in field goal percentage as a sophomore in 2006-07, knocking down 52.7 percent of her shots with 58 field goals on 110 attempts.
Senior forward Dominique Philpots, who like Barnes, averaged 4.6 points per game, is also in the mix as an interior option for the Green Wave. Tulane's leading shot-blocker with 41 rejections, Philpots showed flashes of brilliance during the 2006-07 campaign, posting a career-high in rebounds in back-to-back games against Houston and Rice, and springing for a career-high 13 points in back-to-back games later versus Memphis and UAB, all Tulane victories. The Wave will seek consistency from the athletic 6-3 forward in 2007-08.
Megan Valicevic, a 5-11 forward from The Woodlands, Texas, averaged 4.2 points per game in 14.2 minutes last season, and may see time and both the four and three positions in 2007-08.
Redshirt freshman Brittany Lindsey is back from a torn labrum that kept her out last season and should see significant playing time as well. The 6-0 athletic forward from Lithonia, Ga., was an All-Atlanta Area selection in high school and should increase the Wave's mid-range and interior play.
True freshman Kiara Slaton, an all-district selection at Rockwall (Texas) High School this past season, will also push for playing time. The smooth 6-3 center/forward led Rockwall to an undefeated season and state championship as a senior after moving to Texas from Ocean Springs, Miss., in 2005
"I think we can score more points out of the post: Kendra Barnes had a great off-season. And Brittany Lindsey is a pretty big x-factor for us as well. People aren't familiar with her, but I think she will be a nice surprise for our fans."
Replacing a 1,000-point scorer and three-point threat on the wing is never easy, yet Coach Stockton can take comfort in having a returning, experienced players at guard.
"Ashley will be looked upon to score more, and we'll look to Nikki Luckhurst as well. She was a starter two years ago, and you saw what she can do in the WNIT game [16 points, on six-of-nine shooting in the second round game with Mississippi State]. Sasha Staidum has an innate ability to get to the rim and to create her own shot."
Senior guard Nikki Luckhurst, a 5-8 Duluth, Ga. native, started 23 of 27 games in 2005-06, turning in the third-most three-pointers in a season in Tulane history with 69. Luckhurst enters 2007-08 eighth on Tulane's all-time three-point percentage list, and eighth in three-pointers made with 131. She scored 6.9 points per game last season, but contributed 11.7 PPG in her starting role in 2005-06.
The Green Wave will also seek additional scoring from guard Sasha Staidum. The 5-7 junior Houma, native saw limited time last season behind Henry, Tulane's defensive stopper, but the is a capable scorer and slasher at guard, as she averaged 4.6 points per game in 12.7 minutes per contest as a freshman. This past season, she connected on 47.8 percent of her shots, driving the lane for 33 field goals.
Sophomore guards Chassity Brown and Tia Jackson will be looked upon in an increased capacity this season as well. Brown, a 5-7 product of Loyola Prep in Shreveport, La., proved her defensive prowess in the final seconds of Tulane's closest win in 2006-07. In the final seconds of the Tulane DoubleTree Classic championship against Texas-Arlington, Brown entered the game for the first time and altered the last-second shot of the Mavericks' top three-point threat to preserve a 68-65 victory.
Jackson, a 5-9 guard from Houston, Texas, appeared in 11 of Tulane's 33 games last season, chipping in 2.8 points per contest in 6.2 minutes per game.
The Green Wave will feature a trio of freshman on the perimeter, as Tiffany Aidoo, Roshaunda Barnes and Caitlin Cleveland join the Tulane program for 2007-08.
Barnes (no relation to forward Kendra Barnes), averaged 13.1 points per game and 7.1 assists per game at Southern University Laboratory in Baton Rouge. She was a first-team All-Louisiana selection and will provide depth at point guard behind Langford, as well as push for time in the two-spot.
Aidoo, a 5-9 guard from Slidell, La., played her AAU ball under Tulane assistant coach Alan Frey, winning a pair of AAU national championships. Her defensive abilities may help her push for time right away, and she also can provide long-range shooting on the perimeter as well.
Cleveland, another 5-9 guard, hails from Kenner, La., where she was an AAU teammate with Aidoo. She was an All-District and all-Metro player at Mt. Carmel under coach Mary Ann Marino, a former Tulane player under Stockton from 1993-1997.
"Every team is different, but I think our style of play will be fairly consistent with last year's team. We can run again this year," says Stockton. "Our post-players run the floor, so we can get up and get down in a hurry, and that's really what dictates how fast you can go. With Ashley running the point, we're always going to look to push the ball up-court and score in transition."
"Defensively, while our rebounding was down last season from the year before, our overall defense and points allowed was much better. We also led the conference in steals, so I wouldn't necessarily view rebound as a glaring weakness, despite the statistics. We need more rebounding from the perimeter. Our lineup last season was very small, at the one, two and three spots. We have very good rebounders on the team: Kendra Barnes s a very good rebounder, as in Dominique Philpots. Brittany Lindsey will help, Kiara Slaton will help. And Sasha Staidum is also a very good perimeter rebounder.
With plenty of weapons in her arsenal, Stockton will once again be gunning for the post-season in 2007-08.
The Green Wave will begin their defense of the C-USA regular season crown in January after a non-conference slate that features ACC opponents Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, SEC foes Alabama and LSU, as well as fellow in-state opponents as Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and Nicholls State.
