BW: She is back. She is back.

BW: I guess I’m not sure what you mean by a short bench because we have always kind of played seven to nine players…

BW: Right. A short bench for me would be we had six players and I don’t focus on the injury aspect of it, if any coach did that they would be a nervous wreck and it could happen to any team. You know, I think maybe it’s more a heightened awareness because we just have nine we only usually play seven, eight players, so I really don’t know how to answer that since I don’t think in that way. But I think overall our team has been very good at focus and we’re working just as hard. I don’t think they look at it that way.

BW: No not t necessarily, but what we’re trying to accomplish I think is that it basically requires us for this year… we wanted Ta-Mara to realize she can reach 19 points every game and how about, if you get in shape you can score 20 or more a game. That was more a reference of her getting stronger this year. But our challenge this year is going to be our execution, our ability to really focus on accomplishing those things that we’re out to do and if we do those things we’ll be able to actually see a lot more things happen for us. I’ve been more on their mistakes and turnovers; we can’t average 20 turnovers this year (21.1 per game last year). It’s just time to cut it out and a lot of those turnovers just came from us not thinking, we’re not processing. So that’s the biggest thing I’m pushing for our players.

BW: Oh, absolutely! There is a little bit of history to our non-conference schedule. There are a few things I need to let people know every year. One is when we first came here to Wright State, there were 32 conferences and we were as a league, we were like 28 or 29. I remember those meetings we had as a conference that we wanted to remove ourselves from that image. We no longer wanted to be at the bottom, because our teams that were making it to the tournaments were always those teams that would face the toughest teams.

We also wanted, recruiting wise, to position ourselves better than a MAC or compete with a MAC for example in comparison. So what we came up with and you may notice this throughout our league, was part of reason we were down so low was because we were scheduling too many easy teams. Teams were playing Div II or III teams, even during our regular season just for the win. That was hurting the conference RPI. So we decided that we would go ahead and schedule teams to help our RPI as a conference and as result of that, now eight years, nine years later we are now 15, 14 we’re above the MAC sometimes, but right there with them as a result of our scheduling. I think that’s real key.

The other thing is that we are looking to position ourselves if we make it to the tournament, that we have a schedule to show we played the best. That is very, very important to the NCAA committee that actually sits down in the selection process. They want to know if you played teams and show how well you’ve done and those type things. So we have, not just sat down with the schedule to do it, we do it for a reason. In our game we have to do these things.

BW: Well if you’ve followed us for several years, we’ve always had problems with being on the road always. Certainly, this years no different, it’s just that we have to do the toughest part of our schedule on the road. That makes it difficult, but it’s pretty consistent with what’s happened in the past with what we did on the road. It helps us because we don’t have anybody here in school. Of course we love home games, but a lot of it is due to returning, a lot to having people come to us the following year. So a lot of it has to do with return games or trying to get games the following year.

BW: Oh sure. We’ve had our budget meetings with Bob Grant (the AD). There are things that we have to do to help support our budget and we’re doing it. I think everyone has received an email from us about fund raising. Whether it is through a Nike thing we’re doing or Cub Foods or a jury show, we put it out there. We’re trying to raise that money to support our budget. We’ve had a good response; people have been really generous to us and helped us out. We really appreciate that.

2009-10 WSU Women's Basketball Team Photo

BW: I think it’s a big role for her, you notice she didn’t get any type of exposure last year, on first, second, honorable mention, anything.

BW: Right, so I think that kind of, you know, I don’t know what happened there. But she was certainly an integral part for us that just wasn’t recognized. This year I told her, not to go on a personal vendetta, make it where you are going to show them with your team. You’re going to step up and help them out. Now her being selected to the second team, of course she’s glad to be recognized but at the same time she still has been very intone with what she has to do for this team. She has to be more mature, she has to have that decision making process when she’s on the floor. So she’s talked about all those things to carry us. Carry us doesn’t mean you’ve got to score high points, but you also have to play defense. That’s been her Achilles heel.

BW: Kanisha Ward (5-6 Guard) and Charne Dixon (5-7 Guard) are just fantastic right now in practice. I love their focus, the energy they’re bringing. Especially, if I can just talk about Erica for a second, I love how she spent the summer working. Condition wise, working on her outside shot, etc. Certainly you know last year she was plagued with turnovers, three second calls, walking in lane, traveling and just not really finding herself as a junior. I think she took to heart our meeting at the end of the year, things she needs to improve on and she’s coming ready. I’m so proud of her. I think she’s a great success story, on and off the court.

