Howard White Jr. can assess a player’s shooting ability, defensive skills, court vision, speed, and quickness.
In time, those skills will be crucial as he tries to build the women’s basketball program at the Mississippi University for Women.
But White Jr. is looking more for championship qualities like toughness, heart, and love of the game as he begins his initial season as head coach of a program that has returned to intercollegiate competition.
“When you have been doing it as long as I have, you know kids who can play at your level,” White Jr. said. “A lot of kids can play college basketball somewhere, but can they play championship basketball. That’s what I look at.”
White Jr., who is from Wilmot, Arkansas, comes to The W after serving two seasons as the head women’s basketball coach at Concordia College – Alabama. As a first-time head coach, White Jr. led his 2015-16 team to a 26-3 record and a United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) Division I national title. He led the team to a 25-4 record in 2016-17 and another championship.
Prior to Concordia, White worked on coaching staffs as Aiken Technical College, Benedict College, St. Augustine’s College, Bethune-Cookman, and North Florida. The experience he gained at all of those schools helped him learn how to find players who hustle, grind, and dive on the floor. He also wants players who are skilled, can create their own shots, and can play on both ends of the floor, but he feels the intangibles will be crucial to establishing a foundation for success.
“The kids are learning and trusting what I am saying,” White Jr. said. “We’re getting there.”
The W lost to Philander Smith 80-58 in an exhibition game on Thursday. It faced off against Tougaloo College on Saturday afternoon in another exhibition game. White Jr. hopes those tests will prepare his team for its season opener against Johnson & Wales University Denver at 6 p.m. Friday in Denver, Colorado. The W also will face Nebraska Wesleyan at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 10.
White Jr. said he scheduled the two exhibition games on the road to see how his players respond on the road when they face adversity. The W will play host to Blue Mountain College at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, in its home opener. The game will be part of a doubleheader with the men’s basketball team.
White Jr.’s first team will have four players — juniors Alexandra Brown and Rokila Wallace and sophomore Tori Weir from Columbus and junior Qiayon Bailey from West Point.
Katlyn Duke, who also is a member of the school’s softball team, and Tenazhia Hinkson, a transfer from Dillard University by way of Copiah-Lincoln Community College, are the only seniors.
Hinkson, a 5-foot-8 guard, earned second-team Mississippi Association of Community and Junior College (MACJC) All-State honors as a sophomore at Co-Lin. She averaged 10.9 points per game and shot 43.3 percent from the field (37.9 percent from 3-point range).
Last season, Hinkson appeared in 19 games (one start) and averaged three points and 2.1 rebounds in 9.3 minutes per game at Dillard, a NAIA school in New Orleans.
Hinkson won two titles as part of the program at Co-Lin and another at Dillard, so she knows what it will take for The W to put the pieces together.
“I think we will be good,” Hinkson said. “The main thing I hear from coach White that I heard from my other coaches is you have to go at game speed in practice if you want to execute in the game.
“For the most part, we have had people catch on pretty quick. Those people are helping the others.”
Wallace, a 5-8 junior guard, played for Yvonne Hairston at Columbus High School. She averaged 17 points, three rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 2.4 steals per game last season at Meridian C.C.
Both players believe the Owls have the intangibles White Jr. is looking for to build a championship program. They said the team has plenty of depth in the backcourt, which should be a strength.
“It all starts with practice,” Wallace said. “If we hustle and do what we’re told to do, it is going to carry over to the game. … If you have heart in practice, you’re going to have heart in the game.
“We have been very competitive. For us to be the first team coming back, I feel like we’re going to beat a lot of teams. I even feel like we’re a threat already.”
White Jr. said he is anxious to find players he can trust and individuals who will work hard in practice and on their own to be ready to make a difference in the fourth quarter of games.
“We have a pretty good schedule,” White Jr. said. “We have LSU-Shreveport, an NAIA team, coming in here. They are No. 13 in the country. They will be here the 17th of November. That will be a good test for us. We have Philander Smith and Tougaloo coming here for regular-season games, so we will have some nice tests on our hands.
“We will be OK. If we can get pretty good play out of our inside game to balance out our guard play, I think we will be OK.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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