Coaches Corner: Steve Curtis, Ladies Basketball
Coaches Corner: Steve Curtis, Ladies Basketball
2-28-08
Hello again;
We pulled into the Gold Dome parking lot about nine Tuesday morning after another inconsistent road trip. We played pretty well in spurts against Western Illinois but our game at IUPUI didn't have many bright spots. Tuesday night's practice was the best one we have had in quite some time. The players were aggressive, attentive, and anxious to put the previous night's game behind them. We followed that up with good ones on Thursday and Friday which gave me a good feeling going into the weekend games.
While practice is obviously a big focus for us this time of year, KC, Bojan, and I have spent quite a bit of time on the road recruiting recently as well. We've taken in several games and practices on our days off and we have seen quite a few young ladies that we would like to join our program. I feel pretty good about the foundation we are laying for the upcoming seasons but we have to add quite a few more pieces to the puzzle over the next couple of years. We signed two very good players during the early signing period in November, and we have room for a few more. It seems to be going pretty well so far but we won't know for sure until April. If we get the young ladies we are recruiting now we will have a very good team in the near future. We will better in any event as our players continue to mature and put their experience to good use.
In addition to our final two home games, we had a couple of recruits on campus this weekend. That makes for a very busy time for our players; not only do they have to catch up on their academic work and prepare for games, they also have to show the recruits around and give them an idea of what life as a student athlete is like here. Friday night everyone came to my house so our players could get to know the recruits better. It was a fun evening; there were a few spirited tennis matches on the Wii upstairs and a few passes thrown with the football outside. I think we may have a few potential quarterbacks and a receiver or two on our team; at least you would think that if you heard them describe a few of their throws and catches.
Saturday we hosted Southern Utah and got off to a pretty rocky start; we were down ten about midway in the first half. I was pretty confident, though, because we were executing our offense well and getting very good shots at the basket for the most part. During the media time outs we talked about staying confident and continuing to do the things we were doing until the shots started to fall. It was also important to sustain the effort on defense that we had given to that point. We finished the first half on a 16-5 run to take the lead into the locker room. We led throughout the second half, and with just under four minutes to play we had a semi-comfortable eight point lead. Never ones to do things the easy way, however, we watched as Southern Utah pulled back within one. Sarah hit a big shot to put us back up three, and from there we went on to a six point win. Everyone contributed to the victory, which was the result of our best defensive work in some time. I was very proud for our players. They have continued to press on when things have not gone our way. It was good to see them rewarded for their efforts.
Monday night's game was a little more special than most. We hosted UMKC with a chance to catch them in the standings, and it was to be the last home game for Brittany. Senior nights are always emotional, and this one would be no exception. As is our custom lately we fell behind early but we fought back to go into halftime down by two. The second half was close all the way, and with about three minutes to go we had a shot at the lead. Unfortunately the ball went in and out. We had a couple of defensive breakdowns towards the end and ended up losing a heartbreaker. As I said on the radio the worst thing about the night was our inability to end Brittany's home career in the manner she deserved. We had our ceremony after the game, and for the first time in my career the underclassmen had a gift for a graduating senior in addition to the ones given by the coaches. Everyone in our program has the greatest respect for Britt, and we know she will be a success in whatever she decides to do with her life. It has been a privilege to coach her, but we aren't done yet. There is still quite a bit of basketball to play.
Along those lines we are off to the Dakotas this weekend. An early look at the weather indicates high temperatures will be in the teens (I don't even want to think about the lows) so we are packing every parka we can find. They are two of the best teams in the conference but we played each of them very well at home in early December. That seems like years ago, but hopefully we can draw on our performance then and put together 80 minutes of good basketball Saturday and Monday. It's important for us to build some momentum as we head into the conference tournament. Check back next week and I'll let you know how we did.
Go Centenary!
2-15-08
Last week started out on an incredibly sad note. Sunday morning as I was on my way to church I received an e-mail saying Matthew Campbell had passed away. Only a couple of days before the entire Centenary community gathered at the Fitness Center to make a video for Matthew and his family; in it a camera circled the track as if it were Matthew as students, faculty, staff, and friends cheered for him to continue on. It was an emotional scene to say the least; I saw more than a few tears as the camera went around to cheers of "Matthew! Matthew!" Several people held up signs of encouragement. At his funeral a few days later the chapel on campus was filled with people whose lives Matthew touched. It was a beautiful celebration of his life, although there is nothing on this earth sadder than the funeral of a child. My heart aches for Francine, Sid, and the rest of his family. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with them.
During Wednesday's practice Michelle grabbed a rebound and took off up the court. Suddenly she grimaced and stopped in her tracks. She had strained her arch and was in quite a bit of pain. The worst part for her is she was having her best practice in awhile and was playing very well. Unfortunately she is going to be out for a few weeks until she heals. We will miss her energy and tenacity on the boards until she returns.
When we played Oakland earlier this season it was not pretty; we had one of our worst games of the year and had not played well at all. They are one of the top teams in our league, and they are very difficult to play against. We have been practicing well lately so I was confident we could win if we executed and played to our potential. I was almost correct; late in the game the margin was six points and you could see our confidence growing. Then as Karolina was getting back on defense she tripped and put her arm down to break her fall. Instead, she injured her wrist and had to be taken out of the game. During the timeout as Karolina was being treated you could see our players looking around at each other as if to say "what can go wrong next?" At first we feared it was broken, but as it turned out it was only sprained. From that point on Oakland pulled away to win a game that was pretty competitive throughout.
