Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
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Q&A with Stephany Smith
2/15/2002 11:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
You have a great record for February throughout your career here at Middle Tennessee; do you have any special techniques that you use to get your team prepared for the end of the season?
No, we really didn't know what to expect last year in the Conference, so we came together late when we found out that we could compete with the teams in the Sun Belt. It took us a little while to realize that, and Conference play doesn't begin until January, so it took us one run through to figure out that we could compete, and once we mentally figured that out the rest took care of itself in February. This year has special circumstances being that we have eight new players, and it's just taken us this long to gel. But it is crunch time, it is the most important time of the season, so I get a little more stern and snappy with everyone in our program I suppose, because my expectations for our program are high and always have been. Have any of you preparation methods changed since we joined the Sun Belt Conference?
Mostly our recruiting focus has changed, because we are able to open more doors than we were able to open in the Ohio Valley Conference. With better players, we become better coaches, and with better players you can afford to have higher expectations. There is only so much you can get out of an average player, and we have better talent, so yes I do expect more in practice and I expect us to work harder. Is the team already in preparation for the Sun Belt Tournament?
Absolutely, we are preparing for the Tournament, but we have been getting better day-by-day in practice, especially the past two or three weeks. Our rotation has been fruit basket turnover all season long, because a different freshman was stepping up on a different night. And the reason that I keep talking about the freshmen is because they are half of our team. We have had some injuries and setbacks with some of our veteran players, which affected our rotation. And people learning at different paces; when you have eight newcomers, seven freshman and Jennifer Justice who came in as a sophomore, some of them may have known what was going on right off the jump but may not have felt the chemistry, maybe didn't know exactly what her role was. I am speaking mainly about Jennifer Justice who became more of a go-to person when she discovered that she was supposed to score and do other things and she became more impacting. Trice Holmes picked things up immediately, and she has been a factor all season long. Tiffany Fisher is a player that did not start evolving until January, and she is building confidence on a daily basis. You also have some other players that show up at different times. For example Jessica Schlueter was a factor in November and December, where Renee Hall has been more of a factor in January and February. So it's been a little topsy-turvy, which has a lot to do with our late push, but I have high expectations going into the Tournament. How do you feel about the Lady Raiders' chances in the upcoming Tournament?
I feel solid about our chances. Obviously I was a little set back with the second half of the Arkansas-Little Rock game, and people wondered why I was so upset when we won by twenty points. Well, at the half we were winning by thirty-one, and in the second half a team that hasn't won a conference game beat us by fifteen. We also had sixteen turnovers in that half. The look on our faces said that it was OK, and that's what frustrates me. But I feel like we are playing better basketball now, and we are gearing ourselves towards the tournament. We are a lot more focused now, and we finally realized what it's all about. It's nearing the end and opportunities for post-season play are close, which is easy to talk about because we've been three out of the four seasons that I've been here, but when half of your team is new, they don't quite understand that concept. So you have to teach that, and now that it's nearing the end of the season, the new players are beginning to grasp that concept that it's not just three more regular season games, it's three or four games and the tournament as well and then post-season play opportunities. So we have a whole other season to play, and that light bulb is beginning to flicker with what still lies ahead. You competed in basketball at both Co-Lin and Harding; did you derive any of your coaching methods from any of your previous coaches?
Well, I have had really good coaching all of my life, which started in High School with my coach Tommy Goodson who coached for LSU for fourteen years starting the year after I graduated, so he has played a tremendous role with me being in coaching. In junior college, Gwen Young gave me my start in coaching by allowing me to come back and work summer camps. When I went to Harding, it was only a four-year program, so I didn't draw as much basketball background from that experience like I had earlier on. Is there anything that you would like to say to the Lady Raider fans?
Absolutely, I was really excited with the people that we had coming in on Thursday and Saturday. I know that we haven't brought you the most excitement, but we have brought some extremely talented women's basketball teams in here, and I was really appreciative of all the people that came out this last weekend, and how local they were. I know we finally gave you the basketball that you have been looking for all season, and it's been exciting. You can't say enough about how important and instrumental they are to a team's success. When they raise their voices, it helps us raise our performance. It means so much, and I hope that it will not only continue to spill over into the community, but across campus as well.
