Basketball: Women's

The Lady Lions talked about having experience heading into this season’s NCAA tournament and how it could benefit them to make a deep run.

Well it did, as the program got back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2004, but following the 77-59 loss to No. 1 Connecticut, it seemed as though the Lions did not have enough of the right kind of experience.

They did not have the experience of making deep tournament runs and that type of inexperience seemed to hurt the squad tonight.

When addressing her team after the game, head coach Coquese Washington said explained that to her squad.

“UConn played like a team that had experience playing at this level and our kids came into this game ready, they were prepared, I think they were probably a little too prepared, too eager for the game and played uncharacteristically fast,” Washington said. “Because sometimes when you want the win so much, you can play too hard and I thought UConn played relaxed because they’ve been here before. So next year when we get into this situation next year, we’ll be better for it. It’s a great experience that we’ve had. You don’t want to lose any games, but there’s a lot we can take from this and grow as a program and they can grow as players.”

Growth will be essential if the Lions want to make a deeper run in next season’s NCAA tournament and a deeper run is definitely possible. They are only losing one player this season—lone senior Zhaque Gray—and have the potential to be a very good ball team next winter. With the addition of Dara Taylor to next year’s squad after sitting out this season due to NCAA transfer rules, the Lions starting lineup could look like this.

Guard: Senior Alex Bentley

Guard: Senior Dara Taylor

Guard: Junior Maggie Lucas

Forward: Senior Mia Nickson

Forward: Senior Nikki Greene

That would allow veteran leadership and should no doubt lead to a repeat of a Big Ten title and a good chance of winning the first national title in program history.