It's December. Relax!

Ask anyone who knows me, and they'll tell you basketball is my passion.  I know the sport inside and out, I played it, and I follow it as closely as I can.  I go to practices, I don't miss games, and I ask questions of players and coaches.  Not "how'd you feel about your performance?" questions, the "when you came off that staggered screen, what did you see?" questions.

For this reason I've apparently become the person everyone asks about our basketball teams in the media, which is fine with me, and I'm more than happy to respond with my opinion or with what I see as the answer.  The question I've gotten the most lately is "what's wrong with our girls?" So here's the answer.

Much like I discussed in my first blog (www.mtsusidelines.com/blog-1.109/the-wild-world-of-sports), in order to win basketball games you have to put the ball in the basket.  This is the "problem" with the Lady Raiders this year.  Their simply not shooting well, and they know it.  There has been one game where all the shooters were on and they put up 94 points and housed the defending national runner up in Louisville. 

Ok so that leads to the next question: why?

I think that part of it is the pressure of expectations.  To a man they said the goal this year was to get to San Antonio and the Final Four.  This is a dangerous thing to shoot for for this reason: you take the risk of not looking game to game and looking too much big picture.

I don't think the first part of the problem. With all due respect to any coach I ever had and Coach Davis and the men's staff, Rick Insell is the best coach I've ever seen.  He doesn't let the team ever look past a game, but at the same time it's got to be in the back of everybody's mind.  That kind of thing can weigh on you and the statistics say it is.

Going into the game versus Louisville, Brandi Brown, who can shoot with anyone in the country (and I'm not kidding when I say anybody) was shooting 23% from the great beyond.  That's not going to stay that way and she has been solid the past few games. 

Anne Marie Lanning wasn't getting very many looks to start the year and wasn't hitting the few looks she did get.  Rhythm is a huge part of shooting and thus this is not only understandable but expected.

Jackie Pickel was off to start the year, but anyone who knows Jackie knew that wasn't going to last.  She works too hard.  (And if you don't know Jackie, why don't you meet her www.youtube.com/watch).  That being said, she was still on her game defensively and found other ways to contribute.

All of this is fine and dandy but at the end of the day you have to put the ball in the basket and Sunday at the aptly named Frost Arena against South Dakota State Middle Tennessee struggled again.  5-29 from 3. I'll do the math for you. That's 17%. I obviously don't endorse betting but if I did, I would put any amount of money on the fact that they won't shoot that poorly again.  Everyone has off nights, but a night that bad doesn't happen very often even with shooters half as good as the ones we have.

The other factor that has to be looked at here is the competition.  If I had told anyone on that team that going into conference play that they would have four losses they would have looked at me like I lost my mind, but they really don't have a "bad" loss.  Sure the losses haven't been pretty and in that respect I'm sure the players, coaches, and fans are disappointed and that disappointment is quite honestly fair. 
This team was supposed to be able to compete with the LSU's, Xavier's, and Tennessee's of the world and they can.  But they didn't.  And as for Sunday, South Dakota State is a good team, a really good team.

But let's have a little perspective.  MT opened the season against defending Conference USA champion UCF and beat them by 20 while playing at best a mediocre game.  The one "A" game the Lady Raiders have played this year was against Louisville and, as I said, they put up 94 points.

So once again, that's all fine and dandy, but what's the solution?

For one, patience.

Conference season starts Sunday and is on for good after the Dec. 28th game vs Kentucky.  That's the important season.  What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and trust me, this team isn't dead yet. 

For two, show them your support.

This is one of the tightest teams I have ever seen.  They truly love each other and they love this community.  They don't want to let each other down and they don't want to let you, the fan down.  Let them know you still support them by showing up to the games. These players thrive under pressure.  Jackie Pickel's biggest game was against Tennessee.  Alysha Clark and Chelsia Lymon always can sense when they need to kick it into that proverbial "extra gear."  Give them the environment to thrive and they will. 

And last but not least, sit back, relax, and be thankful that you've been given such quality team on and off the court.  Sure the on court results haven't been exactly what everyone planned, but have you looked at a calendar lately?  It's December people.  There are two and a half months and all of conference season until march and if you think this is going to last you are out of your mind.  I go to practices and the same shooters that have struggled in games are shooting just fine in practice so they haven't lost anything.  Also they've done it in the past so there's no need to think they can't do it in games.

But notice that I didn't just say on the court, I said off.  Coach Davis does an amazing time with the boys team of getting out into the community and its well documented on what kind of young man Coach Stockstill is looking for on his football team, but there is no other group of student athletes in the world I'd rather be represented as as a student than the Lady Raider Basketball team. 
They are an intelligent group that is well spoken, care about the community, and are all genuinely nice people.  I don't know all the girls, but I can honestly say some of my favorite moments of being a media member happened before or after interviews off camera with the girls I have gotten to interact with.

In short, relax people! It's the holiday season! Give thanks for a wonderful team that is led by a tremendous coach and WILL figure things out before long.  Treat yourself by going to the games and enjoying a few solid hours of quality entertainment and scream your head off for the blue team (or against the guys in the stripes, MT fans are really good at that).

In the meantime, I'll gladly take the next question.