Taylor still building on plan
Mar. 16, 2010 - Regina Leader-Post
By Ian Hamilton
By Dave Taylor's reckoning, the University of Regina Cougars women's basketball team is ahead of the game.
"At the start of the year, I sat down and did a three-year plan -- much like I did when I took the job," the fourth-year head coach said Monday. "That first plan ended at us hosting nationals (in 2009). Now we're on to the next one.
"This three-year plan is built around having Brittany Read as a dominant post player. Like the last one, I thought the third year was going to be the best one. We've just finished the first year -- and if we're No. 4 now, we can get better."
The Cougars' 2009-10 season ended Sunday, when they lost 78-67 to the Saskatchewan Huskies in the bronze-medal game of the CIS championship tournament in Hamilton. It was Regina's third straight appearance at nationals, and its third straight medal game (after two silver-medal showings).
Despite losing seven players to graduation following the 2009 CIS championship, the Cougars went 16-4 in the '09-10 Canada West regular season to finish first in the Prairie Division. After beating the Lethbridge Pronghorns in a quarterfinal series, Regina went to the Canada West Final Four and earned a berth at nationals with a semifinal victory over the Alberta Pandas.
In Hamilton, the Cougars beat the Laval Rouge et Or in a CIS quarterfinal before losing to the eventual-champion Simon Fraser Clan in a semifinal. Then came the loss to the Huskies.
So what has to happen for the Cougars to get back to the CIS tournament -- and to improve on this season's finish?
"The first part of it was unexpected -- and that was Simon Fraser leaving (to join the NCAA)," Taylor said. "Next year becomes wide open. I was talking to some other coaches at nationals and there are seven or eight of us who think they have a chance to win it.
"For us to do it, we have to be more consistent in what we do," he added. "I talked to Jo (first-year point guard Joanna Zalesiak) after our last game. Having had her for a year now, we know what her strengths are and we can build some things around what she does. We'll be more comfortable in our offence.
"The other thing is, we're losing some kids, so it's kind of a transition year. I'm going to ask for a greater level of commitment. Not that we don't work hard now, but we're going to spend even more time in the weight room and in the gym working individually."
Guards Becky Schmidt and Stacey Walker and forward Carmen Stewart have exhausted their CIS eligibility, meaning Regina has lost 10 players to graduation over the past two seasons.
Taylor expects everyone who is eligible to return in '10-11 to come back, but he's also looking to add players -- and depth -- to the lineup.
He's talking to local high school stars (such as Taylor Pelletier of the Balfour Redmen and Kayla Hannah of the Notre Dame Hounds), CIS players (including Susanne Canvin, who played previously at the University of P.E.I.), players out of the Alberta college loop, and even international players.
Whoever joins the program will add to a core of players led by Zalesiak, Read and Lindsay Ledingham.
Taylor said Ledingham was one U of R player who had a breakout season in '09-10. Another was Read, who was named a Canada West all-star in her first season as a starter.
"It isn't a surprise that she's this good," Taylor said, "but that it happened this quickly."
If the Cougars get continued development by returnees as well as an injection of talent, a return trip to nationals could be in the offing.
"We just have to get better; it's that simple," Taylor said. "We have to get players to replace the players we lost, and we have to get the players who are here to get better.
"We're good enough to get back (to nationals). We need to stay good enough to get back there and to have a chance at a medal."