Women's Basketball Selected Fourth in AE Preseason Prognostications
October 28, 2009 | Women's Basketball
HARTFORD, Conn. - After a vote by the America East Conference head coaches, the Boston University women's basketball team has been selected to finish fourth in the preseason prognostications released by the league on Wednesday. BU tallied 38 points to finish in a tie with New Hampshire, while Vermont was selected for the second straight year to finish at the top of the league with five first-place votes.
The preseason poll was announced today at the 2009 America East Basketball Tip-Off Event at the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford - host city of the 2010 America East Men's and Women's Basketball Championship presented by Newman's Own.
Hartford followed in second place with 60 points and four first-place votes, while Binghamton came in third with 45 votes. BU and New Hampshire tied for fourth-place with 38 points each and just three points behind was UMBC in sixth-place, followed by Stony Brook (23 points), Maine (13) and Albany (11).
BU (25-8, 16-0) is coming off the program's best season which included an undefeated conference regular season and its first appearance in the postseason WNIT. Senior forward Aly Hinton is the team's top returner in points (8.0 ppg), rebounds (4.9 rpg), assists (1.0 apg) and steals (18). During her freshman campaign, sophomore Alex Young averaged 4.1 points per game from off the bench, improving to 5.1 points per game in league play. Five freshmen, three guards and two forwards, also join the Terriers in 2009-10.
The Terriers will be led by sixth-year head coach Kelly Greenberg, who is the first BU women's basketball coach to win 20 games in consecutive seasons. Her record at BU stands at 93-63, and her career mark, which includes five seasons as head coach at Penn, is 177-117.
BU opens its season on the road on Nov. 13 at Kentucky at 11 am, the nation's first collegiate women's basketball game of the season. BU will then make the quick turnaround and go to UMass on Sunday (Nov. 15) for a 2 p.m., tip-off before bringing a 20-1 record over the last two seasons at Case Gymnasium to the home opener against URI. The game against the Rams will be aired on NESN.
The 2010 America East Championship first, quarter and semifinal rounds will take place March 4-7 at Hartford's Chase Arena in the Reich Family Pavilion. The title game will be hosted a week later by the highest remaining seed with the winner earning an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
