Wooten-Collier brings title experience to VUU women's basketball

As a player, Barvenia Wooten-Collier helped lift the Virginia Union women's basketball team to the pinnacle of NCAA Division II competition. Now she will try to lift the school's once-proud women's program back to respectability as a coach.

Wooten-Collier, the linchpin of Virginia Union's 1983 NCAA championship team, was hired last month to replace Bryan Underwood as the Panthers' head coach. VUU's administration chose not to renew Underwood's contract after the Panthers stumbled badly in 2009 and 2010, winning only 16 games overall -- and only seven in the CIAA.

The new coach intends, eventually, to install an up-tempo, emphasis-on-conditioning philosophy. But she said her first goal will be to instill a sense of ownership and responsibility in athletes who won only two of 20 CIAA contests last season. "I get the feeling that the players, right now, think of basketball as just another thing they have to do," Wooten-Collier said. "I don't see excitement and enthusiasm. I want these kids to understand that the opportunity to play basketball at Virginia Union is a gift. I don't want them to be content merely to play. I want them to perform."

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