Saluki Basketball teams host annual Media Day
10/21/2014 | 12:00:00 | Women's Basketball
Cindy Stein's Opening Statement:
"Let me tell you a little about Saluki women's basketball. We're super excited to be heading into the season. I think last year when we hit four or five games into the season and lost three out of our top six kids, we knew we were going to struggle anyway. Coming into this year, we're 14 strong and everyone is back and healthy. I feel very fortunate; we have a very coachable squad. They're learning. They're further along this year than last year. Kids are picking things up a lot quicker.
"Our new additions are three freshmen (Kylie Giebelhausen, Micah Norris and Celina VanHyfte) and our one junior college player (Blair Stephenson) have made an impact right away, especially offensively. Defense, we're always going to want to improve on every year. I think we're going to be able to play more of the defense that we've been trying to throw in style-wise, really getting after people and trapping and changing things up. We obviously want to shoot the three pretty well; that's something we did not do at all last year. I think our shooting percentage overall will be very solid."
"We're really looking forward to returning (2014 First-Team All-MVC) Dyana Pierre inside. She proved that she was one of the best players in the conference last year. Also, the return of Cartaesha Macklin, who I think will also be key for us. Cartaesha I think is a lot better than she was when you saw her last. She's making much better decisions on the floor. I feel very good about our point guard position. I don't have anything set in stone, but the two kids that have been putting in good time are Rishonda Napier -- who was out last year and is doing very well -- and our new young lady from Lake Land College who was an All-American, Blair Stephenson. Both of them are playing extremely well and what we love about it is that you don't lose a beat with either one of them. They both shoot the three well, they attack the basket, they both play defense and they're both very good leaders. So that is an improved position from last year. I'm really excited, but it's always easy to be excited when you haven't played a game."
"You can't ask for a better group of young ladies right now. No one's been in trouble, they're going to class, they're getting good grades and they come ready to play every day. Our energy level and communication level, they're outstanding. And when you have that you can make a lot of things happen. Every year we want to win the Valley, every year we want to go to postseason play -- that's not going to change. Right now, I think things are looking in the right direction."
Q: What do you think the identity of the team has been so far?
"I think this group is going to be very good defensively. I use the word tenacious because what I really like is the fact that they're very competitive. So when I have a group that's not playing very hard defensively you sub them and the next group's gonna get it done. Our depth allows us to do that. Last year we only had eight scholarship kids and now we have 14, so that does gives us more of a luxury."
Q: How do you like how your schedule sets up this year?
"I think we will definitely be challenged in non-conference play, but everything is about conference play anyway; whoever wins the Valley tournament goes on. That's what we're aiming for, so if we can continue to get better playing Illinois, Memphis, Toledo, Oregon State -- there isn't a team I don't think we can't match up with, so I think we'll be alright."
Q: How do you like the size of your team compared to the rest of the Valley?
"A lot of teams play four guards and one post, and some of them play five guards so I actually think that our post play is one of the better in the conference and I think we need to utilize that. There will be times when we'll play one post but there will be times when we'll play two. Who knows, if we have the right match ups we might play three. We have emphasized all year long that our post players have got to guard on the perimeter. The more of our kids that can guard on the perimeter, we'll put in a lot of bigs if we can do that."
Q: How do you feel about your depth at the post position this year?
"I do feel really good about our depth. One major reason is I feel that Dyana is getting challenged this year. Last year we didn't really have anybody that could challenge her on a daily basis. Celina VanHyfte is definitely learning what it takes to play at this level and she is giving Dyana her money's worth. Also, Kim Nebo has returned in unbelievable shape and she's worked on her game all summer. I think she's going to be one of the most improved players on our team and I think she's going to get a lot of playing time because of it."
Q: How do you see the conference playing out this year?
"Well, I see it in my head as us winning the Valley. If that happens it'd be awesome. But I also think that Wichita State is going to be a tough team to handle. I think Drake and Northern Iowa are very, very good. I think Loyola is a little underrated at this point, I think they're going to be very good because they have a young lady who sat out last year due to knee injury, Simone Law. Those in particular are going to be tough. Everyone has improved. We had a very young conference last year as far as talent, so everyone is back."
Q: Are the number of turnovers going to go down with this group?
"I do think that our turnovers will be cut down, I think our kids are making better decisions. But I think a lot of that is that they are a lot more comfortable in the system, and that is something that is hard to teach. You can't tell a kid when they should be comfortable in the system, it's got to come. I think they know now what to expect. That was last year. This is a whole new year."
Q: Dyana had a great year last year but didn't shoot for a great percentage; have you challenged her to take different shots?
"I think we've done that as a group. I would tell you that it was really tough for Dyana last year because she had to get double figures and double-figure rebounding for us to compete or even have a chance sometimes. Everyone was keying on her, sometimes she had poor shots because the shot clock was going down and what do you do? You throw it to Dyana. She was kind of our bail-out player at times. I think we've got so many more improved players around her and better players around her that you will see her shot selection also improve."
