A few things to keep in mind as the Utah Valley University women's basketball team enters the third week of the 2009-10 season.

Robyn Fairbanks is back, but her role has changed. Instead of calling for the ball, she's calling games on the radio.

Sandy Wall is gone and she's not coming back.

Julie McMurray is now Julie Smith and she was named the Great West Conference Preseason Player of the Year after averaging 18.3 points and 6.4 rebounds for UVU last year.

But as much as things have changed since UVU's school-record 17-10 season last year, some things haven't changed.

The name on Smith's uniform is different, but her offense is just as potent.

Point guard Asumi Nakayama still makes things happen when she's on the court, and there is nothing wrong with Kayla Burningham's 3-point shot.

Now that the 2009-10, season is underway, UVU coach Cathy Nixon is eager to find out how long it will take for this year's team to come together.

So far, the results have been mixed. After dropping a pair of games on the road last week, UVU is now 2-3. The Wolverines return home to play Boise State tonight at 7 p.m. in what should be an intriguing test to see how much progress is being made.

UVU beat Mesa State and College of Idaho earlier in the year but was outclassed by BYU and Mississippi State, and then lost by 22 at Longwood.

After the loss to BYU, Nixon said, "I saw some things I'm encouraged about. The important thing for us is to focus on the long run. It's a marathon and not a sprint. The physicality and the speed of the game is something our younger kids are going to have to learn how to understand and adapt to and hopefully they make those adjustments. I have a lot of confidence in them in the long run that we'll learn from these games and turn it around and be a very good team."

The reason Nixon is so optimistic stems from having three of its five starters returning from last year.

"The reassurance of the returning kids is what I feel really confident about. The three seniors (Smith, Blake Reynolds and Asumi Nakayama) were voted captains and I feel really good about chemistry," she said. "With Kayla coming back along with Jenna (Johnson) and Erika (Newbold), they have prepared themselves for a bigger role and they're ready for that. The thing I know about the younger kids, too, is they bring a work ethic and the attitude of coachability."

Nakayama gives the Wolverines the all-important experience back at the point guard spot. She is second on the team in scoring at 7.2 points per game and is shooting .368 from the 3-point line. She also leads the team in assists with 12. Nixon has counted on freshman Cydne Mason, who has shown promise, to step in and play important minutes at the point, since Nakayama has been nagged by injuries.

UVU will call on Burningham, a junior guard, to give the team an outside shooting threat. She'll be joined by Johnson, a sophomore.

Smith, whose maiden name is McMurray, was married over the summer. The reason she was named Great West Conference Preseason Play of the Year was based on her outstanding junior year. Smith averaged 18.3 points per game and proved to be the perfect compliment to Fairbanks. Now she must adjust to having opposing defenses focus on stopping her.

So far, that has helped freshman forward Kaycee Mansfield, who has been a pleasant surprise. Mansfield is shooting 50 percent from the field and the 3-point line and is averaging 5.6 points per game at the forward spot.

Speaking of surprises, Nixon could have a hard time keeping Kyra Prause, a 5-foot-9 freshman forward, off the court in the future. She is emerging every game. Prause is fourth on the team in scoring with 6.0 points per game and is second on the team in rebounds (4.2). She also leads the team in 3-point percentage at .379.

UVU's biggest issue could be in the post, where they must adapt to life without Fairbanks. Reynolds, a 6-foot senior, and Erika Newbold, a 6-foot sophomore, will have to step up in a big way.

Perhaps the most telling statistic so far this season is an alarming difference in offensive rebounding. UVU's opponents have 78 offensive rebounds, compared to just 43 for the Wolverines.

"I don't know that you'll ever replace those kids. Robyn, with what she did while she was here would be next-to-impossible for anyone to replace her. But I feel good about the cumulative impact that the kids coming back can have," Nixon said. "We're going to need to be a different team offensively. Obviously our focus the last four years has been through Robyn and the inside game, but we now need to be more balanced."

For the first time since the 2004-05 season, Nixon has six freshmen on the roster. Learning how to play together could be a year-long process.

UVU's youth is one reason this team has struggled on offense. If there was any doubt about that, just check out the team's assist-to-turnover ratio.

UVU has 51 assists as a team and 106 turnovers. By the time UVU hosts the Great West Conference tournament in March, Nixon would like to see those numbers reversed.

UVU was selected to host the first combined men's and women's Great West Conference Basketball Tournament on March 10-13 in the McKay Events Center. All seven Great West conference men's and women's teams will compete in the postseason event.

The Wolverines were picked to finish second in the conference by the conference coaches, a vote of confidence that others believe this team's transition will eventually become complete.

"Establishing an identity will be important to us and obviously developing our younger players and meshing our team together," Nixon said. "I think for us the focal point this year has to be later in the season. I do foresee we will be a very good team. As a staff we're trying to balance that urgency with patience with the younger kids because there's a lot to learn."