The University of Mississippi Athletics
Head Coach Ron Aldy's Preseason Press Conference Transcript
10/7/2002 | Women's Basketball
Oct. 7, 2002
HEAD COACH RON ALDY
Opening Comment:
Ready or not, the season's right here on us and we're ready to get kicked off. Other than some minor injuries that several of our players have experienced in the last few weeks, such as aches, tendonitis, shin splints, and that type thing, we're anxious to get it kicked off and get started. We've had a good off-season. All of our players that are returning worked extremely hard in the weight room in conditioning and we feel like that will pay off for us down the stretch and in the longrun, as far as this season goes.
Q: Talk about Leah Henley as a leader, and who else beyond Leah Henley will play a leadership role on your team?
A: Leah is our only senior and one that has got the ingredients and the leadership qualities you look for in a senior. She's such a very hard-nosed, intense worker, that she can call on our other players to work hard, do their part and carry their load. It can get their attention because of how hard she works every day. She's experienced some injuries in the last two or three seasons that have really held her back and kept her from being a little more of a contributor. But this year she's hopefully got that behind her and is able to play a much more significant role, not only as a leader, but a contributor during her play in games.
Q: Can you talk about the new players we don't yet know anything about?
A: I'll start with our transfers. We have a junior college transfer, Tia Watson, who comes to us from West Ark. Community College in Fort Smith, Ark. Tia is a three player that is a slasher, a good defender and a good rebounder. She is pretty hard-nosed and has some good experience, coming from a tough league in junior college. We're expecting her to contribute and play a good bit. It's hard to determine how major a role that will be until we really get out on the floor, start playing and see how good our newcomers are in terms of actual game situations. In individual workouts, conditioning and whatnot she's made some strides, but has got some experience and can come in and play right away.
Candice Holley, who practiced with us last year, will be eligible in the second semester. She had knee surgery in June, but she's rehabing that and it's coming around. She's one that, as far as experience, strength and the physical part of the game, is needed in and around the post. She's one that we're gonna depend on and count on pretty heavily. We've already seen signs as far as what she did last year in practice and what she's capable of doing to the point that she can play a major part in our scheme of things.
Genice Terry is a girl that we signed late, that initially went to South Alabama then transferred to Meridian Community College. She's had some experience. She's a former all-state player at Raymond that coach Thompson coached. She's going to have to probably shoulder a lot of the load at point guard and help out Carletta Brown. She's going to have to step in and play a good bit there and probably more of a role than what we were expecting her to fill when we first signed her. Again, she's a seasoned player, one whose played in the junior college league. Where she's been she has experienced some success, which means an awful lot. So we're going to count on her too for lots of minutes.
Our freshman, Ashley Johnson, from Shelbyville, Tenn. of course comes from an outstanding program. Ashley's probably going to play two and three, both of those positions. She's a very versatile player who can shoot the three, put it on the floor, pull it up, or take it to the hole. So offensively, she's got a lot of talent. Defensively, she is one who, again, has tremendous knowledge. She plays hard and very intense. For a freshman, she's going to get thrown into the mix very early.
Ellen Buchanan, from New Albany, Miss. was an all-state player and a very good player in her league as well as this state. She's making somewhat of a transition from a post player to a perimeter player, a three/four player. We don't have anyone that's worked any harder than Ellen works. That's not just every once in a while, it's every day. We're very impressed by her work ethic and her improvement. She's making the transition from not only highschool to college, but also from primarily playing inside to playing outside some now. It's good to have her out there because she's competing every day. It's going to be hard to keep her from figuring in and from playing a lot of minutes as well as a pretty major part, especially by mid-season.
We have one French player, who we recruited late. I'm not even going to try to pronounce her last name. I call her Frenchie. It's Marie Deparrois. I don't quite have the accent that needs to be put on that name. She's a 6-3/6-4" kid that's worked extremely hard since she's been here on increasing her strength. This is one thing that probably is going to be something that, in the early going, she's got to get used to. Her style of play and their style of play, is very different from the style of play here in the SEC. For her to become more physical and stronger is something that's taking place kind of one day at a time and one step at a time. She's got a lot of offensive skills. She can shoot it, she can pass it and she can put it on the floor a little bit. Just her stamina, her strength and the physical play is the transition she's going through right now. This is as far as what she's accustomed to and now what she's faced with. But she's someone that we are figuring by mid-season should be playing a lot of minutes and a major role.
Q: Was Candice Holly's surgery planned or did something unexpected happen that caused her to require it?
A: She had undergone prior surgery on that knee, and there was something in there that Dr. Field felt needed arthriscopic surgery to clean it up a little bit. We've taken it a little easier on the rehab by not rushing it because she's not eligible to play until December. So, we haven't gotten in a big hurry but things are going well for her with her rehab, and she's on schedule to be ready to play by then. Hopefully she can practice when we start Saturday.
