UT MARTIN WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SEEKS HEALTH AND CONTINUITY IN AN UNCERTAIN SEASON
12/1/2020 1:48:00 PM | Women's Basketball
MARTIN, Tenn. – The last time that the University of Tennessee at Martin women's basketball team graced the court was in the title game of the Ohio Valley Conference Basketball Championship on March 7, earlier this year.
When the final buzzer sounded in the Ford Center and their NCAA Tournament dreams came to an end, the Skyhawks still had hope of a deep run in the Women's NIT until the COVID-19 pandemic turned not only the collegiate realm but the world on its axis.
With a lengthy offseason of cancelations, postponements and uncertainty in focus, once student-athletes returned to campus in August the NCAA approved to push back the season start date to Nov. 25 in hope of creating a more controlled and less populated campus environment. The Skyhawks finally returned to the hardwood in an official capacity with practice beginning on Oct. 14 – capping a seven-month hiatus.
Meanwhile in the current climate, numerous cancelations and postponements are happening daily around the college basketball world, making the art of scheduling resemble more a Rubik's cube than a word search. With severe travel restrictions and testing protocols affecting schedule conversations, the Skyhawk coaching staff has been working connections tirelessly to fill its 25-game schedule with five non-conference games.
"Putting together a competitive schedule is always a challenge when you have a quality program," UT Martin head coach Kevin McMillan said. "We take pride in piecing together a strong schedule which will prepare us for OVC play and we had a really nice slate with numerous nationally ranked opponents and mid-major foes before everything got changed."
"Non-conference games are huge for a normal year because you usually have 11 games to get ready," McMillan continued. "Now we are looking at 3-5 games max outside of league play and that could be a problem. Right now, most of our players that finished last year with injuries won't be back for us until conference play. So the problem we will face is once we hopefully get our chemistry together, we will add another player, then another two weeks later. While we look forward to getting them back, there will be a learning curve."
Opening his 12th season at UT Martin as the program's all-time leader in career victories with a mark of 218-132, McMillan is accustom to making adjustments on the fly but the dynamics of the 2020-21 season are like none he has faced in his three decades in the coaching ranks.
"The biggest key to this season is which teams are going to be healthy at what time," McMillan said. "There are always regular injuries along the way but the unknown with the virus, how it affects people and alters teams is completely unprecedented. We just hope that the players who do get the virus, end up being healthy long term, which is most important. Health may be the biggest single issue in all of college sports this season."
In a traditional year the focus would be on the players and the team that will call the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center home. Tradition is another word that also describes the team's recent success over the past decade which ranks amongst the best mid-majors in the country. Not only do the Skyhawks enter the 2020-21 season as the OVC favorites, UT Martin entered the preseason ranked 10th in the Mid-Major Top 25 while receiving votes in the Preseason USA TODAY Coaches' Poll for the first time in program history.
The cupboard is far from bare from a team which returns 13 players off a squad which posted a 22-10 overall record last season while cruising to a 16-2 mark in league play to garner the program's sixth regular season championship.
Highlighting the squad is the senior duo of Chelsey Perry and Maddie Waldrop which each followed up All-OVC first team honors last season with similar preseason nods. The pair combined to score 35.8 points per game last season while averaging over 7.8 rebounds per game and tallying 108 blocks.
Perry placed her name among the nation's elite performers after a spectacular junior campaign in which she garnered All-American honors along with numerous other postseason accolades including TSWA and OVC Player of the Year honors. She continued to add to her award honors by being named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year, Katrina McClain Award and Jersey Mike's Naismith Player of the Year watch lists while also being tabbed as the OVC Preseason Player of the Year by both the media and coaching panels.
In her breakout season, Perry ranked first nationally in field goals made (286), second in total points (740) and third in both points per game (23.1) and field goal attempts (386). The Skyhawk forward also ranked 11th nationally in blocks (86) and 17th in blocks per game (2.69). As a whole, she averaged 23.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.7 blocks, 2.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game while her 740 points ranked sixth in program history. Some of her top individual performances include a 42-point outing against Lipscomb and an eight-block contest against IUPUI.
