The University of Florida tips-off its 37th year of women’s basketball on Saturday, when the Gators play host to UCF in the first round of the Preseason WNIT at the O’Connell Center beginning at 4 p.m.
Tickets are $5 for Reserved Seating, $4 for Adult General Admission and $2 for Child/Senior General Admission. UF and Santa Fe students are FREE with a valid student ID.
Fans also can show their Florida vs. South Carolina FOOTBALL ticket to gain free admission to Saturday’s game.
“This has been a huge week for us with a lot of preparation focusing on Saturday’s game against UCF,” said UF head coach Amanda Butler, who enters her fourth year at the helm of the Gator program. “UCF is a veteran team with a lot of seniors and upperclassmen. They are very athletic and very well coached. We know they will be very excited to play us and we’re excited to get the season underway.”
The 2010-11 Gator team is a young, inexperienced group, with just five actual letterwinners returning from last year’s squad that earned the Southeastern Conference’s automatic berth into the Postseason WNIT.
Juniors Jordan Jones (Suwanee, Ga.) and Azania Stewart (Wood Green, England) started the majority of games last season, with Jones UF’s leading returning scorer with 9.1 points per game and Stewart the SEC’s field goal percentage leader in 2010, when she hit 61.9 percent..
Forward Jennifer George (Orlando, Fla.), named to the 2010 All-SEC Freshman Team, is the Gators’ leading returning rebounder, as she collected 5.2 per game, while contributing 6.6 points.
Six newcomers fill the roster, with four true freshmen who rated as the nation’s 21st-best signing class by ESPN HoopGurlz.
With six newcomers - including four true freshmen - on the 2010-11 roster, there’s a strong change one of them could be in the starting lineup on opening day.
The last true freshman to start a season-opener was Sha Brooks vs. St. Francis (NY) on Nov. 18, 2005. Brittany Davis and Sarah Lowe were the last true freshmen to start a home season-opener, as both were in the lineup on Nov. 24, 2002 against Lamar.
The last newcomer who was not a freshman to start their Gator debut was Jordan Jones last year against Stetson. Prior to that it was junior transfer Aneika Henry in 2007.
Very much unlike the Gators, the Knights return nine letterwinners and all five starters from last year’s 11-16 season, when the squad tied for seventh in Conference-USA action. UCF ended its year winning seven of its final 11 games, marching into the CUSA Tournament semifinal game, where they dropped a tough 63-62 decision to top-seeded Tulane.
Senior guard Chelsie Wiley has already topped the 1,000-point plateau for her career, averaging 13.3 points over the last two years.
UCF head coach Joi Williams got her start in the collegiate coaching world as an assistant coach at Florida, where she was a member of Carol Ross’ inaugural staff for the 1990-91 season.
Williams helped the Gators earn nine NCAA Tournament berths during her 12-year tenure. She was on the sidelines all four years current Gator head coach Amanda Butler played at UF (Butler was recruiting by the previous coaching staff), as well as recruited and coached current UF assistant coach Murriel Page, who is in her first year wearing a collegiate coaching hat.
Butler joined Williams on the Gator coaching staff as an assistant coach for the 1995-96 and 1996-97 seasons, when Florida advanced to the 1997 NCAA Elite Eight - and Page was a junior on the team.
Butler enters in 2010-11 her sixth year as head coach with a 98-61 record in, including a 58-39 mark during her first three years at UF.
Saturday will be the 25th meeting between the two programs, but the first since Florida’s 67-42 victory on Nov. 30, 2004 in Orlando. The Gators have won all 24 previous games against UCF, including 13 played in Gainesville.
Florida sports a 20-16 record all-time in its season-openers, including a 12-5 record when the first game of the year is at home. The Gators have won four consecutive season-openers at home, including last year’s 85-63 victory against Stetson.
The Gators have won four of their last five season-openers, as well as 14 of their last 16 to begin a new campaign.
“This week, we tried to get a handle on our turnovers,” Butler shared. “We were very aggressive in our two scrimmages and I like the way we’ve been attacking the basket, but we have to value our possessions more than we have. If we get that under control, we have a chance to be a lot better earlier than we thought we might.”
The 2010 Preseason WNIT features a three-game guarantee format. The event opens Nov. 12-13 with first-round games. Second-round games will be played Nov. 14-15; semifinals will be Nov. 17-18; and the championship is set for Sunday, Nov. 21. Teams that lose in the first two rounds will play consolation games on the second weekend, Nov. 19-20. All games are hosted by participating schools, and sites are announced by the end of the preceding round.
The Preseason WNIT field includes seven teams that won their conference tournaments in 2009-10: Austin Peay (Ohio Valley), Hampton (MEAC), JMU (Colonial), Lamar (Southland), South Dakota State (Summit), St. Francis PA (Northeast), and Utah Valley (Great West). Other teams that also earned postseason play are Charlotte (Atlantic 10), DePaul (Big East), Florida (SEC), Iona (Metro Atlantic), Missouri State (Missouri Valley), Purdue (Big Ten), and Toledo (Mid-American). Central Florida (Conference-USA) and Valparaiso (Horizon) round out the field for this year’s Preseason WNIT.
This is the second time the Gators will play in the preseason event. Florida advanced to the semifinals of the 1998 tournament, winning the semifinal consolation game at the final site (Colorado State) for a third-place finish.
