Oct. 12, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Seven months after its dramatic run to the second round of the 2000 NCAA Tournament, the Western Kentucky University women's basketball team will hit the floor once again with its first practice of the 2000-01 season at 11:30 a.m. (CDT) Saturday at E.A. Diddle Arena. All Lady Topper practice sessions will be open to the media and the general public.
Fourth-year head coach Steve Small has seven letterwinners and two starters back in the fold from last season's 22-10 unit which finished second in the Sun Belt Conference. Leading the way is two-time all-conference forward and 1999-2000 All-America selection ShaRae Mansfield (Louisville, Ky./Manual HS). The 6-2 senior has already caught the nation's attention this year, picking up preseason All-America honors from two major national publications -- Street & Smith's and Women's Basketball Journal. Last season, Mansfield led the Sun Belt and ranked among the NCAA leaders in scoring (18.5 ppg), rebounding (10.6 rpg) and field goal percentage (.556), and also placed second in the country with 22 double-doubles.
In addition to the corps of returning veterans, Western boasts six newcomers, including four of the top eight high school players from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Freshmen guards Jamie Truitt (Owensboro, Ky./Apollo HS) and Camryn Whitaker (Cynthiana, Ky./Harrison County HS) were USA Today honorable mention All-America choices last season, and both were all-state and Kentucky All-Star selections. In June, Whitaker set a new Kentucky-Indiana All-Star Series record with 14 assists in one game, breaking the mark held by former Purdue standout and consensus All-American Stephanie White.
"We are anxious to get started with practice and see what kind of team we have," Small said. "We have a good group of returning players this season and our job will be to see that those players mesh with our newcomers. These new players will need some time to get adjusted to our system, but we expect all of them to make significant contributions to our program this year."
The Lady Toppers have put together a strong docket for the 2000-01 campaign. Of Western's first 11 games this season, eight will come against teams which qualified for the postseason a year ago. The Lady Toppers will open the regular season Nov. 17 at 6:30 p.m. (CDT) against defending West Coast Conference champion Pepperdine at the Hawaiian Regent Classic in Honolulu.
Perennial top-10 power Louisiana Tech, two-time WNIT selection Arkansas State, and Florida International figure to be Western's main Sun Belt rivals as the newly-created 12-team league splits in two divisions for the first time in its history.
