MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Fresh off a summer exhibition tour of Italy and Greece, Mike Carey said he’s better equipped to handle what could be an interesting season.
“I saw who had heart,” the West Virginia women’s basketball coach said. “It was under some tough conditions with the heat in the arenas and things like that. I saw who stepped up and who continued to play hard. I found out a lot about the players, especially the new players. The trip was really good for that.”
“New” is the key word for the Mountaineers. After two seasons that ended in the WNIT, Carey felt the program needed to head in a different direction.
Assistant coaches Bett Shelby and Craig Carey were brought in to replace Chester Nichols and Lester Rowe and the Mountaineers’ roster will feature four junior college transfers and three freshmen set to make their WVU debuts this season.
“The direction of the program was just not going in the right direction with recruiting and all of the above,” Carey said. “I felt that everybody was getting complacent, including me. We needed a shakeup and Lord knows I shook it up. I felt like we needed to make changes and move forward. I think it’s going to work out and be the best for everybody involved.”
Carey held out centers Jada Wright and Rochelle Norris (rehabbing injuries), as well as junior college guard Dekeriya Patterson, who was finishing up classes late at Chipola (Fla.) College and joined the team midway through the tour.
The result was players out of position, like 5-foot-9 guard Kysre Gondrezick playing power forward.
“We couldn’t run a whole lot,” Carey said. “We were very vanilla.”
WVU had one game against the Dutch national team cut short in the fourth quarter, because of extreme heat in the gym. A second game against the Dutch was cancelled.
A third game against the Greek national team ended with a 50-47 loss after trailing big at halftime.
“The last game we played, at halftime, I was in mid-season form,” Carey joked. “They responded, which was good to see.”
The Mountaineers also played without star guard Tynice Martin, who was suspended indefinitely on Aug. 3, just before the team traveled overseas.
Carey said he couldn’t legally say anything about Martin’s situation, but was hopeful the senior could return to the team at some point.
The Mountaineers may have received their best news after returning home with the signing of 6-2 freshman forward Esmery Martinez, a one-time signee of Mississippi State, who was also heavily recruited by Texas after being released from her national letter-of-intent in June.
Martinez, who is from the Dominican Republic, but played high school basketball in Tennessee, was ranked the 25th-best overall recruit by All-Star Girls’ Report.
She missed her senior season of high school with a torn ACL, but is medically ready to practice and play with the Mountaineers this season.
“We were aware of her, but we really weren’t recruiting her, because she had already signed with Mississippi State,” Carey said. “Whatever the situation was there, she got out of her national letter-of-intent and began looking at other schools. Texas was one of them and there were some others.
“We were contacted and asked if we had any scholarships left. We were able to talk to some people and were able to get it done.”
The team returns to four-hour-per-week workouts on Monday until preseason practice begins in late September.
Carey said the workouts will be the start of finding out just how much potential the Mountaineers have this season.
“I’m excited about getting started,” Carey said. “We’ve got seven guards and we have more inside players than we’ve had the last two or three years.
“Now, I can try some different things. Before, we were locked into certain things, because of our low numbers.”
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