After exhibitions, Women’s Basketball continues to cultivate its “winning culture”

Elina Arike vs Lindsey Wilson (exh) on 10-30-24 – basketball sidebar

10/31/2024 11:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

Rick Insell saw a lot he was pleased with, but a lot to improve on in his team’s preseason games

By: Sam Doughton, MTSU Athletic Communications

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Elina Arike has played a lot of college basketball. Through four years, 1,826 minutes of college basketball, to be exact. Middle Tennessee women's basketball is the third college program the forward has played for in her five-year career.

So, the Helsinki, Finland native knows a thing or two about team building, culture, comradery in the trenches. And she didn't hesitate to answer what stood out about being a Blue Raider after two romps in preseason play, including Wednesday night's 71-32 triumph over Lindsey Wilson College.

"It's the winning culture, how the players, the coaches, everyone around the program talks about everything," Arike said. "No one really needs to say anything. You get to practice, and the standard is already high. Everyone goes hard, everyone competes every day. They don't need to beg us for effort or to go hard, ever."

That winning culture is one not easily established, though the Blue Raiders are fortunate that a great many that came before them, players, coaches, administrators and fans, started that standard. It's also something that's not easily maintained. It's something, as Arike notes, that has to be bought into by a host of people on and off the court for the Blue Raiders. But when it's there, it's evident. And coming off back-to-back Conference USA regular season and tournament titles, MTSU Women's Basketball has continued that culture.

When the offense powered Middle Tennessee to a dominant 104-66 victory over UT Southern on Friday, some might've rested on the group's laurels, particularly against a hot shooting team that made a lot of long threes that likely wasn't replicable. Not Rick Insell.

"It's been a point of emphasis these past couple of days and when we get back together next two or three days, that's all we'll be doing is playing defense," Insell said. "We've got to get better defensively."

Better? Safe to say the Blue Raiders were on Wednesday, where they held Lindsey Wilson to just 17 percent shooting from the floor (11-for-64), including a 3-for-16 night from beyond the arc. But Insell knows there's plenty more to reach MTSU's best. Even with nine steals and 26 fast break points, Insell pointed out that his team was just six or so inches away from four or five deflections. All that is a bigger step, he pointed out, and those hard ball denials turn into points.

"Defense has got to be played with the subconscious mind," Insell said. "It can't be played with the conscious mind. You can't be making decisions while you're playing defense, you've got to react."

Getting his five players to react together, Insell said, is the key. The team's five apparent starters for the 2024-25 season — Arike, Courtney Blakely, Jalynn Gregory, Ta'Mia Scott and Anastasiia Boldyreva — are clearly close already. Filling out the minutes behind them remains a work in progress, judging by the second quarter where MTSU managed just six points as a plethora of Blue Raiders got into early foul trouble.

Insell said post-game the biggest priority is finding a backup at the four for Arike, with two early options (Stanislava Kabernick and Ana Milanovic) both freshmen still adjusting to the college game (though Kabernick has a year of practice under her belt after redshirting a season ago). Guard seemed a bit more settled with its young options, where Savannah Davis in particular has become a trusted option as a true freshman early and Jada Harrison has shown capability at the point. Fifth-year veteran Jada Grannum at the five has had the coaching staff show early confidence in her game as well.

However, everyone needs to step up further, Insell said, if this team wants to meet its goals. One area Scott pointed to for the veterans in the starting lineup to improve on is their energy and leadership. With long-time captain Courtney Whitson now a member of the coaching staff, on-the-court roles in who's the vocal one to rally the team are still being felt out. But Scott anticipates everyone who can be that type of leader will step up after Wednesday.

"When things aren't really going the way we want them to, we kind of droop," Scott said. "Leadership, we're going to have a lot more of that in this following week."

That's the winning culture that's gotten Rick Insell many rings in his time in Murfreesboro, including the most recent championship ring that the 2023-24 team received this week, the one Insell wore to his postgame press conference.

"Now what we've got to do is work on getting those freshmen that haven't got one and those two kids that transferred back, (Blakely) and Elina, get them a ring," Insell said. "We're about to get ready to start this thing Monday."