Coaches Corner: Steve Curtis, Ladies Basketball
Coaches Corner: Steve Curtis, Ladies Basketball
1-3-07
Hello again from Centenary.
I often talk about the sacrifices college basketball players make to play the game they love, and another example of this is going on across America as I write. While 99% of college students are spending time between semesters with their families those who play basketball are hard at work. The Centenary Ladies reconvened on the afternoon of December 26th to begin preparing for the second half of our season. The first order of business was to make sure Santa had visited everyone. I felt like most of them were on the �'nice' side of the ledger but I was worried a couple may have been in the �'naughty' column. I shouldn't have been concerned, St. Nick made it to see everyone and they all enjoyed their Christmas. Centenary is very fortunate to have such an outstanding group of young ladies represent our school. As long as Santa doesn't consider defense or rebounding for the naughty file, they should be fine.
That first night went the way most do; not everyone was ready to put the holiday behind them and get on with the business of basketball. I always like to give the players five days off for Christmas �- the season is long enough and this gives them a chance to get away, recharge the batteries, and spend time with people they care about a great deal but don't get to see much during the school year. The flip side of this is it takes a little longer to work off the turkey and get back to the task at hand. We practiced Wednesday at four, Thursday and Friday twice (ten and four), then once Saturday and once Sunday to get ready for Sam Houston State. It's just our version of Holiday on the Hardwood. None of us were happy with the last game before Christmas, and the players put in a good week of work to make sure we were going to make things better.
Not everything during the holidays was good however. The MRI on Cierra's knee revealed a female basketball player's worst fear �- she had torn her ACL during the McNeese State game. C's year was off to a great start; she was in the top ten in the league in scoring, rebounding, and assists. Had she continued to play at this level, she would have been a first team All-Conference player for sure.
There are several things that are not fun for a coach but telling a player she's torn her ACL is right at the top of the list. She spent the fall waking up for conditioning at six in the morning. She fought through two-a-day practices, weight sessions, sprints, and everything else to be able to succeed at this time of year. With one sudden step her season is gone, and she will have to spend this winter and spring rehabbing her knee so she can go through it all again next year. But she is a terrific young lady, and I have no doubt she is ready to do what she has to do to join her teammates as soon as possible. More importantly, she will also continue to excel in the classroom and get a degree from Centenary that will make her life after basketball as good as it can be. Everyone knows they have to do a little more to make up for the loss of Cierra, but I am confident we are capable enough to get the job done.
On New Year's Eve at 2 p.m. we took the court for only the second time in 21 days to play a game. We had been through exams, holidays, and practices and were ready to see how we would do against someone else. I was optimistic since we had practiced pretty well at the end of the week. We also decided to start Bethany for the first time this season. She has been one of our most consistent and best players all fall but we liked the spark she could give us coming off the bench. After going back and forth it just came down to the fact she has earned the right to start. It turned out to be the right move, at least for now.
We got off to a slow start but hit our stride and managed to break out to a good lead (36-22) at halftime. The margin got as high as 27 and we ended up winning by the score of 74-62. Our defense was excellent for the first 32 minutes but not as good for the last eight. We have to learn to finish games off better, but figuring out how to protect a big lead is a good problem to have. Let's hope we have it more often. Several players had better than average grades led by Bethany (she also tied a school record for three pointers in a game with six), Sarah, Ashley, and Anne. As a team we had 19 assists on 21 baskets, which means we were sharing the basketball. That statistic (assists) is a pretty good indicator of how we are playing �- if we don't have many we are trying to do too much one on one.
Now it's on to the meat of the conference season. Preseason favorite Oral Roberts comes to the Gold Dome Saturday at three so we better be ready to go. They are big, they are strong, and they can shoot. This is the first half of a doubleheader with our men, so if you are near King's Highway come on in and see how the Ladies are faring. If not, as always, I'll keep you posted on how we do.
12-12-07
Hello again from Centenary
Last Thursday was one of those �'typical' days for college basketball players. We got in from our gut-wrenching double overtime loss at McNeese Wednesday night about 2:30 a.m. The players had to put that behind them and get up for early morning classes followed by practice at 11:00. Five players had played more than 37 minutes the night before, led by Anne with 46 and Karolina with 40. About halfway through practice I saw Karolina had something on her mind, and when I asked her about it she told me she had a big economics exam at 12:30. As we were running our closing sprints I noticed several ladies straining, and quite a few visited with Dustin (our trainer) as soon as we finished. We needed two days of preparation for our conference opener Saturday against North Dakota State, but looking back on it we probably would have been better off not practicing.
At the end of regulation against McNeese, Cierra made a nice defensive play to force a miss and send the game into overtime. However, in doing so she landed awkwardly and injured her knee. She sat out both overtimes, and has missed every game and practice since then. She is doing a good job of supporting her teammates while they are working, and I can see in her eyes how much she wants to be out there. We are still waiting on the result of an MRI to determine how long she will be out of the lineup. We miss her on the court, but while she is out everyone else (coaches included) will have to do whatever we can to fill in the gap losing her creates.
Thursday night Claire and I attended the Independence Bowl Team Announcement Party at the I-Bowl. We joined the Independence Bowl Foundation this summer as a way to get more involved with the community and meet people who live here and love sports. It was a fun evening; Nick Saban told a story about losing to UAB during his first season at LSU, and Coach Hawkins of Coloradotalked a little about coaching his son at quarterback. While Alabamavs. CU should be a very good game, I'll have to admit I was pulling for a few other teams to get here instead. From the SEC I would have enjoyed seeing my buddies at MississippiState, and I still have several friends from my two Big XII stops �- Texas A&M and Nebraska. Oh well, maybe next year. I met several people with Centenary connections and enjoyed my conversations with them, but the highlight of the evening was the crab claws from a local restaurant. Well, it was Claire's highlight anyway. She has already talked with the owner about catering some whenever we have people over.
