Oct. 31, 2000
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Cassovia Bardejov (Slovakia) at San Diego State
DAY/DATE: Friday, Nov. 3, 2000
PLACE: Cox Arena at Aztec Bowl, San Diego, Calif.
TIME: 7 p.m. PST
WEBCAST: None. However, all 27 regular-season games, plus all postseason action, can be heard via the internet at www.goaztecs.com. For the seventh season, Bill Earley will handle the play-by-play duties with Tammy Blackburn and Dan Lawton providing the analysis.
Storyline
* The San Diego State women's basketball team opens its 2000-01 season this Friday at 7 p.m., when the Aztecs host Cassovia Bardejov of Kosice, Slovakia, in a preseason exhibition contest at Cox Arena.
* The game is the first of two preseason exhibitions for the Aztecs. SDSU hosts the NWBL All-Stars in exhibition No. 2 on Sunday, Nov. 12, at 3 p.m.
* The Aztecs split their two exhibitions last year, knocking off the NWBL USA Elite, 68-60, before falling to SBC Prerov of the Czech Republic, 54-46.
A Quick Look at the Aztecs
* San Diego State finished the 1999-00 season 9-19 overall, 4-10 Mtn. West (T-6th).
* The Aztecs return just five letterwinners from last year's final eight-player roster, however four of the five started at least 24 games, including leading scorer and Mountain West Conference all-newcomer team selection Jamey Cox. SDSU's three other returning starters are: senior forward Anita Bundage, junior forward Atim Otii, and senior guard Shannon Lee.
* The Aztecs will also welcome back for the 2000-01 campaign a pair of players in senior Sophia Sledge and junior Claire Swinbank that missed last year's regular season after opening the 1999-00 exhibition schedule as starters.
* Six newcomers (five eligible for 2000-01) have been added to the SDSU roster, including three junior college transfers, giving the Aztecs a total of 13 available players heading into Friday's game. That number is a far cry from last years opening day roster, which totaled just eight.
SAN DIEGO STATE AT A GLANCE
Probable Starters (1999-00 Statistics)No. Name Pos. Ht. Cl. Hometown Ppg. Rpg. Min.53 Anita Bundage F 5-11 Sr.-3V Conroe, Texas 8.4 6.6 36.340 Tanisha Knight F 6-0 Jr.-JC Long Beach, Calif. N/A N/A N/A50 Atim Otii C 6-0 Jr.-2V Denver, Colo. 8.1 5.0 31.612 Claire Swinbank G 5-8 Jr.-1V Georgetown, Texas 5.3^ 1.6^ 19.7^ 4 Sophia Sledge G 5-8 Sr.-3V Santee, Calif. 10.7^ 10.8^ 27.2^^1998-99 Statistics. Player missed entire 1999-00 season.
Complete Roster (1999-00 Statistics)No. Name Pos. Ht. Cl. Hometown Ppg. Rpg. Min.15 Shannon Lee G 5-9 Sr.-3V Pasadena, Calif. 5.7 5.9a 31.820 Jamey Cox G 5-7 So.-1V Waterloo, Iowa 13.7 2.2 37.524 Nicolette McCartny C/F 6-2 Fr.-HS Chicago, Ill. N/A N/A N/A25 Missy Schomaker F/G 6-1 Jr.-JC Lincoln, Neb. N/A N/A N/A35 Nicole Bemi-Morrison G 5-9 So.-SQ Ipswich, Australia 2.4 0.7 6.942 Julie Wood C/F 6-3 Fr.-HS Culpeper, Va. N/A N/A N/A50 Morgan Vargas C 6-4 Jr.-JC Riverside, Calif. N/A N/A N/A52 Andrea Kiesling C 6-3 So.-1V Helena, Mont. 1.8 2.1 8.4
Scouting Report -- Cassovia Bardejov (Slovakia)
* Cassovia Bardejov, which hails from the town of Kosice, Slvakia, is the 1999-00 Slovak Cup Champion and a fourth-place finisher at the '99-00 Slovak national championship.
* Friday's game against the Aztecs will be the second in a nine-game American tour for the team. Cassovia Bardejov opens its U.S. slate on Friday, Nov. 2 at Pepperdine University in Malibu. The squad will also face UC Santa Barbara, UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Northern Arizona, Arizona State, Arizona and Grand Canyon University during its tour.
Cassovia Bardejov Roster
No. Name Pos. Ht. 5 Vladimira Brigoua G 5-8 6 Katarina Timkova G 5-8 8 Jana Paulickova G 5-10 9 Zuzana Jarcuskova G 5-1010 Alzbeta Czakova C 6-411 Ivana Jalcova F 5-1112 Olga Korovina F 5-1113 Zuzana Skuarekova F 6-115 Jana Madajova C 6-216 Ceilla Szaboova F 5-11
Recapping 1999-00
* The clich? "close but no cigar" never more aptly described a team than the 1990-00 Aztecs. Though San Diego State finished the season with an 9-19 mark (4-10 Mtn. West, T-6th), the Aztec were 5-10 in games decided by 10 points or less, including six of their 10 league losses. The Aztecs also posted a number of impressive wins during 2000, including a sweep of WNIT semifinalist Colorado State and a win over NCAA Tournament participant Montana.
* Of SDSU's nine wins last year, seven were decided in the final 5:00, including a pair that saw the Aztecs score the deciding points with less than 30 seconds to play. Shannon Lee provided the late-game heroics versus UNLV and Montana, scoring the final points of both contests.
