Bales, Duke ready for another run at Final Four
It was a coming-out party, of sorts, for Duke center Alison Bales.
In this spring's NCAA tournament, the 6-7 Bales averaged 13.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 5.0 blocks per game as the Blue Devils made it all the way to the national-championship game.
That they fell short - Maryland knocked off Duke in overtime in one of the more thrilling final games that you will ever see - is the motivation as Bales and the Dukies get ready for the start of practice next week.
"I wouldn't say that we're starting over from scratch," Bales said in an interview on the "ACC Nation" radio show this week.
"We have four people who started at some point during the year returning - so we have a solid basis to build on. We've got a lot coming back, and we've got a lot of fresh faces and just a lot of new stuff on the court. It's really exciting. This is a new team - every year is a new team, and it's exciting to see how we're going to put it all together," Bales said.
One player who won't be returning could be a noticeable missing link. Monique Currie averaged a team-high 16.4 points per game in addition to pulling down 5.8 rebounds per game (second on the team) before moving on to the WNBA this summer.
"Monique is a big loss," Bales said. "She was a good player for us, and I think both on and off the court, we all miss her now. She was here for five years, so she was a big part of the program - and a great person, great teammate.
"We'll miss her. More than just her stat line - she was our leading scorer and one of our leading rebounders - we'll miss her attitude, I think, a lot, and just the toughness that she brought to the court," Bales said.
With Currie out of the picture, Bales, a senior, is now being asked to step up as a team leader - she was voted co-captain along with point guard and classmate Lindsey Harding last month.
"The title captain, I think, is just a name - but I think as a senior, me and Lindsey both are trying to step up our leadership this year and help the younger players, the ones who maybe haven't gotten experience," Bales said.
"The learning curve is pretty steep, so we're just really trying to help them out, teach them all the plays and all the different things before practice starts next week," Bales said.
That the learning curve is steep is due to the depth of the Atlantic Coast Conference - which sent three teams to the Final Four this past season.
"When I got here my freshman year, the ACC wasn't nearly as well thought of as it is now. And I think now you can pretty much you can say that the ACC is the best or one of the best women's basketball conference in the country. I mean, last year, three of the Final Four - that speaks for itself. I think it's just going to make it even tougher for us day in and day out in the ACC season," Bales said.
- Chris Graham