Another season of Mid-American Conference women's basketball is closely looming and that means dreams of March Madness runs start now.
The UB Bulls will look to take another step forward after a successful season last year, finishing third in the MAC East division with 9-7 conference record (18-11 overall).
West Division
Western Michigan
The defending MAC champions have been tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the MAC West division. The Broncos are coming off their MAC Championship Tournament win, which was their first tournament win since 1985.
WMU will have three starters returning this season. One of the starters is First Team All-MAC performer, Casey Rost. Rost was the tournament MVP and was the leading scorer in the MAC, averaging 19.4 points a game. She is also deadly from the 3-point line, as she led the league in 3-pointers made with 79.
Western Michigan also features the MAC defensive player of the year and MAC first team performer, Maria Jillian. Jillian averaged 3.9 steals a game while scoring about nine points a game.
Last season, the Broncos defeated Ball State in the MAC Finals to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. They were the 14th seed in the tournament, but lost in the first round to the third seed Stanford Cardinals. The Broncos will look to have another great season when they tip off against the Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor on Nov. 21.
Toledo
The MAC News Media Association predicts Toledo to come in second in the West division. The Rockets are the defending regular season MAC champs and they have three starters returning this season. They are coming off a 20-10 season and their sixth 20 win season in eight seasons.
Coming back for their final year are guards Mary Blessing and Kelly Walker. Walker is coming off a season in which she was named to the preseason All-MAC team. Last season, she averaged 12.8 points a game and ranked second in 3-pointers a game with 2.6. Mary Blessing led the MAC in assist-to-turnover ratio with 2.6 and came in sixth in assists per game with 4.6.
For frontcourt size, Toledo will look to 6-foot-4-inch junior Karen Hoogendam. Hoogendam appeared in all 30 games last season. She averaged 9.4 points a game and 6.8 rebounds a game. She led the team in field goal percentage and was fifth in the MAC for blocked shots. She was a big key in the MAC tournament last year averaging 16 points, 11.5 rebounds, and two blocks a game. She will need to play like that again if Toledo is going to win the West.
Toledo's first game will be against Detroit on Nov. 23. They also have a date with national powerhouse Vanderbilt, in what should be a real test for Toledo.
Ball State
Ball State returns four of five starters this year, but lose two-time MAC player of the year, Tamara Bowie, to graduation. They will look to Johna Guff, who earned second team All-MAC honors, to fill Bowie's shoes. She is coming off the most successful season in her career when she averaged 15 points, 4.4 assists, and three rebounds.
Jessica Reiter was second in the league in rebounding, with 8.5 and she also averaged 9.7 points a game. Dana Collins is a returning sophomore who did pretty well for her freshman year, averaging 4.9 assists and 9.7 points
In MAC Tournament play last season, the Cardinals earned a first round bye and then went on to defeat Buffalo 81-63 and then added a 93-84 win over Miami. They advanced all the way to the championship only to lose to Western Michigan.
They will open the season against Northwestern State next Friday in Chicago.
Bowling Green
BGSU comes into the season picked to finish sixth in their division. Senior co-captains Lindsay Austin and Stephanie Wenzel are back for one last year, but they are the only two remaining starters from last season.
The Falcons will have a very young team this season, as they will bring in seven freshmen to the team.
Bowling Green has more size than they have had in a while, as seven of the nine players that did not play last season are 5-foot-10-inches or bigger. You can never have enough size in basketball, and being a lot more physical in the paint and scoring in the paint will be very important factor if the Falcons will be successful this season.
Austin, entering her senior year, is looking to have the best season of her career. She is looked upon as a leader for this young team and is one of the best pure point guards in the conference.
Bowling Green will open the season at Youngstown State.
Central Michigan
Last season, the Chippewas were one of the top defensive teams in the MAC, as they allowed a league low 60.8 points per game. They were second in 3-point field goal defense (.322), and third in steals per game (9.2).
Their offense wasn't so bad either, as the Chippewas hit 178 3-pointers. That was tops in school history and the fourth-best mark in the MAC last year. Two of their top three leading scorers will return this season and 45 percent of the team's offense from last year will be back as well.
Erin Kuhl is back after a great freshman year in which she was voted on to the All-Freshmen team. Kuhl was second on the team in scoring (9.3 points per game) and got the bulk of her points on a remarkable 48 threes.
Lindsay Mecoli is the top returning forward for Central Michigan and she has the ability to mix it up in the paint or step out and shoot it from the floor. Last season, Mecoli was right behind Kuhl, knocking down 42 threes.
She averaged nearly eight points per game in her first season and led the team with a .815 (22-for-27) free throw percentage.
Eastern Michigan
EMU had a strong finish to the year last season going 6-3 in the final nine games and just missing a bye in the MAC tournament.
The Eagles will return three starters from last year's team and two key players off the bench. Junior guards Ryan Coleman and Erika Ford will return for this year's campaign. Coleman was a second team All MAC selection last season and she led the team in scoring, rebounding and stealing with 14.4 ppg, 6.8 rpg, and 2.45 spg.
