Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 12 No. 2 | October 2019

26 Inside Hokie Sports season preview WOmen’s basketball F or the first time since he arrived in Blacksburg, Kenny Brooks started a practice without Regan Magarity on the court. For the first time in the past two seasons, he began a practice without the services of Taylor Emery. That duo provided much production over their careers—try 2,974 points, 1,640 rebounds, and 320 assists—and one may have expected Brooks to feel a little out of sorts when the 2019 Hokies began fall practice Sept. 24 without either in attendance. Not so much, though, the longtime veteran coach said, providing a somewhat surprising response. “What you end up watching—and it’s actually a joy to watch—is younger kids grow into their roles,” Brooks said. “When you’ve been doing it for 20 years, you’ve seen it [players depart] before, so you’re used to it. It’s a joy to watch kids grow and mature into a different role, and that’s what is going to happen with us.” He’s certainly spending a lot of time learning about his team, as the Hokies lost five seniors off last season’s squad that finished with a 22-12 record (6-10 in the ACC) and a fourth consecutive WNIT berth (three under Brooks). In looking back, the 2018-19 season represented a little bit of a disappointment, especially considering the talents of Magarity and Emery and the expectations of making the NCAA Tournament, but injuries to Alexis Jean, Rachel Camp and Kendyl Brooks left the Hokies short of the production needed to pull out victories in several games. The lack of a deeper bench probably was the single largest contributing factor as to why the team lost two conference games in overtime, one conference game by two points and another by four points. Tech lost seven of 10 conference games by nine points or less. “The basketball gods just weren’t on our side,” Brooks said. “When you start off like that [0-7 in ACC play], sometimes it’s really hard to recover from a situation like that — when you start 0-7 in a really tough league, and four or five of those games, you had a chance to win, and things didn’t go your way. Our kids could have folded, but they didn’t. We won the last six out of nine and finished strong and gave ourselves a chance. We didn’t have room for error going down the stretch. We probably had a couple of games that we could have won, and we just weren’t able to get over the hump. But overall, I thought the program took steps in growing and learning how to win.” Now he gets ready for his fourth season, and his 2019-20 team features an interesting collection of parts. The Hokies have three seniors, but only one of whom—daughter Kendyl—has played for him. The other two, Taja Cole and Lydia Rivers, came to Tech in the offseason as graduate transfers. In all, the roster includes nine players who haven’t played a minute of basketball for Virginia Tech. “It is a concern, but it is exciting,” Brooks said. “You don’t want it to be that way. We had a big class to replace, and we knew that going in. It’s kind of how things fell.” Dara Mabrey, Trinity Baptiste, Aisha Sheppard and Kendyl Brooks form the core of this year’s team, and all four of them started at least 11 games last season. Mabrey is probably the catalyst after a freshman season in which she averaged 11.2 points per game, led the Hokies with 92 assists, and made the All-ACC Freshman Team. She also set a school single-season record with 80 3-pointers, hitting 46.2 percent from beyond the arc. Kenny Brooks wanted to play Mabrey more in a shooting guard role last season, but the injury to Camp left him without another point guard. He played Mabrey mostly in a shooting guard role during the Hokies’ three games on a European trip this summer and envisions her playing mostly at that spot. “I think it’s more natural when she can do a little bit of both,” Brooks said. “To have her play exclusively at the 1 [point guard] is really not fair to her because it wears her down, and I think that’s what happened to us last year. She had to play the 1 without the services of Rachel, and I think we would have benefitted more with her playing off the ball more and Rachel playing the point. We just weren’t able to do that. FACES NEW Continued from page 25 Dara Mabrey’s 80 3-pointers led the team last year, and Tech head coach Kenny Brooks hopes to have her shooting more of those this season.