New Season, New Expectations
October 19, 2010 02:42 PM | General
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – It’s that time of year again in Morgantown. The weather is turning colder, the leaves are changing colors, and the sounds of sneakers sliding up and down the basketball court in the Coliseum can be heard again.
With the football season drawing just past its halfway point, Mountaineer fans are ready and eager for the basketball season to start up again. And although the women only officially started practice 14 days ago, coach Mike Carey has already noticed some differences between where they were at this time last year and where they are now.
“It’s been unique and different for us to be able to count back 40 days from our first official game and start practice. If this was this time last year, we wouldn’t even be allowed to practice yet,” he said recently. “I just feel like we’re so far along compared to last year because of the new rules. It’s unbelievable.”
The new NCAA rule that permit women’s programs to begin practicing 40 days before their first official game has allowed the Mountaineers extra time to integrate the new members of the team and work on past weaknesses.
“We’ve been stressing scoring a lot,” said Carey. “We’ve probably been doing more half court offense here early then we have for a long time just because we’ve got to score more. We’ve got to be able to average at least in the 70s this year, where last year it was in the 60s. We just can’t rely on our defense this year as much as we did last year.”
Defense was undoubtedly a strong characteristic of the women’s team play last year. Altogether, the team averaged 39.8 rebounds, 10.4 steals, and 5.6 blocks per game. Team defensive leaders Korinne Campbell, Madina Ali and Liz Repella put up huge defensive numbers, and all three seniors return to the team this year. Not only do they possess excellent defensive skills, but along with other veteran players, they also provide great leadership for the new members of this year’s team.
“The leadership we have on this club is just outstanding,” Carey said. “Madina Ali, Liz Repella, and all of the seniors have done a great job as far as leadership. I’m very pleased with that. We have a lot of experience.”
Carey has also been pleased with the introduction of freshmen and transfer students into the program. One of these players, Brooke Hampton, a talented freshman point guard out of Colts Neck, N.J., looks to make an impact with senior Sarah Miles still recuperating from off-season wrist surgery.
“Brooke does a good job moving the ball, she runs and breaks, she makes good decisions and to be honest with you she’s one of our best 3-point shooters. So she gives us another scoring threat from the 3 that we didn’t have before,” Carey commented. “She’s still a little unsure, so she’s beginning to get comfortable with what we do here a little bit. She’s watching a lot of film daily. I’m very pleased with her as a freshman.”
Other players expected to make an impact include transfers Ayana Dunning, Tonia Williams and Bianca Jarrett. Both Dunning and Williams transferred last year, from LSU and South Carolina respectively, and were forced to sit out last season. Jarrett transferred from Chipola College in Florida.
“We’re looking at different combinations. My philosophy has always been put the best five out there. If that’s two centers, then that’s two centers and we’ll do that. My job is to get an offense and a defense that we can do that for. I’ve been very pleased with the play of the five,” said Carey.
With five seniors returning to action this year, and a talented recruiting class coming in, the Mountaineers hope to achieve a BIG EAST title and a national championship. In order to do that, Miles is going to have to heal quickly. Initial estimates projected her to be sidelined for the first month of the season.
“The options that were given to me are that either way she will be out of commission for a few weeks, whether they operated or didn’t operate. If they didn’t operate then it would probably have happened later in the season again and then we would have been faced with the same situation, so it was just better at this time to go ahead and get it done,” Carey said. “Unfortunately it’s her shooting hand again. Last year she broke her hand, this year she had this injury. It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. My biggest concern is when do you play her, when do you get her back in?”
Despite the injury to one of the team’s best players, the rest of the team is rallying around their freshman point guard in preparation for a BIG EAST Conference that Carey believes will be better than most people are expecting.
“I think there are going to be several good teams this year,” he remarked. “Connecticut is always good; Notre Dame is going to be a lot better than people think. You have St. John’s who will be very good, Georgetown will be very good, Louisville had four or five people hurt that didn’t get to play last season but now they’re all back.”
On Thursday, all 16 teams in the BIG EAST will travel to New York City to participate in this year’s BIG EAST Media Day. The Mountaineers have been picked as high as ninth in the country in some preseason polls and is likely to be picked among the conference’s top three on Thursday.
“We haven’t even talked about it,” Carey said of WVU’s lofty preseason rating. “We mostly talk a lot about coming in here and working hard and we don’t worry about what’s going on outside. We’re smart enough to realize that preseason doesn’t mean anything; it’s the postseason that means something. We’re just stressing working hard and getting better every day in practice.”
Briefly:
Carey touched on some other topics with the media ...
On having 21 games televised this year…
“That’s a big help in recruiting,” he said. “We want people to see our style and see how hard we play, and how hard our young ladies play on both ends. It’s great to be on TV if you win; you don’t want to be on TV and play bad. But if we play well I’m glad to be on TV. We’re even on Big Monday which is pretty neat for us.”
On the players becoming fatigued by March with the added time period for preseason practice …
“As the season goes on I cut our practices down under an hour or I’ll give them a couple of practices off,” he said. “I just try to read their personalities and read if they’re tired and I’ll talk with the trainers. But a lot of times Ill just bring them in and I don’t really want them to practice so I’ll wait for one little thing to go wrong and I’ll kick them out and then the next day they’ll come practice hard even though I didn’t want to practice anyway. You just do those things as a coach once in awhile.”
On team goals for 2010-11 …
“We have our team goals, what we want to do, of course shooting percentage and defensive percentage and all that stuff,” said Carey. “As a team, at the end of every practice our goal is to win a national championship and there are a lot of steps you have to take to get to that point. We really haven’t talked about it a lot other than coming into practice every day and working hard. We come into practice every day and try to get better and this group has done a great job of doing that.”
