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Wake Forest Women's Basketball season preview (exhibition tonight)

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A team that gets very little love from the Wake Forest fan base (and honestly most fan bases around the country sans UConn, Tennessee, Duke and UNC), is the Wake Forest women's basketball team.

This season I plan on keeping up with them on here, as well as attending many of their games. While I know that everybody may not be as keen on reading these articles as they are about football and men's basketball, the women's team has a shot to be pretty good this year.

Anyway, the season opens up tonight with an exhibition game against Lenoir-Rhyne at 6:30. I would encourage anybody that can make it out to do so (not just tonight, but the rest of the season as well). Coach Petersen's squad has worked tremendously hard in the offseason, and return four of five starters from a team that went 15-17 last year. That sets the Deacs up for a possibility at an NCAA Tournament run, which would be awesome for the ladies!

Click through the jump for a full schedule, roster and a look at the women's team this year.

 

2011-12 WAKE FOREST BASKETBALL SCHEDULE
Overall
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Conf.
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Home
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Away
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Date Opponent / Event Location Time / Result
11/02/11 vs. Lenoir-Rhyne (Exhibition) Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
11/07/11 vs. Tusculum (Exhibition) Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
11/15/11 vs. Monmouth Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
11/18/11 vs. Coppin State Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
11/20/11 vs. Kansas Winston-Salem, N.C. 2:00 p.m. ET
11/23/11 vs. Mercer Winston-Salem, N.C. 12:00 p.m. ET
11/25/11 vs. Jacksonville Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
12/01/11 vs. Minnesota Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
12/04/11 at Seton Hall South Orange, N.J. 1:00 p.m. ET
12/07/11 vs. Radford Winston-Salem, N.C. 12:00 p.m. ET
12/11/11 vs. Delaware Winston-Salem, N.C. 2:00 p.m. ET
12/18/11 vs. Howard Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
12/21/11 at SMU Dallas, Texas 8:00 p.m. ET
12/29/11 vs. Maryland Eastern Shore Winston-Salem, N.C. 2:00 p.m. ET
12/31/11 vs. Davidson Winston-Salem, N.C. 2:00 p.m. ET
01/06/12 vs. Duke TV Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
01/08/12 vs. Boston College Winston-Salem, N.C. 2:00 p.m. ET
01/12/12 at Georgia Tech Atlanta, Ga. 7:00 p.m. ET
01/16/12 vs. North Carolina State TV Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
01/19/12 at Maryland College Park, Md. 7:00 p.m. ET
01/22/12 vs. Clemson Winston-Salem, N.C. 2:00 p.m. ET
01/26/12 at Miami Coral Gables, Fla. 7:00 p.m. ET
01/29/12 vs. North Carolina Winston-Salem, N.C. 2:00 p.m. ET
02/02/12 at Duke Durham, N.C. 7:00 p.m. ET
02/05/12 at Boston College TV Chestnut Hill, Mass. 1:00 p.m. ET
02/09/12 vs. Florida State Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
02/12/12 at North Carolina State TV Raleigh, N.C. 5:00 p.m. ET
02/16/12 vs. Georgia Tech Winston-Salem, N.C. 6:30 p.m. ET
02/19/12 at Clemson Clemson, S.C. 2:00 p.m. ET
02/24/12 at Virginia TV Charlottesville, Va. 6:30 p.m. ET
02/26/12 vs. Virginia Tech Winston-Salem, N.C. 2:00 p.m. ET

No. Name Position Ht. Year Hometown High School
1 Brooke Thomas Guard 5-4 SR Orlando, Fla. Edgewater
2 Erin Hall Guard 5-8 SO Norcross, Ga. Wesleyan
3 Camille Collier Guard 5-7 GS Washington, D.C. Sidwell Friends
5 Chelsea Douglas Guard 5-5 SO Rock Hill, S.C. Hickory Grove Baptist
11 Patrice Johnson Guard 5-10 RS JR Washington, D.C. H.D. Woodson
13 Mykala Walker Forward 6-0 JR Duluth, Ga. Duluth
14 Lauryn Webster Forward 6-3 FR Marietta, Ga. Marietta
15 Millesa Calicott Guard 6-0 FR Winston-Salem, N.C. Mount Tabor
21 Sandra Garcia Center 6-3 JR Hollywood, Fla. Plantation American Heritage
22 Lakevia Boykin Guard 5-9 JR Raleigh, N.C. Southeast Raleigh
23 Secily Ray Forward 6-0 SR Thomasville, N.C. Thomasville
25 Dearica Hamby Forward 6-3 FR Marietta, Ga. Norcross
31 Lindsy Wright Center 6-3 SO Denver, N.C. East Lincoln
33 Asia Williams Guard 5-11 JR Durham, N.C. Hillside

Coaches

Mike Petersen - Head Coach
Natasha Adair - Associate Head Coach
Rachel Stockdale - Assistant Coach
Bob Clark - Assistant Coach
Jason Eshbaugh - Dir. of Player Development/Scouting
Greg Brittenham - Director of Athletic Performance, Basketball

Kendra Eaton - Coordinator of Women's Basketball Operations

 

  • The Deacs started out strong last year before they had to face the murderers row that is the ACC on any given night. They also strung together three wins towards the end of the year and almost got to the .500 record needed to make the NIT, before a loss to Duke in the ACC Tournament doomed them to the 15-17 record
  • Wake will look to replace Brittany Waters, who graduated in the spring and led the Deacs in scoring and rebounding last year. They will do this with Sandra Garcia in the middle (11 and 5 last year), and three other returning starters from a year ago.
  • Coach Mike Petersen welcomes three freshmen to the team this year: DeArica Hamby, Millesa Calicott, and Lauryn Webster. Hamby was ranked as the 93rd best player in the country by ESPN.com. With fairly balanced class sizes, the freshmen should get some time to play, but won't be thrown into the heat of battle too much.
  • The Deacs welcome back graduate student Camille Collier, who got a medical red-shirt after a torn ACL last year. It will be great to have her expertise and basketball acumen on the court, as well as on the bench.
  • 3-Point shooting has to go up from the 27.2% that it was last year, and hopefully Collier can help bring that average up to a respectable number .
  • If the Deacs can get to 10 wins by the start of conference play, (10-3/11-2), that would set them up with the confidence necessary to get 7 wins in the conference. With that record (17-10), a win in the ACC Tournament could get them that coveted NCAA berth. There are a lot of home games early on because the Deacs aren't playing in a tournament away from home this winter, so that is a great opportunity for them to seize some wins. They need to avoid early season letdowns like the have had in the past though.
Overall, I am excited about the prospects of the season. I think that Coach Petersen has done a great job establishing a base for the program to build off of, but it is time for the team to get the results and the tournament appearances. I look forward to covering the them this season and talking with Coach P, because he is one of the good guys in the coaching industry that really cares about his players.