Quick Facts: 2009-10 Record: 27-5 (16-0 America East)
Letterwinners Returning: 9
Starters Returning: 2
Newcomers: 3
Head Coach: Jennifer Rizzotti (11th season)/ 219-121 career-record
During her 11 seasons as the head coach of the Hartford
Hawks women's basketball team, Jennifer Rizzotti has built the program into a
national power. While there have been many successful seasons with Rizzotti in
charge, few people would challenge that the 2009-10 campaign was one of the
finest in program history. Last season saw the Hawks compile a 20-game winning
streak, including an undefeated run through America East play. This tremendous
success helped extend the streak of 20+ win seasons to six, as well as helped
the Hawks receive a national ranking in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls.
After strong freshman seasons, Ruthanne Doherty and
Daphne Elliott are going to have to step up their production considerably to
help replace the loss of five players to graduation. Doherty, who started 21
games during her freshman season, appears to be the next great forward for the
Hawks program. She is coming off a season in which she averaged 6.0 points
and 4.8 rebounds. Elliott is a tremendous scorer in the backcourt, as she uses
her quickness and shooting ability to fill up the stat sheet. Along with
Doherty and Elliott, Rozzotti expects improvement from each of the sophomores.
"All of our sophomores will be expected to take on
bigger roles this year," explained Rizzotti. "They made a tremendous impact as
freshmen and I expect all of them to take responsibility to replace the scoring
and rebounding we lost with last year's seniors. I'm very confident that
this group is ready to take ownership of the future of this program."
Repeating the success of last season will be an incredible
challenge for the program after the loss of Diana Delva and Erica Beverly to
graduation. Not only were Delva and Beverly tremendous individual talents, as
demonstrated by their selection as America East Player of the Year and America
East Defensive Player of the Year, respectively, but they also were tremendous
leaders for one of the most successful programs in the country.
While there is no illusion that replacing Delva and Beverly
will be easy, the mark of any great program is how quickly it can rebuild and
get back to the top. Hartford has shown its ability to reload when it continued
its excellent play after the loss of Danielle Hood in '08 and Erika Messam in '06.
With great talent and leadership still prevalent throughout the roster,
Rizzotti believes that excellence on the defensive end of the court is the key
for this team to meet many of its expectations. This emphasis on defense has
helped the Hawks lead the league in scoring defense each of the last six years.
"We will continue to emphasize our defense as we do
every year," explained the reigning America East Coach of the Year. "Our
staff is excited to coach a great group of hardworking, committed players who
have learned what it takes to be winners regardless who is in uniform."
While many people outside the program are certainly
questioning where the production will come from on this team, Rizzotti expects all of her returning lettermen to embrace the challenge and raise the level
of their game.
"Every year we expect all of our returning players
to come back and take on more responsibility," emphasized Rizzotti. "This year
will be no different."
One player that will certainly see her role and
production increase is senior guard Jackie Smith. Smith is coming off a 2009-10
campaign in which she was named to the America East All-Conference Third Team after
averaging 6.5 points and 3.2 assists per game. With her excellent leadership
abilities, Rizzotti expects Smith to help this team in many different ways.
"Jackie was probably the biggest key to our success
last season, so her performance this year will have a major impact on our team,"
Rizzotti said. "Nobody has a bigger influence on our efficiency,
drive and desire to win."
Due to the success that the program has had under
Rizzotti, it would be difficult to believe that this team won't continue its
tremendous success. The Hawks are set to play another challenging
non-conference schedule, and it will not be a surprise if this is still the
team to beat once America East play kicks off in early January.