MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – With all the doubt, questions and general apprehension that have hung over the world for the past eight months, here's something to rely upon: Central Michigan women's basketball.
The Chippewas return all five starters as they chase their fifth-consecutive Mid-American Conference championship and a fourth-straight NCAA Tournament berth under second-year coach Heather Oesterle.
They open the season on Wednesday (12:30 p.m.) at 25th-ranked Michigan.
"We can be very special, but we have to be starving to be special," said Oesterle, who last year was named the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year. "I don't think we're there; we have a long way to go. We have the pieces in place to be very good … it's about getting better every day and having the hunger to get better."
The leader of leaders, so to speak, is senior guard Micaela "Twin" Kelly, the reigning MAC Player of the Year who is on the Nancy Lieberman Award (top point guard) Watch List and is 23rd on ESPN's list of the nation's top 25 players. She enters the season with 1,529 career points and, barring injury, could become just the third player in program history to surpass the 2,000-point mark.
"She's on a mission this year," Oesterle said. "She wants to play at the next level and I totally think she's going to get there.
"She's just an unbelievable teammate. Not only is she a great player, but she's a good leader for our program. Everybody looks up to her and I talk to her a lot about her position, not only on the team, but in the community, on campus – she's embraced that role. … She's a really humble kid that embraces her role, but is also on a mission to get better and help our team win."
Guard Maddy Watters and 6-foot center Jahari Smith are each entering their third year as starters, while forward Kyra Bussell and guard Molly Davis are each entering their second.
Davis and Bussell each averaged 14-plus points per game last season, and Bussell was the Chippewas' top rebounder (7.0 rpg). Davis earned Second Team All-MAC honors, while Bussell was named to the third team.
Smith, Oesterle said, has made tremendous strides in the offseason.
"She's just taken everything to a whole other level," she said.
Juniors Sophia Karasinski, a forward, and Kalle Martinez along with redshirt sophomore Anika Weekes, also return and all three expect to fill expanded roles. Weekes, who, like Martinez, is a guard, was granted a medical redshirt last season.
"I'm excited because I think we have a little bit more depth this year," Oesterle said. "We can throw a lot of different looks at people."
Oesterle will bring along a quartet of freshmen in 6-2 Maryama Turkstra, 6-1 Rachel Loobie, 5-10 Carlee Crabtree, and 6-1 Sydney Graber. They join a program that is a combined 123-40 since the beginning of the 2015-16 season, including 77-13 in MAC play, and has established itself as a mid-major power over the past decade.
"Yes, the five starters have a lot of experience together, but now it's about blending everybody," Oesterle said. "We're still building the chemistry with people coming off the bench so that we don't skip a beat.
"I think every year it trickles down so it's like, 'Here's the expectations for the program.' That doesn't change; we don't want to have a rebuilding year, it just keeps going and I think our leaders have done a good job of passing that down to the freshmen and sophomores."
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Chippewa Women: Plenty Of Potential, Many High Hopes - Central Michigan University Chippewas
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