Individuals passing down Burbank Drive this past year may have glanced at a billboard consisting of Seimone Augustus promoting LSU women’s basketball. Since Augustus graduated this past spring and moved on to the WNBA, the billboard was removed and has been left blank. With basketball season right around the corner, the time to get out the billboard material and post up the new face of LSU women’s basketball may be now. Standing 6 feet 6 inches tall, junior center Sylvia “Big Syl” Fowles has a chance to become the next big thing in LSU women’s athletics. “I think she has the ability not only to be one of the most dominate players to put on a LSU uniform but also play the position,” said LSU women’s basketball coach Pokey Chatman. “She brings something in this day and age that so few people bring. She has the height; she has the power; she’s developing the skill every day; she has the work ethic, and she still has two years of college left.” Fowles enters this season as one of three captains for the Lady Tigers and is looked upon by many as the heir to the throne left behind by Augustus, something that does not seem to bother Fowles. “I am just trying to be a leader for this team,” Fowles said. “I don’t think [Augustus’ departure] will make a big difference because every player at LSU has to leave sometime. I think me and my teammates are picking up the slack and recognizing our roles about who’s gonna do what.” Fowles is coming off a stellar sophomore season in which she started all 35 games for the Lady Tigers. She led the team in rebounds with 407, blocked shots with 75, steals with 66 and shot a team-leading .607 field goal percentage. At the end of the season, she was named a first-team All-Southeastern Conference player and a third-team All-American for her efforts. Coming into this season, Fowles said she attributes a great deal of her success to her family and the way she was brought up. “I didn’t play organized ball until the eighth grade,” Fowles said. “I always played with my brothers, and they were always hard on me. Every time I fell I would be quick to cry, and they use to toughen me up and tell me if I cried they would make me go home. So I just had to suck it up or go home, and I was always willing to suck it up.” Fowles said playing street ball did not allow her to completely understand the game of basketball and before she came to LSU she considered herself “basketball illiterate.” But soon after she arrived at LSU, the “basketball illiterate” center got a chance to showcase her talents as a member of the USA women’s basketball team in the 2005 World University Games. As a member of the team that captured the gold medal in Turkey, Fowles averaged a team-high 15 points a game and 7.3 rebounds a game. Harvard University coach Kathy Delaney-Smith, who also served as the coach of the 2005 USA women’s basketball team, said coaching Fowles was a unforgettable experience. “What you love about her besides her personality is her desire to learn,” Delaney-Smith said. “She’s like a sponge, and she just has this passion to get better, and that’s what coaches look for in all of their athletes.” Fowles finished the 20-team tournament with the highest field goal percentage of any player in the tournament, third in defensive rebounds and fifth in scoring. Delaney-Smith said the way “Suga Babe,” a nickname given to Fowles by Delaney-Smith, performed in those games was an indication of how good the LSU center could be. “I think she is on her way to becoming one of the best centers in the country,” Delaney-Smith said. “I think she’s highly skilled and has the ability to impact and dominate the game. As young as she was on the USA team, I thought she dominated them, and I don’t think there was anyone in the world championships that could stop her.” Fowles was rewarded for her performance in the 2005 games by being named to the 2006 USA Basketball Senior Team. Unfortunately she missed most of the 2006 Opals World Challenge after dislocating her right shoulder April 8 in a game against Australia. Fowles said she felt a little star struck when she first arrived at practice for the 2006 team. “You look at all these great athletes, and you think, ‘Dang that’s this person, and that’s that person,'” Fowles said. “But once you get to meet them and see how much they are willing to help and how much they are like a big sister, I think that’s the best thing I could ask for.” After minor surgery to tighten and repair ligaments in her shoulder, Fowles spent the remaining off-season rehabbing and getting ready for the season opener. Fowles said she is ready to play up to the level she has shown in the past. “My shoulder is as good as new,” Fowles said. “Nobody has to worry about it. I am 110 percent robotic on this arm.” Chatman said in time Fowles can become one of the best players she has ever coached. She also said she believes the entire team feeds off Fowles’ intensity, desire to win and desire to learn the game of basketball. “I don’t think she’s there yet, but I think she’s moving in that direction,” Chatman said. “I think what helps us is the way she affects other players because she doesn’t see herself in that light. She knows there are some things she has to work on. She’s not impressed with herself when she has a double-double, and it makes you feel good that she’s not satisfied and that she’s not going to be satisfied with herself.”
—–Contact Jay St. Pierre at [email protected]