Can Charlotte 49ers women’s basketball make another run to NCAAs? 5 things to know
The Charlotte 49ers’ women’s basketball program had a banner year last season — notching a 22-10 record, a conference tournament championship and an NCAA tournament appearance for the third time in program history.
All that success paves the way for a daunting question, though: Can they do it again?
“How we played last year, in terms of breaking through and winning the league, was huge,” head coach Cara Consuegra told The Observer after a practice last week. “And we certainly have our sights set on doing everything we can to repeat that.”
The 49ers open their season at home in Halton Arena against App State on Tuesday at 6 p.m. to begin answering that question and more.
Here are five things you should know about Charlotte women’s basketball:
1. Head coach Cara Consuegra
Consuegra is entering her 12th season as head coach for the 49ers program. She’s been the program’s all-time wins leader since November 2021 and punctuated that season with the school’s first trip to the NCAA tournament since the 2008-09 season.
She supervises a fast-paced offense and schemes a man-to-man defense that year-in, year-out is special: Charlotte boasted the third-best scoring defense in Conference USA last season — only allowing 59 points a game — and flexed the best scoring offense in the conference in 2020-21.
2. The departure of two Charlotte greats
Replicating last year won’t be easy: The 49ers saw the departures of the Conference USA Player of the Year, Octavia Jett-Wilson, and the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year, KeKe McKinney.
Jett-Wilson, in particular, will go down as one of Charlotte’s most accomplished players ever. As a graduate student, she averaged 19.1 points and 4.6 rebounds a game last year en route to finishing her five-year career at Charlotte as the all-time program leader in games played (143), games started (123), minutes played (4,157), as well as third all-time in scoring (1,812).
“The biggest thing I’ve said this preseason is, ‘We’re not going to replace Octavia and KeKe,’” Consuegra said. “It’s not often you have a player of the year and a defensive player of the year in the same year. But we have to have a collective effort of, ‘How can we together make up for what we lost from them?’”
3. McMillan, Boykin to run the show again
There’s no doubt Charlotte lost some talent this offseason. But it retained an integral part of their backcourt when they arrived, too.
Jada McMillan, a Raleigh native who’s returning for her fifth year, started all 32 games in 2021-22 and averaged 8.6 points and 3.9 assists. She was named to the conference’s honorable mention list. She and Mikayla Boykin — a redshirt senior who arrived at Charlotte from Duke last year and averaged 13.2 points a game — will be crucial to the 49ers’ hopes in 2022-23.
Second-year guard Aylesha Wade, a graduate of Clover High School in York County, is expected to make a sophomore jump as well.
“(Wade) has had a really good preseason,” Consuegra said. “You know, last year, she’s playing behind Jada McMillan, who’s going to go down as one of the best point guards who had played here at Charlotte. So it was very much a learning year for her, watching Jada, competing with Jada, learning how to do things. And now as a sophomore, Jada still remains on the team, but I really see Lesh as somebody who can take some minutes from her to kinda help with her load or could also play alongside of her.”
4. Two players you’ll soon know
McMillan and Boykin are returning to the backcourt, and the team will lean on sophomore Mya McGraw to do some heavy-lifting in the post. But of the players who Consuegra expects to have a breakthrough year — and there are several — there are two that kept getting brought up.
And that’s redshirt junior guard Dazia Lawrence and 6-foot-1 junior guard Jacee Busick.
Lawrence played in 24 games in 2021-22 and played an average of 9.8 minutes a game. Busick played in 32 games and played 20.8 minutes a game.
Consuegra on Lawrence: “She really emerged toward the end of the season last year and worked her way up to be our first sub off the bench. And she will break into the starting lineup this year.”
On Busick: “As a freshman, she actually started for us, and then as a sophomore took a little bit of a step back in her role. So fans I think would know her a little bit, but I think her role is going to be very different being an upperclassmen now. She plays multiple positions for us. ... I’m excited for her. I think she has the opportunity to have a breakthrough year as a junior.”
5. Tough but fun non-conference schedule
Charlotte opens its season at home against App State on Tuesday and then at home against Coppin State on Friday. But then the team plays a slew of opponents that should make for a fun few November and December games.
The 49ers travel to No. 10 N.C. State — last year’s top-ranked team in the country who fell in double-overtime to UConn in the Elite Eight — on Nov. 16, before then traveling to the Daytona Beach Invitational where they’ll play Illinois, Cincinnati, Clemson and Wake Forest before conference play begins in mid-December.
This story was originally published November 8, 2022 at 5:45 AM.
