Rich Lombard/Collegian

It’s too bad Tamara Tatham currently plays professionally in Finland – the Massachusetts women’s basketball team sure could have used her services for one more season. Tatham led the Atlantic 10 in rebounding last season (nine per game), but maybe more importantly, provided the team with 12.8 points per game, something they could have used desperately this season. “We had more of a team effort, a collaborative effort last year where we had a complementary player in Tamara Tatham that gave us a consistent double-double,” UMass coach Marnie Dacko said after the season ended. “We relied this year on Kate [Mills] and Pam [Rosanio] and we didn’t get that third consistent player.” Junior Stefanie Gerardot became that player for a while, but after she brought her scoring average up to nine points per game, it dropped to 6.8 by the end of the season. Alisha Tatham, Tamara’s sister and another senior along with Rosanio and Mills, averaged 6.1 points, but no one else on the team averaged over 4.3 points per contest. The Minutewomen’s scoring average was nearly identical from last season to this season, but most of the team’s wins came with monster nights from Mills, Rosanio or both. Last season, Tamara Tatham gave UMass another double-digit scoring threat that they lacked this season. The team’s inability to find a third consistent scorer eventually doomed them in the conference tournament. Dayton held the Minutewomen to 51 points, nearly 12 below their season average. Mills scored 17 points and dominated the boards with 19 rebounds, but Rosanio struggled from the floor (5-of-15) and was held to 11 points in a 57-51 Flyer victory. The Maroon and White (13-17, 5-10 A-10) clearly missed Tamara Tatham this season, but the loss of Mills and Rosanio will be even more significant entering next season. Mills averaged 17.4 points, 7.3 rebounds and over two blocks per game while Rosanio provided an emotional leader as well as a player who could score the basketball, averaging 15.9 points per game. Mills was named to the Atlantic 10 All-Conference second team, and while Xavier’s Stanley Burrell is currently complaining that his teammates were not given enough respect when regular-season conference awards were handed out, Mills could make a similar argument, albeit the teams had very different regular-season records. It cannot be argued that the Minutewomen didn’t have a disappointing season, and some will try to use that as an explanation as to why Mills failed to make the first team. However, La Salle’s Carlene Hightower made the first team, and her Explorers failed to qualify for the A-10 Tournament. Mills averaged more points, rebounds, assists and blocked shots than Hightower and also shot better from the free-throw line and the field. Hightower was also a turnover machine – she recorded 53 assists while turning the ball over a whopping 103 times, more than four per game. Rosanio also struggled with turnovers this season (112) but UMass will have problems replacing her scoring and intensity. One player who must improve her play is point guard Kim Benton. After a promising freshman season in which she hit 50 three-pointers at a 35 percent clip, she struggled in 2007-08. Benton couldn’t find her rhythm all season and shot slightly over 24 percent from beyond the arc. “I was asking her not even to think about shooting, just going in and trying to stay with her opponent, keep the ball in front of her defensively and set her players up,” Dacko said of Benton.

“We have many other people that can shoot the ball, but she seemed to keep coming out and firing and finding ways to shoot the ball and kept missing shots. That kind of slowly broke her spirit down and she took the confidence out of herself.”

Though her shooting was down from a year ago, Benton did a much better job this season taking care of the basketball.

The sophomore had 50 assists and 47 turnovers last year but greatly improved her assist-to-turnover ratio this season, assisting on 66 baskets and turning it over 36 times.

With the top two scorers graduating, the Minutewomen will also need scoring production from Gerardot and freshman Cerie Mosgrove.

Mosgrove averaged 2.6 points per game in limited action this season but showed potential in the team’s final game of the season, a first-round A-10 Tournament loss to Dayton.

The Needham, Mass., native scored 11 points, including hitting 3-of-5 shots from beyond the arc.

UMass shot the ball poorly (29 percent) from international waters this season and since they’ll be lacking the inside game they received from Mills and Rosanio, they’ll have to rely on the 3-point shot more often. This season, Dacko was pleased with her team’s effort but expected more out of this season, considering the Minutewomen returned four of five starters. “The game of Dayton was kind of, to me, a reflection as you look on your season that totally is a picture of what it looked like in the mirror – it completely reflected our entire season,” Dacko said. “I think for the most part, we defeated ourselves rather than the opponent beating us, and that’s hard to live with,” she continued. “But that’s something we’re going to have to live with and evaluate, and I don’t think it comes down to one specific thing or person. It’s a collective effort, and that needs to be corrected going into next year’s season.” Saying the Minutewomen will need a “collective effort” next season is a huge understatement. They’ll need to make up for over half of this year’s scoring production, and although the A-10 doesn’t rank up there with conferences like the Big East or the ACC, it is a competitive league. Dacko’s a very capable coach and says the incoming class is the best one she’s recruited thus far in her time in Amherst, but she better hope these recruits are ready to step and make significant contributions immediately. Otherwise, she’s going to be on the phone with Mills and Rosanio, begging them to find a loophole in the NCAA regulations that allows them to return for one more season. Mike Connors is a Collegian editor. He can be reached at [email protected].