Women’s Basketball Preview: "We’re young, but we’re talented."

UCLA women’s basketball head Coach Kathy Olivier (pictured with forward Lindsey Pluimer) feels like a chess player who doesn’t have to settle for playing checkers any more. She finally has plenty of pieces she can move around the board.

"It’s been very competitive within," she said at today’s Pac-10 Regional Media Day in the Press Room of the Morgan Center on campus. The 2007-08 Bruins return only one senior and two juniors and have a six-member freshman class that has been rated as high as fourth in the nation. "And I think that’s a plus; we haven’t had that in a long time. In years past, it’s been very obvious who the starters would be and this year, it’s kind of up in the air right now.

"They are very coachable girls that are here. They are excited to be at UCLA. They’re extremely competitive. They have a good time together because there are six of 'em; they kind of run as a pack. We’re young, but we’re talented."

Olivier said that like men’s Coach Ben Howland, defense will be emphasized first this season. "We’re talking more about our defense than we have talked about in the past, because I felt we were more offensively minded last year. It’s whoever plays the defense is going to be on the floor and we’re going to play uptempo defense [and] mix it up a little.

"We’re focused on bringing it every game, at the same level, regardless of who we play. We really want to set the tone of how we play this year. In years past, we didn’t have as much depth. I think people know they were going to play regardless if they were having a bad night, they still knew they were going to play. With this team, what I have really enjoyed is having the depth and saying, ‘OK, it’s not your day, it’s someone else’s day.' "

One freshman who will have an immediate impact is 6-3 center Regina Rogers from Chief Sealth High in Seattle. "I’ve been calling her Lady Shaq," said Olivier. "I just think she’s a post player with a point guard’s mentality, which is very nice to have: a quick thinker, fun to play with, sees the floor well. And a banger. She banged around one of our scout guys; he hasn’t been banged in three years [and he was saying] like ‘what is going on?’ So that was entertaining and that was great."

Returning senior forward Lindsey Pluimer (15.5 points per game last season) will be co-captain with sophomore guard Erica Tukiainen (2.8 ppg). "The freshmen have come in and really stepped up everything and are at a whole different level," said Pluimer. "I think we have a great chemistry this year, which is very important. I don’t think we had that as much last year. I think our youth is going to be helpful in a lot of areas."

Tukiainen agreed: "Our team chemistry is completely different, both on and off the court. In the summertime we already started clicking when we were playing pickup and that’s really exciting. We have the chemistry and we have a lot of talent and when you put the chemistry and talent together you can do a lot of big things."

Asked about what this year’s team can achieve after last season’s senior-laden team went 14-18, Olivier was enthusiastic. "When you’re at UCLA, your goal is always to get to the NCAA Tournament. If you’re not talking like that, you shouldn’t be at a school like UCLA. We did not get to the tournament last year, we got there the year before. This year our goal is to finish in the top of the Pac-10 and the Pac-10 has three teams [Stanford, California, Arizona State] ranked in the top 15. We want to finish in the top three in the Pac-10."

Olivier wasn’t shy about crediting Howland for some of her emphasis on defense, or embracing the high profile of Bruin basketball. "I mean he’s great. He works very well with the women, he’s totally into the gender-equity deal, we share Pauley with them. I’ve learned a lot from him.

"I’ve sat in on his practices a number of times and I think the thing that he told me is transition defense, you got to get that done, these are things that I’ve taken from Ben. I think he’s a master of scheduling. The guy does a great job in his non-conference schedules and a great job with his team as far as overall team defense. We picked it up a level as far as the demanding, get it done, you’re at UCLA, it’s a high level of basketball, be proud of that and step it up. And he’s the epitome of that."

The Bruin lineup isn’t settled other than Pluimer at one forward and Tukiainen at one guard, with UCLA opening its exhibition season tomorrow night at Pauley Pavilion against Team Concept -– including former Bruins Noelle Quinn, Nikki Blue and Natalie Jarrett -– with tipoff at 7:05 p.m.

Kathy Olivier and Lindsey Pluimer photo courtesy of UCLA.

Comments

[silverlake bruin]

She's been here for at least 10 years, and has never had a team that hasn't underacheived.

[Bruintechie]

S.B., I agree, if UCLA held women's BB to the same level as men's she should have been gone with Lavin. Either she's not that great of a head coach or the folks in Morgan Center have not been giving her the support she's needed. She's been here for 15 years and only has a .528 win percentage (Steve-o has a .650 record). The best the team has done was an elite 8 appearance 8 years ago. Sure there is a great amount of parity in women's BB, but there also tends to be dynasties which also tend to be from schools with elite men's BB, UConn and Tennessee come to mind.