Carolinian

Issue date: 11/7/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: JOHN READ/THE CAROLINIAN PUSH IT: Kristen Boone returns for her third season running the point for Lynn Agee at UNC Greensboro. Boone recieved the most pre-season votes during the pre-season all-conference selection process. The Spartans open the season Sunday at 2 p.m. versus UNCW in Fleming Gym.

When Women's Basketball head coach Lynne Agee left Charleston after last year's conference tournament she told herself next year would be UNC Greensboro's year. After losing in the Southern Conference Championship game to conference powerhouse Chattanooga, coach Agee knew that the youth of her team would come in handy next season.

"We were going in with a young team and our goal was to get that group of players into that championship game because they had never played through the tournament. They had never been in the coliseum in Charleston to play, so that was really a positive step," said the head coach in her 26th year at UNC Greensboro. "Now is a whole different ball game for us. It's not anything new, we're back in the same arena and we return 11 off that team and they're all excited."

UNCG begins the 2006-07 season ranked #1 in the Southern Conference women's pre-season poll, slightly edging out last year's conference champion Chattanooga by one vote. UNCG's high ranking in the conference is most likely due to the fact that it is returning 11 players from last year's squad, including all five starters.

Coach Agee has no doubt that her team is very talented and contains a lot of depth. However, she feels that her team has a few things to work on before they can fully reach their potential. "If we picked out a weakness for our club it would be consistency and mental focus. Everyone would say that obviously we have some talent and we have a good unit of nine to 10 people that we can put on the floor who can score and contribute. I think we have to grow up, and that means we need to be mature and that we need to focus. We need intensity more on a day to day basis and that's really our challenge."

Agee will look to her experienced returnees to carry the squad this season. The Spartan backcourt includes pre-season All-Conference picks Kristen Boone and Jasmine Byrd. Byrd, a senior captain from Dumfries, Va. averaged 8.4 ppg while her 1.6 3-pt per game average was the sixth best in the conference. Byrd comes into the season never missing a game in her 86 game career and leads all active players with 37 career double-figure scoring games and seven 20 point games. She is also fourth all-time at UNCG with 116 3-point field goals.

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