Waldrop used her junior season to make the leap from a consistent contributor to one of the league's elite performers. A two-time Preseason All-OVC honoree, Waldrop claimed All-OVC first team honors last season after averaging 12.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game. She ranked amongst OVC leaders in defensive rebounds (5.9, fourth), field goal percentage (48.6, fifth), rebounding (7.8 rpg, seventh) and scoring (12.7 ppg, eighth). Waldrop scored in double figures 19 times while eclipsing 20 points or more on four occasions.
Her numbers were even stronger in conference play where she ranked second in field goal percentage (54.7 percent), third in assist/turnover ratio (1.8), fourth in defensive rebounding (6.2), fifth in scoring (15.8 ppg), fifth in rebounds (8.4 rpg) and eighth in blocks (18). She posted her best offensive game with 26 points against Morehead State while tallying seven double-doubles, including a dominant performance against Austin Peay where she tallied 22 points and 13 rebounds.
"The culture that our senior class – especially Chelsey and Maddie - has came in and grabbed, then taken and put on different levels in incredible," McMillan said. "They have shown how to be good teammates, take care of each other and relayed the value of getting to know one another off the court. It is really fun to see the life-long relationships that have been formed. On the court, they are just workers. They come to work every day, trust us, don't get their feelings hurt and are leaders. That whole senior class is special and I hope that we can honor them with this season."
While the squad has a pair of stars garnering much of the recognition, the Skyhawks feel its strength will be the depth of talent throughout the roster. UT Martin boasts a total of 11 players which saw action last year – including six players which started at least 12 games a year ago. Sophomore Dasia Young (6.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg) returns after starting in the final 19 games of the season as a true freshman while senior Demi Burdick (4.5 ppg, 3.1 rpg) showed strong flashes of growth as the season developed. Other contributors include Sade' Hudson, Macy Rippy and Raegan Johnson while junior guard Emma Davis will miss the season with an offseason injury.
"We have quite a few who have really developed," McMillan stated. "Dasia has continued to improve and gain that maturity which is to be expected after your first year. Then when you look at someone like Demi, who has always been a mature and hardworking player, but in the past there has been a little disconnect in her abilities and what she shows on the court. This offseason has seen that connection start to come together as she has more confidence in herself and I think you will see a different player on the floor. She has always been a great teammate and now that it is really clicking, I think we could see her take a huge step forward."
"As a coach, all you want to do is try and elicit growth," McMillan said. "If a player is growing, I really don't care where it is. Whether it is in basketball, school, work or life, if they are getting better in any avenue of their life, it will help us as a team. It is so fun watching our kids grow up and I think our fans will be able to see that on the court."
Along with the development of the team's returners, the Skyhawks are looking to a group of performers which should make waves when returning to action. UT Martin continued to elevate last season in spite of its limitations – specifically in relation to its injury concerns – which saw the program finish the year without six contributors due to season-ending injuries. The Skyhawks hope to welcome back five of those players this season with Kyannah Grant, Damiah Griffin, Hayley Harrison, Zaire Hicks and Paige Pipkin working through offseason rehab programs.
Grant stepped up for the Skyhawks last season to take control of duties at point guard where she started 24 games and averaged 6.0 points and 3.4 assists per game. Griffin started in each of the first 12 games before her injury, averaging 12.7 points and 7.8 rebounds per game – including an impressive double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds against Louisville. Hicks started the first two games of the season before a freak accident scrapped her junior campaign while Harrison and Pipkin sat out the entire year.
"We are starting to see a glimmer in their eye about getting to play again," McMillan said. "They are excited but we are really trying to be patient to keep them on their individual recovery plans but hopefully we will get them back in the fold during the conference slate. Those are all players that can come in and instantly contribute."
