But as the Florida Gulf Coast University women’s basketball team gets ready to tip off a brand new season with eight new players, the question is: Are opponents in for a steady downpour or intermittent showers?
Head coach Karl Smesko — whose Eagles open the 2018-19 season Friday night at South Dakota State — will look to his six returning players, particularly juniors Tytionia Adderly and Nasrin Ulel and redshirt senior Lisa Zderadicka, to help the newcomers.
“They know what’s going on,” said Smesko, who lost five players from the 2017-18 squad that went 31-5 (including 13-1 in the Atlantic Sun Conference), reached the second round of the NCAA tournament and set a Division I single-season record for most 3-pointers in a season (431). “Lisa, Nas and Ty all played a lot last year, so our new players are looking to them and saying, ‘Hey, do we do things here?’ And they need to be somebody that helps connect a message from the coach to the team and help their fellow teammates pick things up so that practice goes the way it’s supposed to.”
Having lost five players to graduation from last year’s team (including a rare sixth-year senior in Taylor Grandijan), Smesko’s revamped roster includes five transfer players and three freshmen. Four of the transfers — redshirt sophomore Kerstie Phills (Wagner College), redshirt juniors Davion Wingate (Stony Brook University) and Keri Jewett-Giles (University of Southern Mississippi) and redshirt freshman Tyra Cox (College of William & Mary) — sat out last season per the NCAA’s transfer rule and will be making their FGCU debuts.
“It’s good to have the whole team working together, and we had a chance to work together for the last couple of weeks,” said Smesko, who’s entering his 17th season as FGCU’s program-founding coach with a 435-87 record (including a 303-66 mark since FGCU became a Division I program in 2007). “We’re seeing a little bit of progress, which is encouraging. We still have a long way to go. We have a lot of new players and getting them up to speed on everything we do, it takes some time, but we’re working at it. We’re watching a lot of film, getting out on the floor and getting a lot of reps in and hopefully, we’re getting some progress in.”
FGCU, which finished last season ranked 25th in the USA Today Coaches Poll, punched its ticket to the 2018 NCAA tournament after defeating Jacksonville for the A-SUN championship, its fifth in program history. Traveling to the West Coast for the Stanford Regional, the Eagles upset fifth-seeded Missouri in the first round before falling to fourth-seeded Stanford.
During the 2017-18 season, FGCU defeated three top 25 teams: DePaul (No. 21), Kentucky (No. 20) and Missouri (No. 17). The Eagles were also ranked No. 1 in both the CollegeInsider.com and ESPNW mid-major polls.
FIVE PLAYERS TO WATCH
1. Tytionia Adderly, Jr., Forward: Averaging seven points and almost nine rebounds per game last season, Adderly is third all-time at FGCU in offensive boards with 237. The Jupiter product can pass Adrianne McNally (240) and possibly Sarah Hansen (329) in the program record book.
2. Lisa Zderadicka, Sr., Guard: Originally from Vienna, Austria, Zderadicka is the first two-year graduate transfer in FGCU women’s basketball history. After transferring from Houston Baptist, she played primarily off the bench last season and averaged 7.6 points and 1.2 steals per game.
3. Erna Normil, Jr., Guard/Forward: Normil has two years of eligibility remaining after spending her freshman and sophomore years at nearby Florida Southwestern State College. The Lake Worth product and two-time FSCAA first-team All-Southern Conference selection averaged 15 points and 6.1 rebounds a game at FSW.
4. Tanner Bryant, Fr., Guard/Forward: A native of Washington Court House, Ohio, Bryant had 1,256 career points at Miami Trace High School, where she earned 18 awards and recognitions. She led her team to three league championships, an undefeated league season, two sectional championships and one regional championship.
5. Destiny Washington, Sr., Guard/Forward: A grad student, Washington-Mabon comes to FGCU as a double transfer with one year of eligibility remaining. A native of Indianapolis, she spent her freshman year at Loyola-Chicago before transferring to Ball State for her redshirt sophomore and junior years. Washington-Mabon averaged 9.2 points per game at her previous stops.
FIVE GAMES TO WATCH
1. vs. Stanford (Nov. 23): FGCU gets a rematch against the Cardinal at the Rainbow Wahine Showdown in Honolulu. After beating FGCU, 90-70, to reach the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16, the Cardinal were eliminated by Louisville to finish the season with a 24-11 record.
2. At Duke (Dec. 30): This will be the first matchup of a home and home series — FGCU will host Duke in 2019-20. The Blue Devils went 24-9 last season, losing to Connecticut in the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16.
3. At South Dakota State (Nov. 9): The Eagles’ season-opening road date with the Jackrabbits will be the third time these two teams have met. (FGCU is 2-0, winning on Dec. 29, 2013, and on the same date last year.)
4. vs. Florida Memorial (Nov. 12): The Eagles open their home schedule against the Lions, an NAIA school that plays in The Sun Conference (which also includes Collier County-based Ave Maria University). The game will be dubbed as a season/exhibition game, meaning it will count as a season game for FGCU, but an exhibition for Florida Memorial. The Eagles have won all 10 of their previous meetings with the Lions.
5. vs. Liberty (Jan. 6): FGCU and the home crowd at Alico Arena welcome Liberty to the Atlantic Sun in the conference opener for both teams. The Flames, whose campus is in Lynchburg, Va., left the Big South Conference to join the ASUN.
FGCU’S FIVE KEYS TO VICTORY
1. Spread the floor.
2. Keep the tempo balanced (not too slow, but not too fast).
3. Communicate between plays.
4. Smart decisions (passes and shots).
5. Box Out.
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