Marshall University Athletics
Women's Basketball Picked Ninth in Preseason C-USA Poll
10/11/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Oct. 11, 2006
IRVING, Texas - The Marshall University women's basketball team has been selected to finish in ninth place in the 2006-07 Conference USA women's basketball regular season chase, as voted on by the league's 12 head coaches, the conference office announced on Wednesday. For the second consecutive year, Rice was picked to win the league's regular season title after claiming 10 first place votes and 142 total points.
Marshall, picked to finish fourth in last year's poll, went 9-7 in league play a year ago in its first season in C-USA. The Thundering Herd bid farewell to five seniors, including three starters, from last season's team, accounting for a loss of over 60 percent of its scoring.
"I think a preseason poll is based on what coaches saw last year and what you lost," Marshall head coach Royce Chadwick said. "Without a doubt, we lost a tremendous senior class and based on the statistics we don't return a lot.
"But we think we have a good group that the coaches haven't seen that will be a formidable team to compete against in this league."
Tulsa, the reigning C-USA regular season and tournament champions, tied with SMU for second place with 113 points each. The Golden Hurricane and fourth-place Houston each garnered one first place vote.
Tulsa's Jillian Robbins, the 2005-06 C-USA Player of the Year, was named preseason player of the year. She is joined on the preseason team by UAB's Carmen Guzman, Rice's Lauren Neaves, Tye Jackson of Houston and SMU's Janielle Dodds.
The preseason team features all five players who were named to the 2006 C-USA All-Conference first team.
Marshall will open regular-season play on Nov. 12 at Navy.
2006-07 Conference USA Women's Basketball Preseason Poll
1. Rice (10) 142
2. Tulsa (1) 113
SMU 113
4. Houston (1) 99
5. Southern Miss 97
6. Tulane 83
7. East Carolina 78
8. UAB 70
9. Marshall 59
10. UTEP 38
11. UCF 27
12. Memphis 17
2006-07 Conference USA Preseason Coaches All-Conference Team
*Jillian Robbins, Tulsa, Sr., F
Lauren Neaves, Rice, Sr., F
Tye Jackson, Houston, Jr., G
Janielle Dodds, SMU, Jr., F
Carmen Guzman, UAB, Sr., G
*Preseason Player of the Year
