‘Murphy’s law’ is a popular adage that states that, simply, “everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” The 2023-24 Northeastern women’s basketball season might have been a perfect example of that law in action.
Just over 10 minutes into the Huskies’ season opener against Stonehill, NU’s starting point guard, Derin Erdogan, suffered a shoulder injury while fighting for a rebound. While the ailment didn’t force her to miss any games last season, its effects lingered for months, and it was clear throughout the year that she was not playing at 100 percent.
Erdogan would be only the first name on an absurdly long list of Huskies to catch the injury bug. Two other members of the opening-night starting lineup, center Asha Parker and guard Gemima Motema, suffered season-ending injuries during CAA play (with Motema missing about a month of action to start conference play due to a separate injury before rupturing her Achilles in early February). While Motema is not listed on the team’s roster page for this season, Parker is back for her senior campaign this year following a successful surgery in the offseason.
The injuries piled up so much for Northeastern that in the final month of the regular season, they forfeited three games due to a lack of available players (meaning at least 8 of the 13 players on the roster were likely injured) and played with just one or two subs in the games where they were able to field a lineup. This led to circumstances like then-freshman forward Sophia Carlisle starting four games despite being the third-string center if everyone were healthy — Carlisle herself didn’t appear in any action last season until January due to an injury of her own. Additionally, fellow freshman guard Yirsy Quéliz was averaging 35-plus minutes a game with the team down to just four available backcourt players.
Despite the ridiculous amount of injury misfortune, there were some bright spots in the Huskies’ performance down the stretch. They won two games, a Senior Day matchup against Hampton and a CAA Tournament first round matchup against UNCW, with just six and seven available players, respectively. The Huskies now look to rebuild in head coach Priscilla Edwards-Lloyd’s second season at the helm.
The Backcourt
If there was any silver lining to be found during the brutal span of injury woes, it’s that some of those players who had to take elevated roles are returning this year with the benefit of that experience. Chief among them is Quéliz who, even before all of the injuries, received a healthy amount of minutes for a freshman. The guard often shared the court with Erdogan, who became a mentor to her at the point position. Edwards-Lloyd believes that the time on the floor Quéliz played last year will help her take an even bigger leap heading into her sophomore season.
“Yirsy has had a really good summer of growth, and I think it’s due large in part to the role she had to play last year,” said Edwards-Lloyd at CAA Media Day in October. “She was kind of thrown into the fire and she handled it relatively well. But going into this year, I do think that that experience of playing more early has helped her. She’s familiar with the teams that we’re up against in the league, she knows what she’s going to be up against every night, she knows the level that she needs to play at, and so she’s approached this summer with that, knowing that she wants to be our starting point guard.”
That starting role is Quéliz’s to lose, although Northeastern made a batch of additions in the offseason that should also contribute in the backcourt. One of the most notable is graduate student Bailey Williams, a transfer from Longwood University who also played a season in the CAA at James Madison.
Williams appeared in every game during her two years at Longwood, and projects as more of a playmaker than a shooter: last season, she finished second on the team in assists per game (2.0) and led the team in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.74). It’s possible that Williams could take on more of a combo-guard role when she shares the floor with Quéliz, and she would also be a good option to man the point when Quéliz is on the bench.
Another transfer guard the Huskies acquired is Abby Jegede, a redshirt sophomore who appeared in 29 games for Villanova last season. Jegede played limited minutes in those games but put up a pair of 3-for-3 performances from deep in Big East play. As a transfer from a “power conference” school, Jegede is reminiscent of some of the additions previous Northeastern head coach Bridgette Mitchell made two seasons ago, bringing in Erdogan (from Arizona) and forward Deja Bristol (from Virginia), players who got limited playing time at their previous schools, but thrived in elevated roles at the mid-major level.
If Jegede is able to shoot the deep ball this season (which given the limited sample size last year, still remains to be seen), that could serve as a complement to returning graduate student guard Maddie Vizza, who was Northeastern’s best three-point shooter last year despite periodic slumps throughout the season.
In 2023-24, Vizza’s sharpshooting from beyond the arc could be neutralized by opposing defenses who recognized that she was one of the only threats from distance for the Huskies. If other players can provide spacing for her this year, that should help Vizza be more consistent from beyond the arc.
Other players Northeastern may look to for three-point shooting include senior guard Camille Clement and freshman guard Samia Greene. Clement has taken on a three-point specialist role for the Huskies when healthy, but she is a bit of a wild card for this year after missing all of last season dealing with a hip injury that required surgery.
Greene is an intriguing addition out of Eastern High School in Washington, D.C., where she played for head coach Lonnie Harrell, who was on the Northeastern men’s basketball team for two seasons in the 90’s. Greene averaged 21.1 points per game her senior year, and demonstrated the ability to shoot from distance. The Huskies showed last season with Quéliz that they weren’t afraid to give a freshman significant minutes, so Greene could see herself getting some regular playing time if her shooting is able to translate to the collegiate level right away.
Another newcomer in the backcourt is redshirt junior guard Natalie Larrañaga, who averaged 18.7 points per game and shot 52% from the floor during the 2022-23 season at Florida National University in the NAIA. Edwards-Lloyd noted her playmaking and experience in the release announcing the team’s new additions over the offseason — Larrañaga played for the Guatemalan national team at the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2023. It’s dependent on how her game translates from the NAIA level to the NCAA Division I level, but Larrañaga could see solid minutes off the bench if she can be a steady hand in the backcourt.
