“We’re expecting a lot more energy. We’re expecting a lot more mature group. We’re expecting them to play hard every practice and every game; and we’re hoping for a little better health,” said head coach Bill Reinson.
This season the team is bringing back every player from last year, but 6’4 forward Heather Tobeck (graduated). Reinson believes, if she stays healthy this season, sophomore forward Emily Nylen (6’5) will be able to help replace the down-low presence Tobeck brought.
Besides having the same team roster as last season, and two new freshman, Reinson and the coaching staff have changed everything.
“We have two freshman coming in who I think by midseason will be playing valuable minutes for us. What else has changed? Pretty much everything else. I didn’t like the way we played last year,” said Reinson. “Our tempo was too slow, we’re too small to play at that tempo, so this season so far we’ve been working on pushing the ball in transition, high pressure defense, and a lot of traps. Maybe playing at a little bit more frenetic pace would be the best way to describe it.”
Last season the team went 8-22, with a conference record of 5-15; good enough to be ninth out of eleven.
The Lancers were hurt by injuries throughout all of last season, only playing a handful of games with the same starting five, but Reinson still believes that wasn’t what kept them from winning.
“The biggest problem we had last year, to be honest, wasn’t necessarily the injuries. The problem was they would then sit out three or four days or two weeks, and they wouldn’t be able to practice with the rest of the group. So, there was a lack of congruity among the group,” said Reinson. “So, the injuries themselves, outside of Daeisha Brown, weren’t the cause of the issues. It was the fact that they haven’t played together enough and weren’t familiar with each other enough.”
Reinson believes there are many players that need to step up, but in particular he believes junior guards Deborah Headen, Daeisha Brown, Raven Williams and, once fully healthy, Khalilah Ali.
“I think everybody does need to take a step-up. Deborah Headen took a huge step-up this summer. Daeisha Brown being back healthy is going to help us. Khalilah Ali returning from her knee injury, she’s been pretty good, she hasn’t gotten back to 100% yet but she’s been pretty good,” said Reinson. “Individually the one that really needs to take the step is Raven Williams because Raven had a tough season on and off the court and it’s one of those situations where we really need her energy, we really need her ability to pass, we need her leadership. So, she has to get her mind right and she has to take a step-up and be the vocal and physical leader of the team.”
In the Big South Conference preseason rankings Longwood was voted ten out of eleven by the league’s head coaches. Reinson believes with the Big South Conference there’s only three teams (Liberty, High Point, Winthrop) who are for sure the top teams, but after that it’s basically a situation of “four through eleven, you can throw them all in a hat and pick them out.”
The 2014-2015 women’s basketball begins on Sat, Nov. 15 at 2 p.m. in Winston-Salem, N.C. against the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest University.
