WORKING ON DEFENSE: The emphasis will again be on defense when the Middle Tennessee nationally-ranked women's basketball team takes on Lincoln Memorial in Murphy Center on Monday at 5:30 p.m. Following at 8 p.m, the Blue Raider men will take on North Alabama.
The Blue Raiders worked on defensive fundamentals in their 96-68 win over Carson-Newman on Nov. 2, but head coach Rick Insell was not impressed with the results.
"We had a lot of defensive breakdowns against Carson-Newman, and that is what we are working on in practice now," said Insell. "We'll continue to work on fundamentals for LMU, and I expect us to play better, but that could be Fool's Gold. We can't feel like we have solved all of our problems because we play well against Lincoln Memorial, but it will help. We got away with some things against Carson-Newman, but we won't be able to get away with them against Central Florida, LSU or Tennessee. They will kill us."
"Right now, we are leaving the gym wondering if the basketball has any air in it or not. But that is not all bad because we will come to the next practice and get better. And we'll have to have some offensive practices like we had defensive practices."
FRESHMEN PLAY WELL: Insell noted that some of the freshmen players "did a little better than I would have anticipated" in the exhibition game against Carson-Newman. He singled out Kortni Jones, a 5-9 guard from Oak Ridge, and Dymon Raynor, a 6-3 forward from Smyrna, as being those who impressed him. Jones scored five points, including a 3-pointer, and dished out three assists in 10 minutes. Raynor had five points and one defensive rebound in seven minutes.
INSELL ON OFFENSE: "We had some problems with our offensive execution against Carson-Newman. We know what we are supposed to do, we just didn't do it. You can get caught up in the scoring instead of the game, and that is one of the things we talked about after the game. We have to quit looking at the scoreboard. We want to score, but you can't get caught up in that part of the game, and that is what we did. We forgot about offensive fundamentals."
INJURY REPORT: Insell said Dr. Tom Johns and team trainer Alison Ness had told him that junior forward Emily Queen was ahead of schedule in her rehabilitation of the surgery on her knee. Still, Insell is being cautious about Queen's playing time when the time comes.
"Knowing Emily as I do, she is going to do everything she can to get playing time," said Insell. "We have to be careful of that because we don't want her to come back in and over-exert, and put too much pressure on that knee. The main thing with Emily will be trying to rein her in.
"I'd very much like to have her for the first four games (with UCF, LSU, Austin Peay and Tennessee) because we'll have to face a lot of athleticism. We are going to face a lot of aggressive people that go to the boards. We are also going to face some big people out on the perimeter that need to be defended, and Emily fits the bill on all of that."
"Right now it is a day by day thing," stated Queen. "Each day I do a little more and get a little stronger. I get to start running again today (Thursday).
"All along my goal has been to play the first game, and it's up in the air right now. I don't want to push it, but at the same time it's really hard to sit and watch. Monday (vs. Carson-Newman) was really tough, but I started cheering my team on. Last year I missed the last home game with my foot in a cast. It's been tough. I want to play at home."
MONDAY DOUBLEHEADER: Both of the MT women's and men's basketball teams will be in action on Monday night, November 9. The women will play Lincoln Memorial at 5:30 pm and the men will take on North Alabama at 8. There will be no admission charge for these exhibition games. Both games will be broadcast live on the Blue Raider Network with Dick Palmer and Duane Hickey describing the action. Because of the weekly Monday night airing of the Rick Stockstill Show, the broadcast of the basketball doubleheader will only be available online on GoBlueRaiders.com, where fans may sign up and order the broadcast. SEASON TICKETS: Season tickets for both women's and men's basketball games at MT remain on sale at the MT Ticket office. Fans may call 615-898-5621, or 1-880-YES-MTSU, or order on-line at GoBlueRaiders.com.
HALLOWEEN PARTY: The annual Halloween Party at Coach Insell's house was a huge success. Insell noted that all of the members of the team came dressed in costume, and did a good job of meeting the public and handing out candy.
"They handed out a lot of candy," he said. "At one time there were 200 people in my front yard. It is a special time that the girls enjoy."
Print this article
Share on Facebook
