Huskies’ season was like pulling a rabbit out of a hat

Published 9:00 pm Monday, March 22, 2004

A particularly comical part of the University of Washington women’s basketball team’s season came Jan. 9, after Giuliana Mendiola almost single-handedly beat USC with her usual array of shots, passes and steals.

So afterward, USC coach Chris Gobrecht came up with this gem:

“I don’t know why they’re struggling. They have Mendiola.”

Maybe that was an example of a shocking inattention to detail that contributed to Gobrecht’s firing a week ago. Maybe Gobrecht wanted to take a swipe at the University of Washington coaching staff. Maybe she just didn’t know.

Yet, she had to know. You can’t have a team doctor remove a player’s toenail and not have it circulate around the Pacific-10 Conference coaching ranks.

What Gobrecht failed to recognize, accidentally or not, was that six Husky players, including at least two projected starters, failed to even suit up in 2003-04 because of a stunning array of injuries, retirements and academic problems.

UW coach June Daugherty must have wondered all season what she’d done for karma to bite her as it did. Because of some truly bizarre and recurring misfortune, she had to give six freshmen, including a walk-on, more playing time than they were ready for.

Good in the long run. Potential disaster in the short term.

Given that, an 18-15 record and an appearance in the Women’s NIT were the equivalent of pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

Did Gobrecht really forget that guard Kayla Burt, she of the oft-reported heart malady, had to end her career last season? Burt not only would have started this year, but would have been an unbelievable force on both ends of the court. Everyone in Snohomish County knew the Arlington native could score. But leading up to the time of her near-tragic affliction, she was becoming a marvelously tenacious defensive player.

One starter gone.

And how about Meadowdale grad Kristen O’Neill, the team’s best defensive player? A stress fracture ended her season before it even started. O’Neill is a great – not just good – perimeter defender for whom the Huskies’ change to a more aggressive, ball-pressure defense was seemingly constructed. Instead, O’Neill lived in Rehab City.

Two starters gone.

Then there was Kirsten Brockman, a young, rugged rebounder and defender from Snohomish whose career ended at the beginning of preseason practices because of stress fractures in both feet. Without her, the Huskies were painfully thin with their inside players. Brockman, at the very least, would have been a valuable top reserve.

Gone.

Guard Erica Schelly was ready for a breakout year until she blew out her ankle early in preseason practice. She, like Brockman, would have had a slew of playing time. Instead, she was a spectator who didn’t have to pay for a ticket.

Gone.

Post Sarah Keeler had to retire after six knee surgeries in four years. Here was a proven commodity, an experienced, skilled post who would have taken much pressure off starter Andrea Lalum. Instead, she and Burt served as student assistants.

Gone.

Then there was the unfortunate circumstance surrounding Dominique Banks, by all accounts a prodigious talent, who couldn’t get into school because of academic difficulties. She reportedly has been cleared and will be eligible next season. That, however, did nothing to help this season.

But maybe Gobrecht overlooked all that.

There’s no denying, though, Mendiola’s excellence.

Those who never saw Mendiola take over a game or execute a no-look pass or launch a 26-footer that hit nothing but nylon truly missed out. Because the Huskies were the youngest team in the Pac-10, Daugherty asked more of Mendiola than ever, and Mendiola responded.

Stanford’s Nicole Powell won the conference’s Player of the Year award, but it’s not difficult to surmise where the Huskies would have finished if not for Mendiola. Although she was last season’s conference Player of the Year, Mendiola had an even greater season in 2003-04 because of the way she carried this inexperienced UW squad.

No one took over a game as Mendiola did. Period.

Mendiola was an unparalleled joy to watch. She was someone who made the fans and media eagerly count down the hours to a game, so they could watch her do something they’d never seen before.

Every game, without fail, she made a move that made even the most cynical among us pick our eyeballs up off the ground.

Mendiola’s talent comes around perhaps once every other generation.

It’s difficult to believe and accept that her four years at Montlake are done.

John Sleeper is The Herald’s college writer.