Thanks to her key contributions in the wins over Penn State and #8 Tennessee, including 21 4th quarter points between the games Vanessa Panousis was named their national player of the week!
Awesome recognition for the team and her, which have finally shown signs of life after most of a decade of futility.
Wolfe seems to have finally gotten things trending in the right direction at the end of last year with 2 ACC Tourney wins, and I look forward to seeing the team enter ACC play.
Games are free and good seats abound, make sure to check out one of their games this year!
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Way to go Lady Hokies!!!
having lived in Australia for 2 years I am loving the connection we some how cultivated down unda. Kicking ass ladies. keep it up!
Coach Wolfe was always one of those guys that put value in looking outside the United States, so one of the places he typically goes to recruit is the FIBA U-19 World Championships each year. That's where he picked up Panoussis in 2013. It didnt hurt that Hannah Young from Australia was a former teammate of Panoussis as well and already in the program when Wolfe took over. FIBA Championships is also where he came across Taijah Campbell and Samantha Hill from Canada, as well as Regan Magarity from Sweden.
Hannah was a Dennis recruit and Maddison Penn came in Vanessa's class from Australia as well, but she got homesick and went back. Uju Ugoka was originally from Nigeria I believe and we've had a couple other Canadians that haven't panned out, but we've definitely had some international flair since Dennis has been here.
What is amazing is this team has barely skipped a beat from the end of last year even though they had to replace all three assistant coaches.
She makes free throws look so fluid, you flinch thinking about the way the rest of the men's team shot them at the beginning of the season.
I am thinking our boys need to have a free throw contest against our ladies team and take some notes. The girls tend to have better form and motion since most can't just muscle the ball up there.
Here's a question that I've often wondered about: Is it easier for shorter people to make free-throws?
I think the answer is probably affirmative, given the angle of your shot tends to be more perpendicular to the basket, therefore effectively giving you a larger target than a shot with a flatter trajectory.
First off, we beat Tennessee?!?!? That is a huge win over a traditional powerhouse!!! Also glad to see a player from a non-ranked team getting some credit where credit is due.
She is hitting 89% on free throws and also has hit 28 out of 60 on three pointers, for 46.7% from three.
I don't think the Ladies have had that kind of shooter since Carrie Mason