Q: With Ellen Buchanan making the transition out to the perimeter, how is her shooting and what is her biggest challenge in that transition?
A: Probably ball handling and shooting. Ellen's the type player that, if you show her something or if you work with her with a particular phase of the game or her game, then she goes and she works on it. You can see immediate progression and improvement. But it's going to be something that's going to take some time. She's got to not only work on her individual skills of getting better, as far as ball handling and shooting, but also the game itself; the game fitting in with her skills getting better. She's got to get a feel for it. Defensively it's going to be a little different. She used to defending the post and playing in the post, and now she's gotta move out on the floor. But again, she's got the speed, quickness and agility to be able to make the transition although it's going to take some time for her to feel comfortable with it.
Q: Based on the individual practice you've had along with the preseason workouts, what would you say the strength of this team will be?
A: I think balance may be our strength. Each of the past four or five years we've had one or two players that we had to really count on heavily to do several things. This year we're going to have a lot of players playing a lot of minutes. You could call it depth, balance or whatever, but we won't have just two or three players. We're going to have seven, eight, nine, or 10 players possibly. Any given night, we could have three or four different ones step up. I think that will be a strength. It's not a strength now, but it's a possible strength as the season progresses.
Q: How do you plan on using Amber Watts?
A: Amber's going to be, of course, the only post player coming back that's got some experience. She's improved tremendously. She's improved strength-wise, stamina-wise and she's going to have to play a lot of minutes. It may be 30-35 minutes a night, but offensively her game has improved. She's got a little range now, to the point that we're going to let her step out. She's got much more strength and power with her moves in and around the post. Defensively we just need to keep her out of foul trouble. She loves to go block shots and is a good defender, but she gets a little aggressive sometimes on trying to block shots. If we had one person that's going to be a focal point offensively and defensively, it's probably going to be that position or that person. That position will be one to go to and to look at, even though we don't go to it each and every trip down the court. She's going to serve and play a different role than she did last year as far as possibly spelling time and sharing time with another post player. She's going to have share a big part of the load this time, if not carry most of it.
Q: With more players and a whole different mix of players this year will you see a different style of play?
A: It's really hard to say exactly what's going to best fit our team. I think that happens when we start playing and practicing as a team. With our individual workouts, you can maybe project or predict, but it's very hard to say until we get them together and start playing. Hopefully we can play up-tempo. Hopefully we can extend the court defensively and really, offensively, open it up and let that depth play a big part in what we do both offensively and defensively. I know that's kind of a vague answer but at this point there are so many newcomers mixed with our returnees that it's hard to tell.
Q: You were a very good three-point shooting team a year ago. Do you expect to maintain that with all the newcomers coming in?
A: We probably don't have anyone that's like a Von Kirk: a player, with the range that she had, that primarily is going to shoot the three, look for the three, and will have the green light each and every trip down the court. We probably don't have anyone that's going to look for it that quick, but we're going to have several that have shown that they can shoot the three. Even some of our bigger girls, or three/four players, are stepping out and shooting the three a little bit. It's not going to be the first thing we look for. We won't have anybody that has the green light as quick as she (Von Kirk) had it, but we will still utilize the three.
Q: Looking at the combination of the non-conference and SEC schedule, how does this year's schedule rate with others in the past?
A: A couple of years ago we we're rated sixth or eighth in the country as far as overall schedule toughness. This year, we play FIU (Florida International), Clemson, Western Kentucky and Temple. Those teams there are teams that have, not just this past year, but for the past six, eight, or 10 years, either won their conference or done well in the NCAA tournament. It's probably going to be a little tougher than what we really anticipated. Clemson was one that got thrown into the mix there in the last month or so. They really weren't going to be someone we were going to play in one of the tournaments, but somebody pulled out and they got in. It's a pretty tough non-conference schedule and I don't have to say much about the conference schedule. We'll know a lot about our team come Christmas-time. Before we get in the SEC, it's a risk that our record may not be as shiny and as fat as you'd like it to be because of the competition we're playing. But, hopefully we'll be tested and better from having to play each and every night, or most every night out, rather than having some teams (on the schedule) that aren't going to push us or test us. That's one of those things where it remains to be seen whether or not it's going to be a positive or a negative for us.
Q: What does it mean to have the entire coaching staff back and intact? A: I tell you, it's invaluable to us. It's the first time in our six years that we've had staff coming back that's intact. We've had to make either one or two additions each year. It not only helps us this year, but it's already shown signs of helping us as far as recruiting for next year. I can't say or put enough emphasis on how much that's going to help us, not only this year, but on down the road. It's as far as everybody coming back and being on the same page, knowing what's what in this league, knowing what's required and the players knowing each and every coach. Recruiting has received probably a bigger shot in the arm for us than anything.
