TCU Women's Basketball Season Outlook: Part II
11/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 5, 2009
TCU Women's Basketball Season Outlook Part I - Wed., Nov. 4
The start of the TCU women's basketball team's 2009-10 season is only a week away with the squad's Nov. 11 exhibition vs. Cameron University on the horizon. Thursday, GoFrogs.com sits down with head coach Jeff Mittie to get his thoughts on the upcoming campaign.
On what he sees as his team's strengths:
"We showed last year that we could take care of the basketball fairly well. We shot the ball well overall as a group, so I think we have the ability to continue to do that, also."
On what improvements need to be made from last season:
"One of the things we need to do is play faster. We had trouble moving the ball against pressure teams, so we need to move the ball. We may end up with more turnovers, but we need to find some easier baskets. Shooting percentage-wise last year, we were about 40 percent, so that needs to be elevated. I think in order for us to do that, we need to find easier baskets. We already have good shooters and good overall shooting."
On the focus on defense and rebounding in the offseason:
"We had to play a lot of zone defense last year, so therefore the early part of practice has been to practice better habits in our man-to-man defense. While I think we have made some improvements, we are still a long ways away from where we want be. We expect our rebounding to be better, but for us to truly be a better rebounding team, every returning player has to improve. We have to get after the basketball better.
On who he sees as leaders for this year's team:
"Emily Carter has been very consistent during the fall and TK LaFleur has done some good things in the offseason. I think Helena Sverrisdottir, certainly, she's improved in that area. Then I get to the freshmen. I think they've become very involved in the process and they haven't been afraid to voice there opinions or show their leadership capabilities."
On any possible changes in roles for returning players:
"I would like to have a little better balance with Helena than we did last year, in that she played no point guard her first year, then almost exclusively point guard a year ago. Ideally, we would like to get her to more like a 70-30 percent split (70 percent at the point). That would be the one that would be most noticeable. We'll see who emerges there."
On the potential to be more of an up-tempo offensive team:
"I think we have better guard depth than we did a year ago. Antoinette Thompson is a year older, Hannah Christian has come in and been good and we hope to have Eboni Magnum back healthy. I think that depth will allow us to push the ball better."
On the return of guard Eboni Mangum from last year's season-ending knee injury:
"That's an unknown for this basketball team. If she is healthy she could potentially be a defensive stopper. She's a player who can get to the rim off the bounce, which was a weakness of ours a year ago. Those two things could give us dimensions that we really didn't have a year ago."
On what he considers a strong freshman class:
"I've been pleased with the basketball IQ of our freshmen. I would say out of the 11 years that I've been here, that characteristic from this group would rank right up there at top with any of our previous classes. That may get this group on the floor pretty quick this year. They are all very competitive, and they have been able to pick things up very quickly, so we'll see. The early indications are that this group is going to help us."
On testing his team's toughness during fall practice:
"I think we accomplished that and we saw good leadership and good communication between our players. We did a variety of things that forced them to communicate differently with each other and put them in tenuous situations where their chemistry was tested. I think it was tested, and there were times when it was frustrating for them. All in all, it was great for us, and I think the team felt great about what it accomplished. I think we are tougher and stronger as a unit."
Players Mentioned
