Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Women's Basketball holds annual Media Day
10/14/2010 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Oct. 14, 2010
By Tyler Wooten
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois women's basketball team held its annual media day Thursday in the team's new complex in the renovated SIU Arena. The following is a transcript of Saluki head coach Missy Tiber's opening press conference.
Q: "Are all five starting positions up for grabs this year?"
"I would say definitely, all five positions are up for grabs. The competition at every position is really making everybody better. Teri Oliver is a special player, and she brings it most days to the basketball court, so she is really trying to distance herself. She also has a player in Antishia Wright that goes against her every single day in practice who has to sit out this year -- she's a transfer from West Virginia -- but, I tell her everyday to go in there and play Teri head-to-head every single day. Teri is one of the best guards and has the potential to be a very special guard in the Missouri Valley. It's pretty much wide-open. Katrina Swingler is a battler, she's one of our hardest working kids. When she steps on the court, she's going to give you everything that she has for the entire practice. She doesn't always make great decisions, but you allow her to just play because she plays hard. She's definitely going to be one that will be fighting for quality minutes as well. I see a lot of improvement in our returning starters -- from working in the system for a year makes a big difference."
Q: "How important is it to have your own recruits?"
"With that comes a lot of pressure. This are kids that I've brought to campus. I want to build a brand of an up-tempo system with quality kids in our program that are graduating and doing things that they should do. It definitely does because we run an up-tempo system, so we had to go out and get kids that could do that. We had to go out and recruit for a four-guard offense. We need our four-spot players to be able to shoot the three, and we have several of them on the roster, one being Charnise Mitchell who is definitely fighting for a staring position from the JUCO route -- she's a phenomenal player. She makes up for the athleticism that we lost in Stephanie Neptune from a year ago."
Q: "What are the biggest differences between this team and last year's?"
"It's so hard to compare and I really don't want to go that route, but what I see is excitement. How could you not be excited to go into that arena every single day? To come in this room, the lounges, the NBA-type locker room, the theater that we watch film in on a daily basis -- how could you not be excited and have that intensity level to the court every day?"
Q: "Can you talk about the impact that the other two seniors (Eboni Crayton and Nneka Nwani) will have?"
"Eboni is one of those kids that is going to try and lead our program vocally, and we definitely need that. We don't have a lot of that -- who is going to step forward and be the leader of this team? Eboni will definitely do that, she's worked really hard on her mid-range jumper. We're really working hard to try and find her spot and her flow within our offense. She's more of a mid-range player, where our offense is shooting a lot of threes and a lot of layups, so we're trying to find her fit. Nneka Nwani is the best screener on our basketball team. She is selfless, she has really improved from a year ago and I want nothing but to see her taker her game to another level. She's rebounding really well, she's running the floor really well. I think those two will be key factors."
Q: "You lost Stephany Neptune and Katerina Garcia -- who do you see stepping up into their spots and how will you deal with their absence?"
"That's one of my concerns as well -- they don't have anyone to learn from. Actually, believe it or not, my assistant Adrianne Harlow stepped forward in practice and her team won three of the four games. All I was trying to get those freshman point guards to understand was how hard you have to go the entire game and how you have to create shots for your teammates. I think they are learning. But, it's very hard as freshman point guards not to have an upper-class point-guard to learn from, whereas everyone else on this team has someone to learn from. The post players have Katrina Swingler and Nneka, the mid-range players and our guards have Teri Oliver and Eboni Crayton -- they have someone to learn from. Our point guards don't have that. The ball is going to be placed into their hands for 40 minutes on any given night. They're both playing extremely well in practice, I'm happy with them. I think they bring us different dimensions. Olivia (Patterson) is definitely smaller, but she is very quick. She handles the ball probably better than any kid I've ever coached -- she can really handle the basketball and she can create shots for her teammates. Brooke (Le Mar) is also a flashy passer and she's going to do some things that really surprise you. Her speed isn't quite as fast as Olivia's, but she brings us big plays because she knows how to play. Both of them can shoot the ball from the outside okay, it's not where it needs to be but they're working really hard at it. As far as pushing tempo and understanding the way we want to play I am very pleased with them."
Q: "What would you say the identity of the team is right now?"
