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Coming into tonight, I felt that Valparaiso's biggest concern this season was going to be perimeter shooting. I mean, let's face it: Aimee Litka (66 3-pointers, 37.3 percent), Agnieszka Kulaga (40 3-pointers, 35.7 percent), Launa Hochstetler (37 3-pointers, 37.4 percent) and Leah Hochstetler (22 3-pointers, 37.3 percent) have all moved on. That leaves Betsy Adams (14 3-pointers, 29.8 percent) and Rashida Ray (10 3-pointers, 41.7 percent) as the leading returning shooters. As a matter of fact, out of the 198 made 3-pointers the Crusaders had last season, only 33 of them return.

So obviously 3-point shooting is supposed to be a concern for the 2009-10 season.

Then someone explain to me where this group of players found the knack to shoot 78.6 percent from beyond the arc on Monday night in their 87-46 exhibition victory over Indiana Wesleyan. I don't care who the opponent is, the players still need to knock down the shots and the Crusaders did.

Freshman Skyler Gick led the way with four 3-points while junior Kelly Watts was perfect on all three of her attempts. Betsy Adams swished in her only triple on the second possession of the game. Rashida Ray was perfect on both of her long distance shots and freshman Raegan Moore got into the act with a 3-pointer that bounced high off the back rim and then fell straight through. It was just that kind of night for the Crusaders.

After the game, Skyler Gick, Kelly Watts and Ashley Varner all laughed when I suggested that this team wasn't supposed to be good at long distance shooting.

"A lot of shots were opening up," Varner said. "Our posts can shoot the three."

Varner might have missed both of her long range shots, but it was her work in the post that helped open up the perimeter. Early in the second half, Varner scored eight straight points inside and the Wildcats (24-10 last season) started to pay more attention to the paint. While the Crusaders scored 33 points from the perimeter, the bulk of the scoring came inside with 42 points in the paint.

Understandably, the Crusaders aren't going to shoot 78.6 percent every night from beyond the arc. Last year's team, for as good as they were from the perimeter, only shot 36.5 percent.

The difference is that last year I felt the Crusaders needed to be hot from the 3-point line to win games. This year might be a little different. With the addition of Kelly Watts, the continued maturation of Ashley Varner and the talent of Lauren Kenney, coach Keith Freeman might just have the best frontcourt he's ever had at Valparaiso.

"I've never had anyone go and get the ball quite like Lauren Kenney does," Freeman said. "Watts and Kenney are two of the three or four best that I've ever had in terms of getting rebounds."

So even if the Crusaders struggle on shooting from the perimeter, there will be players inside that will grab rebounds. Quite a contrast from two years ago when Kulaga was the team's biggest rebounding threat. I can only wonder what Kulaga and Watts would've looked like on the floor together.

The final point I'll make from tonight's game is that for as young as she is, I saw some flashes of brilliance from Gick. She's as good, if not better, than Hochstetler and Kulaga in terms of passing from the top of the key, and on Monday night, she made a big-time play that I'll remember for a long time.

The Crusaders got the ball out of bounds with 30.4 seconds left in the half and Freeman called in the play. The ball was inbounded to Gick who stood on the opposite side of the court for 20 seconds before pushing the ball up the floor. The original play was for Gick to draw the defender away from Adams so the sophomore could have an open 3-pointer. When the defender didn't move, Gick simply continued to the basket, sliced through the defense and hit a fading layup with less than two seconds remaining.

"It's always cool when you're in that position, with the clock running down," Gick said. "In my mind, I wanted to draw Betsy's girl, but then I went for it."

It might have been an innocent play in a meaningless exhibition game, but my jaw dropped. I'm sure Gick will have some struggles this season, probably some forgettable games and buckets of turnovers, but if you ask me when she "arrived," I'll tell you it was at the end of the first half of her second exhibition game.

As I wrote in my live blog, "Skyler Gick, meet the starting point guard position at Valparaiso University for the next four years. I think you two will become good friends."

Of course that could all go for naught as after the game, Freeman told me he thinks Gick could be very effective at the two-guard. Regardless, she's good.

Saturday night the games start to count for real. I'll be at the ARC live blogging the season opener against Indiana Tech, but first I'll be at Brown Field tomorrow for men's soccer Horizon League tournament action, Muncie on Friday night for the men's basketball season opener and Brown Field on Saturday afternoon for the VU football team's clash with Campbell. Welcome to my favorite week of the year.