Women's Basketball conducts Tipoff Press Conference

10/24/2016 3:48:00 PM | Women's Basketball

First exhibition game Sunday

By: @MTAthletics

Head Women's Basketball Coach Rick Insell, along with senior point guard Ty Petty and junior guard Abbey Sissom, conducted a press conference today. Following are some of their comments to the local media covering the event:

Head Coach Rick Insell
Opening Statement…
"Thank you all for coming. It's going to be a little different this year. Our schedule is pretty tough. We open up going to Virginia. We come back and play Louisville. They are preseason ranked No. 2. We've got Georgia Tech coming in and Arizona State coming in, I think they are in the top-10 in the country. Then we have Central Michigan and Ohio, Tulane. We have a pretty good home schedule this year. We have to go to Kentucky and to Missouri State. Then we've got Austin Peay coming in and go to Tennessee Tech. Our non-conference schedule is as tough as any I have had since I have been at Middle Tennessee. With the team we have, we're top loaded with some experience. We've got one or two positions that we're trying to work some of our younger players in. We have seven young ladies who need experience. We've got three sophomores and four freshmen. They are very talented, but they've got to get out of their high school mode, and we have to get them into Division I mode. That's tough sometimes, and sometimes it takes a couple of years to do that. We are frustrated a little bit as a coaching staff because we want it right now, and they are frustrated a little bit as players because they want it right now. In this type of setting, sometimes nothing can take the place of experience."

On any benefit with the trip to Costa Rica over the summer…
"I don't think so. One of the reasons I say that, we developed some bad habits leading up to that trip. When we got down there, we were better than the teams, and kind of relied on what we knew and threw our younger players in there. I don't know if I liked it to be honest with you. The players had a great time. It was a great experience and they got to go places and do things they probably would never get to do the rest of their life. As far as us bonding, yes, that would be the positive. The negative would be I don't know how much it prepared us for this year."

On gaining experience with a difficult non-conference schedule…
"We can go one of two directions. We can have some success and be ranked in the top-15 in the country, and that's big. Or, it can kill a program off if you're not careful. It can beat your players down, if you lose a game or two maybe you thought you could win. You're walking a fine line there. That's where your coaching staff comes in. They've got to lean on the coaches. We've got to be on point in every one of those games as far as scouting goes. Most of the teams we are talking about, they are probably going to be more athletic, probably taller, probably a little quicker, but when you come back to basketball IQ and our system, I think our system and our basketball IQ can give some of those programs some problems."

On replacing a three-point shooter like Brea Edwards…
"We've got a little drill called 11-man. We won the Sun Belt I don't know how many times and we won Conference USA as soon as we came in it. With those teams and that drill, I think we were getting high 40s and low 50s as far as points are concerned. This team has already scored in the 80s, if you can kind of relate to that. That's pretty big. They are consistently in the high 60s and low 70s. Three-point shooting, Abbey Sissom and Ty Petty, I don't know if I've had any two that when they are on task or focused, that shoot the ball any better than them. Brea did more than just shoot. She was a great rebounder. She got eight rebounds a night. She was able to defend the perimeter. She was able to defend a smaller forward or post. She passed the ball great and was able to handle the ball. She was very wise and had a great basketball IQ. I have a lot of players that can do a lot of different things, but I haven't got one player who can do all what Brea Edwards did. She's going to be pretty tough to replace. That's what we're looking for, someone who could shore up a couple of those areas anyway."

