Tigers prepared for challenge of defending 2013 championship

Thursday, October 31, 2013
DePauw senior Erin McGinnis executes a pass during an elaborate weave drill on Thursday. The Tigers worked to perfection in the drill, with one dropped pass forcing a restart. (Banner Graphic/GRANT WIEMAN)

Kris Huffman has been here before. After DePauw won its first national championship in 2007, she felt the pressure to defend the title and she passed that pressure onto her assistant coaches and players.

Everything had to be perfect, every day, and by the end of the season the pressure was more cumbersome than motivating.

The 2008 team was successful, making it all the way to the Elite Eight, but it wasn't champion. The bar was set impossibly high. Coach Huffman learned.

"It's a tough year," Huffman said of defending a championship. "I think the team knows how difficult this season will be. They know everybody will be out to get us.

"I think in 2008 I put so much pressure on the coaches and the players to be ready. ... We do not need to be undefeated national champions to have a great year."

No matter how relaxed Huffman is, and she has promised to try to ease the stress from her team, pressure will find its way to a defending champion, especially one that returns three starters and seven of 10 rotation players.

In many ways, it already has. When the preseason rankings in the coaches' poll were released earlier this week, DePauw was the unanimous No. 1 team.

The players have taken notice, but Huffman said she hasn't addressed it with the team.

"We don't want to get caught up in it being factual," she said. "I think polls mean more when you get into January and February than they do early on."

The Tigers are taught to ignore the polls in totality, except, of course, when it motivates them in a game against another ranked opponent.

Not that they need motivation. There are few teams in the country that can compete with DePauw from a talent-level, but no one on the team rests on that.

The seniors last year burned for success after tournament disappointments in their first three seasons. The fire was there from day one, and it was omnipresent all summer, in every game and every practice. They had to win. Nothing else was acceptable.

It's a new team, and many of the girls haven't suffered the pain of disappointment. They want to win, but the motivation comes from a different place.

"They're working hard as a team," Huffman said. "There's no indication that they've been complacent.

"The returning players have come back better."

The Tigers graduated three seniors, players who accounted for 32 percent of the teams points and minutes, but they get back leading scorer Alex Gasaway. Now a senior, Gasaway was DePauw's lone All-American last season before tearing her ACL and meniscus during the postseason run.

She was cleared for contact in August, six months after surgery, and should be ready to start the season.

They also have back last season's breakout player, junior Savannah Trees.

Trees is DePauw's most versatile perimeter scorer, capable of producing points whenever she touches the ball. She played primarily off the ball last year, starting alongside a senior point guard, but as a freshman most of Trees's minutes came at the point.

Huffman implied she may move back to that role this season.

"Savannah looks aggressive with the ball in her hands," Huffman said. "She's a nice player. She's just a more confident player this year. I like the leadership."

DePauw has holes in its lineup, at point guard and in the post, but four of the starting spots appear set, it's just a matter of who fits where.

Trees, Gasaway and seniors Ali Ross and Alison Stephens will be in the starting lineup when the Tigers open their season on Sunday at Butler. The latter pair gives defense and energy, with just enough scoring to be versatile.

DPU could go any number of directions for the fifth spot, with another guard being the most likely choice.

Junior Emma Ondik, the backup point guard last season, worked hard in the summer and has looked sharp in practice, but Huffman could opt to keep her with the second unit for scoring. Guard Lauren Abendroth, also a junior, is one of the team's most improved players and got experience in big minutes last season.

Angela Hacker, a sophomore forward who played only sparingly last year, has also stood out and may work her way into the rotation.

The most intriguing candidate is Hannah Douglas, a junior transfer who averaged 8.6 points and 30 minutes per game at Division I Butler. Douglas, a lefty, has to participate fully in practice because of an injury to her right shoulder making her talent tantalizing and practically mythological.

With a few other players working their way into the rotation -- senior Erin McGinnis; junior Hannah Lukemeyer; sophomore Jenna Stoner; freshmen Claire Ryan and Taylor Howard -- DePauw clearly will have the talent to try to earn its No. 1 ranking.

They'll face several tough challenges early in the season, beginning with Sunday's exhibition, to try to prove they deserve it.

Huffman said the team's goals are the same as they are every season -- compete for a conference championship; qualify for the NCAA tournament -- but the national ranking and players know better.

No team has repeated as national champion since Washington University won four straight from 1998-2001. Last year was unforgettable for the Tigers, but this season is for history. Huffman said it's on her seniors to get them there.

"They'll remember their junior year," she said, "but you always remember your senior year."

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  • Good luck this season Tigers!!

    -- Posted by foxtrotter on Fri, Nov 1, 2013, at 6:44 AM
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