Rounding out the guards on the roster are Marian Turnbull and freshman María Sánchez Pitarch. Turnbull, like Carlisle, was a depth piece last year who had to take on a much bigger role than expected as the injuries piled up in the last month of the season. The junior is more of a pass-first guard, although when she does shoot, it’s usually from behind the arc, and she made a three in five consecutive games during that stretch from February into March. Assuming everyone stays healthy, she will likely be behind a few guards on the depth chart, although she should be able to slot into the offense when called upon. Sánchez Pitarch brings international experience, playing in the second-division basketball league in Spain last season. Notably, she is listed specifically as a “point guard” on Northeastern’s roster page, whereas every other backcourt player is listed simply as a guard.
The Frontcourt
Looking towards the frontcourt, Parker is likely to return to her role as the starting center now that she is back and healthy. Her role becomes even more elevated this year, as she is the only senior forward on the team and thus in a position to serve as a leader and mentor to the underclassmen.
“Just being a senior and being one of the older people on the team, you’re kind of the ‘wise’ one,” Parker said. “People look to you for advice, for things that you see on and off the court, if they don’t know a play or spacing … Because we have a lot of new people and a lot of freshmen, I have tried to adopt all of the freshmen as my children. Being a freshman can be hard sometimes, and I know it was hard for me as well, so establishing that relationship off the court is so helpful, because then on the court they know that you trust each other and you have each other’s backs.”
When Parker was out with her injury last season, now-junior forward Oralye Kiefer took over her role. Kiefer, an inch taller than Parker, notably started to regularly shoot threes last season, going 29% from beyond the arc, and averaged just under two attempts per game. Her efficiency will likely need to increase if it’s something she wants to make a regular part of her game this season, but it’s worth monitoring.
The other two centers on the roster are Carlisle and freshman Alyssa Staten, the latter out of Statesboro High School in Georgia. Both provide depth that Edwards-Lloyd hopefully will not have to use as much as she did at the end of last season.
The freshmen class features a pair of players that could both fill the power forward niche for the Huskies. Taylor Holohan comes in from Averill Park High School in New York, where she is fourth on the program’s all-time scoring list. Maya Summerville arrives from Morristown High School in New Jersey, and averaged a double-double during her senior season. Northeastern has plenty of guards and centers, and either freshman could see significant playing time at the 4. Both players stand at 6 feet, and would bring size to the lineup. Alternatively, the Huskies could opt to play a four-guard lineup with Jegede, who is 5-foot-10, at the 4. It will be interesting to see which combination Edwards-Lloyd uses, and it could change throughout the season.
The Schedule
If you are a Northeastern student and want to see the team in action, you’d better be at the home opener against New Hampshire on Nov. 14 — it will be the only chance you get to see the Huskies play at home in the fall semester.
The contest with UNH is one of just three home games in Northeastern’s non-conference schedule, the others being matchups against Stonehill and Holy Cross over winter break. Despite the non-optimal home-road balance, the quality of the schedule provides some good tests and opportunities for the Huskies.
Northeastern will play all of the other three Beanpot schools within the first 15 days of the season, starting off on the road at BU as part of a doubleheader with the men’s basketball teams. A week later, the Huskies head to Chestnut Hill to play at Boston College for the second consecutive season, in a Veterans Day matinee, with the home opener against UNH later that week and a matchup at Harvard the following Tuesday.
Northeastern then travels to New York City twice to play two NEC opponents, Wagner and LIU, the latter for the first time since 2007 (back when they were known as LIU Brooklyn). The Huskies’ final game of the fall semester is at UMass, before they return home for the aforementioned Stonehill and Holy Cross games the week before Christmas.
Northeastern will open up their CAA slate against defending conference regular-season champions Stony Brook, who they will play twice this season, along with Drexel, Towson, William & Mary, and Hofstra. The Huskies host Delaware on Feb. 2 in what is likely to be the last-ever CAA meeting between the two programs, as the Blue Hens will move to Conference USA following this season.
The Huskies face preseason favorites NC A&T once, a home matchup on Valentine’s Day, and play Charleston and CAA Preseason Player of the Year Taryn Barbot the weekend prior. The final weekend of the regular season features the Huskies’ Senior Day game, against Elon on a Thursday night, before they travel to play Hofstra on Saturday.
The Verdict
Northeastern was picked to finish 13th out of 14 teams in the CAA preseason poll, only ahead of Hampton, which is hard to argue with given the struggles last season and the departures of some key contributors. Still, the team can use that as bulletin board material, as they did during the 2021-22 season when they were picked to finish in last place and instead went a respectable 8-10 in conference play, earning the No. 6 seed in the conference tournament.
Especially in the current era of college basketball, with so much player movement, the only way to truly find out where the teams stand is to play the games. Regardless of Northeastern’s performance this season, the goal should be to develop the underclassmen and build toward the future, especially with Edwards-Lloyd settling more into her role as a head coach and (hopefully) having to deal with fewer injuries.
Northeastern visits crosstown rival Boston University on Nov. 4 to open up the 2024-25 campaign. Jordan Walsh and Webb Constable will have the call at 4:30 p.m. on WRBB 104.9 FM.