Women's Basketball Preview, Part 2: Detroit

Oct. 24, 2007

Eleven is the number of returners from last year's Detroit women's basketball squad, eight denotes the number of upperclassmen and two is the amount of new faces the Titans will see on their active player roster in 2007-08. It is obvious that the amount of veterans is in UDM's favor, but 13 is the only number that will help attain Detroit's goal for this season.

"Our goal is simple this year and that is, from worst to first," stated UDM head coach Mickey Barrett. "The reality is that we will improve, we will move up the ladder, but it depends on how well the athletes work together to see where we can finish in the Horizon League.

"It is going to be a struggle for us to keep rising through the conference, but that is our goal and we are not going to take away from it. We will pursue it with everything that we have this season."

Senior guard Joyce Massey, who played in every game last year and was in the starting line-up 19 times, is one of the veterans on this year's team. Massey, who was chosen by the coaches to the Preseason All-Horizon League First Team, ended the 2006-07 season first among teammates and fourth in the conference with an average of 14.9 points per game. For her efforts on the court, Massey earned all-conference second team honors.

"Joyce is an excellent talent, but she is going to have to lead on and off the court," said Barrett. "Her work ethic during the season is going to be part of the key to everyone's success."

Another returner for UDM is senior center India Bruster, who could not compete with the Titans until after the Fall term due to the NCAA Division I Transfer Rule, played in 22 games for UDM last year and was in the starting line-up for every contest except one. Throughout the season, Bruster tallied eight double figure rebound games, including a career-high showing of 18 against UW-Green Bay in the First Round of the Horizon League Tournament. In addition, Bruster led or tied the Titans in caroms on 12 occasions.

"India had a great finish last year and continues to get into better shape," added Barrett. "Barring any injuries, India should be able to compete with the other posts in the Horizon League."

Junior guard Sandi Brown is also a key veteran who started every game for Detroit during her sophomore year and finished second among teammates and 24th among conference peers in scoring with 8.7 ppg. Brown closed out 2007 with a 71 percent showing at the line (40-of-56) and averaged a league 10th-best in both steals (1.42 spg) and blocks (0.74 bpg).

"Sandi could be the key to everything," commented Barrett. "She is a tremendously athletic lady, who worked very hard this past offseason to improve her individual skills. I will look for her to be a big surprise in the league."

When speaking of positions, Barrett believes that Detroit's post position is the strength of the team. Competing for playing time at this position will be Bruster, sophomore Heather Hatter and junior Dominica Whittaker. Hatter played in every game for the Titans last year and received the starting nod 25 times. Hatter played a career-high 32 minutes at Loyola on March 5 where she also matched a personal-best of eight rebounds.

"I believe that the strength of the team is our inside play," stated Barrett. "I will look for our posts to really step up and have a great year."

Whittaker saw action in 24 contests and started four games for UDM last year. She mimicked personal-best of five boards and two assists at Eastern Michigan (Dec. 6) where Whittaker also played a career-high 23 minutes.

"We are not deep in the post, but we are going to be solid. We have three people in Heather, India and Dominica that have stepped up and worked extremely hard to improve their skills, conditioning and their all-around game performance."

At point guard, the Titans lost last year's second leading scorer in Kandace Evans, but UDM does return sophomore Chanica Hall who played in every contest last year except one. In addition, Hall was in the starting line-up on six occasions.

"Our sophomore point guard is Chanica, who is more inexperienced than experienced," added Barrett. "She started some games for us last year, but she probably did not get the exposure she needed to just step in and take over. Chanica is a very talented athlete, with a mindset of a good point guard, so I am looking for great things from her."

Junior Zemora Davis played in every game last year and started 23 contests. Davis averaged a team fifth-best 20.2 minutes per game and set a new personal standard in both points and boards with 10 and seven, respectively, at LSU (Dec. 2).

"People like Zemora Davis are really going to have to take a leadership role and an active role in looking to be a back-up point guard," stated Barrett. "This is the one area that we will have to continue developing."

Senior forward Katy Dunlop is another key contributor to this year's squad. Dunlop saw action in every game last season and finished fifth among teammates in scoring average (5.5 ppg). She led the Titans with a career-high 14 points in UDM's victory over East Carolina (Dec. 20) and matched that effort against UIC (Feb. 24) after shooting 5-of-8 from the field.

The Titans open up their season at Western Carolina (Nov. 9) and then travel further South to face Auburn on the Tigers home court (Nov. 11). After a brief stop in Detroit, the Titans then visit Buffalo (Nov. 20), Northern Iowa (Nov. 30) and Big Ten member school, Iowa (Dec. 2).

"Our schedule is probably not as difficult as it has been in the past four years, but we do have five of our opponents who made postseason last year, whether it was NCAA or the WNIT."

Detroit's second home contest of the season is against Albany (Dec. 8) and the Titans will then host Toledo (Dec. 18). UDM will close out 2007 with a match-up at IPFW (Dec. 21), but will meet the Mastodons again on Jan. 9 in Detroit.

"We expect every game to be a hard game, especially with the change of personnel on our team," said Barrett. "We are going to struggle with some of the bigger teams, but we have the opportunity to put ourselves in the position where I think we can beat and surprise a lot of teams in our non-conference schedule"

January starts off with four-straight home games for the Titans, which includes the Horizon League opener for UDM on Jan. 3 against UW-Green Bay. Last season, the Phoenix advanced to the second round of the 2007 NCAA Championship, which is just the second time in league history for this to have happened. UW-Green Bay also set a conference record for wins in a season with 29.

"I think it should be an interesting season in the Horizon League this year and expect our conference schedule to be as hard as it was last year," stated Barrett. "There are several teams who could vie for the top four spots. We expect to be one of those squads, but the reality is that we are going to have to fight extra hard to attain this goal."

Detroit will next face Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Jan. 5) and will wrap-up a four-game homestand against Wright State (Jan. 12). After a pair of contests in Ohio, UDM comes back home to face Butler (Jan. 24) and Valparaiso (Jan. 26).

The Titans begin February on the road at Illinois-Chicago (Feb. 2) and return to Calihan Hall for a match-up with Youngstown State (Feb. 14). UDM then faces Cleveland State at home (Feb. 16) before heading to Valparaiso's and Butler's home courts the following weekend.

"I believe that our entire league is underrated by the rest of the country," said Barrett. "We have several teams that are going to surprise many of the bigger schools this year."

Detroit closes out its home schedule on March 1 against Loyola before ending the regular season the way the Titans began the conference schedule, against Green Bay. This time, the meeting will be in Wisconsin on March 8.

"The changes that we have made with our team are definitely going to take away from potential success, but we will fight through it," commented Barrett. "We are going to need every piece of the puzzle this year to have any kind of success."

Twenty-nine is the number of regular season games the Titans will play to see if they are able to attain the goal for the 2007-08 campaign.

--Story provided by the Detroit office of sports information