LAS VEGAS - Just a few years before she had a steal and two baskets in the final 34 seconds to lift Oregon State past Gonzaga in the semifinals of the Credit Union 1 West Coast Conference Basketball Championship tournament last season, Kennedie Shuler was all about soccer.
Shuler is a key player on a Beavers’ squad that went on to capture the West Coast Conference tournament title last season and is favored to win the conference crown this year, according to a vote of the league’s 12 coaches. After starting all 35 games and averaging 7.9 points and 3.7 assists last season, the 5-foot-10 point guard also was named to the 10-player preseason all-conference team.
It’s quite a leap from early in her high school days when Shuler saw her future in soccer.
“Soccer was definitely my No. 1 sport growing up,” Shuler said at West Coast Conference Women's Basketball Media Day in Las Vegas on Thursday. “I played softball, I ran track, played basketball. Growing up I didn’t know which one I wanted to play in college, but soccer was always kind of at the forefront. I was probably better at soccer.”
“She was one of the best soccer players in the state of Oregon,” Beavers' head coach Scott Rueck said.
Shuler was recruited in both sports but during her junior year at Barlow High School in Gresham, Ore., suffered an ankle injury while playing soccer that required surgery. During rehab, Shuler found it easier to work on her basketball skills — even shooting while seated in a chair before her ankle was fully healed.
“I felt like basketball kind of just happened,” Shuler said. “I still lover soccer, I miss it a lot. But I’m so glad I’m here. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Rueck is grateful for the direction her athletic career took. He said Shuler could “absolutely” have exceled in either sport at the collegiate level, but notes the contributions she has made two NCAA Tournament teams, including a run to the Elite 8 two seasons ago.
She made game-winning baskets against LMU and Santa Clara last January before her heroics at the West Coast Conference Women's Basketball Championship. “To see her take everything up a notch and believe in herself as a basketball player at the highest level is real special,” Rueck said.
REPRESENTING THE HOME FLAG: Washington State head coach Kamie Ethridge, whose team was tabbed third in the West Coast Conference preseason coaches poll, called the Cougars her “most competitive team . . . forever.” It doesn’t hurt she she has three players who spent time this summer training and competing with their national teams.
Leading the way is Ele (Eleonora) Villa, a junior guard from Milan, Italy, who was named to the preseason all-conference team a year after averaging 13.6 points for the Cougars. Villa developed all aspects of her game back home this summer, said Ethridge, noting, “There’s not a lot to not like.”
Villa got her first shot training with the Italian senior national team. “It was so good because I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life,” she said. “One of my biggest dreams was to play with the senior national team. I used to look at these players when I was a little kid and now I’m on the court with them.
“At first there were big emotions like I had to prove myself. They were so nice to me and made me feel like, `OK, you’re in a good spot.’ So I just played as usual and it was OK.”
One of the younger players on the team that trained together, Villa looks forward to continuing to be a part of the national program. Italy’s women have never qualified for the Olympics. Another dream that fuels Villa.
ZAGS MOVE ON WITHOUT THEIR STAR: Gonzaga’s women, who shared the West Coast Conference regular-season title with Portland last season, return without four of their top five scorers, including two-time conference Player of the Year Yvonne Ejim. They still have big goals.
“She was great at pretty much everything she did — great leader, great scorer, great defender, great rebounder,” sophomore guard Allie Turner said of Ejim, who finished her college career as the Zags’ all-time scoring leader. “I’m pretty sure if we gave her the ball every possession, she could have scored every time.”
Turner is the team’s lone returning starter following a spectacular freshman season in which she averaged 13.4 points, set a program single-season record with 105 3-point baskets and earned first-team all-conference honors.
“We’re definitely evolving,” Turner said. “We have new people. I would say we’re probably more well-balanced this year. I think we have more threats this year.”
The West Coast Conference coaches picked Gonzaga to finish second behind Oregon State. Senior guard Ines Bettencourt says the Zags aren’t going anywhere.
“We’re still Gonzaga,” said Bettencourt, a native of Portugal who is beginning her second season at Spokane after transferring from UConn. “It means a lot to wear this jersey and it always means we’re going to fight for the top spot.”
LATU COMPLETES BAY AREA SWEEP: Graduate transfer guard Malia Latu is winding up her college career at Saint Mary’s. With her arrival at Moraga, Latu will have tasted life on all three of the West Coast Conference’s Bay Area campuses.
Latu began her West Coast Conference career at San Francisco, then spent two seasons at Santa Clara, where last season she averaged a career-best 10.7 points. Here’s what she had to say about each of her three stops:
“I think the best past of being at USF was definitely the food and just being in the city. We’d do a lot of stuff in the city with my teammates, walks in the park,” Latu said.
“Santa Clara, the campus is really nice and the people there, that’s what really made Santa Clara a special place for me. I got my bachelor’s (degree) there so I feel like Santa Clara’s my second home.
“Saint Mary’s, I came here for the team aspect. I like the coaching staff as well — they really believe in us as players and they push us to be confident.”
BEAVERS TAKE A PRESEASON HIT: Oregon State’s bid to build on last season’s great success was will be tougher after a season-ending injury early in training camp to Catarina Ferreira. A 6-foot wing from Sao Paulo, Brazil, Ferreira was MVP of the Beavers’ dash to the West Coast Conference Championship tournament crown, averaging 18.0 points and 9.3 rebounds over three games.
Ferreira played with the Brazilian National Team last spring and summer and is now a senior. But the Beavers will have to fend without her after she suffered a season-ending knee injury in practice, just two hours before the team departed for a weekend retreat on the Oregon coast. “Obviously, super sad,” OSU coach Scott Rueck said.
The team spent the next 48 hours together, prior to Ferreira undergoing an MRI to confirm the seriousness of her injury. “It was amazing to watch the team rally around her and watch her express all the gamut of emotions, Rueck said.
Among the candidates to fill Ferreira’s minutes on the floor is junior Jenna Villa, a transfers from Washington State. Rueck said they signed Villa — someone he’d watched play since she was a freshman in high school — even though the Cougars are fairly deep at guard.
“She fits us and obviously Kamie (Ethridge) does a great job so I know she’s been well-coached the last couple years,” Rueck said. “But now, it’s kind of that perfect person at the perfect time under these circumstances.”
SHARING THE BIG NEWS: Pepperdine second-year coach Katie Faulkner is expecting her third child in February. She’s hoping her newborn arrives at the start the month when the Waves have a mid-week bye, giving them a week between games.
Her team was surprised by the news when Faulkner told them one day they were getting new basketball shoes. “It was fun. The opened it up and it was these little baby pink Nikes,” she said.
Faulkner and husband, Derek, have two kids, ages 4 and 2.