Pressure defense key to women's success

As the Tufts women's basketball team enters the 2003-2004 season, the focus for head coach Carla Berube and the Jumbos is the team's pressure defense. With a guard-oriented team, Berube plans to utilize full court pressure more often during her second season at Tufts.

"We want to press a lot more this year," Berube said. "We've got the personnel for pressure, with a lot of depth in the backcourt."

Berube expects to go 13 deep, a testament both to the team's depth and way that Tufts plans to play.

"I think it's important to have depth for the kind of defense we're going to use," Berube said. "I said during try outs that I wasn't going to keep anybody on the team that isn't going to help us."

The expected up tempo style should play to the strengths of the returning Tufts players. Sophomore Jessica Powers, who last year led the team with 13.5 points per game and was named NESCAC Rookie of the Year, should benefit from the faster pace. The focus on transition will give Powers easier scoring opportunities from her wing position.

Fellow sophomore Julia Verplank is expected to start at point guard, where her court vision and quickness should fit well into the run and gun style of play. Tufts also has a group of post players that according to Berube "get up and down the floor well."

The team hopes to get much of its offense on the fast break, from missed shots and turnovers created by the pressure defense. The team will press much of the time, using both zone and man defensive strategies. In the half court, the Jumbos will play almost exclusively man to man defense, with an occasional half court trap.

"We're going to play man," Berube said. "I think it makes the team aggressive, not just on defense but it also extends to offense. And the girls want to play it, they want that aggressiveness."

Forcing turnovers will be important for Tufts, and last year several of the team's players had very sticky hands on defense. Senior Maritsa Christoudias led the team with 60 steals, and Powers and Verplank joined her in averaging better than two steals a contest. Overall, the team forced nearly 23 turnovers per game, a trend Tufts hopes to continue.