BATON ROUGE – LSU women’s basketball head coach Nikki Caldwell met with the media on Wednesday afternoon to wrap up the completed season, the state of the program and what lies ahead for the Lady Tigers for the upcoming 2015-16 season.
LSU (17-14, 10-6 SEC) collected a Top 4 finish in the SEC and its fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance under Caldwell. The Lady Tigers also have secured a trio of 20-plus win seasons and have reached at least 10 SEC victories three times under Caldwell.
Danielle Ballard garnered WBCA All-Region, All-SEC First-Team and All-SEC Defensive-Team honors. She was the only player to rank among the SEC’s Top 10 in four major statistical categories – points, rebounds, assists and steals.
For all of the latest news and information on Lady Tiger basketball, visit www.LSUsports.net.womensbasketball. Fans also can follow the program on its social media outlets at www.Facebook.com/LSUwbkb, @LSUwbkb and @NikkiCaldwell on Twitter, @LSUwbkb and @LSUNikkiCaldwell on Instagram.
LSU Women’s Basketball Media Session
March 25, 2015
Opening statement …
“We, as a staff every year, talk about the goals and what we want to accomplish with the current team. Obviously, when you lose great players in that previous class like Jeanne (Kenney), Theresa (Plaisance) and Shanece (McKinney), you look at players that can come in and really be contributors immediately. We were obviously faced with the challenge of competing at a high level in our nonconference schedule without our best player, Danielle Ballard, but I was extremely proud of the young ladies effort to continue to keep us in games and win games for us during a very trying time for our team. The maturity of this team to respond when one of your teammates is missing from game action, that showed a lot of character. I’m proud of our team for responding even more so with the return of Ballard. We were able to finish fourth in conference play, which is something that a lot of teams strive for because of the seeding (at the conference tournament). Our team was able to do that because we had all of the pieces of the puzzle intact. We are again excited at the fact that we were selected to compete in the NCAA Tournament although we fell short of our goal to continue to advance. The experience that the young ladies had in their run and the experience of having your name called on selection Monday, those are memorable things. Those are things that they will be able to take with them forever. We are looking forward to the next upcoming season.”
On the difference of having Danielle Ballard all of next season …
“I think her play in conference says it all that we were a better team. Raigyne Moncrief played much more at ease. She played like, you know if you had the combination of Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan or Dwayne Wade and LeBron (James), she was able to play that way. I’m excited that we will have not only Danielle Ballard start not only the season with us, but we also have Alexis Hyder who will be eligible to play. She is someone that will be able to complement those players that we just talked about, but it will be great to have the leadership of Ballard on the floor from the get. Obviously in summer workouts, she was phenomenal for us last summer, and I expect the same thing from her this summer.”
On the timetable for Anne Pedersen to make her decision to return to the team for next season …
“We actually had a chance to meet today. I talked to her about taking her time and not rushing into the decision to leave or to stay and to really talk it through with her family. She’s on schedule to graduate in May. She has a year left, and we are going to respect that.”
On the recruiting process and improving the team’s size in the frontcourt …
“We had a situation where we brought in Ann Jones last year, and this year she wasn’t at healthy as we would have liked for her to have been. She missed practices, and she is someone that we are definitely going to count on next year. We also brought in a freshman, Alliyah Fareo, who also missed four-to-six weeks due to a hand injury during the season. Those are our two taller players if you will. We have a young lady coming in, 6’2 power forward Ayana Mitchell, who will add some size. Although Alexis Hyder is maybe six-foot on a good day, she plays way bigger than that. I’m excited that she’ll be adding more strength and more offensive punch. She’s a player that’ll stand in there and take charges. She’s a great rebounder, and then obviously we will have Akilah Bethel back as well.”
On the possibility of adding players between now and next season…
“If there’s a player out there that feels the void of size, athleticism, the ability to rebound and defend – we’re going to pay close attention to that type of player. We’re not looking to fill our roster. I like the nucleus that we have returning. I like the addition of the players that we have coming in.”
