Back to Her Roots
May 08, 2007 10:24 AM | General
May 8, 2007
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| Semeka Randall |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Having played for the best basketball coach in the business in Tennessee’s Pat Summitt, Semeka Randall realizes that there will be a time in her coaching career when she’s going to have to pick up the phone and ask for a favor.
So far, West Virginia University’s new assistant women’s basketball coach hasn’t had to do that just yet.
“I’ve been really blessed because I haven’t used my lifeline yet,” she said recently. “Coming from Tennessee I had a great background and a lot of people are intrigued as to what it took to play there and the opportunity to play on a national championship team.”
Randall was a starting guard on Tennessee’s national championship team in 1998 and was a two-time All-American player in 1999 and 2000. She scored 1,915 career points, grabbed 716 rebounds and made 286 steals, ranking among Tennessee’s career leaders in points and steals.
She played four years in the WNBA and two years professionally overseas before deciding she wanted to give coaching a try, joining the Cleveland State staff in 2003. She spent the last three years at Michigan State before joining West Virginia’s staff last month.
“When I first got into coaching at Cleveland State I called (Coach Summitt) and I said, ‘Coach I really thank you for putting up with me.’ I know I was a rebel and I thought I knew everything in the world.
“Coach has this thing about breaking you down and building you back up and I was not about to be broken,” Randall said. “I was just a tough kid and we did a lot of personality things when I was at Tennessee.”
Randall says she finally got the message her junior season.
“Taking away playing time was going to kill me more than anything,” she said. “You could yell at me but when you started messing with playing time that really hurt me because I loved the game so much.”
Randall plans on using her experiences as a Tennessee player and as a professional to help a very talented West Virginia team that returns all five starters and seven seniors for the 2008 campaign.
“There are some pieces here but these kids have to understand that they’ve got about 160 days and it’s what they do in those 160 days before the start of the season that are going to determine what we’re going to accomplish,” Randall said.
Randall says she was aware of what Mike Carey has accomplished, and the opportunity to gain additional responsibility at WVU and work in the Big East was too good to pass up.
“I think West Virginia is on the brink of doing something really special,” she said. “He’s laid the foundation and now the supporting cast has to keep preaching that hard work pays off.”
Randall says she is excited to be coaching in a conference similar to the SEC with outstanding athletes and exciting up-and-down play.
“Now I’m back to where my roots are where you have players that can get up and down the floor and just have that athletic ability,” she said. “That’s fun because you’ll get an ‘ooh’ and an ‘ahh’ and people saying, ‘Where did that come from?’ For me that is exciting because I played strictly off of instincts.”
At Michigan State, Randall often put down her coaching whistle and jumped in with the players and scrimmaged. She says she is willing to do that from time to time if Carey so desires.
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| Semeka Randall was a two-time All-American player at Tennessee in 1999 and 2000.
AP photo |
“I still get out there and play and I can lead by that example and also offer the advice of what it takes to play at the next level because kids often think that this is what it is or that they are just competing inside their own team,” Randall said. “In reality we’re competing against 320-some teams.”
Randall, a Cleveland native, will naturally recruit Ohio although she says she won’t limit herself to just the Buckeye State.
“I’m from Ohio so that’s just a given,” she said. “But I’ve recruited Illinois, Indiana and pretty much the Midwest. My former agent is in North Carolina and he coaches girl’s basketball and has some outstanding kids. It’s just where your contacts are.”
Her recruiting philosophy is simple: “A lot of this is laying the foundation before you even get into their environment,” she said. “You just have to figure out what a kid really likes and what they’re interested in. We spend 90 percent of our time figuring out how we can get better and kids have life going on outside of basketball. We as coaches sometimes forget that.”
So far, Randall has gotten along well with West Virginia’s other assistant coaches Lynn Bria and Chester Nichols. She believes Carey has assembled an outstanding staff with different strengths and skills.
“It’s always a key when you’re trying to build a staff and more importantly as a head coach you want your assistants to get along with each other. I pretty much have known Chester from being on the road and I knew Lynn from Ohio,” Randall said. “The ego part of my life has definitely gone out the window. When you get into the professional world you understand what your role is real quick.
“They always remind you, ‘Hey, you’re getting paid for this.’
“I’m stubborn now and I wear my emotions on my sleeve but at the end of the day I want to work hard for everybody in this building,” Randall said. “That’s what I’m supposed to do and they deserve that.”
Randall has been on the job less than a month and she admits she is still feeling her way around town. She’s also hunting for a place to live.
“I’m finding some stuff and the people have been absolutely great here,” Randall said. “I’m quite sure I’ll find something eventually.”
She may also find some time to pick up the phone and give her old coach a call.
