North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Yow Excited About Prospects for Season
10/24/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Oct. 24, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH - Kay Yow is excited about the prospects for improving on last year's 21-8 season.
She has an experienced team with only one freshman, a deep bench, and a good inside-outside combination that can score points for the Wolfpack, which averaged a somewhat meager 67.9 points per game last year.
Yow, entering her 31st year as the head coach of the Wolfpack women's basketball team, met with the media Monday afternoon to discuss the upcoming season, some of the challenges her team faces and some of the reasons why she believes it could be another successful season for her team.
"We are excited about this season. We have a lot of experience on this team, a lot of juniors and seniors.
"We really want to keep the tempo up. We have some good depth, especially if we get our injured players back. We will have great depth. That is what we are hoping for. I think we will have a balanced attack of inside out. We have played together now for a couple of years. I think we will be able to do a few more things well than we have done in the past. Everybody is working hard. It's fun to go to practice with everybody working hard, with everybody trying to improve each and every day. They have been doing a great job in practice, working hard.
Question: What's the main difference from last year?
Yow: Last year, coming into the season, we didn't know exactly how we might fare in terms of putting points on the board. I think we always knew we would be a good defensive team, that we would work hard and give it our best. Offensively, we just didn't know how we could score as much as we wanted to. I think this year, hopefully, we will be a better scoring team. That will really complement our defense. Last year, we really played some great defense, but we struggled to score consistently. That's the goal of this team this year, to be able to score consistently, to know if we have possession, then we have a great chance of putting it in.
Question: What is the injury situation right now?
Yow: Senior Billie McDowell may be ailing the most right now, because she is coming back from an ACL tear and surgery and even though she is doing very well now, she is not able to practice with us. She has had to forego preseason practices up until now. It is a little ways away right now. Early on, (the training staff) told me that it would be the early part of December, but they told me not to hold them to that, because it could be earlier. It could be a week or two later. We take it day by day. We miss having her out on the court.
Senior Tiffany McCollins is an injured player who has not been able to go with us right now because of injury. She had scope surgery in the summer. They can't exactly pinpoint when she can come back onto the court, though she is making progress and getting better. We are still looking at some time, however, before she is going to be back with us.
Senior Rachel Stockdale plays with an injured knee and she did everything for us in the preseason, individual workouts, everything. Then, the end of last week, she sustained a blow to her knee. She is to see the doctor tonight. We will find out when she might be able to come back into practice. Rachel and Billie were selected as co-captains of our team. It would be really great to have them available to us in practice and in games. They have a lot to offer in a lot of ways.
Junior Gillian Goring has been injured. She came here with a knee injury and an ankle injury, which she worked at rehabbing all summer. She was starting to go with us in practice and pulled a hamstring. She has been out with that. She just went a little on Monday for the first time.
I am looking in January, when ACC games start, that we will have a lot of people healthy and ready to go at that point in time, if we can't get them before. I would be happy right now, if they tell me they will be ready to go full speed. I will say right there, I'll take it.
Question: Can you discuss the point guard situation going into the season?
Yow: Coming into the season, we had two people with some experience playing the point guard position, Moinca Pope and Tiffany McCollins. Tiffany hasn't practiced at all since we started. We had to simply find someone else who could be there, compete in practice, knowing we couldn't go with only one guard. We have a freshman who has been working a lot there, Shayla Fields. Then I decided to try Ashley Key at point guard position, mainly because she had played there some during high school. Mainly she has played two-guard for us. We put her at the point in practice and she has been doing an outstanding job there, along with Monica. She has good size for a point guard. She really puts her head down and gets the ball up the court, because as I said earlier, we want to be an up-tempo team. She sees the court really well. That is a person you will be seeing a considerable time at the point.
A New Challenge For Key
Playing the point is not new for Ashley Key, though she's never played that position in her first two years with the Wolfpack. But in high school, Key played all five positions at Landmark Christian School near Atlanta, including the point. While she admits that playing there is much different on the collegiate level, she thinks she's up for the challenge.
"It's a bit different," Key said. "I am just trying to learn from Monica and from Tiffany McCollins, who is sitting on the sidelines right now. I try to pick up on the small things and trying to get better.
"Right now, my shot is my last resort. I have always been a player to look for other people first, so I guess that helps me out at the point guard. It also has a lot more responsibility for me. I am going to have to step up to the plate on that one in a leadership role.
"I feel like I am more focused, more mature. I have learned a lot more about the game since I have been here from Coach Yow and being able to play in this conference. I am just hoping that that and hard work and following what my coach says will get the job done."
Another injury for Stockdale
Coming into the start of practice, fifth-year senior Rachel Stockdale was as healthy as she has been since her freshman year, when she suffered the first of several knee injuries. Yow was extremely excited about Stockdale's prospects for the season until the senior from High Point got tangled up in practice with one of the male scout squad players and twisted her knee.
Stockdale was still walking gingerly on the knee Monday afternoon, and headed to the doctor Monday evening to get it fully examined. It is a disappointing start to what Stockdale had hoped would be a productive - and injury-free - final season.
However, she believes the injury can be healed by the Nov. 18 season-opener against UNC-Greensboro.
"I don't think it will have a long-term effect on my season," Stockdale said. "It is just another obstacle. It's kind of been one thing or another since I have been here. I am going to persevere through it. I don't think it will linger.
"I am still feeling really good. The trainer told me I could continue to run. I am in really good shape right now. That's one thing I don't want to lose."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
