Pre-Season Preview:
A Brief Preview
After a 2000-2001 season in which Sacramento State finished with a 3-23 overall record, a 1 -15 Big Sky Conference record and only eight players left on the roster, head coach Carolyn Jenkins will start over with a clean slate in 2001-2002. Only three players return from last season's team, including a redshirt and a bench player who appeared in seven games. Jenkins will bring in nine newcomers, including three high school players and six junior college transfers.
The three returners are led by sophomore forward Tola Tallman. As a freshman, the Sacramento, Calif., native finished the year averaging 29.3 minutes, 7.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. Tallman scored in double figures on nine occasions and finished with at least 14 rebounds four times.
Sophomore Sydney Gatson also returns after redshirting last year due to a back
injury. The 5-9 point guard played all 27 games during the 1999- 2000 season and
finished with averages of 4.8 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. Senior guard Shannon Whent returns after being elevated from team manager to student-athlete midway
through last season to give the team more players.
New to this season's roster are freshmen Kristine Knowlton (6-3 center, Forest Grove,
Ore.), Ebonie Kerley (6-0 forward, Battle Creek, Mich.) and Candace Garwood (6-1
forward, Orangevale, Calif .), sophomore Alyson Thurman (6-0 guard/forward, Carson
City, Nev.) and juniors Kendra Yancey (6-0 guard, Fresno, Calif.), Crystal Conley (5-
10 forward, Santa Monica, Calif.), Grace Dixon (5-9 guard, Inglewood, Calif.), Dolores
Olivarez (5-8 guard, Sacramento, Calif.) and Samantha Miller (6-1 forward, Vacaville,
Calif.).
The 2001- 2002 schedule features six non-conference home games. The Hornets will
play seven contests away from home including games against NCAA Tournament par-
ticipants Colorado State and Saint Mary's. The team will also play at the Lady Rebel
Shootout in Las Vegas, Nev., where it is scheduled to face UNLV and either Tennessee
Tech or Seton Hall.
One change to the Big Sky schedule is that Cal State Northridge has left the conference. With the Matadors gone, the remaining eight teams will fight for the six berths into the conference tournament at the end of the season.
Pre-Season Notes:
Sacramento State returns just 13.6 percent of its offense, 22.1 percent of its rebounds
and 14.4 percent of its assists from last season (chart rightl...the Hornets have not won
more than six games in a season since the team went 10-18 in 1995-96...this year's
team will have just one senior on the roster (guard Shannon Whent)...assistant coach
Sarah Stapp (Sacramento State, '97) is the longest tenured coach on the staff as she
enters her sixth season with the program. Head coach Carolyn Jenkins (Cal, '90) begins her second year and assistant Cynthia Mayes (Pepperdine, '97) enters her first
year...newcomer Samantha Miller spent one year with the Sacramento State rowing
team in 2000...Reshundra Smiley, who signed with the Hornets on April 24, will instead play her first two years of intercollegiate basketball at Central Arizona Junior
College...Crystal Conley's brother, Tim, was an offensive lineman for the Sacramento
State football team during the 1998-99 seasons. He was drafted by the Seattle Seahawks in 2000 and played with the XFL's Birmingham Thunderbolts.
**Information from the Sacramento State Media Guide.