Oct. 28, 2016
By ANNA PITINGOLO, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Lady Lions will hit the court this weekend for the first time this season in an exhibition game against Bloomsburg. They return to the Bryce Jordan Center on Sunday for a 2 p.m. tip.
After finishing last year with a 12-19 record, the Lady Lions are looking to improve upon on that, and head coach Coquese Washington is looking at the freshman to make an immediate impact.
"I've been really impressed with our freshman so far. They picked up things really, really quickly," Washington said. "They've acclimated themselves very quickly and when I look at the two of them, including [transfer] De'Janae Boykin who hasn't played college basketball and [redshirt sophomore] Amari Carter who really hasn't either, I think our young guards will be a big impact on the floor."
It's those same freshmen that have surprised Washington since practice started. Since their arrival on campus, they've worked to be as prepared as possible for their collegiate debut.
"Our freshman have really surprised me in the way that they have almost seamlessly fit into what we're doing and the way that they play off of the returning members and the kids who know what they're doing," Washington said. "They've done that so well that it's given us a little bit more depth at this point of the season, which I'm happy to see."
With a successful offseason under their belt, Washington is ready to see the work put in at those practices translate over into on court success this weekend.
"The exhibition game gives us a chance to see that in a game environment and live action, it gives us a chance to kind of start to look at substitution patterns and things of that nature, those are the things were looking at and what lineups go well together in a game atmosphere," Washington said.
Senior Peyton Whitted is also looking for the team to show off its new speed after spending a good chunk of the offseason focusing on it.
"I've definitely seen a different pace on our team. We brought in a lot of guards this year so we're definitely up and down a lot more than we were last year," Whitted said. "Our post guards are running down quicker than we have in the past few years. And we're just scoring a lot of points and that's what's awesome about how fast we've been playing."
Preparation for an exhibition game is no different from a regular season game, but with tape available only from last season, it can be tricky.
"We want to try to be as prepared as possible. The tough thing about an exhibition game is you don't have as much film to scout so you're going off of what they did last year, so there's always going to be some surprises," Washington said. "But that's actually a good thing because it prepares us for later in the season when teams have time to prepare and they put in new things, so from that standpoint, it's a great opportunity for us [practice how to] make the adjustments during the game as we go along."
Washington has yet to settle on a staring five for the season, but she has an idea of who she's going to start on Sunday. But this exhibition game could change that lineup heading into the start of the season in a few weeks.
"It's still a little early, I kind of have an idea, but we'll probably go with the kids who have played a lot of minutes for us," Washington said. "But this exhibition game will give us a chance to solidify things as we move to the start of the season."