St. John's women confident in loaded Big East
St. John's head coach Kim Barnes, right, talks with her players late in the second half of a 2011 game in Stanford, Calif. (Mar. 21, 2011) Credit: AP
Being picked to finish seventh in a conference is usually not a good thing unless your team happens to be playing basketball in the Big East.
St. John's, which returns several of its key players from a team that finished 22-11 (9-7) last year, finds itself in that very position. But Red Storm coach Kim Barnes Arico, set to begin her 10th season, said it speaks volumes to how strong the league has become.
"Last year we sent nine teams to the tournament and 10 could have gone," said the coach, whose squad advanced to the NCAA second round. "So to be seventh means you have a really good shot of getting there."
There could be one blip on the radar, however, as second-leading scorer and rebounder Da'Shena Stevens (left knee) is expected to miss the first month of the season.
Stevens is confident her teammates will pick up the slack.
"I think the team, collectively, will step it up a little bit," the senior forward said. "They've already picked up on the fact that I won't be playing for a while and have fed off that."
The Red Storm returns its starting backcourt in leading scorer Shenneika Smith and point guard Nadirah McKenith.
"She's been our leader for so long," Smith said of Stevens. "Now that she's out, we just have to really support one another. Everyone will have to rebound and score more."
Smith and Stevens are both preseason All-Big East selections.
North Babylon grad Eugeneia McPherson and Delaware transfer Tesia Harris, the older sister of Tobias, are also expected to contribute.
As for the rest of the league, there was a changing of the guard at the top as Notre Dame, fresh off an appearance in the national championship game, was picked to finish first by the coaches in their preseason poll. Led by preseason conference player of the year pick Skylar Diggins, the Irish received nine of the 16 first-place votes.
Connecticut, which lost to the Fighting Irish in the national semifinal, was picked second with seven first-place votes. It was the first time since 2005 that the Huskies weren't picked No. 1.
