West Virginia women’s basketball incorporating new players in unconventional preseason

MORGANTOWN, W.Va (WDTV) - West Virginia women’s basketball will ramp up into its preseason regiment in the coming day as they prepare for an unconventional 2020-21 college basketball season.

Head coach Mike Carey says the Mountaineers will play 7 nonconference games, 6 of which they have finalized. The Big 12 is also looking to play two conference games before the new year, which would bring their total to nine games before 2021. Carey said those are slated to be Oklahoma State and Baylor.

The Mountaineers brought in six new players during the offseason, some of whom did not visit campus before they made their decision. They include Georgia Tech transfer guard Jasmine Carson, who has not received an eligibility waiver yet, and Mississippi State transfer Jayla Hemingway, who was just declared eligible by the NCAA for competition this week. With all of the new additions, Carey may look to make adjustments.

“We play man majority of the time but we may try to put a zone in because of not practicing a lot and heading into the season with all these new players.”

The back court will be filled with familiar faces in senior Kysre Gondrezick and junior point guard Madisen Smith. Carey thinks their front court can provide an inside-out punch that the Mountaineers lacked in 2019-20.

“I think we’re deeper this year in the paint. We added a junior college player in the paint in Ariel Cummings. We have Blessing & Rochelle Norris, Esmery and Kari back. We’ll have more size this year,” he said.

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