AU WOMEN’S HOOPS: Experienced Tigers ramp up speed

DeWanna Bonner’s knowledge of the Tigers’ new offensive attack is still a bit minimal, but one thing stood out to her at the team’s first practice.

The preseason second-team All-American and the unanimous SEC preseason Player of the Year had only two sweat-drenched days of work under her drawstrings when she spoke to the media at a press conference last week.

She was still trying to catch her breath.

“I just know it is fast,” Bonner said. “It’s super, super fast.”

Coach Nell Fortner, in her fifth year with the Tigers, got the idea to up the pace by watching the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury over the past couple of seasons.

Led by speedy guards — and former college standouts — Cappie Pondexter and Diana Taurasi, the Mercury’s offense, in theory, is simple.

Run, shoot, press, repeat.

It was good enough to work for the 2007 WNBA champions, so why not the Tigers?

“It’s just a very, very up-tempo, green-light offense,” Fortner said. “I am being very patient with it and we are going to run it. I really believe we have the personnel to run it, so hopefully it will pan out that way.”

Fortner’s personnel shouldn’t be a problem. The Tigers, who received an at-large berth to the 2008 NCAA Tournament after a 20-11 regular season, are dotted with a number of familiar faces.

It all starts with Bonner, the slender guard who led the Tigers with 18.4 points and 10 rebounds per game last season and the two seasons before that.

But the key to Tigers, and their new, speed-driven offense, will be the experienced players alongside Bonner in the starting lineup.

Auburn will get a boost at point guard with the return of Whitney Boddie. A senior, Boddie averaged 10.6 points and a team-best 5.8 assists per game in the team’s first 11 games of last season before she was ruled academically ineligible.

“To have her back is just awesome,” Bonner said. “You trust her, you trust your point guard. You don’t have to worry about going back to get the ball. You don’t have any pressure on you. You just play ball because you have Whitney back.”

Guard Sherell Hobbs is the second highest on the list of Auburn’s four leading scorers of last season who return for 2008-09.

Hobbs averaged 13.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last season in a different role of sorts. With Boddie down, she was asked to score.

“I just think that last year I was a scorer because that is what the team needed,” Hobbs said. “I’m the type of player that just does what the team needs.”

Returning starters Jordan Greenleaf and Alli Smalley, who filled in for Boddie as a freshman last season, should fill out the Tigers’ starting five.

“Being able to move Alli Smalley back over to her true position at the two just makes us better right off the bat,” Fortner said. “We have everybody returning in the key roles from last year and it is exciting to coach something like that.”

The ones coming off the bench will be important, too, because air and water might be in higher demand this season.

“We did this drill in practice where we played for three minutes, and we only lasted about a minute or a minute and 30 seconds before we had to sub,” Bonner said. “Unless you have got somebody coming off the bench to pick up the slack, you are going to be in trouble.”

Senior forward — and former Auburn High standout — Trevesha Jackson, 6-foot-7 center KeKe Carrier and four true freshmen will help the Tigers avoid that trouble.

“Our goals are very high,” Fortner said. “On paper, this is the best team I have had since I’ve been at Auburn because we do have the experience and we do have the depth this year.“

| 737-2561