Q&A With Head Coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener
October 21, 2003 | Women's Basketball
The following are comments from a Q&A with head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener before the start of fall basketball practice on Saturday, Oct. 18.
On expectations for 2003-04 season:
"We are starting this preseason with a lot returnees. With this being our second year together as a basketball family, things should go a lot smoother. Last year we had some much information to process and had to start from the beginning with teaching everyone the terminolgy and drills. This year we should be able to move through things quickly and get a lot done in preseason. We have added some very good players that should be able to come in here and help us immediatley. We accomplished one of our goals last year, which was to make it to the conference tournament and this year we would like to raise the bar a little bit and go farther than that."
On the non-conference schedule:
"We have a great non-conference schedule. Three tough away games in West Virginia, NC State and Wake Forest. It is going to be very challenging in the preseason before we get to C-USA play. We have a couple of tournaments that should be good and people should be able to come out an watch. We have one that is the same weekend as the Southern Miss football game, and I hope that fans will be able to come watch us play. This non-conference schedule was made to help us prepare for conference play."
On C-USA schedule and teams to beat:
"The great thing about C-USA is the many teams that we have that are good, with seven teams going to postseason last year, five to the NCAA Tournament. The good news is we have a great strong conference and seven of the top 10 scorers are back and a lot of the best players in C-USA are back. So the strong teams are going to just get stronger. We are going to have to raise our level of play to compete with them. Charlotte, who won the conference regular season, is bringing back just about everyone, and TCU after winning the tournament is bringing back their team as well.
"Those are the top two teams to beat. DePaul has a very good young team, while Cincinnati is bringing back King and Merrill who are great athletes and all-conference players. I think that this year might be more challenging with C-USA. Even though last year was the most teams we sent to the NCAA tournament with five, I think that can easliy be done this year. The strength of our conference is going to get even better this year."
On ECU in C-USA play:
"We finished 12th out of 14 teams last year and it was good enough to go to the tournament. You always want to win the tournament and I hope that we are in the position to do that. But I think that a more realistic goal is to finish in the top half or top seven to get one of those postseason bids."
On Willis and Jackson's roles:
"They both had great years. Jackson was the suprise of the conference and our playing style helped showcase what she can do. Willis has had a great career and has gotten better every year. I think that she is ready for her senior season. We have brought in some really good players to go around them and go with them. Both players will not have to feel the burden of carring the team by themselves. We're going to have a much more balanced team with players being able to do multiple things. I look for Jennifer to continue to get better and become one of the dominate players in the conference."
On the recruiting class and their impact for 2003-04:
"They will be as important to us as anybody else in this conference. We have Tamekia Powell and Keisha Anthony who are freshman guards that will be able to change the way we play. They are capable pushing the ball up the floor and doing a lot more pressing. Both of them are a lot more versitle than some of the players we have had in the past. I think they will be able to up the tempo and make the game a little more exciting.
"Viola Cooper who is a junior college transfer and is a very solid player that can shoot the ball, pass it and drive the lane. She is very gritty and wants to win and those are the kind of attitudes that this team lacked a little bit last year. Soraya Hellaby who is a big body that will help us on the inside. Last year there were times that we were not able to handle the five player on the inside. She gives us the size that we need and will make us better in practice as far as our post players going against bigger people."
On first year's experience:
"We accomplished one of our two goals last year. One was to finish at .500, which we came up short and the other was to get to the C-USA Tournament. I expect to win a lot more than other people and I thought we would have done a lot better than we did. We competed with people last year, especially once we started conference play. I think we were somebody that the conference couldn't look over as an easy win, like the years before. I'm hoping that gave us some confidence and that will carry over this year and be a little more successful."
On changes for the team:
"The most important thing is to become more of a team. We've got to be able to work as a team on and off the floor and really have each others backs. This is a team sport and not one person wins or loses the game for you. Games are not won with last second shots. It is won for 40 minutes of play and it takes the whole team to do that. We will not always have the best players in the conference, but I think that we can have one of the best teams and thats how we intend to win those tough games."
On what to expect on the court this season:
"I think that you will see a faster pace than last season. We are going to play a little more up tempo and with the players we added, we should be able to push the ball down the floor and be able to press. There will be times where we will have the smaller team on the court and I hope that we will be able to use the quickness of our team to take advantage of the size difference."
