JUCO star may redshirt on women's b-ball

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona Summer Wildcat File Photo Women's basketball head coach Joan Bonvicini listens to her players during a game last season. The Wildcats are looking forward to next season with the addition of a seven-member recruiting class including Junior College All-Americans Angie Lackey and Tatum Brown.

When the Arizona women's basketball team rounded out its best ever recruiting class with Junior College All-Americans Angie Lackey and Tatum Brown, head coach Joan Bonvicini had good reason to be enthusiastic for next season.

But it now looks like it may be a while before Brown can join Lackey and the six other recruits scheduled to begin play with the Wildcats this fall.

Brown, a forward who led Central Arizona to the Junior College National Championship with a 33-1 record while averaging 22.5 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, underwent surgery on Friday to repair a torn ACL.

"It's hard to say," Bonvicini said when asked when Brown may be able to start playing. "We're hoping she can do some by October."

Bonvicini said she would redshirt Brown if she wasn't at full strength by November, December at the latest. If she did redshirt, Brown would retain two years of eligibility beginning with the 1999-2000 season.

Brown, a native of Tacoma, Wash., will rehab in Tucson along with departed UA center Marte Alexander, who injured her knee in the Wildcats' Sweet-16 loss to Connecticut in March.

Bonvicini said Alexander "was doing very well" and was ahead of schedule in her rehabilitation. She said Alexander should be able to resume playing in late August or early September and should be 100 percent by October.

While Brown and Alexander work on getting healthy, Bonvicini said the rest of her players, including incoming recruits, were on a daily work schedule and that each player was responsible for documenting everything they do.

"It's really important that they come back in shape," Bonvicini said, adding that new players would be able to pick up the system quicker if they didn't have to worry about catching up in terms of endurance.

And if players do not meet the requirements?

"I haven't decided yet," Bonvicini said. "It won't be nice, though. They'll regret it."

One player whom Bonvicini never had to goad into working harder, departed guard DeAngela Minter, has put her Wildcat days behind her and landed a roster spot with the Detroit Shock of the WNBA, joining Sacramento Monarchs forward Adia Barnes as the first two Wildcats to make it into professional women's basketball in the United States.

Minter suffered a concussion as preseason practices ended, though, and has been on injured reserve during the Shock's first two games, both losses.

Bonvicini said she had talked to Shock coaches about Minter and that they had not yet decided if they would activate her before their next game tomorrow night at Charlotte.

One thing that may work in Minter's favor is that of the 12 players on the Shock roster, only two have played in the WNBA before. Five players, including Minter, are in their first season after finishing college while the others are either European players coming to the America or Americans coming home after playing professionally abroad.

"They like her," Bonvicini said. "Her mental toughness has really helped her. She just has to get herself healthy. "