The term “rebuilding season” really doesn’t exist in this context.
The Colorado Mesa University women’s basketball team will be starting their season within the next week and it is all about finding an identity for the next year.
With the season starting next Friday at Dixie State University against Saint Martin’s, the Mavericks are going in with high hopes and dreams. After ending the 2017-18 season with a 19-10 overall record and losing in the first round of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) Tournament, CMU is looking to build and continue to grow as a program.
“I think we got a core group of our upperclassmen that can lead us,” Head Coach Taylor Wagner said. “We’ve been training ever since school started and trying to get back into things and just kinda excited to see the season [finally] start.”
Taylor Wagner is entering his seventh season at the helm of the women’s basketball program and has brought the Mavericks to three NCAA Tournaments with one of those featuring an Elite Eight appearance in 2013.
Wagner has never had a losing season since being in Grand Junction.
CMU is projected to finish seventh out of sixteen teams in the RMAC preseason polls. Westminster College is ahead of CMU at sixth while Black Hills State University is projected to finish first.
Looking at the roster, all eyes will be on senior Jaylyn Duran. Duran is the only player from the team to be selected on the preseason All-RMAC team. The Pueblo native lead the team with 96 three-pointers last year which was the most made by any Maverick in a single season. She averaged 14.9 points per game and lead the team three-point percentage shooting 37.8 percent.
“Last year she shot the ball extremely well,” Wagner said. “The thing that I have noticed the most too is her leadership and she is more vocal than she has ever been which we need this year from her. She’s doing everything we’ve asked and more.”
Duran was named to the All-RMAC Second Team last year after starting all 29 games for the Mavericks.
One of the other main stories coming into this season is the notable youth of the team. 11 out of the 17 women on the roster consist of sophomores or freshmen, therefore, it will be up to the rest of the upperclassmen to help fill those prominent leadership roles.
Senior Karina Brandon will naturally fill that role. Brandon finished fourth in scoring for CMU last year and lead the team in rebounds with 161 which had her average 5.8 rim grabs per game.
Going from one Brandon to another; Sydni Brandon is also on the watch list. The Grand Junction native was one of the key bench players for CMU last year as she appeared in all 29 games and averaged shooting 44.7 percent from the field. Brandon is constantly praised for her effort and athletic plays that help provide that much-needed spark off the bench.
“She is all over the floor,” Wagner said. “She just makes an immediate impact with her enthusiasm and energy and hopefully we can build off that.”
With all the new and young talent being featured this year for CMU, a new identity has to be formed for this brand new season; but consequently, that is where the excitement lays. The Mavericks have a chance to bring fire and a whole lot of it by the time they travel to St.George.
CMU will be without key components from last year like Erin Reichle and Ma’ta Epenisa who graduated in the spring of 2018 so it will be rather enticing to see who will fill those roles.
“[It] doesn’t matter how many people leave or how many people come in, it always changes the makeup of the team,” Wagner said. “So trying to find what’s this team’s all about is always a challenge every year so I think the good thing is that we have gotten a lot stronger mentally–we have pushed through some things here in the preseason whether that is conditioning or injuries…we’re really just trying to get out there on the court and just be tougher.”
The Mavericks will begin their season on the road in St.George, UT when they take on Saint Martin’s University on Nov. 16 and then play Western Oregon University the very next day. CMU’s first home game will be in the annual Holiday Inn-Airport Thanksgiving Classic against Arizona Chrisitan University.
