As an offseason of massive roster churn for Denver wound down, Doshia Woods sounded cautiously optimistic. In an early November interview with du.edu, the Pioneers’ coach talked about her new team starting to come together.
 
“Going in, I thought we definitely had some of the pieces we needed. Watching them interact together, I felt like we had some young women who were ready to lead,” she was quoted as saying in the university feature. 
 
With nearly a full season between then and now, it turns out Woods knew exactly what she was seeing. The Pioneers are putting the finishing touches on their best season in her three-year tenure, already posting highs in league wins (7) and overall wins (11). And it’s all been done by a roster that, by conventional thinking, had little business making that sort of step forward. 
 
To say the Pioneers had holes following last year’s 10-20 (5-13) campaign would be an understatement. The top-five minute getters left due to graduation or the transfer portal, including massively productive players in Uju Edeuzu and Meghan Boyd. 
 
That, though, is old news at this point. 
 
The team that Woods assembled to fill that void has taken on an identity that has it right in the thick of an excitedly muddled Summit race behind South Dakota State. This version of the Pioneers has been more stout defensively than its predecessor, as well as better on the glass, while sprinkling in Woods’ patented three-point combustibility. And to say it has been a total team effort would be another understatement. 
 
There has been a jolt of experience provided by graduate transfers Ally Haar and Mikayla Brandon, something Woods highlighted recently.
 
“We’ve had a mix of upperclassmen and freshmen that have really led us,” she said during a postgame interview following a Feb. 9 game against North Dakota. “They’ve been able to do this on the court with the leadership especially from [Brandon] and Haar coming in as grad transfers.”
 
Brandon, who is having a career year after four seasons at Northern Illinois, has been a key cog in a frontcourt that has made big strides rebounding the basketball, especially on the offensive end. They’ve created second chances at a much higher rate this year, with an offensive rebounding percentage in league play (30.1%) that is much higher than it was a year ago (24.2%). 
 
Essential to that has been the at-times dominant interior presence of Makayla Minnett (8.3 ppg, 9.2 rpg, 2.5 bpg), who has broken out as the only returnee that was a major part of last year’s rotation. She blocked everything in sight at Kansas City in late December, finishing with 10 blocks. That's just one of the highlights of a season full of them from a player that is currently 10th in the nation in blocks per game. 
 
There’s also been the youth movement, with freshman Emma Smith heralding a number of underclassmen – Jojo Jones, Mary Wilson – capable of big performances. Smith is a week removed from making a living in the deep corners in a big win over North Dakota State, scoring a career-high 27 points on 4-for-5 shooting from distance. Her Freshman of the Year worthy campaign (13.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 2.8 apg) has been at the forefront of a DU attack that has continued to not be shy about launching it from deep. 
 
How far can that take the Pioneers as their trip to Sioux Falls inches closer and closer? 
 
The program has not won a game in the League tournament since their run to the championship game in 2014. This team seems like it could challenge that drought, particularly with its recent win over NDSU and away victories at St. Thomas and Western Illinois. The Pioneers will have to be road warriors leading up to the tournament, having already played their last game in Hamilton Gymnasium.
 
They did fall victim to the Jackrabbit buzzsaw Thursday night in Brookings in a blowout loss, as so many teams have done this season. But to hear their coach say it, they’re well positioned to move on from such a game.
 
“One thing that people have learned if you’ve watched our team and followed us all year is that we’re resilient,” she said following the UND game on Feb. 9. “As long as there is time on the clock we feel we still have a chance.”
 
With games left at South Dakota and Omaha before the postseason starts, this year’s Pioneers team has time left to continue writing what has already been a success story for Woods and her burgeoning program.