By Shannon Russell
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Valerie King averaged 16.4 points last season, second-best for UC behind Debbie Merrill's 18-point average. (Jeff Swinger photo)

When the University of Cincinnati women's basketball team opens its season today against Liberty in a 7 p.m. Preseason WNIT first-round game at Fifth Third Arena, it will boast one of the country's most prolific inside-outside tandems in guard Valerie King and center Debbie Merrill.

Or the Dynamic Duo as Merrill prefers to call it - much to King's amusement.

"She says stuff like that all the time in practice," said King, who prefers to ignore the nickname.

"But we are a dynamic duo," Merrill insisted. "What Val can't do I can do (and vice versa). I can't shoot like she can, but she can't post up like me. Our games just seem to complement each other."

Coach Laurie Pirtle doesn't disagree. In recent seasons she's watched the two standouts earn accolade after honor after award, up to a pair of preseason All-Conference USA distinctions. King and Merrill are also Street & Smith's preseason All-America honorable mentions.

Merrill and King propelled the Bearcats to a 23-8 record and a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance last season. Merrill led the team in scoring (18 ppg) and rebounding (8.5 rpg), while King was second in scoring with 16.4 points.

"Throughout the years, coaches have come up and said a lot of good things about this tandem," Pirtle said.

"But I think the real situation is how the rest of the team handles playing the dirty roles: defender, screener, rebounder. Most of our stuff is run to those two kids, so it's a compliment to the team that there's only one basketball and no friction."

Forward Brittani Young is the Bearcats' third returning starter. Sophomore forward Anne Stephens and sophomore point guard Micah Harvey replace graduated point guard K.B. Sharp, now with the WNBA's New York Liberty, and forward Carolyn Alexander.

Seventy-five percent of UC's plays are designed for Merrill and King, but the Bearcats' loaded lineup could alter the figure. Freshman point guard Treasure Humphries contributed 15 points, eight rebounds and six assists in the Bearcats' second exhibition win; junior college transfer Crystal Ashley and freshman Toni Slaughter could vie for time at forward.

King pronounced last season "disappointing" after the Bearcats squandered a first-ever preseason No. 18 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 and lost in the NCAA Tournament's first round to Arkansas, 71-57 before a home crowd.

Pirtle began reassessing the roster soon after, making team leaders out of the reserved King and the loquacious Merrill.

"(Pirtle) put it on me to be more vocal, and that's what I've been working on. I think I've been doing a better job," King said.

Leading by example, Merrill has become an expert at dribbling in the paint, and King has improved shooting off the dribble. Merrill's proficiency and King's accuracy may make UC's numbers stellar on paper, but both players insist that real changes have been rooted in a competitive atmosphere that no recent UC team has tapped into.

"Last year, nobody wanted to make anyone mad. Everyone wanted to be friends on and off the court," Merrill said. "If I missed a box-out, no one would say anything because they didn't want to hurt my feelings. Now they're like, 'You better not miss that one again.' "

Behind King and Merrill, UC is aiming for an eighth straight winning season and a seventh straight postseason appearance. Dynamic or not, containing King on the perimeter and Merrill in the paint should be an arduous task for opposing defenses.

"Somehow," Merrill said, "we work really well together."

E-mail srussell@enquirer.com