Louisiana Tech picked to win WAC title again
By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
Louisiana Tech's reputation in women's basketball hardly retired with head coach Leon Barmore.
COACHES PRESEASON PICKS (First-place votes in parentheses) 1. Louisiana Tech (9) 81 Preseason All-WAC • Player of Year Cheryl Ford (LaTech, Sr., C) • First Team Cheryl Ford (LaTech, Sr., C) • Second Team April Atuaia (UH, Jr., G)
The Lady Techsters were picked to win the Western Athletic Conference yesterday by the league's 10 coaches. Tech received the maximum nine first-place votes; coaches cannot vote for their teams.
WAC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
2. Rice (1) 72
3. Hawai'i 64
4. Tulsa 55
5. San Jose State 43
6. SMU 41
7. Fresno State 39
8. Nevada 26
9. UTEP 18
10. Boise State 11
Lindsay Logan (FSU, Sr., G)
Amber Obaze (La Tech, Jr., G)
Kate Smith (Nevada, Sr., C)
Cricket Williams (SJSU, Jr., G)
Allison Curtin (Tulsa, Sr., G)
Johnetta Hayes (Rice, Jr., C)
Christen Roper (UH, Sr., C)
Alyssa Shriver (Tulsa, Sr., C)
Hawai'i was picked third after Rice, which received the other first-place vote. UH coach Vince Goo said he had Hawai'i fourth, after Tech, Rice and Southern Methodist.
"I thought SMU would be higher," Goo said, "but everyone else looked pretty accurate to me."
LaTech senior Cheryl Ford is preseason Player of the Year. Rainbow Wahine April Atuaia and Christen Roper — two of three returning starters — are on the preseason all-conference second team. Atuaia, the 2001 WAC Freshman of the Year, missed most of last season after injuring her knee.
Louisiana Tech, a perennial Top 10 team, won the conference in its WAC debut last year, holding off Hawai'i, 53-50, in the tournament championship. The Techsters return four players off that 25-5 team, which lost in the NCAA's first round. They bring in nine new players, with their recruits ranked third in the nation by Michael White's All Star Girls Report.
Kurt Budke was named Barmore's replacement a day after Barmore, who lost consciousness during last season's Tulsa game, retired for the second time in three years. School officials convinced him to stay the first time when Kim Mulkey-Robertson, his assistant and expected replacement, took the head coaching position at Baylor. Budke has been Barmore's associate head coach the last two years.
Barmore coached Tech 20 years and retired with a career record of 576-87. His all-time winning percentage of 86.9 percent ranks No. 1 among men's or women's collegiate coaches. Barmore led Tech to 20 straight winning seasons and NCAA Tournaments, nine Final Fours, five national finals and the 1988 national title. It is one of only two programs to have participated in all 21 NCAA Tournaments; Tennessee is the other.
Louisiana Tech starts its season Nov. 10 at Texas Tech. The Rainbows open Nov. 23 against UCLA.
