Sharon Fanning-Otis is ready.
After spending much of the past week on the road recruiting, Fanning-Otis was back in the state of Mississippi on Saturday, gearing up for the start of the Mississippi State women’s basketball season.
The Lady Bulldogs will kick off practice for the 2011-12 season Tuesday, so Fanning-Otis was at a local supermarket picking up a few necessities — crackers, peanut butter, tuna fish, and other things — so she is prepared for the beginning of a marathon she hopes stretches deep into March’s Madness.
“We have some potential with this basketball team,” Fanning-Otis said. “We have to get after it. It is great to have them back on the floor and to be able to spend great quality time with them. I am looking forward to it.”
MSU also started practice early last season, capitalizing on a rule change by the NCAA that gives teams 40 days to complete 30 days of practice prior to their season opener.
Fanning-Otis said the team already has its 30-day practice plan set to help it prepare for its exhibition game against Arkansas-Fort Smith at 2 p.m. Nov. 6 at Humphrey Coliseum. It will open the regular season at 7 p.m. Nov. 11 against Jacksonville State at home.
MSU’s players have spent the past month in individual workouts. Coaches have worked with several players at a time in position or school class groupings. Fanning-Otis said the coaches have been trying to identify strengths and possible combinations so they can be better prepared when practice starts.
Fanning-Otis has seen plenty of positives. She said newcomers Martha Alwal, Jerica James, Shamia Robinson, and Kendra Grant will make the Lady Bulldogs better. She said Grant, a 5-foot-11 guard/forward from Richland, has the ability to score from beyond the 3-point line. She said James, a 5-5 player from Arkansas, is a “hard-nosed” player who will compete for playing time at point guard.
Fanning-Otis also said she likes the aggressiveness and the attentiveness of Alwal, a 6-foot-4 center from Minnesota.
Fanning-Otis said Robinson, a 5-8 standout from West Oktibbeha County High School, is working back to 100 percent after she recently had knee surgery. The surgery is the second one Robinson has had on her knee. The injury kept her out of the first part of the 2010-11 high school season.
Fanning-Otis said Robinson likely will play the four position, or power forward, and will provide important rebounding once she is 100 percent.
Also on the injury front, Fanning-Otis said junior guard Darriel Gaynor is close to 100 percent after she “tweaked” her knee a few weeks ago. Gaynor, who played her freshman season at the University of Oregon, missed her sophomore season at Trinity Valley Community College due to a knee injury.
Fanning-Otis also will look for bigger contributions from returning players. She said forward Carnecia Williams, who missed all of last season with an injury, has improved her skills and her conditioning. She also said sophomore Brittany Young “may be the hardest worked on the team” and is “really busting it out there.” She also said senior Danielle Rector worked with a personal trainer in the offseason and has improved her conditioning.
MSU, which went 13-17 (4-12 SEC) last season after reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the first time in the program’s history in 2009-10, will begin practice looking for someone who will help replace Mary Kathryn Govero. A senior guard, Govero was second on the team in scoring (12.7 points per game) last season.
Fanning-Otis said she will look to seniors Diamber Johnson, Porsha Porter, Ashley Brown, and Catina Bett to play key roles as starters. She said Gaynor likely would be in that mix, too, if the season started today.
Fanning-Otis hopes this season’s team will be able to start faster than a year ago, when MSU had 11 new players in the program. The Lady Bulldogs found their stride down the stretch, going 5-5 in the final two months of the season. That record included an upset of Auburn University in the first round of the SEC tournament.
Fanning-Otis hopes the Lady Bulldogs have learned the effort they showed at the end of last season is closer to what will be needed in 2011-12 to help the program realize its goals.
Fanning-Otis said she has seen that mind-set at times in the players’ workouts, but she said it needs to be there more consistently if the team is going to earn a return trip to the NCAA tournament.
“Are we where I want us to be? No. Are we practicing as hard as we want? No,” Fanning-Otis said. “We have to have a vision and expect (to be in the NCAA tournament) and to understand what it takes to get there and to understand it is not going to happen in any kind of magical way.”
That attitude fits with the mantras — “Relentless effort, Team victory” and “Our time” — Fanning-Otis hopes will push her players through a bounce-back season.
“These kids have to embrace it is our time,” Fanning-Otis said. “Last year was a tough year with so many new people and coming off the success and expectations we had. There are no excuses. We have players who have been there and who have progressed. Now we have to take that next step.”
NOTE: MSU will have a coaches clinic Saturday at Humphrey Coliseum. It also will be a part of the inaugural Maroon Madness on Oct. 14. Maroon Madness will feature the volleyball team in a match against the University of Kentucky, followed by practices for the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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