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Friday, November 9, 2001
Isles now have luxury of sitting freshmen
Depth allows Estes to bring along young players more slowly
By Matt Young
Caller-Times

Hartman

Two seasons ago, freshman talent like Emily Hartman and Laura Jones would have been thrust directly in the rotation for the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's basketball team.
   Now, with a roster that's not paper-thin, Hartman and Jones will be doing a lot more watching than playing. While the lack of early playing time may not necessarily be great news for the Islanders' two freshmen, it's great news for A&M-Corpus Christi. Three seasons into the program, and the Islanders have finally reached a point where they don't have to rely on freshmen.

Jones

   "We just have a lot of upperclassmen on this team, so that means (the freshmen) have to work harder to try to get in the games," said Jones, who played at Victoria Memorial High School last season. "Whatever role we're given, we have to make the most of it and prove ourselves."
   The freshmen could get their last taste of serious playing time for a while when the Islanders play their final exhibition game against NWBL USA Elite at 7 p.m. today at Memorial Coliseum. A&M-Corpus Christi will open the regular season against Rice on Nov. 17 at the coliseum.
   "We're excited about both freshmen, but they're just kind of getting their feet wet and trying to learn the system," A&M-Corpus Christi coach Sheryl Estes said. "In this last exhibition, we're going to look to play a lot of players, but we're also going to be looking to set our rotation. The first half, we'll focus on getting the rotation set that we'll use in the season-opener, but in the second half, we should get a look at everybody."
   Hartman and Jones both got in late in the Islanders' 76-61 win over the Houston Jaguars on Sunday and showed some flashes of what they could produce.
   The 6-foot-3 Hartman showed a nice shooting touch for a post player, canning two baseline jumpers. However, the starting post spots are already locked down by Kristin Rogers and Jean Clark - the team's two leading returning scorers - and most of the backup minutes will probably go to rapidly improving sophomore Roberta Plaza.
   "I know that I'm probably not going to get that much playing time this season, because Kristin and Jean are so good," said Hartman, who played at Poteet High School. "That's fine. I can learn a lot from those players."
   Jones didn't score in her short appearance in the exhibition, but she showed the athleticism that she could bring to the small forward spot.
   "Emily is going to give us some depth at the post position, and the stronger she gets and the more effective she gets at scoring in the post, the more she'll play as the season goes along," Estes said. "Laura Jones is just a tremendous athlete. The sooner she adjusts to the college game, the more playing time she'll get."


Contact Matt Young at 886-3702 or youngm@caller.com

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