The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ron Aldy Meets The Media
10/16/2000 | Women's Basketball
Oct. 16, 2000
OPENING COMMENTS
"The first two days of practice have been good. We have had a lot of effort and hustle in practice. We seem to be in better shape and physical condition then we have been in the last three years. We are extremely proud of that. Our players seem to have a better attitude toward working hard. I think that it is a carryover from the disappointment of last season. It (last season) may have ignited a little more fire and determination in our players minds.
HOW HAS TAKELA PROGRESSED FROM HER INJURY LAST YEAR?
"Takela is 100 percent and she has worked extremely hard and on getting her hurt knee as strong as her good knee. We have a couple of minor injuries to some of our players. Kayla Madewell took a knee to the calf and that has kept her down for about four weeks. In the last couple of days, she has jumped and run some. She participated in a little non-contact work yesterday. Hopefully she will be back at full go by Friday. Shayla Day has been nursing a minor leg injury the last couple of days. Everybody else seems to be in good shape and ready to go."
TALK ABOUT FILLING THE VOID IN THE MIDDLE WITH THE LOSS OF FRANKIE BOYD?
"I mentioned Shayla Day. She's a sophomore. We have also brought in a junior college transfer Saundra Jackson. She has shown a lot of promise. Her work ethic has to get better and she has to get tougher from the standpoint of being in the SEC and not in junior college. She's got potential and has an upside to her game that we really like."
TALK ABOUT YOUR LINEUP?
"We are going to have more people that will play a lot of minutes than we have had in the previous three years. We have 8-10 people that we can find a starting combination with. We have a couple of freshmen that are really working themselves into condition. We expected them to be able to play by mid-season, but the way they are working, they may play earlier. This early, it is hard to say what five we will put out there. It's a nice problem to have, but it's hard to specify what players we may put out there until we have more time to look at the team as a whole. We have a combination of experience and some newcomers with athleticism."
HOW CLOSE IS THIS TEAM TO RETURNING TO POSTSEASON?
At this point, I think it's premature to say. As far as ability and talent, we're probably blessed more now than we have been in four years. We have depth at most positions. One position that we are not as deep at is the post position. We have two players there that should be good players and share playing time. We just don't have the depth that we would like at that spot. At the other positions, especially at the point guard position, we have more depth than we have had in four seasons. As far as postseason, we have some positive expectations and are optimistic about them. We will talk about that possibility as the season progresses and we have had a chance to work together as a team more."
HOW DO YOU THINK THE LEAGUE STACKS UP?
"I think Georgia is going to be the favorite with everyone returning. Tennessee should be right behind them. Then there are several teams such as LSU, Auburn, and Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt may be the dark horse of the league. They return a lot of good players and may have the best post player in the league and possibly in the country. There may be some teams that I didn't mention that could possibly beat some of those teams that I mentioned and be among the top five or six in the league. If you can finish in the top five, six or seven in the league, you can make postseason play. Also, that will put you in the top twenty in the country. It is critical for us to win all our homes games if we want to make the postseason. We have some home games that are favorable for us to win, but our road games are against some of the tougher opponents in the league. That will play a big part in how good our win-loss record will be."
TALK ABOUT YOUR FRESHMEN?
"We have two freshmen, Tenisha Gist and Tywanna Inmon. Tenisha is a small forward that is very athletic and has the competitiveness and intensity to go along with her athleticism. She is going to figure in to the mix. Tenisha will not be satisfied with just being a freshman or slowly working her way in to the lineup. Tywanna is also a lot like that. She has those same characteristics. If she was a few inches taller, she would be a very good post player. As it is, she will be a very good forward in this league. She will help strengthen us as a team and has the potential to as a good forward as we have had here in the last four years. Both are true freshmen. We have a walk-on freshman, Kim Ufford, that is a good athlete and is working hard. She is a point guard. Our depth at that position might not give her as much playing time as our other freshmen, but she will develop into a good player for us."
TALK ABOUT SHERIKA WRIGHT?
"Sherika Wright is a point guard who transfered from junior college. She has a little more explosiveness and slightly different game than our other two point guards (Takela Corbitt and Chandra Dorsey). She played on a junior college team that has been to the national tournament. Sherika excels when the competition is the highest. When the lights come on, she picks it up another level. That is something that will give us not only depth but the competition you need to make that position as strong as you are going to have. She is a solid athlete with a desire to win and a good leader both on and off the floor."
WITH DEPTH AT THE POINT GUARD POSITION, WILL BECKY MYATT NOW BE A TRUE SHOOTING GUARD?
"We hope that Becky does not have to play the point guard position this year, so she can concentrate on being a scoring two guard for us. This should make it easier on her and we look for her to have the best year of her career here."
WILL THIS ALLOW HER TO BE MORE OF A LEADER ON THE TEAM?
"Becky has demonstrated those qualities, especially in the off-season and during the summer. She was instrumental in what the rest of the team did in the off-season. She will now have the chance on the floor to provide the same kind of leadership as she does off the court, which will allow her to focus on the strengths of her game. We look for her to be a tremendous leader for us both on and off the court."
WHY ISN'T OLE MISS PLAYING MEMPHIS THIS YEAR?
"We had a player transfer to Memphis a couple of years ago, so we decided it would be best to take a year or so absence and not ask our players to play against a former teammate. Memphis was in complete agreement with this and we felt like this was best for both programs. Not to say that we won't play them in the future, because Memphis is a non-conference team that we have had some success against. We are going to talk about future scheduling at the end of the season."
