By NATE ALLEN
Special to The Leader
FAYETTEVILLE – This spring break becomes Melissa Wolff’s last responsibility-free week until the 2015-2016 Razorbacks Women’s basketball team ends its season next spring.
For from Monday’s resumption of UA classes, Arkansas Women’s coach Jimmy Dykes expects his Cabot native guard/forward and lone senior-to-be to lead his 2015-2016 team in all things intangible, and plenty of tangibles, too.
“Melissa Wolff has to take ownership of the team right now for next year,” Dykes said in Monday’s season wrap-up press conference.
Wolff already was quite the partner to the graduating senior leaders Calli Berna and Jhasmin Bowen, on a nine-woman 18-14 team that advanced two rounds deep into the NCAA Tournament.
“I love the two seniors that I have,” Dykes said. “I learned a lot from Calli Berna and Jhasmin Bowen, things I will take with me going forth in my life. And Melissa Wolff has those same kind of qualities in her that we can take from here as a leader.
“She has kind of been the pulse and the heartbeat of our team all season long in terms of her fight. As a first year head coach to have Calli and Jhas and my second year to have a leader like Melissa Wolff, that’s really, really good. Those are three good ones right there.”
Listed as 6-feet but truly more like 5-11, Dykes said, Wolff hobbled throughout much of the season until game days. Then she led the Razorbacks in rebounding, a 7.8 average, while averaging 8.4 points.
She posted six double-doubles, capped by 13 points and 15 rebounds in the 10th-seeded Razorbacks’ 57-55 first-round NCAA Tournament upset of seventh-seeded Northwestern last Friday in Waco, Texas.
“Melissa Wolff didn’t practice the last five weeks of the season with a bad hip,” Dykes said. “But she always showed up in a game and got 13 points and 15 boards against Northwestern on Friday.”
“There’s no reason why for Melissa Wolff to have that kind of a game on that big of a stage other than her heart is bigger than anyone I’ve ever been around. There is no reason in the world that 5-11 Melissa Wolff from Cabot, Arkansas, should have 15 and 13 against Northwestern in this NCAA Tournament game but the size of her heart,” Dykes said.
Arkansas was outsized in most games, but Wolff and Bowen consistently played bigger than themselves inside, Dykes said.
Arkansas’ biggest player, 6-3 Jessica Jackson of Jacksonville, was the best shooter outside, a team-leading 56 of 163 3-pointers for a .344 percentage.
Jackson was the team’s leading scorer, 14.9, and shot-blocker, 33, with Wolff next at 30, and a strong 6.3 rebounder as the Razorbacks gathered 1,283 rebounds to their opponents’ 1,150.
Jackson was second-team All-SEC under Tom Collen two seasons ago as a freshman but played even better this past season in Dykes’ view.
“I expect her to make just as much progress in her second year under me as she did in her first year,” Dykes said. “I know her scoring numbers were down a little bit and maybe her rebounding was down a little bit but she is a better all-round player. She runs better. Her energy has been better.
“Defensively she is better. Boxing off she is better. She scores the ball from different spots on the floor now better. She made a lot of progress and she made a lot of progress off the floor,” Dykes said.
Jackson and returning junior-to-be starting guard Kelsey Brooks, Dykes said, also will be counted upon heavily to help next season’s young team that signed five freshmen in November and seeks to sign more in April.
“Melissa Wolff is ready to step up and be one of the leaders on the team,” Dykes said.
“But I am also very big on not having just one leader. Everybody has to be a leader. All those things that Melissa is going to give to this team starting when we get back from spring break, everybody has to fall in line with that.”