* San Diego State's defensive effort proved to be key in 1999-00. The Aztecs finished fourth in the MWC in scoring defense last season. In its nine wins, SDSU limited opponents to 34 percent shooting (171-502), including just 20 percent (31-152) from beyond the arc. SDSU also held nine opponents under 52 points, winning eight of those games, and limited five of its 20 opponents to their lowest point total of the year: Air Force (38), Indiana State (39), Colorado State (51), TCU (51), UNLV (52). The Aztecs won all five games, plus a 51-49 victory over Montana -- the Lady Griz's second lowest point total of the season.
Head Coach Barb Smith
* Armed with a new contract, SDSU head coach Barb Smith is in her fourth season on Montezuma Mesa and owns a career record of 26-53 (.329). Prior to taking over as SDSU's fifth head coach in 1997, Smith spent nine years as the top assistant at Colorado. During her tenure at CU, the Buffaloes won an average of 24 games per season, five Big 8 Conference championships and made eight NCAA Tournament appearances. She is a 1986 graduate of Ohio State, where she was a four-year starter at point guard and led the Buckeyes to three NCAA berths.
New to You
* The Aztec women's basketball program has added two new coaches and a director of basketball operations for 2000-01. Joining the staff are assistant coaches Trisha Sears, previously at Oregon State, and Dana McGraw, formerly at Chicago State. Anthony Turner, who most recently served as a student assistant at Colorado, has been added to Barb Smith's staff in the newly-created position of director of basketball operations.
Notable Newcomers
* Six newcomers have been added to the SDSU roster, including three junior college transfers. JC transfer Missy Schomaker, who can play both guard and forward, is a two-time all-Jayhawk Conference and NJCAA all-Region 6 selection and is the most decorated among the new group heading to Montezuma Mesa. Tanisha Knight, a slashing forward, just may be the best pure athlete of the class, while coaches love both the size and potential of post players Morgan Vargas (Riverside/New Mexico JC) and Nicollette McCartney (Chicago, Ill./Hersey HS). Also joining the Aztecs for 2000-01 are Division 1-transfer Tynisha King (Moreno Valley/UNC Asheville) and freshman walk-on Julie Wood (Culpeper, Va./Culpeper HS). King will sit out the 2000-01 campaign under NCAA transfer guidelines.
Welcome Back
* After averaging nearly 38 mpg during the 1999-00 season en route to a new SDSU freshman record for playing time, sophomore Jamey Cox just may be the happiest Aztec to see senior Sophia Sledge and junior Claire Swinbank back on the court. After shouldering much of SDSU's backcourt and scoring responsibilities a year ago, Cox and the Aztecs should be much improved with the two guards back in the lineup. Sledge, who missed all of '99-00 with a torn ACL, led the Aztecs in scoring as a junior with 10.7 ppg. Swinbank, a '98-99 Western Athletic Conference all-newcomer team choice, was SDSU's leading scorer in both '99-00 preseason exhibitions with a pair of 13-point performances before opting to sit out the balance of the season for personal reasons.
Aztecs Picked Seventh by Coaches, Media
* As if San Diego State needed any more motivation heading into the 2000-01 season, the Aztecs received word at Mountain West Conference Basketball Media Day that they have been picked to finish seventh by both the league's coaches and media. Utah is the odds-on favorite to repeat as league champion in both polls.
What's Next For Cox?
* Jamey Cox's 1999-00 performance will be a tough one to top. The MWC's fifth-leading scorer at 13.7 ppg, Cox made 26 starts as a true freshman last year, finishing in double figures a team-best 21 times and setting an SDSU single-season record for three-pointers with 69. The '99-00 MWC all-newcomer team selection also ranked No. 1 in free throw percentage (.819), fourth in three-point field goals per game (2.52) and ninth in three-point field goal percentage (.397).
Better To Give
* Senior guard Shannon Lee finally found her niche in the SDSU program last season at point guard. Lee, who bounced back and forth between the guard and forward positions as a freshman and sophomore, found a home last year running the Aztec offense and went on to captured the inaugural MWC assist crown with 166 assists (5.9 apg), including four separate 11-assist games. Her total, which is also the eighth-best single-season assist total in SDSU history, was almost a full assist per game ahead of second-place finisher, Utah's Tiana Fuertes (5.10 apg). Lee enters the '00-01 season just four assists shy of SDSU's career top 10.
Bundage On The Boards
* After leading SDSU in rebounding as a sophomore with 6.5 rpg, Anita Bundage bettered that mark as a junior last season, posting an average of 6.6 rpg. And though that figure was not a team best (Mary Apiafi led the Aztecs in rebounding with 9.1 rpg), it was good enough for fifth in the Mountain West Conference.
The Schedule: Road Rules
* The San Diego State women's basketball team may feel like cast members of MTV's Road Rules this season, especially early on. In all, the Aztecs will play eight of their 13 non-conference games away from Cox Arena, traveling from Montana in the north to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the south and as far east as Missouri. The most difficult stretch may be right out ot the gate, as SDSU plays five of its first seven games away from Cox Arena between Nov. 18 and Dec. 2.
* SDSU's 2000-01 schedule will be similar to last season's with six of 13 non-conference opponents back from last year's slate. SDSU posted a 5-8 record in non-conference games last season, including victories in four of its last five non-league match ups. The going, though competitive, should be less rugged however as USC and UCLA are replaced by California and Cal Poly.
* The Aztecs open the 2000-01 regular season at defending Big Sky champion Montana, in Missoula, Nov. 18. SDSU opens its home season Nov. 24-25 when the Aztecs host Illinois State, Gonzaga and Chattnooga in the second annual Pacific Bell Classic.