On Alex Johnson and potential freshmen to step in…
"My wife gets on me all the time. I'm originally from Woodbury then moved to Shelbyville and Murfreesboro. I have been involved with the horse industry a lot. Your big-time horses are World Grand Champion stake horses. Alex Johnson is a stake horse. My wife gets on me all the time and says, 'she's not a horse, she's a philly.' But I'm telling you, she's a big-time player. If you look at her coming out of the weight room, she does not look like a freshman like she did last year. When we give her the ball getting ready to score, she scores. You go back and look at Florida State. Florida State ended up beating Texas A&M in the NCAA Tournament last year. We took a gamble and could have been down one at the end of the third quarter. They never slowed Alex Johnson. That kind of gives you an idea. They were guarding her with 6-foot-5 6-6 players, and she was holding her own as a freshman. We are expecting great things out of Alex this year. We're going to get her the basketball. She's got a great supporting cast. Gabby Lyon started most of the year. Rebecca Reuter has come on and been great. Jordan Majors has stepped her game up. We have a young freshman named Charity Savage out of Memphis, and to be honest with you we are trying to find a place to get her on the floor right now. She's probably our most athletic player. If we had to play her, I think she could be up for freshman of the year this year. I don't know if she could knock one of those young ladies out that is in front of her. That's a good problem to have. We might entertain moving Charity out to the perimeter. But to answer your question, we're really high on Alex Johnson."

On Rebecca Reuter playing outside of the post…
"We've talked about it. We talked about it no more than 30 minutes ago in one of our coach's meetings. Becca is a utility player. She can shoot the 3-point shot pretty good. She is a coach's daughter. She has a good IQ. I thought she ended last year very aggressive on the post. We were very happy how she finished up. I just don't know about moving her around. I would like not to have to move her out there. I would hope one of the other seven we talked about can step up. She's the type player you can say 'Hey, we're going to start you at the three tonight. Give us all you've got.' And she would do that."

On leadership of veteran players…
"Ty (Petty) is the best point guard I've had in 40-something years. I've had some pretty good point guards not only here but also in Shelbyville that went on to play big-time basketball. Ty has got to step her leadership up a little bit more. She's got to get a little bit more vocal on the floor. She is doing everything we want right now. We are very proud to have her. I think it showed that she's been selected first-team preseason. One of the things we talked about in our coach's meeting, every time we challenge Abbey Sissom to up her game in a different area — when I recruited her, a lot of people said she couldn't play defense. In high school, she didn't have to play defense because she didn't need to get in foul trouble. I have done that for years and years. You wouldn't take your best players that you couldn't do without and have them guard someone on the other team that was their best player. I know what Mike Dodge was doing over at Cannon County. When she got here, one of the things we challenged her with was to play defense. She became our best defender last year on the perimeter. She stepped her game up, and we are going to challenge her again on rebounding. We need Abbey going to the board and hopefully getting around four rebounds a night. That would really help us out. I would say she has stepped her game up as much as anybody, and we are really happy with how far she has come already, and she has got two more years left. I wish we had two more years out of Ty."

On freshman getting playing time this season…
"There's a chance that one of them will be starting against Virginia. I would be a happy camper if that were the case. We've got two weeks from Thursday before we leave to go to Virginia, and I will be very happy when we step to get on that plane I thought one of these young ladies will be playing that two or that three position. There's a chance that can happen, they just have to pick it up defensively."

On sophomores Jordan Majors and Jess Louro…
"Jordan has really come along, more than we thought she would. We knew that when she became a junior that we would have a pretty good player, but we have a pretty good player right now. She has really stepped her game up a lot. She is very intelligent. She was MVP of the AA State Championship. She has it in her. It's just up to us to get it out. She's really had a great preseason already. Jess Louro, we brought her in as a shooter, and she is. As my son says about Jess, it doesn't quit spinning when she catches it until she's already released it. But if you are releasing it, you have to knock it down. She's working on that hard and heavy and also working on the defensive end. We're excited to have her also. We think she might be one that can start."

On the competition in Conference USA…
"I like the way the (standings) came out. I thought us, Western and Old Dominion would be right there in the mix. I also thought Charlotte would be pretty good, and I think that's the way it came out. I think some of the coaches are thinking UTSA may be somebody that would step up. UTEP has two guards that were awful good last year, so you have to keep an eye on what they are doing. UAB, I think Randy does as good of a job as anyone in the conference. Every year he comes in and has some big wins. You have a whole new coaching staff at LA Tech, and LA Tech has a lot of tradition. Matt did a good job at Marshall last year. It's going to be competitive. One of the things I would say about Conference USA, from the top to the bottom it's very competitive. The toughest team we match up against is FAU. They run so much motion and shoot the three so well. I think they averaged 13 threes a game. That's tough for us to match up with. There's not anybody on our schedule that we can take for granted. I think What gives them problems for us is our system. We know what we want to do, we execute it, and our kids are able to knock down free throws. We have a great point guard and some good posts."

