Women starting anew in 2010

It’s a brand-new atmosphere and a brand-new season. And the North Carolina women’s basketball team can’t wait to take advantage of its fresh start.

Last year, the team finished with a winning record and an NCAA tournament bid.

But the 2009-10 campaign is one nobody on the UNC squad wants to remember.

“I don’t think I’ve had a season like that ever,” senior Cetera DeGraffenreid said. “We came here because we like winning, and … I think last year (we were) more focusing on games we were losing.”
The Tar Heels finished 6-8 in the ACC last season and lost five consecutive conference games in February. To add to the disappointments, freshmen and top recruits Cierra Robertson-Warren and Nyree Williams transferred from UNC to join other Division I programs.

The 13-woman roster might be missing four old faces, but with experienced leaders returning, the Tar Heels remain hopeful.

“We’re not that young anymore, and we kind of have our heads on straight now,” senior forward Jessica Breland said. “So we’re going to go for what we know we can get. The sky is the limit. It’s on us.”
Back on the court after battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma during the 2009-10 season, Breland is determined to pick up where she left off as the unmistakable leader of the Tar Heel team. The 6-foot-3 forward said she is in nearly tip-top shape.

And she’s not the only one who thinks so.

Breland was named to the preseason All-ACC team and was selected as a Wooden preseason top 30 along with Tar Heel senior Italee Lucas.

Seniors Lucas, Breland and DeGraffenreid — all of whom have scored more than 1,000 points during their careers at UNC — lead this year’s squad in experience. But coach Sylvia Hatchell is expecting huge contributions from her underclassmen.

Shannon Smith, a 5-foot-7 freshman guard from Gastonia, is a two-time 3A State Championship Most Outstanding Player and averaged 23 points and seven assists per game during her senior year at Gastonia’s Forestview High School.

Sophomore Waltiea Rolle started 15 games and led the ACC in blocks per game last season, and Hatchell said there’s more where that came from — much more. The 35-year veteran coach said Rolle’s confidence has grown to fit her tall frame.

“This time last year out there, Waltiea was 6-foot-7 but she was like a stick out there just getting bounced around all over the place,” Hatchell said.

“Now she’s the one doing the knocking. She along with all the other ones, they’re just really physically stronger.”

Hatchell said she looks forward to hosting Iowa for the Big Ten/ACC Challenge and two-time defending national champions Connecticut in a renovated Carmichael Arena, but what she’s most excited about are the hopes she holds for her much-improved team.

Ousted in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament with an 82-76 loss to Gonzaga, the Tar Heels ended a disappointing season with an uncharacteristic early exit from the national championship hunt.

But that’s all behind them now.

“(They learned) not to take anything for granted,” Hatchell said. “Just because they are wearing the Carolina uniform, they’ve got to make it happen, it’s not just going to happen.

“Last year is over. We learned from it, we move on, and hopefully the best is yet to come,” she said.