TOWSON, Md. - While the rest of the basketball world was starting the new season last month with cheerleaders, bands and pyrotechnics, Coach Joe Mathews and his Tiger women's basketball team marked the moment far away from the hoopla.
Mathews packed up the Tigers and headed southeast to Crisfield, Md. for the first week. In the practical and immediate terms, what the team learned on the Shore were schemes and systems that should aid them as early as tonight's home game against Mount St. Mary's.
But, Mathews hopes the team's little trip over the Bay Bridge pays dividends into March and possibly beyond.
“Nothing replaces wins and losses,” said Mathews. “We love to compete, but nothing replaces seeing the growth of a young person in your program. Hopefully, we'll have success in both areas.”
Already, the trip has yielded dividends on both fronts. The Tigers are 2-1, including a 67-62 win to start the season at Western Kentucky against a program that has three Final Four appearances in its history.
After a loss at No. 10 Maryland, Towson bounced back in the home opener last Saturday with a 16-0 first half spurt to key a 64-50 win over Canisius.
Perhaps, more significantly, the team has found solid leadership from a pool of seniors who has emerged from the shadows to take the helm of the team, the Tigers' coach says.
Indeed, Mathews said, his quintet of seniors, including guards Krystal Parnell, Krystin Fields, Meredith Kennedy and Sheree Ledbetter as well as forward Deree Fooks, are making themselves more assertive around the team.
Of course, senior leadership is a staple of any club, but this group, Mathews said, had shown itself unwilling to take command, in part, perhaps because only Fields and Kennedy had spent more than a season in a Towson uniform before this year.
But, Mathews said the seniors came back in better physical and mental shape this year than before.
“What that does for me is really encourage me in how much they're going to continue to blossom as the year goes through,” said Mathews. “I think they're getting more and more comfortable as the days go by.”
With seven newcomers on the roster, the Tigers will need all the leadership they can get. However, one of the new players - redshirt sophomore Nyree Williams - has already made her presence felt.
A 6-foot-2 forward, Williams transferred to Towson from North Carolina. In her high school days at Howard High, Williams scored over 1,500 points and nabbed more than 1,000 rebounds.
In just three games with the Tigers, Williams has already become a potent low-post threat, and has been named a co-captain to boot.
“She's a kid that we're going to count on to be a major double-double performer. She's got the ability to do that,” said Mathews. "I'm glad we've got her for three years.”
The Tigers, picked for 11th in the CAA, have the potential to surprise, albeit against a challenging schedule that features games against reigning league champion James Madison and Delaware, the consensus pick to win the league this year.
Towson will open CAA play at home against the Dukes on Dec. 4, but not before getting a stern test at Connecticut next Wednesday. The challenge for the Tigers will be to avoid the trap of being intimidated by the atmosphere at perpetually sold out Gampel Pavilion, where seven national championship banners hang.
But, under Mathews, Towson has developed a reputation for playing well against more well-known programs, including their four-point loss at the Pit in Albuquerque against New Mexico four years ago and their stunning win over Maryland two seasons ago.
“If you don't come away learning something from there (Connecticut), and the way they do it, then you're not paying attention,” said Mathews.
Already, however, the Tigers have shown that they are learning and paying attention, albeit with little fanfare.
But that's now, when the calendar reads November. As the football team has demonstrated, if you start winning and the winning continues into, say, March, it will be hard to avoid the hoopla.
