ERIC SCHMOLDT Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 12:00 am
LAS VEGAS - Megan McGuffey and Joe Legerski were anything but surprised.
One year after being selected as the preseason favorite to win the Mountain West Conference and just months after the program's first NCAA Tournament berth, the Wyoming Cowgirls were picked to finish sixth by the league's media and coaches.
"You can't really expect to get picked first right after you lose four really key players," McGuffey, a senior guard, said at Mountain West Conference Media Day on Tuesday. "You never really have any expectations of how you get picked in the polls, it's more of an expectation of how well you'll do during the season."
Utah, which received 16 of 26 first-place votes, is the favorite to win the conference. San Diego State (6 first-place votes) was predicted to finish second, followed by TCU (2), New Mexico (2) and BYU. UNLV, Colorado State and Air Force rounded out the poll.
The Cowgirls try to fill the gaps left by multi-year starters Hanna Zavecz, Justyna Podziemska, Jodi Bolerjack and Dominique Sisk, a situation that hardly went unnoticed by pollsters.
And Legerski, heading into his sixth year at UW, didn't blame them.
"To be perfectly honest, I thought that's what we would be picked," he said. "You cannot lose the amount of senior experience (that we did) and then turn it right back around.
"I understand that, and now it's up to this group to go out and determine what kind of year they want to have."
Rebecca Vanderjagt, who started 30 of 31 games, is the lone returning starter from a team that went 24-7 last year, but that doesn't mean the Cowgirls don't have experience.
Fellow senior Elisabeth Dissen has 35 career starts - 34 of them coming in the 2006-07 campaign.
McGuffey averaged more than 15 minutes a game last year and has started 18 of the 95 games in which she's played. And Aubrey Vandiver has come off the bench in 67 games and averaged more than 22 minutes a game last year as a sophomore.
Now they will all be expected to assume more responsibilities.
"The difference is … they're going to have to change their role," Legerski said. "In the past, they've always been a support player and now they've got to be able to come out and give us some more points.
"We have 24 points returning, and you're not going to win many games with 24 points."
But if there's one thing that UW's leaders know, it's how to win.
They've never been a part of a Cowgirl team that's won fewer than 21 games.
"The three years that I've been here, we've been very successful, so I'd like to think that now the mentality at UW is kind of, 'We're here to win,'" McGuffey said. "I know it's not always been that in the past, and that's a huge tribute to Coach Joe and his staff.
"Every year, we want to win and we want to play in postseason."
A sixth-place spot in the preseason polls wasn't that shocking.
But - despite three straight postseason berths - it set the stage of making a fourth appearance a little more of a surprise.
Contact sports reporter Eric Schmoldt at (307) 266-0578 or eric.schmoldt@trib.com.
COWGIRLS TRACKER
TUESDAY: The Wyoming Cowgirls were predicted to finish sixth by the Mountain West Conference media and coaches in the league's preseason poll.
HOLES TO FILL: UW returns just one starter from last year's team that went 24-7 and made its first NCAA Tournament appearance.
HE SAID IT: "To be perfectly honest, I thought that's what we would be picked. You cannot lose the amount of senior experience (that we did) and then turn it right back around." - UW coach Joe Legerski.
ZAVECZ'S ALL-DECADE: The MWC also released its basketball 10th Anniversary Teams on Tuesday, and former Cowgirl Hanna Zavecz was one of 10 players honored.
MWC PRESEASON POLL
School (first-place votes) Points
1. Utah (16) 206
2. San Diego State (6) 184
3. TCU (2) 161
4. New Mexico (2) 148
5. BYU 117
6. Wyoming 113
7. UNLV 80
8. Colorado State 44
9. Air Force 36
MWC PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM
Paris Johnson, So., C, San Diego State
Jene Morris, Jr., G, San Diego State
Helena Sverrisdottir, So., F, TCU
Morgan Warburton, Sr., G, Utah
Kalee Whipple, Jr., F, Utah
Preseason Player of the Year: Morgan Warburton, Sr., G, Utah
Preseason Newcomer of the Year: Eboni Mangum, Jr., G, TCU
Preseason Freshman of the Year: Kristen Riley, F, BYU