Oct. 11, 2011
By Gregg Bell - UW Director of Writing He's got one already in his first preseason at UW.
The Huskies' new coach has started installing his in-your-face defense, rugged rebounding and run, run and run some more offense. He's been doing it since a head-start summer trip to Scandinavia for exhibition games, in fact.
And he will do it all season without do-it-all guard Kristi Kingma.
The all-conference scorer and team leader is lost for the entire 2011-12 schedule with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. She sustained the injury while jump stopping on a baseline drive in the third game of that Scandinavian tour.
"I feel really badly for Kristi. She's worked incredibly hard since I've been here. She had a great summer," McGuff said. "Wherever we've been as a team in the past, she's been a big part of it. So it hurts. It also hurts from a leadership standpoint. She's a great kid. She's got great character and she has tremendous leadership skills. So we've got some work to do.
"But I still like how the team has responded. And there will be no excuses, for sure. It doesn't change who we are going to be as a defensive team. And on offense, we are going to have to get more balance than we've had in the past."
He doesn't mean just having the scoring spread across more players. Kingma averaged 15.6 points per game while UW went 11-17 and tied for sixth in the Pac-10 last season. The only other scorer to average in double figures was Regina Rogers (10.0 points per game).
McGuff also wants the Huskies to score more equally inside and out. That means sophomore guard Mercedes Wetmore will get more chances to create on her daring drives through the lane. That means more opportunities for Mackenzie Argens, a 6-foot-3 forward-center who can run like a guard again now that her knee problems are in the distant past.
It means forward Mollie Williams will get chances inside to be more than the leading rebounder she was for much of last season.
Yes, opportunities abound - which, of course, is why McGuff took the Huskies job.
The former assistant at Notre Dame for six years went to two Final Fours and to the 2001 national championship with the Fighting Irish. He then turned Xavier from a sub-.500 program in 2002 into a national power in his first head job. The Musketeers were ranked in the top five each of the last two seasons at the private school in Cincinnati, and worthy of a No. 2 seed in last spring's NCAA tournament.
"I'm really excited the challenge of a new program and helping a group reach its potential," he said Tuesday at the team's annual media day. "I stay focused on what our process is like. I don't allow myself to think, `What if.'... I just try to stay focused on what we accomplish on a daily basis.
"It's been fun, because the players are really receptive."
That process and his program have a simple basis, one that is already displaying itself a full month before the Nov. 11 opener against UC Davis.
These Dawgs are running.
"We are going to be a tough defensive team, a gritty rebounding team. And we are going to run a fast-break offense," McGuff promised.
Rogers is one of four seniors who will lead these running Huskies this season. And she is one McGuff will call upon to increase her scoring with Kingma missing.
This is four times as many seniors as Washington had last season, when Sarah Morton was the lone top classman.
"I mean, this year feels so different," Rogers said. "I feel like we get to start our season with a fresh start. And I think our senior class is so great. We've been through so much with the change of coaches."
Rogers has changed, too. She's been beset by injuries since transferring home from UCLA in 2008, and was limited to 18 games and no starts last season while never fully recovering from a torn hamstring. But she says she is in as good of shape now as she's been in her college career, thanks to all that running McGuff has had his Huskies doing.
"We're constantly running," the 6-foot-3 center said. "I can't help but be in shape."
McGuff can't help but be excited with the opportunity for growth this season.
"We have a long way to go to be the team I think we are capable of being. It's certainly going to be a long process," he said.
"But I really like the group. I'm excited."
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