Cougar women exceeded expectations

PROVO — For a team picked in the preseason to finish sixth in 2005-06 Mountain West Conference women's basketball standings, the BYU Cougars exceeded all expectations — except their own.

"It's no big deal," said BYU head coach Jeff Judkins at the time of the mid-October 2005 projection. "I know we are better than sixth in this league."

Try Mountain West regular-season champions, as the Cougars claimed their first-ever MWC title and first league crown in 13 years.

And the achievements and accolades continued throughout the season.

BYU's 26-6 overall record resulted in the most wins in school history. The Cougars beat in-state rival Utah for the first time in three years and the first time in Salt Lake City in four seasons, and they returned to the Mountain West Conference tournament championship game for the first time in three years after being a title-game mainstay in the previous four seasons.

And the team went two rounds deep in the NCAA tournament for the first time since their foray into the 2002 Sweet 16.

BYU rushed out to an 8-0 start of the regular season and prepped for conference play with a 10-1 nonconference record. BYU then won its next nine games to start MWC play, breaking into the top 25 and reaching as high as No. 16 in the polls and No. 13 in the RPI ratings.

Senior forward Ambrosia Anderson shared Mountain West player-of-the-year honors with Utah's Kim Smith and joined Smith as the only

unanimous selections to the all-MWC first team.

Junior center Dani Kubik was picked to the second team (the only center among the 15 players on the three-deep all-league honors), while the starting perimeter players of Jennie Keele, Melinda Johnsen and Mallary Gillespie all were honorable mention and Judkins was named MWC coach of the year.

But BYU should see plenty of unfinished business going into next season.

The Cougars went 4-3 in the final seven games of the regular season in a road-dominated second half of conference play. They were routed at New Mexico in the finale, clobbered by Utah in the MWC tournament championship game and walloped by Courtney Paris-led Oklahoma in the second round of the NCAA tournament. And BYU almost blew its first-round NCAA victory against Iowa.

Judkins returns plenty of talent and experience for 2006-07, but he will need to help the Cougars overcome any separation anxiety with the graduation of Anderson — something that plagued BYU several seasons ago after Erin Thorne ended her stellar career.

And BYU will need to show that the 2005-06 Cougars were the start of something special — and not just a one-hit wonder.

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E-mail: taylor@desnews.com