MOBILE, Ala. – Tuesday was a busy day for one other member of the University of South Alabama women’s basketball program as head coach Rick Pietri fielded questions from members of the media from around the league as part of the conference’s annual media day via teleconference.  

Below are some highlights from the Lady Jaguar head coach’s segment.

SUN BELT MEDIA DAY RECAP

OPENING STATEMENT BY SOUTH ALABAMA HEAD COACH RICK PIETRI
“We’re looking forward to another year in the Sun Belt Conference.  We have a solid group of returning players to go along with a nice group of young players who have joined our program.  Our newcomers are gifted and we feel that with seasoning and with experience that group can begin to make contributions to our program as well.   We’re looking forward to competition beginning.  We have a closed scrimmage coming up and subsequently will have an exhibition game against West Florida on Nov. 5 and then we open up with Houston Baptist on the road on Nov. 9 leading into the rest of the season.  We’re looking forward to competing and after 15 practices now, our players are looking forward to playing against someone other than themselves.”

ON WHO OUT OF THE GROUP OF NEWCOMERS HE EXPECTS TO STEP IN AND CONTRIBUTE EARLY AND IF ANYONE HAS ALREADY STOOD OUT EARLY IN PRACTICE:
“Frankly, I like all six of our newcomers.  In terms of any of them jumping out, if you were to look at them in a layup line, the one that would catch your eye first would be (Breanna) Wright who is from Greenville, Miss.  I say that just because she’s a big, strong young woman.  She’s 6-1 and an athlete who in high school was a state shot put and discus champion in Mississippi.  She’s got a lot of brute strength.  She came into our program this summer and was already lifting as much or more weight than any of our returning players that we have on our roster.  She’s also very skilled and has the ability to face the basket and shoot the three-point shot.  In terms of just appearance, you would notice her first.”

“Like all of our new people, she’s figuring out both a new style of offense and defense.  All our young players are trying to adjust to that new style.  Early on, it’s common for them to look almost handicapped from the standpoint that they are trying to get it right.  When you’re trying to get it right, it sometimes makes you look a step slow.  In terms of Bri’s case, as well as with our other new players, with each passing day of practice, things get better.  As we get into the non-conference portion of our schedule, we expect things to continue to get better.  I look for some specifically good things out of Breanna this season.”

“Meghan Dunn is the only junior college player that we brought in this year.  She was the player of the year in Alabama.  She’s a solid guard who is very steady and an excellent three-point shooter.  She makes very good decisions and to this point in practice, has shown that she is someone we can rely on.  Frankly, all the newcomers on our roster are gifted enough to make some type of positive impact for us this year.”

ON WHAT HIS EXPECTATIONS ARE THIS SEASON FOR PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE SELECTIONS MANSA EL AND MARY NIXON:
“It’s Mansa’s third year in our program.  She had a medical redshirt her first year in our program.  She carries herself with a lot of maturity and has already displayed early on this season for us that she is a leader and someone that our young players look up to.  She knows how to function in this program in every single way – athletically, academically, socially – she knows how to function.  Everybody on our roster looks up to her.  She was an all-conference player last year and led us in scoring from the point guard position, but she is versatile enough to play at any of the perimeter positions for us.  Defensively, she can cover anyone of the three perimeter positions and on offense, she has both the ability to shoot it and get to the basket.  We’re looking forward to some positive things from her this year.”

“I’m really excited about the progression of Mary as a player.  She has shown in our practices so far that she’s grown as a player.  She’s physically stronger that she was before and that’s allowing her to make more plays and be more consistent than she was in the past.  Mary is somebody who last year had some great games and also had some games where her results weren’t as eye popping.  We feel with her increased strength that she’s gained that she’s going to be more consistent and someone that we can definitely rely on game-to-game.”

ON HOW PLAYING TOUGH COMPETITION CAN HELP THE LADY JAGS BEFORE THEY GET INTO SUN BELT CONFERENCE PLAY:
“We have a number of postseason teams that we will see on our schedule this season.  When you talk about the non-conference portion, the average fan will notice Southern Miss because they are a Conference USA opponent coming into our building.  They’ll notice us going to play in California with the possibility of playing Penn State and not knowing that at the same tournament, Cal State Northridge and Detroit were both in the WNIT.  I spoke with Northridge’s coach early and said that there’s going to be a good team leave their tournament with two losses.  You have three teams that were in the postseason a year ago.  Penn State was not only in the NCAA tournament, but was also ranked in the top 25.  The interesting this year to me with the schedule is the incredibly early conference start.  Playing conference games the first week of December is going to be different simply because we are used to having about four to six weeks of non-conference play to get everybody up to speed.  Obviously, I feel we hit the fire early with these conference games beginning in December.”

OTHER THAN NIXON AND EL, WHOIS HE EXPECTING TO FILL VOIDS LEFT FROM A SHOOTING AND REBOUNDING PERSPECTIVE:
“Camille Reynolds was a player for us last year that came off the bench and was our third-leading scorer last season.  She actually played better during the non-conference portion of the season than she did in conference play, and we’re looking for her to be more consistent.  She’s worked extremely hard in the off season.  She’s a tough kid who competes and shoots the ball very well.  We feel that from a returning player standpoint, that Camille is somebody who can fill the void that (the graduation of) Sarda (Peterson) left on the offensive perimeter.”

“We’re looking for Veronica Cherizol, Ronneka Robertson and Jennifer Johnson – three of our returning post players – to make some positive contributions.  Last season, Ronneka actually averaged more rebounds per game than anyone on our team in terms of per minutes played, so we know that she can rebound the ball.  We just need her to be more consistent in certain areas of her game and she has shown a lot of progress.

We are expecting a lot out of our three returning post players, along with (Bri) Wright who I mentioned before.  She’s a player who averaged about 18 rebounds a game out of high school.  Of course we know that high school basketball is a lot different than Division I.  Those are the players we are looking to take up the slack.”

AS ONE OF THE MOST TENURED COACHES IN THE LEAGUE, WHAT HIS THOUGHTS ARE ON THE LEAGUE AND WHAT HE EXPECTS FROM THE LEAGUE WITH AN ABUNDANCE OF NEW COACHES IN THE SUN BELT:
“In terms of being at one institution, I’m the fourth-longest tenured coach in the league right now.  Coach (Cindy) Russo (Florida International), coach (Brian) Boyer (Arkansas State) and coach Mona Martin have been at their schools longer than I have, but none the less like you said, that buts me in the upper third of the league.  When you’ve been in the league for a while, you have a level of familiarity and have a bit of an idea of what’s coming from week-to-week.  Obviously, we’ve got a lot of new coaches in the league this year and that’s going to be different.  We’ve never had the kind of turnover in the conference like we had this past year, where essentially half of the coaches from the league turned over.  When you play people regularly, you get a little bit of a feel of what that coach does and how they function, but now there’s going to be a lot less familiarity in terms of the coaches in our league because of the turnover and the new coaches with new systems.  To me, looking at the new systems that we are going to see from all of the new coaches and how it affects the wins and losses is going to be the most interesting thing this season.”
 
LADY JAGS ON THE TV
It was also announce on Tuesday that the Lady Jags will play two regular season games on television this season.  USA’s home game versus Florida Atlantic on Feb. 9, 2013 will be televised on the Sun Belt Network. The network is a partnership between the conference and Cox Sports Television (CST) and Comcast Sports Southeast (CSS).  South Alabama will also be able to be seen on ESPN3 on Feb. 20, 2013 when the Lady Jags travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to take on Middle Tennessee.

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com.  Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

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