2016-17 Season Review

As the dust settles on a whirlwind of a season for the USF women's basketball team, the opportunity arises – finally – for first-year head coach Molly Goodenbour to engage in some reflection on a seven-month span that, while hectic, proved very successful in surpassing many expectations around the West Coast Conference. 
 
At fourth place, the Dons earned their highest WCC finish since the 2002-03 campaign, posting an overall record of 18-13 and an 11-7 mark in WCC play, the program's first double-digit conference win total since 1996-97. USF defeated No. 5 seed Loyola Marymount in the first round of the WCC Championships, marking the fifth year in a row the Dons have won their opening game in the tournament. Even a season-ending loss to eventual-champion Gonzaga in the semifinals did little to dampen the positives that came out of this year.
 
For a team picked to finish seventh in the preseason poll, Goodenbour sees the wins and losses from 2016-17 as just one of the many building blocks that will help support the continued growth of the program.
 
"On paper we exceeded expectations for our WCC finish," said Goodenbour, who became the first USF head coach to post a winning record in her first season since Sue Rojcewicz in 1982-83. "Fourth place was higher than many thought we were capable of; 18 wins is a solid year."
 
Despite the late coaching change that came weeks before the season started, the squad met the challenge and took major strides in getting aligned with Goodenbour and her brand new staff's vision for the future of the program.
 
"This group had some challenges thrown at them," Goodenbour said. "They had to adapt to new roles and they had to adapt to new expectations from different coaches than those who recruited them to USF, and they had to do all this in an abbreviated time period. Considering all this, I think that this group did quite well. They were always coachable and open-minded and I do feel like they did the best they could to meet our staff expectations. We didn't always have the outcomes that we wanted but we certainly grew and developed throughout this year. I am looking forward to having an offseason with this group because I think that will help us to develop even more."
 
Two returners especially emerged this season for the Dons in backcourt mates Rachel Howard and Anna Seilund. Howard, who averaged 11.3 points per game over her career coming into the year, went on to lead the conference in scoring at over 18 points per contest en route to earning first team All-WCC honors and inserting her name among the all-time scorers in Dons history.
 
Seilund, meanwhile, took over as the primary point guard and garnered a second team All-WCC nod while leading the team in minutes and ranking among the top-10 in the conference in assists.     
 
"Watching Rachel play the way she did over the last 5-7 games of the season," said Goodenbour on some of the season's highlights. "She was fantastic. She shouldered a heavy load for us and showed the type of offensive player she is capable of being.
 
"We were just a bit dissatisfied with our lack of consistency. Part of that has to do with the coaching transition, but a big part of it also simply had to do with returners having to take on new and expanded roles - it took us a while to grow into those roles."
 
Goodenbour's assessment of inconsistency makes sense given the Dons didn't win or lose more than two in a row until a five-game winning streak that ended the regular season and included the WCC tournament opener over LMU. But among those wins were four against teams that ended up advancing to the postseason (Gonzaga, Long Beach State, Seattle, BYU), giving the younger players a taste of the type of team Goodenbour wants to see.      
 
"Toughness. It's a theme we introduced and emphasized all season," said Goodenbour. "We struggled often with understanding and embracing the concept. This will continue to be an area we intend to develop. It is the cornerstone of what I believe in."
 
It's no doubt that the Dons will have some significant holes to fill with the departure of four standout seniors in Howard, Claudia Price, Hashima Carothers and Raushan Gultekin, but it ushers in the annual offseason ritual that Goodenbour and her staff know will help lay the groundwork moving forward.   
 
"Recruiting. Recruiting. Recruiting," Goodenbour said. "That is our primary objective. And as far as the returners are concerned, we have a lot of work to do both on the court and in the weight room. The emphasis will be on player development."
 
It's hard to imagine a coaching staff with a combined 33 years collegiate head coaching experience encountering something they haven't seen before, but making inroads with a new program always offers at least some learning curve.       
 
"It seemed like there was something new that popped up almost daily," Goodenbour said. "I wouldn't say we were surprised by a ton of things but we have certainly learned a great deal over the course of this first season. In some ways that was one of the main goals this year - to educate ourselves as coaches about what we need to do to be successful at USF moving forward. Every day was an opportunity to learn about our team, the department, the USF community, the WCC opposition - many firsts for us this year which will hopefully allow us to be better in the coming years."
 
Now with the familiar rhythm and flow of the basketball calendar shifting its attention to different priorities, the clock is always counting down the days until next season tips off and the Dons can continue on their path. 
 
"It feels good to be heading into next year with a better idea of who we are and what we need to work on," Goodenbour said. "We have some good pieces returning. The culture is great here - players genuinely care about one another and the program. They are intelligent, mature and focused. Those are things that I have really enjoyed about this team. We now just need to continue to emphasize the themes of competitiveness, passion, and pursuit."