BIG EAST Media Days offer few surprises for WBB

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FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Cards picked 3rd in preseason coaches poll

- Skylar Diggins chosen Preseason player of the year. Shoni unanimous pick for first team.

- Cards on the mend

Connecticut gets 12 out of 15 first place votes to repeat as regular-season champ.

The coaches of the BIG EAST have spoken and come up with a very predictable preseason prediction of how they think the BIG EAST WBB teams will finish the 2012-13 season. 

UConn, with 12 of the 15 first place votes, is picked to repeat as the regular season champs. Notre Dame got the other three first place votes in the poll...where coaches weren't allowed to vote for their own squads for first.

Louisville finished third in the contest, followed by St. John's. The Cards enter the season after finishing up last year bowing out to Maryland in second round NCAA Tournament action. The entire results are below:

1. Connecticut  194 (points)         9. USF  97
2. Notre Dame  182                    10. Villanova  78
3. Louisville  167                         11. Marquette  75
4. St. John's  144                        12. Cincinnati  61
5. Rutgers 138                            13. Pittsburgh  31
6. DePaul  127                            13. Seton Hall  31
7. Syracuse  105                         15. Providence 25
8. Georgetown  104

Shoni an unanimous pick for BIG EAST First Team

Another predictable was the naming of Notre Dame's Skylar Diggins as the Preseason Player of the Year, an honor she was also named to last season. Diggins averaged 17.1 points last year for the Irish.

Shoni Schimmel was named to the BIG EAST First team, one of five players unanimously picked for the squad. She was the only Cardinal selected for the honor, although Monique Reid did get honorable mention selection. The others on the First Team:

Stefanie Dolson, Connecticut, Jr., C
Bria Hartley, Connecticut, Jr., G
Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Connecticut, So., F
Anna Martin, DePaul, Sr., G
Sugar Rodgers, Georgetown, Sr., G
Shoni Schimmel, Louisville, Jr., G
Skylar Diggins, Notre Dame, Sr., G
Monique Oliver, Rutgers, Sr., F/C
Nadirah McKenith, St. John's, Sr., G
Shennika Smith, St. John's, Sr., G
Kayla Alexander, Syracuse, Sr., C

Louisville's Schimmel was a first-team All-BIG EAST selection at the end of last year and led Louisville with 14.3 ppg and 4.7 assists. Schimmel is also on the Wade Watch list as one of the top 25 players in DI womens' college basketball.

Louisville begins action on Oct., 31st. with an exhibition game against Eckerd College.

Walz laments preseason injuries

If the women's basketball locker room in Cardinal Arena resembles a M*A*S*H unit, it's because five Lady Cards are currently in various stage of rehab and healing from injuries.

Tia Gibbs is still a couple of weeks away from contact...recovering from the shoulder injury and hip trouble that kept her out of the 2011-12 season.

Monique Reid is practicing but not going at full speed yet as she continues to heal from the knee injury that sidelined her last season after nine games. 

Asia Taylor will be out until mid-December. She's on the mend from a torn hip labrum suffered over the summer.

Shawnta Dyer will be out for a week or so...sidelined because of a sports hernia.

Cortnee Walton should be back next week, currently hobbled with a foot stress reaction.

Maybe  the Cards should re-design their practice jerseys to display the A.M.A. insignia instead of the Cardinal Bird...

The good news in the injury list is that none of these are being listed as career-ending injuries. Throughout a season, every team in Division I WBB is going to have their share of dings, dents and down-time for players. It's the nature of the game. Hopefully, Louisville is getting theirs out of the way early and will not be plagued with them as the team rolls into BIG EAST and tournament play.
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