BW: Yea, exactly!

BW: Oh wow, what can you say besides this is it. The lights would be out a lot if she continues to stay as strong as she’s been. Even in our scrimmage we had on Saturday she put up 20 plus points just because I think that’s who she is. She’s gotten stronger, improved in her defense and its something we talked about at the end of the year is something that would keep her on the floor. She’s a shooter. So she has a mentality that she’s going to do what she came to do, but in order to really help our cause on the perimeter, she has to play defense. Certainly that’s something she knows and understands. We’re expecting her to step up and continue that. If she can score 20 plus in a scrimmage, she has to be able to do that on Saturday (their first game) and so on.

BW: Shooter! We made her aware of that. She’s going to be the one that probably sees the toughest defenders. There are things that we’ve asked her to do to make sure she’s not rattled by that. Utilize your post for screens and we’ve talked about that in all aspects of our offense, so she can understand what she has and will face this year.

BW: I think we’re going to use her in exactly where she’s been working the hardest, and that is with her back to the basket, finish more shots, and be more confident on the floor. She is a post that carries a little more diversity in that she can shoot from the outside. But her problem is her confidence. She’s got to have confidence to really excel and continue to excel on the floor. So when I tell you she’s a 2, she’s been in here working on it. She’s a player I can’t be more excited about the opportunity she’ll have in playing time this year.

BW: She’ll be backup point. She’s worked a lot and gained a lot in practice. She’ll be in the first rotation. Kanisha Ward will be the primary and Lowe will come in and give her relief. But I am excited to see her play. We’ve been talking about her greatest strength. She is so quick, so athletic, we’re looking for her to step up defensively and make a lot of plays for us. Again she has to keep the turnovers down. Backup point is a key position you have to know what’s going on, your options so she’s worked really hard to improve in those areas.

BW: I hope we do and I hope we make them! I think that is not going to be the total identity of our team, but certainly it’s a strength we’re going to use to spread out other defenders to keep our posts open and again, having Ta-Mara, Erica and Molly (6-1 Forward Sophomore Molly Fox). Molly looks great since being out with (her shoulder injury – which she hurt wrestling her larger brother during the summer!) and being back in practice she is so strong and has improved so much in her shots. She’s great. She’s was a crowd favorite and she’s going to be again this year because she’s so fearless. Yea I think our three point shot has to be respected this year. We have an inside/outside game and that’s all we need.

BW: And she’s not afraid to do it and that’s something we want to keep. There aren’t many posts that can actually stay with her. It’s a unique feature that’s part of her game that I think she has confidence with.

BW: Yea, I think being picked pre-season seventh is not something…if you remember the years that we actually went to the Championship game we were picked really low. It tends to motivate our players that, you know, if it’s respect they were looking for, they didn’t get it. So those years have been very, very good for us. Where our players have come to a humble position and realize that we’ve come too far, we’ve come a long ways in building this program, that people look at us and don’t want to be victimized by one or two or three players leaving. So I think they felt that was what the attention was and I think that’s what we’d want to know that one person doesn’t make who we are. They seriously are a team that’s ready to show things and improvement.

BW: Oh absolutely! Right we’re not a one person team.

BW: That’s a good question! The only thing that you know is Green Bay is tradition and has been for thirty plus years. I remember when I was at University of Wisconsin and they were building that team. Every year they were getting better and better and now they’ve turned into a recognizable program. That’s tradition. That’s what it does for you, so you can’t dismiss that forever. That’s a part of what they do. You know they lose five seniors and are still picked number one. So tradition you got to go with and that’s how you look at it. That’s what I look at. That’s who you got to beat and that’s who you focus on every year. Milwaukee I’m not sure what they’ll bring. Although our league has more improved teams since I got here. It’s been really exciting to see how we’ve improved overall as a league and the teams that play against us.

BW: Well, with the UCONN Game played on Dec 31st 2002 (in the Nutter Center) and we packed the house. So we’re hoping that December 2nd although our students aren’t on campus, we are still looking to draw the community as well as some high school programs. The community wants good basketball, so they’ll come out. They came for UCONN and that’s what we want to do for this game.

BW: Yea that is a great game and we get lots more fans at the game and we want to keep that going. So that’s very important to us to keep that Jam going.