SR Guard Ty Petty
How's this year's team difference than previous years?
"There were more seniors. When I came in as a freshman there were six seniors, last year there were three. I would say that's the difference in this year and this team."

Have your expectations been met since you've been here at MT?
"Yes, that's why I came here, just coming from Riverdale it's a system. Coach Insell has a great system, just trying to fit in, I think, I fit in pretty good. That was my biggest expectation, was to come here and be successful and come to a winning team."

Take us through the contrast through your time at MT as a freshman until now.
"I think coming in as a freshman, again it was a system. I was being a little bull-headed. When it comes to Coach Insell and his system you have to fit in and do it. So with me just sitting down my freshman year, I kind of took that as motivation. Over the summer I stayed in the gym, I got aware of what Coach Insell wanted out of me as a point guard."

As the only senior, has there been anyone on the team specifically that you have mentored?
"I would say the whole team. I can't do it without the girls behind me, so there wasn't anyone in particular. It's just working and leading the whole team. Like coach said, Abbey Sissom stepped up majorly and so did Alex Johnson. It's just the whole team, trying to get everyone on the same page and sticking to the system."

What did you work on over the summer to improve your game headed into your final season?
"My all-around game. My shooting, and I continued with my ball handling. Just my all-around game, there wasn't one particular part of my game that I worked on. So just staying in the gym, conditioning, I knew I had a major role coming into my senior year, being the only senior. I just worked on my all-around game."

How important is it for the team to have girls that can do a little bit of everything?
"That's a big part, like you said, we're not statues. There's not one person on the team that can't do all of that. So I think it's a big part of our team being so versatile, being able to do different things when we step on the court."

How much does this tough non-conference schedule help prepare you for conference play?
"First of all, it helps our chemistry. It also just helps us going into conference. All the teams that Coach Insell mentioned are all athletic. There are a couple teams that are going to be ranked in the Top 10. That's definitely going to help us to see who we really are and it's going to help us come tournament time, to just be prepared. I think last year our schedule helped us to win that championship when it came down to needing a shot or just getting down gritting up, so it helps us."

JR Abbey Sissom
What have you improved the most since your time at MT?
"Definitely my defense. As Coach Insell mentioned, I didn't have to play a lot of defense in high school. That was one area, that they really pushed me and motivated me to want to get better at. That came without a lot of work in the weight room and over the summer. Not only working on my quickness but also my strength too, because a lot of people that I have to guard are quicker than me, stronger than me, and taller than me. so there were a lot of areas that I had to work on. I definitely think that's the area where I've improved the most."

How different is your role this season compared to last season?
"It's a lot different than last year. Last year coming in I didn't know what my role would be. I knew that coach had looked to me to step up my defense and things like that. There was some adversity and I had play a bigger role than I expected. Now, losing Brea (Edwards) and everything else I'm having to step up even more. It's definitely a lot different but it motivates me to work harder and just to be there for my team."

Describe playing in front your hometown crowd as one of the key members of this team and on a conference championship team.
"That was one of the big pulls for me coming to MTSU, not just that they have a huge crowd and we have a great crowd and a lot of fan support, but my family and all my fans from high school all get to be here. I think it's the same for Ty (Petty) and Alex (Johnson) they get to see so many familiar faces in the crowd. It just really helps you get in with the program and makes it feel more like family than it already is."

How exciting is it for you to have Top 10 teams come into your building and get to play them?
"It's really exciting and I think it speaks to the tradition of this program. That They are willing to come in and they don't just see us as some little school. Because that's not what we are, and it really speaks a lot about coach and what he's building here at this program."