What a difference a year makes. Following the 2012-2013 season where the Braves finished 14-16, things were looking up for the Bradley women’s basketball team.
Unfortunately, the 2013-2014 season was not as kind.
The aftermath was an 8-22 finish, the first time the Braves finished with under 10 wins since the 2005-2006 season.
Finishing with a dismal season may not have been because of a lack of talent on the team, but it also could have a lack of depth.
During the season, the women’s team suffered injuries and also had players dismissed from the team, leaving head coach Michael Brooks with a roster of nine total players to end the season.
The losses didn’t stop when the season, as Kelsey Budd, Kelly Frings and Catie O’Leary graduated, while Taylor Shull transferred and Audrey Lawson and left the team.
Alyson Spinias-Valanis did not graduate, but ran out of women’s basketball eligibility to play for the team.
This left Brooks with only five remaining players from last year’s team, who he looked at to lead this year’s squad.
“We call them the fab five,” Brooks said. “They set the tone for what was expected when everybody else came in.”
This year, the Braves women’s basketball team boasts seven total newcomers. Six of the seven freshmen, with the remainder being a junior college transfer.
Because more than half of the team is new to the Hilltop, there was an expected learning curve to coach Brooks’ system and the style of game he wants to play.
But Brooks said that the freshmen have learned the system very quickly.
“They come in with an identity all of their own,” Brooks said. “They’ve caught on probably the fastest.”
The freshmen have even impressed the five returning players with how quick they learned Brooks’ game.
“Freshmen are freshmen, [but] they’ve caught on very very fast,” one of the five returning players, redshirt sophomore Charnelle Reed said. “They came in and picked it up right away.”
The lone non-freshman newcomer is Sameia Kendall, a junior college transfer from Johnson College has made a name for herself in the short time she’s been at Bradley.
“She’s a winner, she’s brought that to us,” Brooks said. “She knows what it takes to win, and she’s brought that level of maturity to our team from day one. That’s why I named her captain.”
The quick learning, winning mentality and depth that all the newcomers bring this year are crucial to Brooks’ system, which he said focuses on speed.
“Speed kills,” Brooks said. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall. We will outrun you, [and] we will out work you.”
This speed that Brooks emphasizes was hard to achieve last year with the team short on bench depth, but this year Brooks says it will be lethal.
“Our second five should be faster than your first five,” Brooks said. “When you see our next wave come in, that’s when you start to worry. Our first and our second waves are going to be deadly to deal with.”
With the revamped roster and fully implemented offensive and defensive schemes, the Braves will open up their season with a road trip that begins Nov. 14 at University of Illinois-Chicago, and includes DePaul University and the University of Oklahoma, who both played in last year’s NCAA tournament.
“I can’t wait for my kids to feel that atmosphere, to feel that electricity,” Brooks said. ”I feel like it’s going to test us and see really what we’re made of.”
