New coach Felisha Legette-Jack inherits a Hoosier team that lost its two key players and its coach.  She has little proven talent and the freshman class had its best player renege on her letter of intent. 

Point Guard:  The first thing Legette-Jack must do is find someone to run her team on the court.  There is no one with any significant experience at the point to be seen.  Leah Enterline has minimal experience at the position but is much more of a shooting guard than a point.  The most likely starter is 5’5 freshman Shanice Billington.  She was a McDonald’s All American nominee who averaged 16.2 points and 3.5 assists a game as a senior.  Her main competition should come from fellow freshman Jamie Braun.  Braun averaged 18.6 points and 5.0 assists a game in her last year.   

Having to depend on freshmen to run the point is a far from ideal situation.  But Legette-Jack is very much in a building mode.  If either of the two frosh can develop into a decent Big 10 point guard, the year will be a valuable learning experience.  If neither has the ability to do that, it will set her building process back. 

Wing Positions:   Typically, the wing positions are scoring positions.  They are players who are counted on to put points on the board.  The Hoosiers are not likely to get much scoring from the point guard position and they will need major points from these two spots.   

That may be a problem. 

Junior shooting guard Nikki Smith is the leading returning scorer.  She was much improved as a sophomore and averaged 7.2 points a game.  But she was playing beside high-scoring Jenny DeMuth and Cyndi Valentin who were always the focus of opponent’s defense.  Smith only shot 36% from the field.  It’s hard to see how that percentage will improve much when defenses are concentrating more on her.   

Carrie Smith and Leah Enterline both got minutes at either shooting guard or small forward.  Neither scored much.  Smith shot a weak 39% from the field while Enterline hit an abysmal 25% of her shots.  Sophomore Kim Roberson had a very disappointing freshman season, averaging 1.3 points in only 17 games.  It’s not known if she was injured, but her high school performance led to much higher expectations for her.  She may be the one returning player who has at least the potential to make a decent contribution. 

Freshman Michelle Carr is more of a power forward than a wing, but she may get minutes at small forward.  She’s a strong rebounder who is better from the paint but can hit from the perimeter. 

This is a very weak area for Indiana.  Smith will be one of the top scorers again, but she has to shoot much better.  Unless Legette-Jack is going to move a power forward to small forward, there is no one else on the roster who looks to be even a decent Big 10 player. 

Posts:  The post positions have not been strong for several seasons in Indiana and Legette-Jack will not be welcoming any new players to that rotation.  In fact, she inherits a roster with only two true posts on it. 

At center will be 6’7 senior Sarah McKay.  McKay had a decent freshman year but has played less and less since then.  At 6’7 she is, well, tall, but she doesn’t bring much else to the court.  She may be the slowest player in the Big 10 and she doesn’t really like contact.  But McKay has gotten valuable experience with various Canadian national teams during the past several summers.  She has decent hands and can block shots.  She has been foul prone in the past, but this year she will have to stay on the court.  Legette-Jack and her staff have no other options at center. 

While there is only one true power forward on the roster, that player has much more potential than McKay.  6’ sophomore Whitney Thomas led the team in rebounding in 2005 and earned a spot on the Big 10’s all freshman team.   She has the offensive game to pick up some of the scoring slack left by the graduation of DeMuth and Valentine.  The first big thing she has to improve is her free throw shooting.  She plays around the basket and will get fouled, but she made only 44% of her free shots last year.  That has to improve. 

Backing up those two is really nobody.  Carrie Smith can probably play at power forward but she is more comfortable on the perimeter even though she hasn’t contributed much there in her first three seasons. 

Summary:  Most coaches dream of getting a head job at a school in a major conference.  Leggette-Jack is about to find out that dreams that come true are not unmixed blessings.  She is coaching in one of the top conferences in America.  But she takes over a program with little returning talent, little recent history of success, little fan support and with an administration widely reputed to care little about its women’s program. 

The good news is that this year should be as bad as it gets for her at Indiana.  She will be in a relatively low-pressure situation and her best players are her youngest.  This will be a year where progress will be measured in lessons learned rather than by games won.  

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