By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – With business and community leaders in attendance at Tennessee Tech's Hooper Eblen Center on Tuesday for the Cookeville/Putnam County Chamber of Commerce's Business Before Hours event, Golden Eagle basketball coaches Kim Rosamond and John Pelphrey were clear on one thing.
The 2022-23 season was the start of something big.
With the 2023-24 campaign just days away – the Purple Palooza exhibition event scheduled for Thursday night and the first regular-season contests coming on the arrival of November – the task was getting the community just as excited for Golden Eagle basketball as they are.
It doesn't seem that long since the Tennessee Tech women's basketball team claimed their 10th Ohio Valley Conference tournament championship and 11th NCAA appearance on a March Saturday in Evansville, knocking off regular-season champ Little Rock.
"The ride these women took us on was pretty incredible," Rosamond said. "We don't want to live off that. We want to build on it."
Rosamond noted several in the audience that had played a part in their success last season, whether it was through donations, calls, texts or attendance.
"So many of you helped us hang this championship banner that we are going to unveil on November 15. From the bottom of my heart and our players' hearts, I want to thank you for all the ways you support women's basketball at Tennessee Tech, but all of our student-athletes."
After earning the OVC crown and winning their first NCAA Tournament game since 1990, the Golden Eagle women's team was picked to win the OVC in the preseason poll and they're determined to keep building.
"At this point, if you're a coach and you're not excited, you've got big problems because we're all undefeated right now, but I can genuinely tell you that we are excited," Rosamond said. "How are we going to build off of the championship? We started in the spring and returned nine players off of a championship team. The cool thing about our locker room – those nine have an Ohio Valley Conference championship, but the three we brought in all have championship rings as well."
Rosamond mentioned those newcomers: Yaubryon Chambers from Vanderbilt, who won a state title on the prep level; true freshman Megan Aulbert, whose Lutheran High team won a Missouri state title; and Maddie Kellione, who was the MVP in the NCAA Division III championship game as Transylvania University won the title.
But she stressed that success comes from support.
"So many people have asked what they can do to support, to help," Rosamond said. "We need you here starting on Thursday night. My vision is to pack this place out. The lower bowl should be filled every night. So many of you are in these seats every single night, but we need you to bring more. On November 15 for the Celebration of Champions, not only bring yourselves, bring 10 people. Buy 10 tickets, buy 25. You can get 50 for a group rate of $5 each.
"Give them out to people you know will come. There's so many young kids in the community who want to come to a game who may not have an opportunity. We've won 28 championships and we want a minimum of 2,800 fans – 2,800 for 28 championships. We want to pack this place out and we're playing a great team with Chattanooga. They won their league, they went to the NCAA Tournament, it's an in-state rivalry game.
Rosamond continued, "That's just the start. We have so many great home matchups with Middle Tennessee, Little Rock to kick off OVC play. We ask for you to be here in the seats and to support us, and we look forward to seeing you here Thursday night."
As the Tech men begin its campaign, Pelphrey talked about how much Cookeville is starting to become home and what the University means to the people around it.
"I crave competition," he said. "I love the locker room and camaraderie. I respect character. One of the things Tracy, my wife, and I talked about when getting back into leadership, doing things a certain way was important to us. The alignment with the people you work for and with is super important.
"You start hearing these stories about Tennessee Tech and where they come from, whether they grew up here their whole life or come from some other place. They weren't leaving. There was a connection. There was a heartbeat. There was a feeling. I identify with that. You didn't have to be the biggest or the best, you just had to feel like I was better off being here than somewhere else. It's caring and heart, resilience and toughness, intelligence and creativity.
Pelphrey continued, "When you go through the recruiting process, you do want to get young men and coaches that identify with those things and crave competition, that crave camaraderie, that have character. We've tried to do that."
After reaching the OVC Tournament championship game, this past season and coming a shoe size away from winning the game in regulation before falling in overtime, the goal is to build on that heartbreaking moment and become better.
Every day, Pelphrey and his staff strive to keep getting better and leading the program to new heights.
"College basketball is a competitive environment," Pelphrey said. "I challenge our guys and tell them you may never be a more competitive environment than college basketball. When we start preparing for games and for opponents, there's things that we get ready to do for them and things they do to get ready for us. They're going to know how fast we are, how good we are, there's going to be numbers and analytics behind it.
"My job as a coach, as a mentor, as a father, and you know this as leaders as well, you're part of a group. Maybe you lead the group, but there's certain things you're just going to know. The thing none of us understand about our opponent is what those limits are. Every single day, I'm trying to test our players to find out what their limits are – when things are really, really good or when they're bad. Our enemy, our competition, our opponent – they don't know what our limits are, but, rest assured, they're going to challenge us."
Pelphrey's philosophy also extends into the community, Tech athletics and Tennessee Tech.
"Nobody out there knows what our limits are, but we need to challenge ourselves to go above and beyond," he said. "I think we have a tremendous opportunity for growth. We really do. It's so exciting to be here, we're super excited about this season that is coming up, and we're humbled and privileged for the opportunity. We certainly need all of you to help us challenge those limits. The things we've done in the past, we can learn from those. We have greater heights to reach moving forward and we want to push the limits and see how good we can be."
Thursday's Purple Palooza doubleheader opens with trick-or-treating at 4:30 p.m, followed by the women's basketball team taking on Christian Brothers at 5:30 p.m. and the men's team against UT Southern at approximately 7:30 p.m. Those games are free admission and open to public.
Season tickets for Tennessee Tech basketball are on sale now – call (931) 372-3940, visit the Hooper Eblen Center ticket office or online at TTUsports.com.
Photos | Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
