NICOLE MILLER/Daily Bruin Junior Malika
Leatham trys to get past the defense of Oregon State in a
game in late February this season.
By Scott Schultz
Daily Bruin Staff
A transition season is not judged on the final record. It is
judged by the efficiency of the transition being accommodated. By
that definition, the women’s basketball team had a successful
season.
The Bruins (6-25, 5-13 Pac-10), who had gone to three straight
tournaments, entered the season as a question mark after losing
seven players, including the majority of their starting lineup and
the entire front court, to graduation.
Before the first games were even played, the Bruins were dealt
two consecutive knockout punches when they found out that sophomore
guard Nicole Kaczmarski and senior forward LaCresha Flannigan would
not be returning to the team.
“The very beginning of the season was definitely rough for
all of us,” junior guard Michelle Greco said. “We
didn’t know who was going to be playing, and we didn’t
know each others’ moves, but we really improved over the
course of the season.”
Both Flannigan and Kaczmarski had been projected to be starters
and leaders on a team that was already lacking veteran
leadership.
“The lack of veteran players was difficult to
overcome,” said Head Coach Kathy Olivier. “But the
returning players definitely helped the new players … know what
to expect.”
Suddenly the Bruins, two years removed from the Elite Eight,
were facing one of the most difficult schedules in the country with
a team consisting almost entirely of freshmen, sophomores and
transfers.
Greco, who was expected to play a major role on the team, was
suddenly thrust into a leadership position while also being the
sole point of the Bruin offense. The other players had to get used
to playing at the elite level while simultaneously learning to play
with each other.
“I thought Michelle did a great job as a leader on a
transition team, which she had never experienced before,”
Olivier said.
Olivier put a thrift-shop team on the floor around Greco,
featuring the smallest point guard in the Pac-10, 5-foot-1
sophomore Natalie Nakase, and later a soccer player (Whitney Jones)
and a volleyball player (Kristee Porter).
The season started as a disaster, with the Bruins losing 13 of
their first 14 games. None of the games were close, but the
resilient Bruins kept their heads high and never quit, battling
back in all of the games.
The breakthrough game for the Bruins was the home win against
USC on Jan. 14, when UCLA stepped up its intensity and closed the
game strong for its first conference victory.
Gradually, the inexperienced team developed into a working unit
with defined roles. The games against their Pac-10 rivals were much
tighter contests than in the first half of the season.
Nakase provided tough perimeter defense while improving her
decision-making as a playmaker. Jones became the gritty intangibles
player with a knack for being in the right place at all times.
Junior Malika Leathem provided athleticism in the low post.
Porter not only became one of the Pac-10’s best all-around
defensive players, but a bona fide scoring threat as well. She
scored 32 points against Washington State.
But this Bruin team was ultimately carried by the all-around
tough game of Greco. Facing double- and triple-teams all season,
Greco still led the Pac-10 in scoring (19.9 ppg) and free-throw
percentage (.866.) She had a winner’s knack for making the
big rebound or steal whenever the game was on the line.
The Bruins’ quickness and their tenacious presses and
traps were also key to the season’s turnaround. They ended
the 2000-01 campaign leading the Pac-10 in steals and turnover
margin.
“I think we played a lot better as the season went on and
we got used to each other,” Nakase said.
She added, “I don’t think our record reflected how
good and how hard we played the second half of
the season.”
The transition phase was completed when the Bruins swept their
final home series of the season against the Washington schools,
including an 81-56 blowout of the Huskies, who didn’t lose
another game until the Elite Eight.
“We ended with two victories and we never quit, which is a
positive reflection on the program and the coaches,” Greco
said.
Next season, UCLA will add two large post players to their now
experienced squad. If all goes well, the Bruins should find
themselves back in the tournament next season.