Last season started with a lot of promise that wasn't realized until the final third of the WNBA season following a fortuitous trade with Detroit.
The 2000 Utah Starzz season, despite the loss of Olympic gold-medal point guard Jennifer Azzi for a month or so to a broken hand, should be a hit from the get-go.
And the get-go is almost here.
The Starzz play their only home exhibition game of the season in the Delta Center Wednesday night at 7 against the Minnesota Lynx, who will also be the opponents for the Starzz's June 1 regular-season home opener.
"I'm excited. If it's anything like we played on Saturday night, it will be fun," said Utah's Natalie Williams, referring to the Starzz's 85-67 win over expansion Seattle at Dixie College in St. George.
"It all came together in the Seattle game in St. George," agreed Starzz coach Fred Williams.
That was the closest to home the Starzz have been for an exhibition game until Wednesday night. Their other exhibitions were played at Seattle and Portland.
But Wednesday night it's the Delta Center, where Williams can help show off a Starzz team that ought to actually start intimidating opponents before long.
"We're strong. I think the chemistry is a lot better already," Williams says, comparing these Starzz to 1999's team that had a hard time jelling and still had difficulty at the guard spot. The addition of Korie Hlede in last year's late-July trade and the steady improvement of LaTonya Johnson have helped stabilize that position that will be enhanced when Azzi returns. Dalma Ivanyi has more experience now, and several newcomers can provide ballhandling, defense or outside shooting or all of the above, and that will make it easier inside for Williams, Adrienne Goodson and Margo Dydek.
"The thing about it is we're deep," Williams says. "If someone's off, someone's on the bench who can jump in and take her place, and there won't be much of a lag. I think we are deep in every position.
"Especially since they haven't made any cuts yet," Williams said with a laugh.
Coach Fred Williams promises that Thursday is the day he'll finally make his cuts. He's postponed that day about three times, but he's been working with only 14 players, and WNBA teams could have as many as 18 this season. He kept the Starzz group small and probably only has to trim three players to make the allowed 11-person squad.
That makes Wednesday night's game the last opportunity for some players to show that they belong. "I pretty much know what I have, but I want to look at a couple more people," he said.
Players who should be fairly secure include Williams, Hlede, Goodson, Dydek, Johnson, Ivanyi, first-round draft choice Naomi Mulitauaopele and Kate Starbird and Azzi, obtained in off-season trades. Fighting for the final three spots likely are third-round draft choice Stacy Frese, a guard who's been slowed by a back injury; fourth-round draftee Kristen Rasmussen, a forward; and free-agent signees Alli Bills and Julie Krommenhoek-Christensen, guards from the University of Utah '98; and Katryna Gaither and Amy Herrig, both forwards. Gaither played with Azzi in the ABL at San Jose. Herrig is a '99 Iowa grad slowed during this camp with an ankle injury.
The coach said the 7-foot-2 Dydek likely won't play a lot Wednesday as he tries to bring her back slowly from a weeklong back strain and because Minnesota is a smallish team that has gotten much quicker with a lot of off-season trades and draft choices like Betty Lennox and Grace Daley, who also add outside shooting and tremendous transition.
"You'll see players diving on the floor for loose balls and generating a lot of things in transition," coach Williams said, speaking for both his club and the Lynx.
Utah is 2-1 in the preseason, and Minnesota is 1-1, having split home-and-home games with Charlotte.
E-mail: lham@desnews.com