It's a term college basketball fans all over the country have come to be very familiar with. Made popular by the lovable sports commentator Dick Vitale, it has developed into the official title for the up-and-coming young players in college basketball.
If there is a college freshman or a high school senior making a name for themselves on the hard wood, their put in that special group of players that college basketball head coaches should keep their eye on.
One coach who knows what it takes to get some of those dandies to play for your school is right here at UNH. For the past 10 years, Head Coach Sue Johnson has been working her recruiting magic to get some of the best players in the area to dawn the White & Blue for the Women's Basketball team. And this past year is no exception.
Set backs with junior guard Ashley Cerniglia's rehab and the dismissal of sophomore guard Kelly Haines from the team at the beginning of the season, started a series of unfortunate events for the Wildcats, who were predicted to finish fifth in the America East Conference but ended the season in dead last. Those events meant Coach Johnson would need her freshman to step up and pick up the slack.
Amy Simpson accepted the challenge head on. The 5'10" guard from Waterford, Conn. with the unique, and rather spastic jump shot, was ready to prove that Cerniglia and senior forward Danielle Clark were not the only pure shooters the Wildcats had.
"Getting the experience helped me get better," said Simpson, who started 26 of the 28 regular season games this year.
And with the experience aplenty, Simpson developed into UNH's best freshman player this year. She led the freshman class in scoring, rebounds, and total assists this year with 7/2.9/35 respectfully. She also easily proved to be one of best 3-point shooters on the entire team. Simpson connected with 43 shots from 3-point land, which places her eighth in that category in the America East Conference and tied for 18th on UNH's career list for 3-pointers made.
All of Simpson success was not over looked by the basketball community. Prior to the 2007 America East Conference, Simpson was named to the America East All-Rookie team.
But all this success was not easy for Simpson, who talked about the difficulty of transitioning between high school and college ball. "The game is a lot more quick and physical. Everyone is a lot taller too. I went from being one of the tallest players on the court in high school, to being one of the shortest," she said.
Luckily for Coach Johnson, Simpson was not the only freshman who would be ready to play when another unfortunate event occurred for the Wildcats.
When senior center Ray Williams went down with a knee injury during this season, Coach Johnson called upon her tandem of freshman centers, 6'0" Chrissy Hall and 6'2" Rachael Fowler to take control of the paint for the Wildcats.
Just like Simpson and any other freshman player who hasn't had that much playing time, the lack of experience was a possible problem for both of the taller dandies, and Hall was fully aware of that.
"The game is so different then what you are use to," she said.
But once they got the opportunity, both of the players established themselves as true heirs to the post position for a team that enjoys feeding the ball to the post. Especially Hall, who averaged 4.5 points a game and 2.7 rebounds. She also boasts one of the teams best free throw percentages with 71 percent.
"All of the freshman have developed their games and progressed at different speeds. That's the thing about freshman players, they will always be at different phases in their games. You need to approach their play game by game. Adjust and react," said Coach Johnson.
Simpson, Hall, and Fowler are part of a six member freshman class that populated UNH's bench this year. It was the largest freshman class in the America East Conference. And the youth, along with the lack of experience for the Wildcats team is not going any where any time soon.
With five seniors on the team graduating this year, Coach Johnson is bringing in five dandies to fill out a roster that will include six sophomores, five freshmen, two seniors, one junior and a partridge in a pair tree.
"We are going to have a lot of young talent next year. They will have some big shoes to fill with Dani and Whitney leaving and I expect that they will fill them, just in different ways," said Coach Johnson.
Chrissy Hall and Amy Simpson concurred with their coach in regards to the issue of a young Wildcat team. "Since we are loosing five seniors, we will have a whole new, young team next year," said Simpson. Hall added "We will have a lot of inexperience next year, but our team will grow."
The Wildcats will be welcoming two guards and three more post players to the team next year, and one of the guards is everything a "Diaper Dandie" is expected to be.
After being courted by the likes of Holy Cross, Colgate and Harvard, Framingham High School senior and Co-captain Denise Beliveau set her sights on Durham for her college basketball career.
"It was just a better fit for me," said Beliveau, who just finished leading her team through the Division I Massachusetts Girls South Sectional tournament.
She will be bringing to UNH a strong defensive game. "Junior year was when I decided that my main focus would be basketball, and then I changed my style to focus more on defense," she said.
Beliveau may claim that she is stronger on defense, but don't count out her offensive skills, averaging 20 points and 6 assists per game this year. She is also only the third player in Framingham High Girl's Basketball history to net 1,000 career points, which she accomplished this season.
With the offensive skills of Dani Clark and Whitney Edwards leaving this year, one can not be more than excited about the offensive numbers Beliveau will be bringing to the court next season.
The up-coming seasons for the UNH Women's Basketball team are completely up in the air. With the abundance of youth, no one will really be able to predict what kind of success the Wildcats can achieve.
What we can expect is to see a group of young players taking a leadership role and teaching a group of even younger players how to play this great, but difficult game that is college basketball. Regardless of whether either side is ready.
As Dick Vitale would say "It's awesome, baby."
Be the first to comment on this article!