Newman women’s team rebuilds toward better future

Brianna Caldwell wasn’t supposed to be the last one left.

She wasn’t supposed to be the one doling out bits of advice to the newest players on Newman’s roster about what will fly with coach Darin Spence and what won’t.

And she definitely wasn’t supposed to get this nickname.

“They call me ‘Grandma’ if you can believe that,” Caldwell said, laughing. “Grandma this, Grandma that. I’ve been here a long time and they like to tease me, but I’m good with it. Anything I can do to help.”

So what Caldwell has become – aside from the Jets’ leading returning scorer – is a buffer between Spence, in his fourth season, and the nine new players on Newman’s roster. She’s also the only player left from his first recruiting class.

“Some of it is little stuff like don’t wear a shirt in the gym from another college unless it’s your junior college or something, or make sure you have your earrings out before practice,” Caldwell said. “And some of it’s big stuff, like what (Spence) thinks of where you need to be on defense or where you should be on offense.”

Caldwell, a 5-foot-8 junior guard from Wichita Northwest, averaged 10 points and 4.7 rebounds last season and hit 75 of 236 three-pointers. She’s one of three starters – and only five returners – back after Newman went 10-16 and finished eighth in the Heartland Conference. It was a considerable step back for the Jets after Spence went 16-11 and finished second in the Heartland in 2013-2014.

It was actually the fallout from that success that triggered last season’s struggles. That was because 6-foot sophomore guard/forward Alexandra Ciabattoni, the Heartland Conference Player of the Year in 2013-14, decided to transfer to Division I Stetson after the season.

Ciabattoni never played for Stetson and signed this summer with the Adelaide Lightning of Australia’s Women’s National Basketball League. And Spence lost one of the best players in the nation with two years of eligibility left.

“That’s just bad luck, to have a Division I school come in and take your best player,” Spence said. “And then she never even ends up playing a minute for them. It was unexpected, but you just have to keep moving forward.”

Bad luck and bad timing – specifically because it came after a recruiting season where Spence assumed he would have his best player back and was building around that. That setback showed itself in this year’s recruiting class, which has talent spread out all over the court.

In the backcourt, Caldwell and Kesha Buckner (8.4 points, 7 rebounds) are joined by Arkansas Tech transfer Shaunice Robinson, an honorable-mention NJCAA All-American at Eastern Arizona in 2013-14.

In the post, Spence, who coached at New Mexico State from 2003-11, brings in 6-foot junior transfers Erica Olerich and Natalia Hausmann.

Last season has also given Newman plenty of room to change opinions – they were picked to finish eighth in the Heartland’s preseason poll.

“I understand picking us there,” Spence said. “Especially after last season, and with new players no one is really familiar with yet.”

The Jets play a brutal early-season schedule — they opened with an exhibition game at Creighton on Nov. 5, then hit the road for four of their next five games, including back-to-back games in Colorado against Regis and UC-Colorado Springs in the RMAC-Heartland Challenge.

“We need to learn to play and win games on the road,” Spence said. “If you want to win a conference title, you’re going to have to be a team that can be successful on the road.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2015 at 9:01 AM with the headline "Newman women’s team rebuilds toward better future."