Many questions surround the UCLA women’s basketball team
as it prepares for the 2003-2004 season, but perhaps the biggest is
who’s going to replace Michelle Greco. The face and spiritual
leader of the program for the past four years is gone, leaving a
sizable hole for her successors to fill. “The hardest thing
about not having Michelle on the floor is that you knew what you
were going to get with her,” coach Kathy Olivier said Monday
at UCLA media day. “It was very rare that Michelle was not
going to have double figures in points.” The Bruins must now
find a way to manufacture Greco’s 18.9 points a game,
defensive prowess and leadership on and off the court, and Olivier
knows more than one person will need to answer the call. “I
don’t want to put the onus (of replacing Greco) on just one
player because a lot of people think one of the freshman is going
to come in and do all of it. (Noelle Quinn) is very capable of
doing it, but she’s someone who likes to share the ball and
get all of her teammates involved.” Greco’s departure
will likely open up the bench and allow Olivier to utilize one of
the “deepest” and most “versatile” squads
in her 11-year tenure at UCLA. “It’s a completely
different look (without Greco),” Olivier said.
“We’re up-tempo with a lot of people touching the ball
and a lot of people getting into the flow. A lot of times last
year, it was Greco, Greco, Greco, and Nikki getting into the mix,
but now it’s a lot of different people getting into the mix,
which is fun for all of them.”
A TOUGHER SCHEDULE: UCLA’s non-conference
schedule for the upcoming season is among the nation’s
toughest. They will travel to powerhouses Texas and Purdue and host
a slate of Big-10 teams, including Illinois, and Michigan and Ohio
states. “The out-of-conference schedule is probably our
biggest concern,” Olivier said. (Our second game) is on
the road at Texas, and some people have them ranked No. 1 in the
country. They’ll have 10,000 people, and they have everyone
back. That’s what scares me the most.”
PITTS’S RECOVERY: Forward Julia Pitts
returned to practice and is scrimmaging at full speed after
recovering from an injury that sidelined her for the majority of
last season. Pitts suffered ligament damage in her knee in
UCLA’s loss to Baylor on Dec. 19. “Julia had a great
week last week where she did all the drills,” Olivier
said. “Because of her body type and because she’s
so upbeat, she never went through a phase in rehab where she was
depressed. She worked her tail off, and now she’s
back.”