Minus top scorer, BYU women's basketball adds 'new spice' to take next step in 2019-20

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PROVO — Shaylee Gonzales was laughing, joking, jumping around and hamming it up with the cameras as BYU women’s basketball prepared for the 2019-20 season.

She posed for several photos with fellow sophomores Babalu Ugwu, Malli Valgardson Perri, Signe Glantz and Lauren Gustin. She answered questions for teammate Paisley Johnson’s video blog and poked fun at new assistant coach Lee Cummard on the bench.

So, she’s still around the team — one that finished 26-7 last year with a 15-3 mark in West Coast Conference play, including the Cougars’ third WCC tournament title in program history and fourth-ever appearance beyond the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

But when the Cougars tip off Oct. 29 in a preseason exhibition game against Westminster, the former freshman phenom who averaged 17.0 points per game a year ago — the best-ever mark by a freshman in BYU history — won’t be in uniform.

The 5-foot-10 point guard from Gilbert, Arizona, will take a redshirt season as she rehabs from an unfortunate ACL injury suffered during summer workouts. The talented roster that lost just one player a year ago — former softball star Caitlyn Alldredge, the starting small forward — will try to rebound with a critical blow to its backcourt.

So where do the Cougars go from here?

For starters, to Maria Albiero. The 5-foot-8 junior point guard from Londrina, Brazil, was a key player off the bench in 2018-19, averaging 3.2 points and 1.7 rebounds in relief.

From left to right: Shaylee Gonzales, Lauren Gustin, Babulu Ugwu, Signe Glantz and Kaylee Smiler pose for photos during BYU women's basketball media day, Monday, Oct. 9, 2019 inside the Marriott Center in Provo, Utah. Gonzales, the Cougars' top scorer last year as a freshman, will miss the 2019-20 season after surgery to repair a torn ACL suffered during offseason workouts. (Photo: Sean Walker, KSL.com)

“Obviously, those minutes are going to be dispersed. But different girls will have to step up,” said Johnson, now the team’s second-leading returning scorer, who averaged 14.5 points per game. “Maria Albiero will come in and be the starting point guard; she’ll be great at that. She’s not Shaylee Gonzales, but she’s Maria Albiero, and the way she leads the team will be different. You may see a different start to our game and our plays, though.”

Johnson will be among those girls planning to step up, too.

The 5-foot-9 guard from Everett, Washington, was a relative unknown at this time last year. But the spirited backcourt scorer and defensive stalwart exploded onto the scene as a sophomore, averaging 14.5 points, 4.3 rebounds and at least 2.0 charges per game (her opponents will attest) en route to earning all-West Coast Conference first-team honors.

She knows she won’t be coming out of nowhere this season, either.

“I think the jump I made last year is more evident that I have more room to grow,” Johnson said. “I’m trying new things, learning new things, and trying to put different things into my game from last year.

“It’ll just be a new spice. It might be fun.”

Redshirt SZN

Judkins expects more from Johnson as a junior — and her teammates said she's already started to show flashes of being a dominant scorer through summer conditioning.

"She was first-team all-conference, which is well deserved, but I’ve been seeing her work a lot on her shot — and I don’t think she’s missed many in practice," BYU guard Brenna Chase Drollinger said. "Get out on her, guys; she’s good."

Drollinger also returns from last year, a senior who averaged 12.8 points and 2.8 rebounds per game a year ago. But she might look different on the court, and that’s not just a reference to move back to the backup point guard after a pair of seasons at the two-guard slot.

She got married over the summer, and the now-Brenna Chase Drollinger admits the wedding may have taken more out of her than offseason workouts.

“Planning a wedding is not fun, but we made it work,” she said. “Fortunately he’s a rebounder. He was a practice player, too.”

Stanford's Kiana Williams, left, guards BYU's Brenna Chase during the first half of a second-round game in the NCAA women's college basketball tournament Monday, March 25, 2019, in Stanford, Calif. (Photo: Ben Margot, AP)

Added Judkins: “She married a guy who loves basketball himself, and they’ve been in the gym a lot. But it’s also her senior year, and she wants to walk out of her on top. That’s important for her.”

Even with the heartbreaking loss of Gonzales, Judkins said this year’s team could show some versatility — and that’s even if true freshman Leilani Otuafi from Fallon, Nevada, and former Salem Hills star and Salt Lake Community College transfer Gustin don’t play this year.

If Albiero is off the court, Drollinger and Johnson can each slide over a guard spot. And Judkins said Ugwu, a 6-foot-1 wing forward from Sao Paulo, Brazil, has been working out at the three-guard spot, as well.

“Her length and rebounding could really cause some problems,” Judkins added of Ugwu. “This is what makes teams good. You get an injury, and some people have to step up and play different roles. That is what we are hoping.”