Simmons Lands on Preseason All-BIG EAST Team
10/16/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Photo Gallery Oct. 16, 2013
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Seton Hall University women's basketball redshirt junior point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons (Newark, N.J.) was named to the 2013-14 Preseason All-BIG EAST Team, it was announced Wednesday at BIG EAST Media Day, held at Chelsea Piers in New York.
Simmons is the Pirates' top offensive returnee from last season when she ranked second on the team averaging 11.5 points per game and led Seton Hall with 3.9 assists per game. She started at point guard in all 31 contests for SHU and ranked 10th in the BIG EAST in assists per game and tied for 27th in the league in scoring.
Her 122 total assists were the ninth-highest single-season total in Seton Hall history and Simmons also led the Pirates with 63 steals, which ranked 10th in school history.
The dynamic point guard scored in double figures 21 times, including a career-high 21-point outburst on 8-for-9 shooting from the field in a home victory over Providence College. Simmons scored 10 points or more in six of Seton Hall's final seven games and recorded her first-career double-double with 12 points and 10 assists in a blowout victory over New Orleans on Dec. 19.
The Seton Hall floor general was one of 10 players to land on the Preseason All-BIG EAST Team and one of only five guards along with Villanova's Caroline Coyer, Providence's Tori Rule, Aliyyah Hanford of St. John's and Marissa Janning of Creighton, who was one of two Bluejays to earn a selection. CU forward Sarah Nelson was part of a frontcourt group that included Daress McClung (Butler), Jasmine Penny (DePaul), Katherine Plouffe (Marquette) and Andrea White (Georgetown).
Brittany Hrynko of the Blue Demons was named the conference's Preseason Player of the Year while Georgetown's Shayla Cooper received the nod for Preseason Rookie of the Year.
The Pirates were selected by the coaches to finish 10th in their first year under head coach Anthony Bozzella while DePaul was tabbed as the preseason favorite to win the league behind eight of a possible 10 first-place votes.
Seton Hall will open its 2013-14 season at home on Friday, Nov. 8, when it hosts Longwood in Walsh Gymnasium at 7 p.m. The Pirates begin the year with a three-game homestand as they will also face Rider on Sunday, Nov. 10, at 2 p.m., and Webster State on Friday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m.
The 2013-14 BIG EAST opener will see Seton Hall travel out to Queens to face the St. John's Red Storm on Saturday, Dec. 28, at 2 p.m.
