The LSU Lady Tiger Basketball team is halfway through its Silver Anniversary season, and despite having to battle injury after injury in the backcourt, the Lady Tigers have amassed a 10-2 record heading into the heart of SEC play. The Lady Tigers play host to Tennessee on Thursday night and Mississippi St. Sunday afternoon before a two-game road strech. Joey Papania from LSUsports.net sat down with Head Coach Sue Gunter on Wednesday to discuss the Lady Tigers season.
Papania: Can you talk briefly about how the guards have progressed with the loss of sophomore Kisha James. And how important was it getting Angela Crockett back in the line-up?
Gunter: When we started the year with Kisha James, everything looked so good. Then she went down, and at the same time Angela Crockett had a stress fracture in her foot and was unable to play, and Danielle Traylor was not enrolled in school yet. Suddenly we went from four very good guards to just one guard. We struggled our first two of games and ended up splitting them. Angela returned, I believe, against St. Bonaventure and blended very well with Marie (Ferdinand) and (Katrina) Hibbert who moved from the three to the two. Now that Danielle is here, things look better for us at that position.
Papania: Has Angela fully recovered from her injury?
Gunter: She’s fine. We really haven’t given Angela Crockett the respect and the credit she deserves in the part that she has played in our 10-and-2 start. To step up and play the point position at this level really speaks well, not only for her ability, but also for her intelligence.
Papania: With the backcourt as thin as it was to start the season, did you expect this team to rattle off ten straight wins?
Gunter: Probably not. You always hope things will turn out well, but you need people to step up. I will say this, the one thing we have is an experienced basketball team. Most of the players this year have played before which helps to balance things. April Brown has picked up her point production and everyone else has raised their game a little more. I’m pleased more than surprised.
Papania: You talk about players having to raise their game. There are three freshmen on the team this year in Ke-Ke Tardy, Kaisha Lymon, and Jamie Hawkins . How have these three improved as the season has progresses?
Gunter: Ke-Ke Tardy started off immediately with quality minutes for us. If I had to focus on Ke-Ke specifically, I know she can shoot the basketball, but she’s been defending better, she’s been boarding better, and she understands her role on the floor much better, especially over the last five games. Now in the last two to three games, we’ve been able to get Jamie Hawkins into the game more, and we’ve been able to get Kaisha into the game more. Jamie is perhaps a little better offensive player than is Kaisha, but they have both had to pick up the slack because Jamilah Johns has been injured. Hopefully we’ll have Jamilah back to give us some minutes against Tennessee. These freshmen have been getting their baptism by fire, enough so that now I feel confident that they can come in and give us some quality minutes.
Papania: That’s going to be big now that the heart of the SEC schedule is here. You already have a win against Georgia earlier this season, now you have to host Tennessee and a Mississippi St. team that has already beaten Louisiana Tech. Do you feel the team is prepared for this stretch?
Gunter: I don’t know how anyone really prepares for Tennessee, because they probably garner more respect than anyone else in the country. You just have to hope you bring your A game and that Tennessee brings a little less than their A game. Then you just back your ears and play your best and live with the outcome. But then a very very good Mississippi St. team comes in here on Sunday. Mississippi St. is another team that we play twice, once here and then on the road at the end of the month. So that’s a game we feel we’ve got to win at home. Then we have to go to Arkansas, and then to Kentucky. Again, you’re looking at two SEC road games and you’ve got to have at least one of them. Really when your looking at the next four games, including the Tennessee game, you have to at least split. If we get three of those four that would be great, but Mississippi St. is going to bring the best team I’ve seen since I’ve been at LSU.
Papania: You’ve had recent success against Tennessee. What have you and your coaching staff done to be successful against what is probably the elite team in women’s college basketball to date?
Gunter: We have had recent success, but then you look at the number of times that we’ve beaten them, and they’ve beaten us about twenty-seven. Our recent success has received a lot of attention, but I don’t think it’s anything more than knowing coach Summit and knowing the things she likes to do, she’s certainly not a predictable coach, but when push comes to shove their are certain things that she likes her kids to do. If you can at least expect what they’re going to do and counter it somewhat, then you have a chance to be in the game. And I think against the particular type of defense they play, if we run our motion offense very well and we screen well, it will give us an opportunity to get some easy baskets. That’s what happened to us last year, we executed extremely well and I don’t think they were quite ready to play that game, certainly not as ready as we were.
Papania: Finally, have there been any unexpected surprises or disappointments so far this season?
Gunter: I think the loss to Tulane was a disappointment. That will probably be a game we will look back upon and think that we should have won and did not. You have to give Tulane an awful lot of credit though. But the two games we’ve lost were probably two games we should have won. And then earlier in the year at Georgia is a game that, if you would have asked me before the season started, I think it would have been a game we would not have won. So what does a coach know? You just have to lace up your tennis shoes, toss it up, go out and play.