You may have noticed last weekend was "Think Pink" weekend in college basketball. If you watched any games you saw teams around the country wearing pink uniforms, warm-ups, shoestrings, etc. The Women's Basketball Coaches Association did this in an effort to raise awareness of Breast Cancer. It is a horrible disease that has affected thousands around the world, including Kay Yow, the coach at North Carolina State who is battling it as she coaches her team. I have only coached against her once �- while I was at Ole Miss we played her team in the NCAA Tournament round of sixteen. We were fortunate to win and go on to the elite eight, but her teams have always been very well prepared for whatever they face. It strikes close to home for me in another way as well. Someone in my family is also fighting this disease and we are seeing its effects first hand. Our players warmed up in pink shirts, and our coaches wore pink as well �- Bojan had a pink shirt and KC suffered through wearing pink shoes that produced quite a few blisters. Me? I had a beautiful pink tie on Saturday and a pink shirt on Monday. Hopefully the contributions from around the country will get us closer to finding a cure.
The injuries to Karolina and Michelle left us with seven healthy bodies for the game with IPFW Monday evening. We got off to a slow start as they hit a few threes early to pull out to a nice lead. We had problems on the offensive end in the first half and were down pretty good at halftime. In the second half we finally got our offense going and shot 56% from the floor. That is what we are fighting right now: we play pretty well in stretches but then we have spells when we play poorly. The thing we are constantly talking with our players about is to keep improving and stay after it. Thus far they have and hopefully they will continue to do so. Admittedly, it gets tougher as we go along. It looks like we will get Karolina back this weekend as we go to Western Illinois and IUPUI, but Michelle looks to be doubtful. Regardless of who we have we are going to give it our best. It is just a matter of us putting together a complete game rather than having 30 or 35 good minutes. Check back next week and I'll let you know how we do.
Go Centenary!
2-4-08
Hello again from Centenary!
Thursday night after practice we loaded our bus and took off to Kansas City. Our bus has enough beds for everyone to sleep comfortably so we decided to drive up overnight rather than spend the day in airports Friday. We pulled into our hotel around 7:30 am, grabbed some breakfast, and headed over to Kemper Arena for practice at 11. I was looking forward to playing there; it is a historic old stadium like many others around the country. There have been numerous big tournaments in that building, including the Final Four won by Danny Manning and Kansas in 1988. While I remember watching that championship game with Oklahoma pretty vividly, a majority of our players here at Centenary hadn't been born when the game was played. I guess I'm getting old.
The game itself was like too many others lately. We got off to a decent start and were within a point a few minutes into it. Then we had breakdowns which cost us and we went into halftime down by a good bit. Coming out of the locker room we had a stretch of very good basketball and were in the game until the last couple of moments. We ended up losing by 11 - our inconsistency cost us again. Ashley played well offensively and Leslie had a very good game defensively, but all in all it adds up to another loss.
We left our hotel in Kansas City on Sunday at 4 a.m. heading for Southern Utah. I was disappointed the fountains outside the Bellagio weren't going as we drove over to the Forum Shops adjacent to Caesar's Palace. We had a long flight into Las Vegas and I wanted to let the players walk around for about 45 minutes to shake off the effects of the plane ride. From there it was over to Paris to hit the buffet. The architects did a great job of making the inside look like the streets of Paris, and of course there were lots of pictures taken by the Eiffel Tower.
After lunch we were back on the bus and off to Cedar City, Utah. It was raining so the sky was a mixture of grays; in fact the mountains gave the impression of a giant marble Bundt cake. Just above the desert floor was a layer of black, followed by the white of the fogs and clouds mixed in, with other layers of black, white, and deep gray. The top of the mountains were above the clouds, which added to the illusion.
About an hour north of Vegas you descend into the Virgin River Gorge, which the "river" carved over millions of years. Actually it's more like a creek �- when I think of a river I think of something more like the Mississippi where I grew up. As I thought of how long it took for the water to carve through the mountains and create the chasm my thoughts turned to our program. There are no shortcuts to building it successfully. We have to forge ahead, constantly keeping the pressure on to improve, and eventually we will shape Centenary Women's Basketball into something grand. We need some urgency because we don't have a million years to get it done.
The game with Southern Utah was one of the worst of the season for us. We started slowly and never recovered. There is a sign outside of the visiting locker room there that says "Welcome to Centrum Arena �- A mile high where the air is rare." We talked with our players about how it was put there to influence weak minded teams. In reality the altitude was not a factor in the game at all. During the first few minutes of play we made several defensive miscues to give them easy shots. A few weeks ago we were at the top of the conference in three point percentage defense, but in two of the last three games we have given up numerous wide open looks behind the arc. Consistency is not our strong suit, to say the least.
The rest of this column should be titled �'Another Glamorous Day in the Life of the College Athlete'. We met in the lobby of our hotel at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning after the Southern Utah game. Our flight was scheduled to leave Vegas at 7:15. I was trying to sleep on the bus around 5 a.m. when my phone rang. It was the airline letting me know our flight was delayed until 8:30. Not a problem, we ha