She is their best player and the team will look to her for most of the offense. One other key player for the Eagles is forward Nikki Knapp, who returns for her sophomore year. She was a runner up in the leagues Freshman of the Year award. She was second in the team with 6.4 rebounds and third in scoring with 11.5. Knapp also broke the Eagles season record with the most free throws attempted with 179.
The Eagles will open the season hosting the fourth annual Eagle Classic at home. The other three teams are Mercer, Central Connecticut St, and Lamar.
Northern Illinois
The Huskies return four starters from last season and nine returning players overall. They will look to bounce back from a dismal 12-16 season, in which they were eliminated in the first round of the MAC tournament.
Returning for her senior season is Jennifer Youngblood, who turned in a great year last season. Youngblood was a second team All-MAC selection. She scored 13.5 points a game and grabbed 8.3 rebounds per game, which was fourth best in the MAC. She is currently the all time MAC leader with 734 career rebounds and 27 double doubles.
MAC Freshman Player of the Year Joi Scott also returns this season. She averaged 9.6 points and 4.8 rebounds game, shooting 49 percent from the field.
Last season as a team, the Huskies allowed only 60.9 points a game, which was the best in the MAC.
East Division
Kent State
The Golden Flashes were picked as the pre season favorite to win the MAC East division.
They will have to do it after losing four starters from last year's team, which went 16-12. Sophomore Lindsay Shearer is the lone returning starter from a year ago and averaged 8.8 points and 5.7 rebounds per contest.
The Golden Flashes also have junior Andrea Csaszar back after missing all of last year with an injury. She will look to regain the form she had as a sophomore back in 2001-2002.
Csaszar averaged 15.0 points and 6.8 boards per contest en route to garnering second-team All MAC honors. She was also the MVP of the MAC Tournament in 2002, when she blocked a record breaking 18 shots. KSU will also have the services of two Division I transfers. Malika Willoughby, from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Heather Harris from Youngstown State, who sat-out the 2002-03 campaign, will be in the lineup this season.
Willoughby will handle the point guard spot, which she played well last season at Wisconsin. She was on the Horizon League All-Newcomer team and can show she can be a great point guard in the MAC.
The other transfer, Harris, should make an immediate impact in either a starting or sixth-man role. She scored 14.3 points her sophomore year, including multiple 20-point efforts at YSU, and is a great 3-point shooter
Harris also has been in the program for a year and should be quite familiar with the style the Flashes play. The non-conference schedule for the Flashes is a tough one, as they will play opponents that last season had a combined record of 197-148.
There are no easy ones for Kent State, but it will show if they do belong at the top of the MAC.
Miami of Ohio
The Redhawks are one of the teams that look to challenge for the top spot in the East. They come off 2002-03 campaign in which they posted a 17-12 overall and 11-5 league mark.
Even though they lost three starters because of graduation, they will have one of the top rebounders in the MAC in Colleen Day. She enters her third season as team captain. She averaged 6.4 rebounds a game while dropping in 11.3 points per game.
Kim Lancaster is another key player that returns. She was the inaugural winner of the Sixth Man Award last season and came off the bench to average 9.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.
Miami looks to play a transition style of game that is led by the point guard duo of Nicki Motto and Amanda Jackson.
They are looking to take over a role that had been occupied for the past four years by four-time All MAC honoree Heather Cusick.
The Redhawks have a lot of talent on the team but the question mark is if the freshman and returning players can take on bigger roles. The first season game is at home for MU as they will play No.29 ranked Virginia Tech.
Marshall
Marshall is coming off a season in which the Thundering Herd won their first MAC Tournament game.
The Herd will also return a pair of starters from the team, Catie Knable and Sikeetha Shepard-Hall, who were each tabbed preseason All MAC picks after earning All Conference honors a year ago. Knable led the MAC in rebounding (9.0) and was named to the honorable mention All MAC team, while Shepard-Hall earned freshman All MAC honors after leading Marshall in scoring (15.0).
Knable is the big key for the herd, she will need a big season if the pre season hype is to become a reality for the Herd
Akron
The Zips will look to the new season as a way to improve. After all, they finished a dismal 2-26 and 1-15 in the MAC last season.
Akron returns just one starter and eight letter winners from last year's squad. Junior guard Lindsay Hemmelgarn is the top returning scorer for the Zips after averaging 9.3 points per game a season ago. She also led the Zips in three pointers (50) and assists (52). Junior forward Cydney Overton returns as their leading rebounder with 3.3 boards per game.
Akron will welcome six newcomers as well. One of them is junior college All-American Jae Conn. She graduated from Iowa Central Community College as the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,179 points. She averaged 20.1 points per game and was the conference's leading scorer.
There will be four new rookies on the squad and they hope to improve on the two-win season last year.
The 2003-04 season begins on Nov. 21 at Arizona State, with the regular season home opener on Dec. 2 against Indiana Purdue-Ft. Wayne.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
