Despite being picked to finish last in the conference in the preseason media poll, Arizona State women’s basketball gave off confidence at Tuesday’s Pac-12 women’s basketball media day.
With a new head coach at the helm in former Delaware coach Natasha Adair and a mix of transfers and returners, it is a bit of an unknown how the Sun Devils will finish this season.
Nevertheless, Adair’s expectations for her team are high.
“Expectations are always to win,” Adair said. “I’m a competitor. When that ball gets tipped, we want to make sure we’re the most competitive team prepared team, and we want to be in sync. But obviously, right now, it’s building that culture. It’s making sure that we have really good chemistry on the court, that they learn me as a coach and understand terminologies, all these different things that when there’s change.”
Junior guards Jaddan Simmons and Sydney Erikstrup joined Adair at media day, and Simmons echoed her coach’s thoughts on how the season will turn out.
“Our expectations are to win, but we know it’s going to take hard work, time, so just trusting in the process,” Simmons said. “Like obviously Coach said, we have seven new players coming in, so it’s going to take time to build that. But I think just meeting the players over these last couple months; I think it’s going to be not easy but doable.”
Adair was asked how she thinks she will do in such a tough conference. This season, the Pac-12 has the No. 2 team (Stanford), No. 19 team (Arizona), and No. 20 team (Oregon) in the Associated Press preseason top 25. Utah (35 votes) and UCLA (26 votes) were the next highest teams outside of the top-25.
“There is not a team that we won’t be prepared to compete against,” Adair stated. “There
is not a stage that we won’t be prepared to be on. … I’m absolutely ready.”
ASU has had notable transfers this offseason, the most prominent being Jade Loville. Loville, the team’s leading scorer from a season ago, transferred to rival Arizona. Other key players departing were guard Taya Hanson, who left for Oregon and post Katelyn Levings, who left for Tulsa.
Simmons and Erikstrup, however, stuck it out with the program. Both players played the last two seasons in Tempe and decided to continue with their Sun Devil careers despite the change from Charli Turner Thorne to Adair.
Simmons talked about why she stayed at ASU.
“I’m used to (change) … I moved a lot growing up,” Simmons explained. “But just
being able to adapt to it. When I first met them, obviously, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but after a couple of workouts and meeting with her one-on-one, I knew it. Like I had to stay, give this a chance and see what was going to happen. I am glad that I stayed. I know that this team is going to be something special.”
Erikstrup referenced the family atmosphere Adair brings to the table as why she decided to stay in Tempe. She also said she liked Adair’s personality.
Simmons and Erikstrup were asked about their individual games and what they did to improve this offseason, and they gave opposite answers.
Simmons referenced her three-point shooting as an area she needed to improve upon and said she worked on getting better in situations where she is forced to release her shot quickly.
Erikstrup, one of the better shooters on the team, worked on being able to score in different ways than just from deep and using her long wingspan.
Vice President of University Athletics Ray Anderson came up in the press conference Tuesday with a reporter asking Adair about the support she feels she is receiving from the administration. The question came the same day reports about Anderson’s future were circulating.
Adair kept the focus on the players rather than the administrators.
“Right now, they have been super supportive in all that we’re doing. Ray was in practice the
other day, and so are all of the other administrators,” Adair stated. “But right now, I just focus on the players. I think that right now is where my energy needs to be, what the focus is, because, like again, we’re new, and we’re building a culture, but there’s not an administrator that I can’t pick up the phone, and call or text if I need them.”