UT Martin welcomes two newcomers to the team in the form of Louisville transfer Seygan Robins and prep forward Haley Nichols. Robins joined the Skyhawks after spending parts of two seasons at Louisville where she appeared in 28 games before missing most of last season with an injury. Healthy and ready to contribute in a new uniform, the former five-star prospect brings a championship pedigree with a pair of state championships along with 2018 Kentucky Miss Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year honors to the Skyhawks.
"Seygan has all of the instincts that we need at the point guard position," McMillan said. "She is a winner than has played for great high school and travel ball teams along with an elite program like Louisville. She knows what we are trying to accomplish. Her thing will be how quickly she can get comfortable with her coaches, teammates and our system. She is a great fit for our team culturally being a great teammate and hard worker."
When you put together the ingredients of a great culture, strong returning contributors and an impact transfer with a defending league champion – hopes are high for a season like none other.
"If you put the health aspect to the side – assuming we are completely healthy – this is the best team that we have ever put together top to bottom," McMillan said. "That is nothing against the teams of the past, but top to bottom, this team has more depth. We want to see this team take its next step and I think it could be a really, really big one."
"I really believe we are a NCAA Tournament team, but anything can happen and we can get knocked out. That is what is so exciting about March because anyone can win on any day. I think this team has the potential to beat teams in the tournament because we are not one-dimensional and have a lot of balance. Now the health of the team will completely dictate if we can live up to that level, but we certainly believe we have that potential."
"This group's ability is really high. This team – with everyone healthy – has a larger room for error. The problem for us is that we don't have the non-conference portion to work on it since we are still trying to get completely healthy and it will take some time. I bet this year we will have 10 different starting lineup rotations when everything is said and done. It is almost like, the day of the game, alright who do we have? We hope we can have a good December and a solid January while really finding our groove in February, propelling ourselves into March once we get everyone back and acclimated."
UT Martin will get its first test of the season on Sunday, Dec. 6 when traveling to perennial national title contender Louisville.
When the final buzzer sounded in the Ford Center and their NCAA Tournament dreams came to an end, the Skyhawks still had hope of a deep run in the Women's NIT until the COVID-19 pandemic turned not only the collegiate realm but the world on its axis.
With a lengthy offseason of cancelations, postponements and uncertainty in focus, once student-athletes returned to campus in August the NCAA approved to push back the season start date to Nov. 25 in hope of creating a more controlled and less populated campus environment. The Skyhawks finally returned to the hardwood in an official capacity with practice beginning on Oct. 14 – capping a seven-month hiatus.
Meanwhile in the current climate, numerous cancelations and postponements are happening daily around the college basketball world, making the art of scheduling resemble more a Rubik's cube than a word search. With severe travel restrictions and testing protocols affecting schedule conversations, the Skyhawk coaching staff has been working connections tirelessly to fill its 25-game schedule with five non-conference games.
"Putting together a competitive schedule is always a challenge when you have a quality program," UT Martin head coach Kevin McMillan said. "We take pride in piecing together a strong schedule which will prepare us for OVC play and we had a really nice slate with numerous nationally ranked opponents and mid-major foes before everything got changed."
"Non-conference games are huge for a normal year because you usually have 11 games to get ready," McMillan continued. "Now we are looking at 3-5 games max outside of league play and that could be a problem. Right now, most of our players that finished last year with injuries won't be back for us until conference play. So the problem we will face is once we hopefully get our chemistry together, we will add another player, then another two weeks later. While we look forward to getting them back, there will be a learning curve."
Opening his 12th season at UT Martin as the program's all-time leader in career victories with a mark of 218-132, McMillan is accustom to making adjustments on the fly but the dynamics of the 2020-21 season are like none he has faced in his three decades in the coaching ranks.
