SEATTLE — The Pacific-10 Conference tournament, which begins today in San Jose, is all about the present for Washington.
With a 13-17 record heading into their tournament opening game against Arizona State on Saturday, the Huskies have only one chance at earning an NCAA Tournament bid. Washington’s options are to win this weekend’s tournament or call it a season, so it’s safe to say the Huskies won’t be looking ahead to anything.
But for someone watching as the sixth-seeded Huskies try to pull off an unlikely string of upsets, this weekend’s tournament appearance will provide a look at not only Washington’s present, but also what should be a brighter future thanks to a strong freshman class that has been contributing all season.
It only seems fitting that under first-year coach Tia Jackson, the Huskies have relied a lot on first-year players. When Jackson visited the incoming recruits she inherited last spring, she made a point of telling each of them that they had a chance to contribute right away.
“I kind of shared with them going into their homes that everybody is a freshman right now. ‘Every position is open. Show me what you’ve got. You get to create who you want me to think you are,’” she told them. “I wanted to put the best combination on the floor.”
And plenty of times this season, the best combination has involved freshmen. Washington’s heralded class of six freshman has shrunk to four with the departures of Candice Nichols at the beginning of the season and Jess McCormack recently, and Mackenzie Argens has been out with a knee injury almost all year, but the remaining three freshmen have played major roles on a team with only two seniors and two juniors.
Leading the way has been forward/guard Katelan Redmon, who went from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane to being Washington’s leading scorer in one year. In addition to leading the Huskies offense with 11.7 points per game and 19 games with double-figure scoring, Redmon has turned into one of her team’s lockdown defenders. In last weekend’s series against Stanford and California, Redmon spent a lot of time guarding Stanford’s Candice Wiggins and Cal’ Alexis Gray-Lawson, both all-conference guards.
“Her attitude has been phenomenal all year,” Jackson said of Redmon. “Whatever I’ve asked of her, she’s always come through and put forth every effort she possibly could to do it well.”
Redmon, who has started all 30 of Washington’s games, admits playing a bigger-than-expected role comes with some pressure, but figures she and her team will be better for it in the long run.
“Yeah, there’s some pressure there,” she said. “You’ve got to come in and perform. You set the standard and you’ve got to try to keep it. It’s been fun though. I think with everybody getting experience this year, it’s going to make us that much better next year.”
Kali Bennett, a 6-5 center from Ventura, Calif., has a pair of double-doubles this season, including an 18-point, 11 rebound effort against Idaho. She also had a double-double against Stanford, and scored 17 points against Arizona State. Bennett has provided much needed depth with injuries to other post players limiting Jackson’s options.
“Kali has done tremendous things for us off the bench,” sophomore guard Sami Whitcomb said. “She’s stepped up in a lot of games when we’ve needed her, whether it be because the other posts are in foul trouble, or because of injuries. She’s done a lot of great things for us.”
The third freshman playing for the Huskies is Monroe High School grad Sarah Morton, who has provided valuable minutes as a back-up point guard since working her way back from a knee injury.
Partly because of the injury, a torn ACL suffered last spring, and partly because she was learning how to be a point guard at the college level, Morton played only sparing early in the season. On the Huskies’ trip to Oregon and Oregon State, Jackson talked to Morton and decided it was time for more playing time. Morton responded when given an opportunity, scoring six points on 3-for-3 shooting while dishing out a team-high four assists in just 12 minutes of action.
Morton still plays limited minutes, in part because she is backing up a point guard, Emily Florence, who has started 112 consecutive games and averages more than 34 minutes per game this season.
In the time she has played, however, Morton has tried to learn from Florence and build experience for next season, when she could very well step into the starting point guard position.
“I wasn’t expecting to get a whole lot of minutes,” she said. “Whatever I got, I just wanted to make the most of it, doing the little things, not making mistakes. I’m getting used to things, getting fully healthy. I think I’ve got a little more quickness back. I’m starting to be able to play a little more feisty defense. We have a young team, and it helps to get out there and experience it when we’re young, so we’ll know what to expect in the future. It definitely helps doing this now.”
The experience Washington’s freshmen are getting should lead to better things in future seasons for Washington.
“I think it will help them a lot,” Jackson said. “I think what a lot of our freshmen don’t realize is that freshmen don’t play. When you come into college, you’re sitting down. … It just happens that way in most collegiate programs. So our kids really had an opportunity that they embraced, and they excelled in some areas, and those are areas that we’re going to look to build on.”
Three Huskies earn Pac-10 honors: Senior guard Emily Florence was named to the All-Pac-10 third team, as well as Pac-10 defensive team. Freshman guard/forward Katelan Redmon, who led the Huskies in scoring this season with 11.7 points per game, was named to the all-freshman team, and sophomore guard Sami Whitcomb earned honorable mention defensive team honors.
Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog
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