Video: Matt Insell Eager to See Pontotoc’s Hatcher “Do Something Special”

OXFORD, Miss. (WCBI/Ole Miss Athletics) – Ole Miss women’s basketball head coach Matt Insell, as well as senior guard Shandricka Sessom and junior guard Madinah Muhammad, met with local media this afternoon for Ole Miss men’s and women’s basketball Media Day at the Tuohy Basketball Center.

Below is a full transcript of the Coach Insell’s press conference.

Head Coach Matt Insell Opening Statement:

“It’s obviously an exciting time of year as we start getting practice going. We’re about six practices in right now, and I really like where our team is at. We’ve had a good summer, and it’s great to see the progression that our players made in the summer and now seeing it in five-on-five settings in practice.

I’m excited about this team. We obviously have a lot of returners, including our two leading scorers from a year ago and two of the top scorers in our league in Shandricka Sessom and Madinah Muhammad. Having those two kids back really helps a lot, and you can really see a big difference in practice with their experience in particular to the guard spots. It’s an exciting time for us, and we’re ready to get going.

Our freshmen are doing really well, our incoming class all got into school, which is really good. They’re all here and they’re working really hard, and that class was ranked as high as 11th in the country, so we’re expecting a lot of big things out of that class. Each one of those players has a chance to contribute this year in a big way, with the exception of one.

Mimi Reid will be out for the season. She suffered a season-ending injury in individuals earlier last month. She tore her Achilles, but she’s already had surgery and she’s doing good with that. And then Chrishae Rowe is still in school, still a part of our basketball team, but is not a part of our team in terms of participating in practice everyday. She’s still dealing with some family issues, so whether she’ll be back is undetermined right now.”

Q: Who are some of these newcomers that could contribute?

“Obviously when you look on paper, Promise Taylor being 6-6, she’s the one that really stands out when you start talking about a big kid inside and someone who has great athletic ability. She has a great wingspan, her wingspan is 7-3. She’s got a great ability to block shots, she can score the basketball around the basket. She’s not slow or stiff for a big kid, she can really jump. Talk about a kid that can really drop step and grab the rim with both hands. She’ll have a chance to do something real special this season for us in the post position.

Chyna Nixon was rated as one of the top-50 players in the country coming out of high school last year out of Philadelphia. State player of the year in Pennsylvania — that’s a big-time basketball state, and for getting her to come here that’s something big for us. She’s doing really well, gets better every single day. She’s about a 5-11, six-foot wing player that can really score. She’s got the ability to learn from two really good players that have experience in this league. She looks good every single day that she gets better.

Day’Neshia Banks is another freshman that’s another four-player that brings a lot of shooting ability that we haven’t had in that spot. Barbara Johnson is a point guard from junior college. She was one of the top-rated junior college players in the country. She may be the quickest player I’ve ever coached. She is the quickest by far on our team, and she is the quickest I’ve had. When I was at Kentucky, she’s quicker than any of those kids, too. It’s exciting to see her in the open floor.”

Q: What do you expect out of Shelby Gibson without having Taylor Manuel this year?

“I think we’re better in that spot, I think they can play longer minutes. Shelby had surgery this summer on her knee, she’s just now getting going a little bit, but she looks good in what she’s doing. And then Promise in there I think we have two really good fives. Cecilia Muhate made a lot strides this summer playing overseas with the Spanish national team, I expect her to do a lot. I feel like we’re better in that position, and I feel like we’re better in every position. I think our kids are starting to grow up, they’re getting older. We’ve been playing with a lot of young kids and took some lumps here and there but we’ve won some big games during that time. I like every one of them. I like our depth, I like where we’re at, I like our starters, I like the kids backing them up, I really feel like we can go nine or 10 deep with SEC-level players that can beat anyone on any given night on our basketball team. This team has the chance to do something real special. We have to stay healthy, but at the five spot I like all three of them down there.”

Q: What makes this year’s team different?

“I think last year we had some interesting situations happen with a player being out here and a player being out there. I think at times we played last season like we were an NCAA Tournament team. I think when you start talking early in the year when we play against an Oregon and you beat them by double figures and they go on to the Elite Eight, I think as we got going we had some stuff happen with some players getting injured. Chrishae Rowe, we were expecting a lot out of her. Torri Lewis, she was there and playing well but then she broke her foot. We never got the consistency we needed in a couple positions, and that hurt us, whereas this team is just different. Their confidence level is different, the way they go about working every day is different, the locker room is a lot different, there’s not a lot of going back-and-forth in the locker room. I think at times last year we got separated a little bit in the locker room, and I think that hurt us. This team is more together than any team I’ve had. You can tell every day when we step on the practice floor that they want to get better. I’m going to test this team early. Last year I didn’t really test them because I wasn’t really sure. I felt good about it, but this team, we’re going to go on the road and we’re playing at DePaul, playing at Temple, both NCAA Tournament teams. At Oregon, which was an Elite Eight team. We were good at home last year, but we were very bad on the road, and we’re going to put them on the road early in the year to get them tested and get some confidence hopefully. I’m more relaxed this year than I’ve ever been with this team because I don’t really have to talk to them about energy, I don’t have to talk to them about enthusiasm, they come to work. Where we lack some experience in some positions we don’t lack talent, and our young kids last year like Kate Rodgers and Bree Glover that didn’t play a lot last year, this year they’re going to play a lot and the reason why is they’ve earned that and they’ve gotten better.”

Q: With Shandricka being the only senior on the court, have you seen her embrace that leadership role?

“I think she has. And you’ve got Madinah Muhammad that’s started for three years, and she’s got Alissa Alston, who doesn’t even look like the same player. Those players there, all three of them, they know what it’s like to play in this league. I’ve seen Shandricka make some strides, and she’s got better with her leadership, but Shandricka doesn’t really want that from time to time. She just wants to be the one to get 15 or 16 points a game, but she’s really tried to take a bigger voice in our basketball team because we need it.”

Q: Talk about coaching Marlee Hatcher and her coming in from local Itawamba Community College:

“Marlee has come in to our basketball team and is working really hard. She can really shoot the basketball. I think the pace got her early, I think she struggled with the pace to play with the quickness and athleticism there. As she’s settled in, she’s looked really good. She had a good week of practice last week and she’s improving every day. I think her biggest thing, her and Torri are in a spot where we need somebody to make shots when people play zone, and those two are players we’ll depend on when that happens. They both can really shoot the basketball, and I think that’s where she makes the biggest difference. Obviously there are a lot of people who are big fans of Marlee from Pontotoc. I think our season tickets have improved dramatically because of the Pontotoc delegation that are going to start showing up to games. She’s a great kid, comes from a great family, her mother played here, and it meant a lot for her to come here and it meant a lot for her to put the Ole Miss uniform on. I think she’s adapted really well since the first month or two here. I think she’s got a chance to do something real special for us. She’s just got to continue to work hard and make some open jump shots.”