"The biggest key to this season is which teams are going to be healthy at what time," McMillan said. "There are always regular injuries along the way but the unknown with the virus, how it affects people and alters teams is completely unprecedented. We just hope that the players who do get the virus, end up being healthy long term, which is most important. Health may be the biggest single issue in all of college sports this season."
In a traditional year the focus would be on the players and the team that will call the Kathleen and Tom Elam Center home. Tradition is another word that also describes the team's recent success over the past decade which ranks amongst the best mid-majors in the country. Not only do the Skyhawks enter the 2020-21 season as the OVC favorites, UT Martin entered the preseason ranked 10th in the Mid-Major Top 25 while receiving votes in the Preseason USA TODAY Coaches' Poll for the first time in program history.
The cupboard is far from bare from a team which returns 13 players off a squad which posted a 22-10 overall record last season while cruising to a 16-2 mark in league play to garner the program's sixth regular season championship.
Highlighting the squad is the senior duo of Chelsey Perry and Maddie Waldrop which each followed up All-OVC first team honors last season with similar preseason nods. The pair combined to score 35.8 points per game last season while averaging over 7.8 rebounds per game and tallying 108 blocks.
Perry placed her name among the nation's elite performers after a spectacular junior campaign in which she garnered All-American honors along with numerous other postseason accolades including TSWA and OVC Player of the Year honors. She continued to add to her award honors by being named to the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year, Katrina McClain Award and Jersey Mike's Naismith Player of the Year watch lists while also being tabbed as the OVC Preseason Player of the Year by both the media and coaching panels.
In her breakout season, Perry ranked first nationally in field goals made (286), second in total points (740) and third in both points per game (23.1) and field goal attempts (386). The Skyhawk forward also ranked 11th nationally in blocks (86) and 17th in blocks per game (2.69). As a whole, she averaged 23.1 points, 7.0 rebounds, 2.7 blocks, 2.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game while her 740 points ranked sixth in program history. Some of her top individual performances include a 42-point outing against Lipscomb and an eight-block contest against IUPUI.
Waldrop used her junior season to make the leap from a consistent contributor to one of the league's elite performers. A two-time Preseason All-OVC honoree, Waldrop claimed All-OVC first team honors last season after averaging 12.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game. She ranked amongst OVC leaders in defensive rebounds (5.9, fourth), field goal percentage (48.6, fifth), rebounding (7.8 rpg, seventh) and scoring (12.7 ppg, eighth). Waldrop scored in double figures 19 times while eclipsing 20 points or more on four occasions.
Her numbers were even stronger in conference play where she ranked second in field goal percentage (54.7 percent), third in assist/turnover ratio (1.8), fourth in defensive rebounding (6.2), fifth in scoring (15.8 ppg), fifth in rebounds (8.4 rpg) and eighth in blocks (18). She posted her best offensive game with 26 points against Morehead State while tallying seven double-doubles, including a dominant performance against Austin Peay where she tallied 22 points and 13 rebounds.
"The culture that our senior class – especially Chelsey and Maddie - has came in and grabbed, then taken and put on different levels in incredible," McMillan said. "They have shown how to be good teammates, take care of each other and relayed the value of getting to know one another off the court. It is really fun to see the life-long relationships that have been formed. On the court, they are just workers. They come to work every day, trust us, don't get their feelings hurt and are leaders. That whole senior class is special and I hope that we can honor them with this season."
While the squad has a pair of stars garnering much of the recognition, the Skyhawks feel its strength will be the depth of talent throughout the roster. UT Martin boasts a total of 11 players which saw action last year – including six players which started at least 12 games a year ago. Sophomore Dasia Young (6.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg) returns after starting in the final 19 games of the season as a true freshman while senior Demi Burdick (4.5 ppg, 3.1 rpg) showed strong flashes of growth as the season developed. Other contributors include Sade' Hudson, Macy Rippy and Raegan Johnson while junior guard Emma Davis will miss the season with an offseason injury.