"I really don't know how to answer that question honestly for you. We're still trying to find it. We've had six practice days and we've had some pre-season conditioning. Again, it's been youthful and energetic. I'm not sure they understand how good they could be. I'm not sure they understand just having potential doesn't equate to success either. We'll know more after we go to that first scrimmage, and even more so as we start to put our lineups together in practice. When we start allowing these kids to play together so they can get used to each other and build some chemistry, then we will start building more of an identity. Right now, we've been letting everybody compete."
Q: "How well do you think you'll be able to use size this year?"
"We have seven or eight kids over six foot tall, and I like the fact that we have some six foot guards playing the two and three spots as well. Especially when you're guarding in a big conference. This league is typically pretty big with the guards. I do like our size and I like the fact that we have some kids that can knock down the three that are taller guards. We're not overly big. We don't have the 6-5 kid you'll see in the Valley. But, we do have 6-3 CiCi Shannon who I think is coming along nicely. She works very hard. One thing that impresses me most about her is most big kids I've coached in the past don't always have that inner drive to push themselves to make them better. She comes and brings it every day to the basketball court. She has a lot to learn, don't get me wrong, but she's willing to do it. I told her a couple of weeks ago I wanted her to work on the right and left jump hook, and it's come a long way in two weeks because she listens. She doesn't really know a thing about how to play defense -- 6-3 in high school you just stand in the lane and someone comes in there and you try to block their shots -- she may have three fouls in 30 seconds. We're working on her, but she brings a level of excitement to our program. Michelle Smith, our post coach, does a really good job of developing her. I'm going to be really excited to see her come January when she gets her first semester under her belt."
Q: "Are you going to be doing anything differently defensively because you have depth this year?"
"We can put a very athletic team on the basketball court, so that maybe allows us to press more or maybe do some scheming in the half-court set that we just couldn't do last year. If you don't have a 6-3 girl or bigger back there protecting the basket it's hard to take some risks. I think this year we can take some more risks knowing that we have someone bigger that can protect the paint."
Q: "What do you think about the non-conference schedule?"
"Our first two games are UT-Martin at home on the 12th and that Tuesday we play Tennessee State at home. No game is going to be easy for us, and that's why we wanted to give this squad the opportunity to compete at home early in order to get themselves some confidence. Hopefully we're able to generate some fan base early in the season, and that helps as well. I think our non-conference schedule allows us opportunities to win some games but we're going to have to work our tails off in order to do so."
Q: "What about conference play?"
"We turned in our preseason polls and I put Missouri State at number one -- they have the returning conference player in Casey Garrison. I think they'll be very solid. Wichita State was definitely up and coming a year ago. I like the opportunity in our conference schedule. This is a new year, this is a completely new team for us and we're excited about that. I like our opportunities to compete if our kids are willing to work harder on a daily basis."
Q: "Can you talk about building your program through freshman as opposed to that temptation to go out and grab several JUCO transfers in a rebuilding mode?"
"My philosophy is always, when you build a good program you build it with freshman. I like to build a program with freshman, but I'm also smart enough to understand that there are holes to fill. Charnise Mitchell is going to be one for us this year. Rani Brandon is going to be one for us this year. Next year you're going to see Antishia Wright. I think any great program that is trying to build a tradition is going to try and do it with freshman."
Q: "Have you set any goals yet as a team?"
"Right now it has been the daily basis of working hard and getting better every single day that we step on the basketball court. We will start individual player meetings tomorrow and we'll be able to evaluate them for a full week's practice and define their roles for them clearly. So many times as freshman or even transfers they don't understand that -- what their role is and how they can contribute to the program. Whether they're a starter or the seventh or eight kid off of the bench, they need to know what their roles are and how important each and every one of them are. It's all very important to building a program."
Q: "How important will free throws be as a part of the offense this year? Did you recruit for that?"
"That hasn't always been a philosophy of mine and it never will be. My philosophy is try and guard on a solid basis and rebound pretty well so we can push tempo. We want to try and get stops to push tempo. It hasn't always been to get to the free throw line a bunch. We don't always recruit tons of drivers and slashers to the basket. We believe in a point guard oriented system that's going to create wide-open shots for people. A reason you don't see that a lot from our teams is that we don't put the ball on the floor. Typically teams the put the ball on the floor a lot are the ones that go shoot a lot of free throws, and typically we don't do that. I think our point guards are going to have the ability to get to the rim this year and create some shots, and in turn they're going to get fouled a little more than maybe we did last year."
