Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
WVU's Carey's Patience To Be Tested
October 27, 2017 03:48 PM | Women's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia women's basketball coach Mike Carey's patience is going to be tested mightily for the first couple months of the season until his bench becomes a little deeper later in the year.
And Carey will be the first to admit he's not the most patient guy in the world.
He said earlier this week that he will probably only dress eight or nine players for Sunday's 4 p.m. exhibition game against West Virginia Wesleyan, and of those eight or nine players, three are freshmen and one is a junior college transfer.
"That tells you all you need to know," Carey quipped.
The other day, he said he broke the pointer to the video tape machine in the team room while going over practice tape with them.
"And I only got through two quarters," he laughed. "I've decided now with this team I only watch one quarter at a time with them because two quarters puts me over the top. I broke the control and practice was not a lot of fun."
Because of preseason injuries, he's had to simplify things considerably until he gets back his entire team, which was recently voted 15th in the preseason coaches' poll based on what Carey has returning from last year's 24-11 squad that upset Baylor in the Big 12 Championship game.
While not having terrific junior guard Tynice Martin out there right now is a big deal, yet an even bigger deal for West Virginia's veteran coach is not having enough experienced players to properly execute one of the game's most basic plays - the fast break.
"When we are in a half-court setting and it's controlled, it's pretty good, but when they go up and down, it looks like open gym - no execution on either end whatsoever," he admitted. "So, I'm changing the fast break and changing things for them to try and make things simpler because right now we're just not picking it up. We play in two weeks and I just can't keep waiting for them to pick simple things up. I've got to make it easier so we can let them play."
That also includes what they're doing defensively, which is always the first thing Carey's teams must master before they move on to anything else.
He said Tuesday's entire practice involved only defense.
"We went pretty long and they never touched the ball," Carey said. "It was all defense the whole practice. We've got to learn if we're not going to score we've got to keep them from scoring until we learn how to score, too. We've got to get better in all areas and it's just going to take a lot of hard work.
"Our new players don't understand staggers, they don't understand wall screens and they don't understand picks at the elbows - we call them horn picks," he continued. "You don't switch on those but you switch on wing picks. It's those types of things. They're switching on the horn picks and not switching on the wing picks. It's crazy."
But there are plenty of bright spots, and lots of light at the end of the tunnel when Martin and some of the other players get back on the floor.
Junior guard Katrina Pardee, coming off an outstanding finish to her sophomore season, continues to perform at a high level in the backcourt pairing with reliable senior guard Chania Ray. Carey said he sees a completely different player in Pardee so far during the preseason.
"She's going to have a good year. She's stronger. She worked all summer extremely hard and I expect her to have a big year," he predicted, indicating she could see major minutes in November and December until Martin returns.
The same goes for Ray and senior forward Teana Muldrow, perhaps the team's most versatile player who is capable of playing four out of the five positions on the floor.
"Chania and Tynice were two of the top players in minutes in the conference last year and now you are going to add Katrina in there. Chania, the poor girl, I can't even rest her," Carey said. "The other day I wanted to rest her at point guard and I ended up putting her at the two-guard because we just had to make that move. Teana is another one that is going to get big minutes, even (senior forward) Kristina King. Those four are going to have to play a lot of minutes."
The fifth player in Carey's lineup for Sunday will most likely be outstanding junior college transfer Naomi Davenport, a 6-foot wing from Cincinnati by way of Trinity Valley Community College.
Expect her to fill Martin's role as West Virginia's inside-outside scorer.
After that, he is looking at unproven freshmen Destiny Harden, Ashley Jones and Makayla Stanley coming off the bench until injured redshirt freshman Krystaline McCune is ready to go, and Ohio State transfer Theresa Ekhelar becomes available at the beginning of the second semester.
Then, of course, there is Martin, too.
In the meantime, Carey is going to have to bring this group along methodically until these other players are available and his bench becomes stronger.
He said he will consider slowing things down to win some of these early-season games if he has to, but he'd rather not.
"You don't want to change your whole system. Nothing is more boring than watching a women's team walk up and down the floor," he said. "We have problems getting a crowd now. Can you imagine if I start walking the ball up?
"As a coach, we all understand that but as a fan we don't want to see that. Chania doesn't want to walk it up. Katrina doesn't want to walk it up; but there are going to be times when I've got to slow them down and we're going to have to execute and there are going to be times when we have to go 2-3 zone because Teana is going to get into foul trouble," he said. "She has done it for three years and this year is probably not going to be any different. We don't have anybody to put in to replace her so we've got to protect them a little bit more than what we have until we get players back."
In the meantime, he's got to continue to teach, continue to be as patient as possible, and must continue to get the players he has the reps they need to get where they need to be.
