With the change of the seasons and the weather comes a change in sports. Soccer season is at an end and sports fans look toward basketball to get their fill. The regular-season games will start this Friday when the Billiken women take on Youngstown State at the Bauman-Eberhardt Center at 7 p.m. This is just the first game in a long, grueling schedule the Bills will have to face.
The preseason coaches poll for the Conference USA has the Bills in 14th place out of 14. The Bills finished last season with the conference record of 2-12 and an overall record of 8-19.
The Bills look to improve their record this year as they bring eight new players to the team, six of whom are freshmen–Brittany Artis, Jackie Gilbert, Mia Johnson, Heather King, Hayley Leake, and Kerri Rap–one transfer, junior Marquita McFarland, and sophomore Rachel Diener, who is coming off a two-year knee injury. Six players return from last year, but for the first few weeks at least, three of them will be sitting out due to injuries: Krystle Hatton with a knee injury and Tyler McIlwraith and Cara Young with foot injuries.
The lone senior, Ava Smith, is expected to be somewhat of a leader with all of her experience playing at the college level.
"We expect Ava to understand and relate to the younger players that it takes hard work and that winning does not come easy. You have to play hard and know how you want to play to win," Coach Jill Pizzotti said.
Sophomores Yanique Javois and Julie Handley complete the trio of un-injured returnees and will be counted on this season as well.
The team may be young but they show a lot of promise. The positions on the starting lineup are still up for grabs and it could be anyone's spot.
"The point guard spot is really competitive and up for grabs between Hayley, Ava and Jackie," Coach Pizzotti said. "Mia, Yanique and Brittany are battling for the wing position, and with Rachel Diener picking up her defense and when Tyler gets better, it could be anyone's spot. The post position is our most solid spot with Marquita and Heather King vying for the position, but even Kerri Rapp got in the exhibition games and is skilled in the inside game."
Pizzotti is also excited about the depth the team has and isn't too focused on starting positions. "Whoever is playing better that night will play more and the girls know that," Pizzotti said. "It doesn't matter who starts the game, it matters more who finishes it."
Each of the freshman players are adapting well to college play and according to coach Pizzotti are "learning that it's not as easy as it once was." However, the players are "working hard and coming early to practice and get with the coaches and are trying to improve their game," Pizzotti said.
The team may be young, but so far, the coaches like what they see. "I feel good about who we have to work with," Pizzotti said. "They come in with a desire to learn and lots of hard work. They want to be good players and a good basketball team."
One of the non-conference games that will pose a challenge for the Bills is on Dec. 12. The Bills will travel down to Nashville, Tenn. to play the 13th-ranked Vanderbilt. "We play a tough schedule and have a few tough games on the road, at Vanderbilt and at Missouri, but we will prepare the best we can and be ready to play," Pizzotti said.
The Bills' first regular-season game will be this Friday as they face off against Youngstown State. Next weekend, Nov. 26, the Billikens host the Coca-Cola Billiken Classic and will play Alabama A&M and Austin Peay. League play for the Bills will start Jan. 7 when the Bills travel to Charlotte to play. The first home C-USA game will be on Jan. 14 as the Bills take on Southern Miss.
While the goal of every team is to make it to the postseason in March, the Billikens have other goals as well. "It's important to fulfill your potential in all areas," Pizzotti said. "Success is working hard and fulfilling our potential and being the best we can be in all areas of life."
This is Pizzotti's 10th year coaching at SLU and was the first women's coach to lead the team to the first postseason bid to the WNIT tournament in 2003. She is surrounded by assistant coaches Ty Evans, in his third season, Tony Francis, in his third season, and newcomer Zoey Artist, who last season was a graduate assistant coach at West Virginia University and, before that, played four years at Eastern Kentucky University. While the Bills have a long season ahead of them, the focus is on the now. "We just want to get better each day," Pizzotti said. "We woke up today and said 'let's get better today and then the games will just take care of themselves.'"
