UTC player Ashlyn Wert shoots the ball during Lady Mocs’ basketball practice in this Oct. 22, 2014, file photo.Editor’s note: This continues the series of weekly features profiling newcomers to the UTC women’s basketball team, leading up to the Nov. 13 season opener against McNeese State.
Whatever life Ashlyn Wert was expecting when she arrived on the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus as a 17-year-old on June 23, 2014, it was not what she got.
At 6-foot-5 1/2 the tallest player ever signed by the UTC women’s basketball team, Wert grew up in the Philadelphia area, so Chattanooga was clearly a “culture shock,” she said. She had to get used to a new part of the country and a different pace of life.
“Things up North move a lot faster,” the redshirt freshman said. “Everyone on campus is always asking me why I’m moving so fast to class, but that’s what I’m used to.
“Down here, you take your time.”
She also had to become a new type of player. Wert grew up playing some basketball, but a broken wrist midway through her sixth-grade year pushed her away from the sport and into swimming for three years. When as a 10th-grader she grew tired of swimming, basketball became her top priority again. But she had to relearn the sport – a process that has continued at UTC.
“When I first got here, I wanted to be a guard,” Wert said. “I didn’t know how to be a post player, and I didn’t want to post up and pushed away from it. Since the summer, though, my biggest improvement has been that I’ve got stronger and I can post up. I’m learning to be patient and use my body and size.”
UTC coach Jim Foster wasn’t accepting Wert’s desire to play on the perimeter. The fact that she’s been playing competitively for only four or five years makes her an intriguing prospect to back up Southern Conference preseason player of the year Jasmine Joyner at center, as she provides a vastly different skill set from fellow center Ansley Chilton, who is more of a shooter at the position.
“Ashlyn has probably got more reps over the summer and now than she has in her whole basketball life,” Foster said. “Her improvements could come in bunches once she gets comfortable. She’s a load on the low block, she has a nice touch and she’s strong. We have some pretty good defensive players, but if she gets deep, there’s nothing you can do.
“It’s just a matter of her playing a lot of basketball, and that’s all practice, but there are teams that will have a difficult time. It just gives us another weapon to use against a team that doesn’t necessarily have size. She has very, very good hands and a nice touch. She’s going to help us in spots as she progresses.”
AP Top 25 listing
The Mocs received a preseason ranking of No. 25 in the first Associated Press women’s poll, released Tuesday.
Foster became the first coach to have four programs ranked in the preseason Top 25, having previously done so at St. Joseph’s, Vanderbilt and Ohio State, but he said Tuesday the subject will not be brought up to his team.
“It gets people talking about basketball for a day in the middle of football season,” he said. “That has a value, without a doubt, but it has no significance. We’re not getting jackets for it.”
It’s the first time the Mocs have had a preseason Top 25 ranking by AP. They spent most of the 2014-15 season ranked based on the strength of wins over then top-10 opponents Tennessee and Stanford. They finished with a 29-4 record, falling to Pittsburgh in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Four starters return from that team, and Aryanna Gilbert is back after missing almost the entire season with a torn ACL. Also, Queen Alford is eligible after sitting out the year following two seasons at Jacksonville University.
Foster’s Mocs will face four teams in the preseason Top 25: top-ranked Connecticut, whom the Mocs host on Nov. 30; and away games at No. 4 Tennessee, No. 16 Stanford and No. 20 South Florida.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.