OREM — In year four of its foray into Division I play, the Utah Valley State women's basketball team is turning heads and headed for a breakout campaign.
The Wolverines intermittently flashed vast potential in 2005-06, going 11-16 while regularly fielding a starting lineup featuring four freshmen. With two new sparkling, imported freshmen to complement the quartet of now-sophomores and round out a rotation in which the starting fifth and sixth players are all underclassmen, UVSC is 9-1 and off to its best start in school history.
Any investigation into the cause of UVSC's upstart ways needs look no further than sophomores Robyn Fairbanks and Sandy Marvin. As freshmen, the pair combined to average 28.8 points per game and finished one-two on the team in scoring. This year, the duo has upped its combined output to more than 41 points each time out.
A 6-foot-1 center from sparsely populated Raymond in Alberta, Canada, Fairbanks is thriving despite regularly facing the double- and triple-team opponents are wont to throw at her. To get an idea of how uncanny Fairbanks' athletic gifts are, picture the female equivalent of an offensive left tackle in football (not surprisingly, Fairbanks' father Lloyd played offensive line for BYU in the early '70s). Thanks to a combination of quick feet, soft hands and a deft shooting touch that is so rarely seen in a woman of her size, Fairbanks is rather deceptively making 24 points and 11 rebounds per game seem like no big deal.
"Robyn's a special player offensively — she certainly can score," Utah Valley State coach Cathy Nixon said. "I wouldn't want to have to design a defense to stop her because she's so versatile and has unbelievable hands in traffic.
"So many times I think when people put up numbers like she does offensively, they kind of close their mind to getting better. But she really has improved; if she wouldn't have, she wouldn't be putting up the numbers that she is because people are doing everything they can to stop her."
Marvin is in many ways the yin to Fairbanks' yang. The 2005 4A MVP at Payson High, the diminutive Marvin didn't have to venture far from home to become a Wolverine. And while Fairbanks at times seems apologetic after breaking the opposition's back so to speak, Marvin's all-out on-court intensity and the way she regularly hurls her body toward the basket at breakneck speed on fast breaks leave no doubt that she'd like nothing more than to stab a figurative dagger into opposing hearts.
OTHER STARTERS: Freshman point guard Asumi Nakayama came to UVSC from Saitama, Japan. Scouted by Utah Valley State assistant coach Chris Boettcher while in Japan to conduct off-season coaching clinics, the only question the Wolverine staff had about Nakayama was whether, at 5-foot-4, she was tall enough to play in Division I. The answer thus far has been an emphatic "yes" as Nakayama's slick ball-handling and unselfish play have brought a calm and cohesion to UVSC's offense that were often absent last year.
Aside from the immediate benefits of the team-high five assists and three steals per game that Nakayama produces, her presence in the starting lineup has had positive ripple effects as well. Her manning of the point has relieved Marvin and Hollie Beaman from much of the ball-handling they had to shoulder last season. The turnover-prone Marvin can now focus on her two greatest strengths, spot-up shooting and exploiting opposing defenses in transition via fast breaks; Beaman is now freed up to float between both guard positions and small forward as needed.
"With the skills that (Nakayama) has, with her ball-handling and her passing, she just has a knowledge and a foundation of the game that free us up to do some different things," Nixon said. "She's very difficult to defend in that she's very smart and calculating with the ball."
Beaman and forward Ashley Grimm complete Nixon's stellar crop of sophomores. Both play multiple positions and could put up bigger numbers if they had to, but seem content to be invaluable (if unheralded) role players, scene-stealing supporting actresses in the Sandy and Robyn Basketball Extravaganza.
BENCH PLAY: Like Fairbanks, Canadian freshman Julie McMurray is from a small town in Alberta. The 6-foot McMurray plays both forward positions and leads the Wolverines in bench scoring with 6.8 points per game.
Freshman center Blake Reynolds periodically spells Fairbanks, and junior swingman Rebekah Peterson provides instant offense off the bench with her reliable jump shot.
QUICK OUT OF THE GATE IN 2006-07: With wins over the likes of Utah State, Boise State and San Diego State during a season-opening seven-game homestand in which they went 6-1, the Wolverines quickly assuaged any doubts about whether they really possess legitimate Division I talent. The lingering question, though, is how much UVSC can improve on its 1-10 road record from a year ago. To that end, the Wolverines got off on the right foot with their 89-82 overtime victory over Idaho State on Dec. 2 and 68-60 triumph Saturday against Weber State in their first two road games of the season.
"For our program, the road has not been a place where we have been successful at all," Nixon said. "For us to really deserve the respect that I think we want and that we're starting to gain a little bit, we have to maintain (our early success) on the road. That's our focus now."
Utah County connections:
Sandy Marvin, sophomore guard, Payson High: The 2005 4A MVP was second on UVSC as a true freshman with 11.2 points per game. This season, Marvin has raised her offensive output to 17.1 points per game and is shooting 44 percent from the field (up from 33 percent a year ago). After playing a lot of point guard as a freshman, Marvin seems better-suited for and more at ease with her current role as a full-time shooting guard.
"When you have a race horse like Sandy, as coaches you never want her effort to go down," UVSC coach Cathy Nixon said. "But having just a little bit more composure and being a little bit smarter in decision-making (this year) have made a big difference."
UVSC women's basketball
2005-06: 11-16 (10-6 home, 1-10 away)
2006-07 TO DATE: (9-1 overall, 7-1 home, 2-0 away)
TOP RETURNERS: (stats listed are last year's) C Robyn Fairbanks (17.6 points, 8.6 rebounds); G Sandy Marvin (11.2 points).
KEY LOSSES: F Miriam Palkki (10.4 points, 7.1 rebounds)
TOP NEWCOMERS: PG Asumi Nakayama (Saitama, Japan); F Julie McMurray (Cardston, Alberta, Canada).