With the college basketball season just around the corner, the time has officially come to take a deeper look at the 2021-22 Duke women's basketball roster. The Blue Zone has you covered with player previews for each member of the team. Be sure to check out the previous previews: Jiselle Havas, Emma Schmidt and Lee Volker.
Amaya Finklea-Guity
Year: Graduate student
Height: 6-foot-4
Position: Center
Last year’s statline: 3.4 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 11 MPG
Game breakdown: Finklea-Guity comes to Duke as a transfer from Syracuse, where she was the Orange’s starting center until last year. The Dorchester, Mass., native was a 2017-18 ACC All-Freshman selection, and in that season she averaged 6.7 PPG, 5.4 RPG and 24.6 MPG. Her usage has fallen significantly since then, as new players slotted into the rotation above her. However, she’s still a skilled big who can bring value to a well-defined role.
As the second-tallest member of the team, her biggest asset will be her size and reach. Those qualities make her very efficient in the paint, within which her game is entirely contained. There she provides a solid scoring presence, finishing last season with a field goal percentage of 49.1% and a field goal percentage inside the paint of 50.9%. Her rebounding abilities leave something to be desired, though, as HerHoopStats had her in the 36th percentile for total rebounds per game a year ago. Defensively, she is serviceable and plays a disciplined game, only averaging 0.9 personal fouls a game, less than 90 percent of college women’s centers per CBB Analytics.
Role on the team: Finklea-Guity will likely come off the bench for starting center Jade Williams, who figures to be a centerpiece of the team, so Finklea-Guity’s minutes will be somewhat limited. However, in the minutes she gets, she should be able to make an impact and keep the momentum going. Between herself and Williams, the Blue Devils frontcourt should be in good hands.
Projected stats: 3.0 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 10 MPG
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.
Sasha Richie is a Trinity senior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 118th volume.