AUDIO | Kim Rosamond press conference
AUDIO | Jada Guinn, Maaliya Owens press conference
By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Walking into the cavernous Assembly Hall on Indiana's campus is a bit daunting. As you look up, rows of seats climb nearly as far as the eyes can peer. Giant red banners celebrating the Hoosiers' success decorate the walls like tapestries. There's history there, for sure, but the Tennessee Tech women are interested in one thing – using it as a backdrop for its own new chapter.
The Golden Eagles will take on Monmouth on Thursday night – scheduled for 8 p.m. Central and 9 p.m. Bloomington time – in the NCAA First Four matchup. The game will be nationally broadcast on ESPN2 with Brenda VanLengen and Holly Warlick will broadcast the game for ESPN2, while Dylan Vazzano and Frank Harrell will have the radio call on 106.1 The Eagle.
The winner will take on Indiana on Saturday morning at 10:30 Central/11:30 local, but the matter at hand is Monmouth. After all, there are no second chances – at this stage, it's win or go home.
As the day before the tournament begins for the Golden Eagles, Wednesday was filled with film sessions, practice and press conferences as head coach Kim Rosamond and seniors Jada Guinn and Maaliya Owens took to the dais.
It's a large arena for sure, but the Golden Eagles have played at some big ones before.
"I think still sometimes it's a little surreal to me," Owens said during the press conference. "We walked in and you can tell – you just look up and it just keeps on going. It's something that you really haven't seen before, but I think knowing all the history here, and I used to watch -- obviously I'm from Kentucky, so Kentucky-Indiana was always a big rivalry for us. Watching on TV and seeing the big crowds and then being able to walk in and know like all the greats that have played in here and all the great coaches that have coached in here is just really kind of crazy."
And realizing the scope and what's at stake is just as daunting as Assembly Hall itself.
"Yeah, I feel like it still hasn't really like set in with me, but just like walking in the gym, I was like, we're really here at March Madness and just grateful to be here," Guinn said. "We were just sitting up here, and Maaliya was like, 'think of all the people that have sat up here,' so I'm just going to take it all in and enjoy the experience."
The two Tech seniors see the bond the team has as something that has really set this team apart.
"If you don't have team chemistry off the court, you're not going to have team chemistry on the court," Guinn said, "and I think that we worked really hard this year just doing that, just learning from the past on like what has affected our team, and I think we really used that and we just came together, and that really helped us on the court."
Owens agreed: "You can really tell, even though we're a young team and we haven't really been playing together as long as some of the other teams have, I think that our bond on and off the court really shows in those big games, in those big moments. Like we really trust each other, and I think one thing we worked on this whole year is trusting each other and working through the hard things, and I think that's one thing that sets us apart from some other teams."
Tennessee Tech's tradition is an important one to anyone suiting up in the Purple and Gold. Over 1,000 program wins, 11 NCAA tournament appearances – and three tournament wins – there's a storied history there. To be here in 2023? Owens said it best.
"I think it means everything to us," she said. "Obviously, this year we made it, but we can go back to all those years and they didn't it, and that just laid the groundwork for us to be able to do this this year. I think even with the seniors this year, we have a lot of young players this year, but they laid the tradition for us to be able to make that next step. I think my freshman year we got to the (OVC) tournament and we lost the first game. My sophomore year, we made it to the semifinals and we lost. And then we made it to the championship game last year, and I think that each step in that process we needed each one of those games to be able to finally get over that hump this year and be able to make it to the championship game. And I think that that means more than anything. That's what you work for. That's what you think about whenever you're picking a school when you're coming out of high school. I think that just means the world to us, honestly."
The victory over Little Rock in the OVC Tournament championship was an impressive one, but Rosamond can pinpoint the date the season turned around – an afternoon loss at Tennessee State on February 11. It was at that moment that planted the seeds for this current run that has seen the Golden Eagles win seven straight heading into Thursday's game.
"That was a turning point in our season when we lost at TSU," Rosamond said. "We gave up, I think, 82 points at TSU, and we had to use all of those things to get it back on track. But that's when your culture comes into play – not during the good times. It's when things get hard and you have to dig down. We were picked to win (the OVC championship), you know, coming into the season. And that's a pressure and an expectation that this team hadn't had yet, and we were learning how to deal with those expectations.
"But to our players' credit and to our staff's credit, we lived that culture out even when it got hard, and I will also say this. After that loss on February 11th – I learned a long time ago you better surround yourself with people that are a lot smarter than you are, and I have an unbelievable staff. Allison Clark and Melanie Walls have been with me from Day One 2016. We walked in that staff meeting that day, and Melanie Walls – she and I were assistants together at Middle Tennessee and won two championships there -- and she said, 'Coach, we gotta make a change. We need to start pressing.'
Rosamond continued: "I worked for Melanie Balcomb for nine years, learned so much from her, but we didn't press a lot because we were shooters, and we shot the ball well – it was kind of a philosophy thing. We didn't really want to wear our kids out. So that was what I've always veered to, but we needed to make a change with our team, and it has completely changed our season. We won seven straight since then. And I want to make sure I credit my staff. Coach Walls made a great suggestion. Coach (Allison) Clark has helped us install that press. Coach Walls has kind of been the architect behind it. And Coach Jasmine Cincore has done a great job of getting us better with our rebounding. And our director of operations, Brianna Ellis. It's only four of us, but we are connected, and we are fierce, and we don't back down from anybody, and I think our team has taken on our staff's personality."
