Just how good is this Charlotte 49ers' women's basketball team this season?

   Just how good is the Charlotte 49ers' women's basketball team this season?

   On the surface, it appears very good. The 49ers finished their nonconference season 12-3 with a 60-58 home win over Virginia Tech on Sunday. Charlotte's only losses so far have been at Florida, home against then-sixth-ranked Duke and to Old Dominion in a tournament in New Orleans. The three losses were each by six points.

   Charlotte has found a nice mix between experienced players like seniors Shannon McCallum and Kendria Holmes and junior transfer Epiphany Woodson and younger players like Jai Forney, Jennifer Hailey and Amanda Dowe.

   With the 49ers opening Atlantic 10 Conference play on Friday when they host Temple at noon at Halton Arena, we asked two 49ers who have experienced success in their respective careers how good this team can be.

   Head coach Karen Aston: I think it is definitely one of our better teams. The talent level is definitely better. We need to see how they deal with things like we are playing a lot of people, will they be happy with their minutes? We need to keep building the team chemistry. Focus is the big thing for this team. If they can stay focused and take one day at a time and play like they have been, I think this will be the best 49ers team we have seen in a while. I would not even base that just on wins and losses. This is a very, very talented team that is really trying to do what's right.

  Senior 5-10 guard Shannon McCallum: I think we are well prepared for conference play. We still need to get better in practice every day. But these games we have played have gotten us ready, especially against Duke, this game (Virginia Tech) and Florida. They got us ready for conference. We know how it's going to be in our conference, where it's tough.
   I think this team is very athletic. We just need to keep our heads up and play hard all the time. I have to know that we have some younger players and I need to stay positive. You can't be negative all the time because then younger players just put their heads down and won't look at me as a leader.

   -- Jim Utter