No, we really didn't know what to expect last year in the Conference, so we came together late when we found out that we could compete with the teams in the Sun Belt. It took us a little while to realize that, and Conference play doesn't begin until January, so it took us one run through to figure out that we could compete, and once we mentally figured that out the rest took care of itself in February. This year has special circumstances being that we have eight new players, and it's just taken us this long to gel. But it is crunch time, it is the most important time of the season, so I get a little more stern and snappy with everyone in our program I suppose, because my expectations for our program are high and always have been. Have any of you preparation methods changed since we joined the Sun Belt Conference?
Mostly our recruiting focus has changed, because we are able to open more doors than we were able to open in the Ohio Valley Conference. With better players, we become better coaches, and with better players you can afford to have higher expectations. There is only so much you can get out of an average player, and we have better talent, so yes I do expect more in practice and I expect us to work harder. Is the team already in preparation for the Sun Belt Tournament?
Absolutely, we are preparing for the Tournament, but we have been getting better day-by-day in practice, especially the past two or three weeks. Our rotation has been fruit basket turnover all season long, because a different freshman was stepping up on a different night. And the reason that I keep talking about the freshmen is because they are half of our team. We have had some injuries and setbacks with some of our veteran players, which affected our rotation. And people learning at different paces; when you have eight newcomers, seven freshman and Jennifer Justice who came in as a sophomore, some of them may have known what was going on right off the jump but may not have felt the chemistry, maybe didn't know exactly what her role was. I am speaking mainly about Jennifer Justice who became more of a go-to person when she discovered that she was supposed to score and do other things and she became more impacting. Trice Holmes picked things up immediately, and she has been a factor all season long. Tiffany Fisher is a player that did not start evolving until January, and she is building confidence on a daily basis. You also have some other players that show up at different times. For example Jessica Schlueter was a factor in November and December, where Renee Hall has been more of a factor in January and February. So it's been a little topsy-turvy, which has a lot to do with our late push, but I have high expectations going into the Tournament. How do you feel about the Lady Raiders' chances in the upcoming Tournament?
I feel solid about our chances. Obviously I was a little set back with the second half of the Arkansas-Little Rock game, and people wondered why I was so upset when we won by twenty points. Well, at the half we were winning by thirty-one, and in the second half a team that hasn't won a conference game beat us by fifteen. We also had sixteen turnovers in that half. The look on our faces said that it was OK, and that's what frustrates me. But I feel like we are playing better basketball now, and we are gearing ourselves towards the tournament. We are a lot more focused now, and we finally realized what it's all about. It's nearing the end and opportunities for post-season play are close, which is easy to talk about because we've been three out of the four seasons that I've been here, but when half of your team is new, they don't quite understand that concept. So you have to teach that, and now that it's nearing the end of the season, the new players are beginning to grasp that concept that it's not just three more regular season games, it's three or four games and the tournament as well and then post-season play opportunities. So we have a whole other season to play, and that light bulb is beginning to flicker with what still lies ahead. You competed in basketball at both Co-Lin and Harding; did you derive any of your coaching methods from any of your previous coaches?
Well, I have had really good coaching all of my life, which started in High School with my coach Tommy Goodson who coached for LSU for fourteen years starting the year after I graduated, so he has played a tremendous role with me being in coaching. In junior college, Gwen Young gave me my start in coaching by allowing me to come back and work summer camps. When I went to Harding, it was only a four-year program, so I didn't draw as much basketball background from that experience like I had earlier on. Is there anything that you would like to say to the Lady Raider fans?
Absolutely, I was really excited with the people that we had coming in on Thursday and Saturday. I know that we haven't brought you the most excitement, but we have brought some extremely talented women's basketball teams in here, and I was really appreciative of all the people that came out this last weekend, and how local they were. I know we finally gave you the basketball that you have been looking for all season, and it's been exciting. You can't say enough about how important and instrumental they are to a team's success. When they raise their voices, it helps us raise our performance. It means so much, and I hope that it will not only continue to spill over into the community, but across campus as well.
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