AU WOMEN’S HOOPS: Tigers host Texas A&M

For the Auburn women’s basketball team, there’s no place like home.

And today will be even more special for the Tigers, as they will drop their 2008-09 SEC regular-season championship banner prior to their 2 p.m. tip against Texas A&M.

“It is going to be very special,” Auburn head coach Nell Fortner said. “It is not every year you win an SEC championship, they are very hard to come by. We are very proud of it and what we accomplished, and it will be exciting to see those hanging up there in the rafters.”

But the Tigers’ 15-game home winning streak will be on the line as they host the No. 15 Aggies at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

The young and inexperienced Tigers (2-1), who return just one starter from last year’s SEC Championship team, will face an Aggies squad that returns two starters and 10 letterwinners from last year’s Sweet 16 team, including Tanisha Smith.

Smith, a senior guard/forward, is averaging 16.5 points per game, one of four Aggies in double figures. Smith is second in the team in scoring only to junior college transfer Danielle Adams, who is averaging 19.5 coming off the bench. Adams was tabbed the Big 12 Preseason Newcomer of the Year.

Auburn guard Alli Smalley will try to carry the weight again for the Tigers, as they try to bring along a team decimated by the graduation of four starters who accounted for 67 percent of the scoring from last year’s 30-4 team.

Smalley is averaging 21.3 points a game, and tied a career high in the season opener against Troy with 23 points.

To show how young Auburn is, the Tigers have had three players make their first career starts in the first three games of the season, including two true freshmen.

It will also be a special day for Fortner for another reason. The sixth-year AU head coach will face the man who gave her her first job, Gary Blair.

Fortner was hired by Blair as a graduate assistant for the 1986-87 season at Stephen F. Austin. Fortner would eventually be hired on as assistant coach, as Blair and the Ladyjacks put together a 112-18 record over four seasons, advancing to the NCAA Tournament three times and the Sweet 16 twice.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and what he has done at Texas A&M,” Fortner said of her former boss. “He is the first coach that gave me a chance to be a college coach, and I learned a bunch of basketball under him. He has done a great job at Texas A&M and they are a force to be reckoned with, one of the best teams in the country.”

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