On anticipating players stepping up from this season to next season …
“The one thing about this group is that everybody has improved in some way. You look at Sheila Boykin. She is someone who saw limited minutes last year and averaged two points per game. To see the role that she played for us this year … Anne Pedersen is another player who improved dramatically from last year. I like the play of Danielle Ballard and Raigyne Moncrief. There is always room for improvement, but I want to see our post game development. I want to play close attention to someone like Akilah Bethel improving. Ann Jones came on late for us and played some valuable minutes. She is someone who I also want to see improve.”
On the program returning to a championship level…
“I think our team is definitely shown that even with the loss of your best player, you can still compete at a high level. When you walk into the PMAC and you see the names in the rafters and you see the banners, that’s what we want to have. We want to be that team that every year is going after championships, SEC and NCAA. We have been, if you really think about it in basketball terms, we’ve literally been 80 minutes away from advancing to a national championship game when you look at getting to two Sweet 16s. Then you look at how hard we’ve played and competed, you know 30 minutes against South Carolina in the SEC Tournament. If it’s a 30 minute game, we may win that one but it’s a 40 minute game. This team is right there. We had one of the toughest SEC schedules that the SEC could put together, and we were able to finish fourth behind South Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi State. This team, we’re right there of getting ourselves in position to be one of the best teams in the country.”
On next year’s nonconference schedule…
“We wanted to start a series. We will be playing at Rutgers and at UConn. We’re excited about that trip and what it could mean for your team. Obviously, Connecticut is the team to beat right now. If you can play a team like Connecticut, you have a shot at getting your team even more prepared and more ready for what’s to come in the SEC. We’ve already played Rutgers and started a series with them. I also think with what Connecticut is doing and historically what they’ve meant to the women’s game, it’s a great game for us to play in. I’ve been on the side at Tennessee, we’ve played at Connecticut. It’s a great environment, and you’re going to have 10,000 people screaming and yelling at you. Putting your team in that environment will be beneficial. ”
On DaShawn Harden and who will fill the three-point shooting void…
“Deshawn (Harden) is someone who can score the basketball. When she was able to knock down those threes’, it really opened things up for us. We have, with the return of Anne Pedersen, she’s someone who will also be a three-point threat. We also have a young freshman in Jenna Deemer whose is percentage wise very accurate from the three-point line. We’re going to be expecting her to step out and take on more of that ownership. Alexis Hyder is also someone who can really knock down the three balls so you’ve got a power forward that can play inside and play outside. We’re excited about the contribution that she will be able to make. I’m going to give Ann Jones more freedom from there as long as she gets in the gym. She’s somebody who has shown in practice that she can make three’s, and we’re going to explore her being another option for us in that trail spot.”
On Raigyne Moncrief going forward…
“She obviously was rehabbing the entire summer, and she really did a nice job. Sometimes when you tear your ACL, you’re still not mentally over the tear. I felt as though she had the confidence to play at that elite level athletically again. Her numbers obviously showed that. She’s somebody that every year she’s gotten better, and every year she has added a layer to her game. I remember her first year, she was just running everybody over. People were standing in there and taking charges. Now, she’s playing more controlled. I want her to be more of a vocal leader for our team. Obviously, she’s a great athlete but her ability to get other players involved is something that I’m going to challenge her to do more of too.”
On the goals for last season and if the team was able to accomplish them…
“The first goal that we talked about was no man left behind. We wanted to establish the mindset of everything we do we do as a unit. Our goal defensively was to keep our opponents in the 50s. We wanted to and at one point we were leading the conference in steals. We wanted to be one of the best defensive teams in that since in turning people over. That was a goal of ours. We wanted to offensively have a balanced attack. As you can see, we changed our line up a little bit and put Anne Pedersen in that stretch four position to allow us to have more dribble drive lanes. We became one of the best balls screens playing out of that where people really had to change their defensive scheme and really pay a lot of attention of how we come off those screening actions. Those were kind of like our numerical goals, but obviously you want to get to the SEC championship game. You want to be competing and having the strategy with play calls and having the experience cutting down nets at the tournament. NCAA will always be a goal of ours, not just to get in the NCAA Tournament, but to win a national championship.”