Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
Middle Tennessee shot “the bear”. Who killed it? Jalynn Gregory
2/28/2025 3:00:00 PM | Women's Basketball
MTSU’s top perimeter defender showed her craft, holding CUSA leading scorer Molly Kaiser to a season-low on Thursday night
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — New Mexico State senior Molly Kaiser's stat lines often defy explanation. The guard, a Top 15 scorer in the nation on a points per game basis this season, has scored 20 points in CUSA games more often than she's scored under that mark, hitting the 30-point mark in three conference games already this season with three more CUSA games left on the Aggies schedule. In six CUSA games, she's made over 50 percent of her shots, including a 12-for-14 night at rival UTEP the led to 30 points earlier in February.
On Thursday night in Murfreesboro, the Blue Raiders held Kaiser to just seven points, limiting the guard to just 3-for-10 shooting and now allowing her to get the foul line once, the first time that's happened Kaiser in over a year. That lack of offensive firepower allowed the Blue Raiders to roll over the Aggies in a 63-41 win in Murphy Center, pushing MTSU closer to clinching the top spot in the CUSA for the regular season.
"We just stick to our scout that (the coaches) said that we've practiced and worked on the whole time," senior MTSU guard Jalynn Gregory said. "Just sticking to what they say (to) do, we trust it and we all buy into it. Just doing that allowed us to be able to collectively keep her to a season low."
The Blue Raider wing is humble. As the team's best perimeter defender, it was Gregory who drew the assignment on Kaiser on Thursday night and who stuck with the versatile guard through backdoor cuts, off ball screens and dribble drive penetration, never letting the guard get a moment to breathe, let alone get comfortable.
The returning All-CUSA first teamer created some chances and made some shots. All great players do. Draining a tough finish off the glass in the first quarter, a contested baseline jumper in the third and a long-range contested three in the in the fourth. But no more.
"She's a great player," Gregory said of Kaiser. "She's probably one of the best I've ever guarded. Being able to do that is not just me. Obviously, it's my team helping me, allowing me to get up and pressure and just do whatever and I know they have my back."
But her head coach knew what the primary catalyst to MTSU's defense success on Kaiser was on Thursday.
"Y'all shot the bear," Insell said of his team. "I want to know who killed it?"
The veteran coach smirked in the post-game presser before giving his answer.
"Jalynn Gregory," Insell said.
Praising Gregory as one of the best perimeter defenders he's coached in not just his 20 seasons on the sideline at Middle Tennessee, but in his 50 years as coach of women's basketball, Insell is still aghast that Gregory was left off last season's All-Defensive team in the 2024 CUSA Women's Basketball Awards. It's not hard to see how that happens, despite Gregory's prowess as a defender
Most All-Defense teams tend to be filled with players that rank highly in two stats: blocks and steals. Particularly those players that rank highly in both. Gregory averages 2.0 steals per game, good enough for eighth in CUSA this season, but well below many of the other players nominated by the conference's coaches. It's much harder to quantify the ability of a defensive player who holds opposing scorers under their season averages, night after night. Who sometimes won't even allow their assignments to get the ball, as Gregory often does over playing passes in MTSU's aggressive defensive scheme.
Gregory is right that MTSU's defensive success, ranked third in scoring defense in the country at 52.2 points per game on Friday, is not hers alone. Anastasiia Boldyreva, the nation's leader in blocks, is a huge rim protector that she can utilize. Courtney Blakely is a constant threat to strip the ball from the opposing point guard, putting pressure on teams to even get into their plays.
But those who watch the Blue Raiders regularly and, more importantly, those who play against Gregory know how impactful she is as a defender. It appears almost effortless, how she mirrors her opponent so precisely, knowing exactly where she needs to be aggressive and when she can rely on her help. It's a product of studying a good scouting report, but also of Gregory's athletic ability and her moxie, as teams will rightfully run her through screens all night to try to generate even a sliver of separation.
"That's we expect out of Jalynn," her teammates Ta'Mia Scott said. "It's her role at this point in the season. Kudos to her, that's the first thing that coach recognized when we got in the locker room."
And it's something that Rick Insell hopes the voters of Conference USA will remember at the end of the season.
"You can't take nothing away from Molly," Insell said. "The kid's a 4.0 student, probably going to be an Academic All-American. The kid guarding her? A 4.0 student, should be an Academic All-American too."
