Janelle Harris is no longer the only freshman on the team, but she is the only sophomore. Even though Harris seems to be caught in the middle of a team looking to integrate its numerous freshmen with its upperclassmen, she feels like she has a place on this team.,”The addition of six freshmen to this year's women's basketball team is a much different scenario than last year's team, which had only one freshman.

Janelle Harris is no longer the only freshman on the team, but she is the only sophomore. Even though Harris seems to be caught in the middle of a team looking to integrate its numerous freshmen with its upperclassmen, she feels like she has a place on this team.

"I feel like I'm an upperclassman just because I am the only sophomore," Harris said. "It's the freshmen and the upperclassmen.

"Obviously I have a year of experience, so I feel like I improved tremendously. I consider myself in a role with the upperclassmen."

Last season Harris averaged just 8.6 minutes a game while scoring a team-low 2.1 points per game. Besides the numbers, it seemed at times that Harris was playing catch-up on the court, simply fitting in with the crowd rather than making plays. With a year under her belt, Harris and her coach expect great improvement.

"Janelle has come back from this summer really stronger than we've ever seen her, understanding her role," head coach Terri Mitchell said. "She's playing extremely well right now. She's another penetrator, a pull-up jumper."

Just what that role is going to be has yet to be determined. Finding playing time will be especially hard with junior Krystal Ellis moving to the shooting guard position due to the addition of freshman point guard Angel Robinson. If Robinson pans out as a solid point guard, Harris would be fighting Ellis for time, which is undoubtedly a losing battle.

Besides playing behind Ellis, an Associated Press All-American Honorable Mention, Harris is caught in the middle of a transition year that includes two other freshmen guards besides Robinson. Tatiyana McMorris has been highly touted for her speed, and her classmate, Courtney Weibel, finished her high school career as the nation's all-time high school 3-point record holder with 471.

Mitchell knows better than anyone how deep and young the guard positions are, but she maintains Harris is earning consideration.

"She's in the mix, if not starting," Mitchell said. "There's so many people fighting for starting right now and what I try and tell the team is it shouldn't be the end all-be all."

Harris' strongest asset may be her ability to get into the lane with her penetration.

"I think we've identified who the three-point shooters on our team are, who are penetrators, who are pull-up jumpers, and (Harris) and Marissa Thrower have done a great job of getting in the paint and shooting over people," Mitchell said.

Harris' play in the paint will ultimately be what gets her on the court, considering she only attempted six three pointers all of last season, connecting on one. Harris knows improving her jump shot will be a key component to how much playing time she gets this year.

"In the off-season I did a lot of conditioning, working on my game, jump shot, basically just trying to stay in shape in the weight room, just trying to better myself for my team," she said.

Harris' best scoring effort came against Cincinnati when she had eight points, hitting all three of her field goal attempts. Harris' biggest problem may have been her tendency to turn the ball over. In 275 minutes she committed 34 turnovers, compared to just 11 assists.

After a less than stellar freshman season, Harris said she is eager to show the progress she has made in the off-season.

"I'm very excited and the team is very excited," Harris said. "Yes we're young but everyone is excited, ready to go, ready to play, ready to prove something to those who don't think we're gonna do that good."

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