Collen Razorbacks ready for practice

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – University of Arkansas head women’s basketball coach Tom Collen and the Razorbacks are ready for the start of the 2009-10 season. Teams around the country, Arkansas included, are gearing up for the 2009-10 season and the Razorbacks are no exception. The Razorbacks begin practice in earnest Friday from 7-9 p.m. at Bud Walton Arena. Collen and the team have already logged many hours of training and conditioning during the off-season through individual workouts and permissible team activities. "We have a lot to implement in a short period of time so the first week or two is never easy on your athletes mentally," Collen said. "We want to put in all of our basic formations and review our fundamentals in the first weeks. We also need to find out just how quickly the new players can learn and step in. If their first couple of weeks on campus are any indication, I think we’ll progress quickly." The Razorbacks return two seniors and three All-Southeastern Conference players from last year’s postseason team. Senior Charity Ford, named the SEC’s Sixth Player of the Year, and senior Ashley McCray are joined by SEC Co-Freshman of the Year C’eira Ricketts and All-SEC Freshman Team selection Lyndsay Harris to lead this year’s team. The rest of the returners include juniors Brittney Richardson and Ashlea Williams and sophomores Ashley Daniels, Julie Inman and Jamesha Townsend. Collen and the Razorbacks added a talented group of newcomers for this season as well. Junior Skye Rees along with freshmen Sarah Watkins, Quistelle Williams, Dominique Robinson and Kristen Gillespie all look to contribute this season. "I thought our preseason has been great. We are a little tired since we have lifted weights and conditioned hard in recent weeks. We working through a lot of review work since we have some newcomers, but we have a lot of new looks to throw at them as well." The Razorbacks join the Arkansas men’s team Friday, Oct. 23 for the annual Red-White game which is open to the public. Arkansas hosts Northeastern State in an exhibition game Nov. 4 and opens the season against Alcorn State in Hot Springs, Ark., Nov. 15. For more information about Arkansas women’s basketball, log on to ArkansasRazorbacks.com.