Whether it was the nervousness of the first conference game or the trepidation of playing without our leading scorer, we got off to a shaky start Saturday against North Dakota State. At about the twelve minute mark Bethanywas driving to the basket and stepped on someone's foot, spraining her ankle. Just what we needed, right? We hung in there and with four minutes to go in the half we were down by six. Over the next three and a half minutes we gave up fourteen straight points and found ourselves down by 20. Again we fought back and gave ourselves a chance to win before losing by five. We outscored them for 36 minutes only to lose the game during that four minute span. I told our team in the locker room, "You know I love Cierra and Bethany, but do not think that had anything to do with us not winning this game. We don't make excuses, and the players who were in there were good enough to get a victory. We just have to eliminate our mistakes." Several players had outstanding grades led by Monique, Ashley, and Karolina.
After a light workout and film session Sunday we were back out there to take on South Dakota StateMonday night. Even though we missed several close shots early in the game we were up four late in the half. At halftime we were down by one, and we started the second half again missing some shots from around the basket. Our young players are adjusting to the physicality of the game at this level, and we are talking a lot about how we have to be strong enough to score against contact. This is college basketball, and just because you get bumped doesn't mean it's going to be a foul. This time the opponent's run came late, and what was a tight game with six minutes to play became a 16-point loss. The final score was not indicative of the closeness of the game. Our better than average grades came from Leslie, Karolina, and Sarah. Like I told our guys afterward, SDSU has wins over some outstanding programs in the last few years. That list includes Kentucky, Alabama, Southern California, and Oregon. They won 25 games last season and advanced deep into the WNIT. If we can play with them we can play with anyone. And when we reduce our mistakes we will beat them.
We are approaching a critical portion of our season. We don't play again until the 20th at NichollsState, and then we have several days before we play Sam Houston Stateon the 31st. That gives us three weeks with only one game, so we need to focus on getting better at the fundamentals and more consistent with our play. Of course we have final exams as well, so the players will have more than enough to occupy their time. Check back next week and I'll let you know what is happening with your Ladies.
Go Centenary
12-7-07
Hello again everyone,
The past week was one that reminds me of a line of poetry I learned in my younger days: For all the words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, "it might have been". That sums our week up perfectly. We had two games with in-state opponents, and each of them got away from us.
We had been looking forward to Saturday's game in the CenturyTel Centerfor quite some time. There were a variety of reasons for this. This building is one of the finest arenas in the country. I have coached in SEC and Big XII tournaments around the country, and CenturyTel is as good as or better than any of the facilities we used for those. It would be a great place to host a conference tournament or even an NCAA regional. It was good for our players to get the feel of what one of those is like, because the goal here is for us to develop our program into one that will participate in the NCAA Tournament soon. I have been fortunate to coach in a few of those, and hopefully our players will learn what a great experience it is to play in that environment. It takes a lot of work and sacrifice to make that happen though.
In the first game we scored first but then Lafayettewent on a run to take a thirteen point lead. Our team has a tendency to get impatient and take too many quick shots during these runs. It's almost like we are trying too hard and want to make good things happen. When we take our time and move the ball (and ourselves) we are pretty good offensively. We got back within two but had a breakdown and went to halftime down 10. With five minutes to play we were within two, but we had a miscommunication and left a shooter wide open and just like that we're down five. We ended up losing by seven to a team that returns six seniors from last year's NCAA Tournament team, but it was a chance to make a statement about where our program is headed that we let get away.
ULL is coached by one of my best friends, Errol Rogers. We coached together at Mississippi Stateand shared a lot of good times. We spoke briefly before the game, but afterward we spent about 30 minutes in the green room talking about each other's team's strengths and weaknesses. We were also watching the USC-UCLA football game because Errol is one of America's biggest USC fans. In fact his son, Errol Jr., really believes he is Reggie Bush. I remember him running around the court at MSU with his Reggie Bush jersey on at the age of three with a big smile on his face. He and his wife Damita have six children with the youngest three being the same age as mine. I don't know how they do it, it's all Claire and I can do to keep our three halfway in line. Damita has had some health issues lately so she and the kids didn't make it to the game but John, Mattie, and Katie were looking for them.
The second half of the doubleheader was our men's victory over Texas Tech. Our guys did a great job of hanging in there and pulled out a great win over one of the best programs in the nation. It just shows what can happen at Centenary �- I talk to alumni often and am always impressed by their love for our school. They talk of NCAA tournaments, the Gold Dome full of fans cheering and screaming, and the excitement the college and city had for our athletic programs. We are working to bring those times back.
Tuesday night we went to Lake Charlesto take on McNeese State. We got out to an early lead, but as always there were lapses that cost us dearly. In the second half, we were down by as many as nine but Bethanyhit a shot to give us a five point lead with just under four minutes to play. Then we made the exact same mistake that we had made when we were within two against ULL to give up an open three to bring them within two.
They ended up forcing overtime, and we had a couple of chances to win again at the end of the first extra period, but two close shots in the final five seconds rolled just off the rim. McNeese jumped to a seven point lead early in the second overtime, but I have to give our players credit �- they are battling. We fought back and took a one point lead with just under a minute to play. We stopped them on the next possession, but we didn't secure the rebound and they took advantage of their second opportunity to hit the game winning basket. We got a good look to pull it out it as the buzzer went off but in the words of Tim Brando, the iron was unkind. So what could have been a great ride home was another one of what might have been.
This week the Dakotas