With the football season drawing just past its halfway point, Mountaineer fans are ready and eager for the basketball season to start up again. And although the women only officially started practice 14 days ago, coach Mike Carey has already noticed some differences between where they were at this time last year and where they are now.
“It’s been unique and different for us to be able to count back 40 days from our first official game and start practice. If this was this time last year, we wouldn’t even be allowed to practice yet,” he said recently. “I just feel like we’re so far along compared to last year because of the new rules. It’s unbelievable.”
The new NCAA rule that permit women’s programs to begin practicing 40 days before their first official game has allowed the Mountaineers extra time to integrate the new members of the team and work on past weaknesses.
“We’ve been stressing scoring a lot,” said Carey. “We’ve probably been doing more half court offense here early then we have for a long time just because we’ve got to score more. We’ve got to be able to average at least in the 70s this year, where last year it was in the 60s. We just can’t rely on our defense this year as much as we did last year.”
Defense was undoubtedly a strong characteristic of the women’s team play last year. Altogether, the team averaged 39.8 rebounds, 10.4 steals, and 5.6 blocks per game. Team defensive leaders Korinne Campbell, Madina Ali and Liz Repella put up huge defensive numbers, and all three seniors return to the team this year. Not only do they possess excellent defensive skills, but along with other veteran players, they also provide great leadership for the new members of this year’s team.
“The leadership we have on this club is just outstanding,” Carey said. “Madina Ali, Liz Repella, and all of the seniors have done a great job as far as leadership. I’m very pleased with that. We have a lot of experience.”
Carey has also been pleased with the introduction of freshmen and transfer students into the program. One of these players, Brooke Hampton, a talented freshman point guard out of Colts Neck, N.J., looks to make an impact with senior Sarah Miles still recuperating from off-season wrist surgery.
“Brooke does a good job moving the ball, she runs and breaks, she makes good decisions and to be honest with you she’s one of our best 3-point shooters. So she gives us another scoring threat from the 3 that we didn’t have before,” Carey commented. “She’s still a little unsure, so she’s beginning to get comfortable with what we do here a little bit. She’s watching a lot of film daily. I’m very pleased with her as a freshman.”
Other players expected to make an impact include transfers Ayana Dunning, Tonia Williams and Bianca Jarrett. Both Dunning and Williams transferred last year, from LSU and South Carolina respectively, and were forced to sit out last season. Jarrett transferred from Chipola College in Florida.
“We’re looking at different combinations. My philosophy has always been put the best five out there. If that’s two centers, then that’s two centers and we’ll do that. My job is to get an offense and a defense that we can do that for. I’ve been very pleased with the play of the five,” said Carey.
With five seniors returning to action this year, and a talented recruiting class coming in, the Mountaineers hope to achieve a BIG EAST title and a national championship. In order to do that, Miles is going to have to heal quickly. Initial estimates projected her to be sidelined for the first month of the season.
“The options that were given to me are that either way she will be out of commission for a few weeks, whether they operated or didn’t operate. If they didn’t operate then it would probably have happened later in the season again and then we would have been faced with the same situation, so it was just better at this time to go ahead and get it done,” Carey said. “Unfortunately it’s her shooting hand again. Last year she broke her hand, this year she had this injury. It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is. My biggest concern is when do you play her, when do you get her back in?”
Despite the injury to one of the team’s best players, the rest of the team is rallying around their freshman point guard in preparation for a BIG EAST Conference that Carey believes will be better than most people are expecting.
“I think there are going to be several good teams this year,” he remarked. “Connecticut is always good; Notre Dame is going to be a lot better than people think. You have St. John’s who will be very good, Georgetown will be very good, Louisville had four or five people hurt that didn’t get to play last season but now they’re all back.”
On Thursday, all 16 teams in the BIG EAST will travel to New York City to participate in this year’s BIG EAST Media Day. The Mountaineers have been picked as high as ninth in the country in some preseason polls and is likely to be picked among the conference’s top three on Thursday.
“We haven’t even talked about it,” Carey said of WVU’s lofty preseason rating. “We mostly talk a lot about coming in here and working hard and we don’t worry about what’s going on outside. We’re smart enough to realize that preseason doesn’t mean anything; it’s the postseason that means something. We’re just stressing working hard and getting better every day in practice.”
Briefly:
Carey touched on some other topics with the media ...
On having 21 games televised this year…
“That’s a big help in recruiting,” he said. “We want people to see our style and see how hard we play, and how hard our young ladies play on both ends. It’s great to be on TV if you win; you don’t want to be on TV and play bad. But if we play well I’m glad to be on TV. We’re even on Big Monday which is pretty neat for us.”
On the players becoming fatigued by March with the added time period for preseason practice …
“As the season goes on I cut our practices down under an hour or I’ll give them a couple of practices off,” he said. “I just try to read their personalities and read if they’re tired and I’ll talk with the trainers. But a lot of times Ill just bring them in and I don’t really want them to practice so I’ll wait for one little thing to go wrong and I’ll kick them out and then the next day they’ll come practice hard even though I didn’t want to practice anyway. You just do those things as a coach once in awhile.”
On team goals for 2010-11 …
“We have our team goals, what we want to do, of course shooting percentage and defensive percentage and all that stuff,” said Carey. “As a team, at the end of every practice our goal is to win a national championship and there are a lot of steps you have to take to get to that point. We really haven’t talked about it a lot other than coming into practice every day and working hard. We come into practice every day and try to get better and this group has done a great job of doing that.”
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