"It's going to be a process," he concluded.
And Carey will be the first to admit he's not the most patient guy in the world.
He said earlier this week that he will probably only dress eight or nine players for Sunday's 4 p.m. exhibition game against West Virginia Wesleyan, and of those eight or nine players, three are freshmen and one is a junior college transfer.
"That tells you all you need to know," Carey quipped.
The other day, he said he broke the pointer to the video tape machine in the team room while going over practice tape with them.
"And I only got through two quarters," he laughed. "I've decided now with this team I only watch one quarter at a time with them because two quarters puts me over the top. I broke the control and practice was not a lot of fun."
Because of preseason injuries, he's had to simplify things considerably until he gets back his entire team, which was recently voted 15th in the preseason coaches' poll based on what Carey has returning from last year's 24-11 squad that upset Baylor in the Big 12 Championship game.
While not having terrific junior guard Tynice Martin out there right now is a big deal, yet an even bigger deal for West Virginia's veteran coach is not having enough experienced players to properly execute one of the game's most basic plays - the fast break.
"When we are in a half-court setting and it's controlled, it's pretty good, but when they go up and down, it looks like open gym - no execution on either end whatsoever," he admitted. "So, I'm changing the fast break and changing things for them to try and make things simpler because right now we're just not picking it up. We play in two weeks and I just can't keep waiting for them to pick simple things up. I've got to make it easier so we can let them play."
That also includes what they're doing defensively, which is always the first thing Carey's teams must master before they move on to anything else.
He said Tuesday's entire practice involved only defense.
"We went pretty long and they never touched the ball," Carey said. "It was all defense the whole practice. We've got to learn if we're not going to score we've got to keep them from scoring until we learn how to score, too. We've got to get better in all areas and it's just going to take a lot of hard work.
"Our new players don't understand staggers, they don't understand wall screens and they don't understand picks at the elbows - we call them horn picks," he continued. "You don't switch on those but you switch on wing picks. It's those types of things. They're switching on the horn picks and not switching on the wing picks. It's crazy."
But there are plenty of bright spots, and lots of light at the end of the tunnel when Martin and some of the other players get back on the floor.
Junior guard Katrina Pardee, coming off an outstanding finish to her sophomore season, continues to perform at a high level in the backcourt pairing with reliable senior guard Chania Ray. Carey said he sees a completely different player in Pardee so far during the preseason.
"She's going to have a good year. She's stronger. She worked all summer extremely hard and I expect her to have a big year," he predicted, indicating she could see major minutes in November and December until Martin returns.
The same goes for Ray and senior forward Teana Muldrow, perhaps the team's most versatile player who is capable of playing four out of the five positions on the floor.
"Chania and Tynice were two of the top players in minutes in the conference last year and now you are going to add Katrina in there. Chania, the poor girl, I can't even rest her," Carey said. "The other day I wanted to rest her at point guard and I ended up putting her at the two-guard because we just had to make that move. Teana is another one that is going to get big minutes, even (senior forward) Kristina King. Those four are going to have to play a lot of minutes."
The fifth player in Carey's lineup for Sunday will most likely be outstanding junior college transfer Naomi Davenport, a 6-foot wing from Cincinnati by way of Trinity Valley Community College.
Expect her to fill Martin's role as West Virginia's inside-outside scorer.
After that, he is looking at unproven freshmen Destiny Harden, Ashley Jones and Makayla Stanley coming off the bench until injured redshirt freshman Krystaline McCune is ready to go, and Ohio State transfer Theresa Ekhelar becomes available at the beginning of the second semester.
Then, of course, there is Martin, too.
In the meantime, Carey is going to have to bring this group along methodically until these other players are available and his bench becomes stronger.
He said he will consider slowing things down to win some of these early-season games if he has to, but he'd rather not.
"You don't want to change your whole system. Nothing is more boring than watching a women's team walk up and down the floor," he said. "We have problems getting a crowd now. Can you imagine if I start walking the ball up?
"As a coach, we all understand that but as a fan we don't want to see that. Chania doesn't want to walk it up. Katrina doesn't want to walk it up; but there are going to be times when I've got to slow them down and we're going to have to execute and there are going to be times when we have to go 2-3 zone because Teana is going to get into foul trouble," he said. "She has done it for three years and this year is probably not going to be any different. We don't have anybody to put in to replace her so we've got to protect them a little bit more than what we have until we get players back."
In the meantime, he's got to continue to teach, continue to be as patient as possible, and must continue to get the players he has the reps they need to get where they need to be.
"It's going to be a process," he concluded.
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's Basketball
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/ Women's Basketball
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/ Women's Basketball
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