Nate Perry, TTU Sports Information
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – With the month of November and a brand new basketball season on the horizon, Ohio Valley Conference coaches and select student-athletes convened with various media members in Evansville, Ind. on Tuesday morning for the league's annual Basketball Media Day, hosted by DoubleTree by Hilton Evansville.
The leader of the Tennessee Tech women's program, Kim Rosamond, made the three-and-a-half-hour drive to Evansville – the location of the event for the second straight year – to share her thoughts on the approaching 2018-19 campaign.
"We're excited to be going into year three in our process," Rosamond said. "With so many new players last year, it took us until February to really start to figure it out, and now our charge is to pick up where we left off. We can't take any steps back."
"We are still a very young team, so there's still going to be some bumps in the road, but I don't feel like we're going to ride the roller coaster of inexperience like we did last year."
Tech was slotted seventh in the conference's predicted order of finish, traditionally released on Media Day each year.
2018-19 OVC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
1. Belmont (20 first-place votes) – 240 points
2. UT Martin (three first-place votes) – 204 points
3. Jacksonville State – 180 points
4. Morehead State – 179 points
5. Southeast Missouri – 154 points
6. SIUE (one first-place vote) – 149 points
7. Tennessee Tech – 112 points
8. Tennessee State – 93 points
9. Austin Peay – 86 points
10. Eastern Kentucky – 62 points
11. Eastern Illinois – 60 points
12. Murray State – 58 points
Preseason OVC Player of the Year: Darby Maggard, Belmont
"I don't really look at (preseason rankings) one way or the other," said Rosamond. "I think we just need to focus on getting better each and every day, and that's what we're doing. What's so exciting about where we are with our team right now is that instead of spending most of our time learning basic concepts like last year, now we're understanding those plays better and learning how to master them. I just feel like for the first time as a staff and as a team, we're not starting from scratch."
The prospects of a much-improved Golden Eagle team in Rosamond's third season warrant an intriguing discussion, as Tech returns three of its top four scorers in underclassmen Jordan Brock (11.3), 2017-18 OVC All-Newcomer selection Mackenzie Coleman (10.9) and Kesha Brady (10.5). All three players also averaged more than 27 minutes per game in 2017-18.
Brock, a sharpshooter from Harlan, Ky., was TTU's most-featured long-range threat in 2017-18, as she drilled 68 three-pointers, clipped over 80 percent from the free-throw line (.803), and finished second on the team in assists with 41.
Coleman received a nod to the Preseason All-OVC team on Tuesday, and deservedly so. The Edmonton, Ky., native paced Tennessee Tech with a .484 field goal percentage last season that was good enough for fifth in the OVC, and posted five double-doubles – all coming during the conference season.
Coleman was a force on the defensive end as well, protecting the paint with a team-high 50 blocks. At 1.7 per game, she was fourth in the OVC and first among league freshmen.
"Mackenzie is extremely deserving of that honor," said Rosamond. "She was a player for us last year who, when she wasn't on the floor, we didn't function well as a team. As far as a 6-foot-4 kid, she is one of the most skilled 6-4 kids you're going to see, so I'm really excited to see the growth she can have as a sophomore."
Brady was on pace for a breakout freshman season before suffering a season-ending injury early in conference play. The guard from Smyrna, Tenn. started all 13 games she played in, averaging 10.5 points, 4.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.4 steals per contest.
Starting point guard Akia Harris returns to the fold as well for the Golden Eagles. The Chattanooga native took good care of the basketball in her second season under Rosamond, ranking fourth in the OVC with a 1.5 assist-to-turnover ratio. She was also an accurate yet selective three-point shooter, knocking down 29 triples on 74 attempts for a .392 clip – the fourth-best mark in the conference.
"We've got 12 players returning, and a lot of those kids got a ton of experience last year," said Rosamond. "We've got over 70 percent of our points coming back, 70 percent of our rebounds, steals, assists – I could go right down the line. It's a lot coming back, but I also don't kid myself to say that we're going to play like juniors and seniors, because we're still not juniors and seniors."
The Golden Eagles will hold an exhibition matchup with Hiwassee College at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 28 in the Hooper Eblen Center, before opening the regular season at home against Cumberland University at 6 p.m. on Nov. 6.
Photo by Thomas Corhern
