Dec. 30, 2015
By ANNA PITINGOLO, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.--Just before the New Year rolls in at midnight on Friday morning, a new phase of the season will be starting up for the Lady Lions basketball team Thursday afternoon. That new phase is the Big Ten portion of the schedule, and head coach Coquese Washington has her team prepared to face a strong conference this season.
"It's certainly different than non-conference play," Washington said. "We look at the season as phases; you have the non-conference phase, you have the conference phase, then you have the Big Ten Tournament and postseason play. We're in phase two and we're ready to get it going."
The Lady Lions open Big Ten play against Northwestern on New Year's Eve, and the road the team is travelling on will start to bring more challenges than what they have seen so far. Sophomore Lindsey Spann doesn't mind these new challenges. The guard is itching to get the conference season underway, and views it as a fresh start for the team.
"It's kind of like a new start to the season and we're taking it game by game," Spann said. "We're really excited to start off against Northwestern, and that's our focus right now, but Big Ten play is always exciting for us."
With non-conference play behind them, Washington and her staff have learned a lot about their young team since November. The one thing that Washington has noticed in that time period is her team's tendency to be inconsistent. Non-conference opponents saw games that had a solid defensive showing but a poor offensive output, and vice versa.
"I think the biggest thing for us is consistency and putting both [parts of the game] together in the same game. I think we've done that a couple of times but for me the biggest thing is consistency on both ends of the court," Washington said.
While Washington was impressed with how her guards played to start of the season, there's still a lot of emphasis on them as well to be more consistent for the remainder of the season. The guards have been some of the most consistent players, but Washington thinks that is still an area that they can improve upon.
"I like the way our guard play is rounding out, I think our guard play is becoming more consistent," Washington said. "We just have to get a little bit more consistency and I think that will be the thing that we really focus on and talk a lot about going into conference play."
The challenges of playing in the Big Ten after playing non-conference range from size to depth. The Lady Lions will have to adjust to these changes as they translate their play from smaller, non-conference teams to taller and stronger Big Ten teams.
"I certainly think we're playing against opponents that might challenge us in different ways in terms of having more size, more athleticism, more depth. When you're playing against that, it's a little bit different than some, but not all, of our non-conference opponents," Washington said.
With the Big Ten boasting four teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25, Washington knows that she and her team will have their work cut out for them in the coming weeks. Washington says that playing in "arguably the best conference in the country" brings its challenges, but also makes each game fun.
"When you go one to 14, there's just a lot of really strong teams in our conference, really good coaching, and some outstanding individual players and it means for tough games every single night in Big Ten play," Washington said. "That's what makes our conference fun; you're going to have those kind of tough, challenging games night-in and night-out and it makes it fun to play in the Big Ten."
A big adjustment that the team is going to have to make in conference play is playing 18 straight games without any byes. Washington points out that it's something all teams will have to do, and that it's going to be tough to play through. The main thing Washington wants her team to do to combat this is to "stay focused and locked in on what's ahead of us."
"Once you get in conference play, with the Big Ten in particular, with the variety of coaching styles and playing styles that we're going to see, certain conference play tends to be more arduous than non-conference play," Washington said. "Getting through this conference season this year with 18 games and no byes, that's going to be tough on all teams, so we'll just take it game-by-game and focus on each opponent as they come."
The Lady Lions finished the non-conference portion of the season at 5-6, ending on a high note with an 83-46 win over Sacred Heart. The big win gives the team some momentum heading into conference play.
"It gives us great momentum, coming off a win like that by a big scoring margin. We're really excited, knowing how fast we can play and just doing what we do well," Spann said.
The Lady Lions tip off the Big Ten season against Northwestern at 2:00 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center in University Park.