"We have quite a few who have really developed," McMillan stated. "Dasia has continued to improve and gain that maturity which is to be expected after your first year. Then when you look at someone like Demi, who has always been a mature and hardworking player, but in the past there has been a little disconnect in her abilities and what she shows on the court. This offseason has seen that connection start to come together as she has more confidence in herself and I think you will see a different player on the floor. She has always been a great teammate and now that it is really clicking, I think we could see her take a huge step forward."
"As a coach, all you want to do is try and elicit growth," McMillan said. "If a player is growing, I really don't care where it is. Whether it is in basketball, school, work or life, if they are getting better in any avenue of their life, it will help us as a team. It is so fun watching our kids grow up and I think our fans will be able to see that on the court."
Along with the development of the team's returners, the Skyhawks are looking to a group of performers which should make waves when returning to action. UT Martin continued to elevate last season in spite of its limitations – specifically in relation to its injury concerns – which saw the program finish the year without six contributors due to season-ending injuries. The Skyhawks hope to welcome back five of those players this season with Kyannah Grant, Damiah Griffin, Hayley Harrison, Zaire Hicks and Paige Pipkin working through offseason rehab programs.
Grant stepped up for the Skyhawks last season to take control of duties at point guard where she started 24 games and averaged 6.0 points and 3.4 assists per game. Griffin started in each of the first 12 games before her injury, averaging 12.7 points and 7.8 rebounds per game – including an impressive double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds against Louisville. Hicks started the first two games of the season before a freak accident scrapped her junior campaign while Harrison and Pipkin sat out the entire year.
"We are starting to see a glimmer in their eye about getting to play again," McMillan said. "They are excited but we are really trying to be patient to keep them on their individual recovery plans but hopefully we will get them back in the fold during the conference slate. Those are all players that can come in and instantly contribute."
UT Martin welcomes two newcomers to the team in the form of Louisville transfer Seygan Robins and prep forward Haley Nichols. Robins joined the Skyhawks after spending parts of two seasons at Louisville where she appeared in 28 games before missing most of last season with an injury. Healthy and ready to contribute in a new uniform, the former five-star prospect brings a championship pedigree with a pair of state championships along with 2018 Kentucky Miss Basketball and Gatorade Player of the Year honors to the Skyhawks.
"Seygan has all of the instincts that we need at the point guard position," McMillan said. "She is a winner than has played for great high school and travel ball teams along with an elite program like Louisville. She knows what we are trying to accomplish. Her thing will be how quickly she can get comfortable with her coaches, teammates and our system. She is a great fit for our team culturally being a great teammate and hard worker."
When you put together the ingredients of a great culture, strong returning contributors and an impact transfer with a defending league champion – hopes are high for a season like none other.
"If you put the health aspect to the side – assuming we are completely healthy – this is the best team that we have ever put together top to bottom," McMillan said. "That is nothing against the teams of the past, but top to bottom, this team has more depth. We want to see this team take its next step and I think it could be a really, really big one."
"I really believe we are a NCAA Tournament team, but anything can happen and we can get knocked out. That is what is so exciting about March because anyone can win on any day. I think this team has the potential to beat teams in the tournament because we are not one-dimensional and have a lot of balance. Now the health of the team will completely dictate if we can live up to that level, but we certainly believe we have that potential."
"This group's ability is really high. This team – with everyone healthy – has a larger room for error. The problem for us is that we don't have the non-conference portion to work on it since we are still trying to get completely healthy and it will take some time. I bet this year we will have 10 different starting lineup rotations when everything is said and done. It is almost like, the day of the game, alright who do we have? We hope we can have a good December and a solid January while really finding our groove in February, propelling ourselves into March once we get everyone back and acclimated."
UT Martin will get its first test of the season on Sunday, Dec. 6 when traveling to perennial national title contender Louisville.
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/ Women's BasketballTuesday, March 10
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