Jimmies women's hoops preparing for final NAIA season

JAMESTOWN The University of Jamestown womens basketball program heads into the season looking to replace two of the best players in program history after a trip to the Sweet 16.

We have a really unique team and I think for us our goal is to find the right balance of style and lineups and playing adjustments that we can play great basketball, Jimmies head coach Thad Sankey said.

We knew coming into this year because of personnel and also because of natural cycles inside of a program that we are going to do some things this year that look the same that weve done in the past.

We also know that to be successful theres some things that have to be different and can we find the right balance of what do we need to change and how do we need to change it and what fits our players the best.

ADVERTISEMENT The Jimmies will have to replace Kia Tower and Audrey Rodakowski who played a combined 263 career games, scoring 2,898 points while grabbing 1,069 rebounds and dishing out 505 assists.

Sankey said his team's five seniors, Kate Busek, Jailyn Martinson, Hannah Hagel, Sarah Lenz and Megan Oswald have created a good culture for the team.

Some of it is not about a direct replacement, Sankey said.

Kia and Audrey have been incredible and huge contributors for our team and in terms of a culture and a contribution standpoint, I think their careers speak for themselves.

The biggest part to our success is being OK in not having to replace them and being OK saying, 'Hey, listen were not looking at the blueprint from last year and saying we need this to be the blueprint this year." This year the Jimmies return nine players from last years squad and bring in seven newcomers.

One of the Jimmies returners is Kate Cordes, who led the team with 14.9 points per game last year.

Sankey said he also expects Cordes, Busek, Martinson, Oswald and Lenz to have big seasons.

One of the Jimmies' newcomers is freshman guard Jayden Wiest.

As a first-year player, Wiest said she is willing to do whatever it takes to help the team win.

Im playing point guard so right now looking up to Kate Busek, Wiest said.

Ive been trying to learn a lot from her and whether thats watching her every day in practice or taking care of the ball, making the right pass, making the right play.

Shes a super good role model for me to watch because shes been playing the point guard, I think this is her fourth year now.

So just trying to learn every little bit that I can from her.

Sankey said the team started practicing in mid-August.

Its been good.

The team has been really good, Wiest said.

We work with a bunch of super helpful upperclassmen, whether thats on the court, off the court, the whole team has put a ton of time in, preseason weve been practicing, open gyms, lifting, preseason conditioning.

So just getting ready, as prepared as we can for this season now.

ADVERTISEMENT The Jimmies came into the 2024 NAIA Tournament as a No.

12 seed and made it to the Sweet 16 before losing to No.

1-seeded Marian 72-63.

I think just experiencing the Sweet 16 and even just the national tournament again, I think that was big and it gave a lot of us a taste of it and I think the goal for all of us is to get back there, go even farther this year, Cordes said.

The Jimmies played Brandon University (Canada) in two exhibition games on Oct.

25-26.

Sankey said the games allowed him to experiment with different lineup combinations ahead of the season starting.

Sankey said the game on Oct.

25 was tight, allowing them to put in a different end-game lineup than they used last year.

Last year the Jimmies shot 40% or above from the field in 16 of their 19 wins and less than 40% in seven of their 13 losses.

Between shooting percentage, offensive rebounding, creating more shot attempts and our turnover rate, those are three really important statistics in terms of determining success and getting wins, Sankey said.

In our first couple exhibition games, our offensive rebounding was incredible and we really pounded the boards hard.

You can offensive rebound more when you miss shots.

We had more offensive rebounds in the first game than we did in the second game but creating extra opportunities goes a long way and taking great shots and making great shots goes a long way in being efficient.

After they gave up 65.8 points per game last season, Sankey said he hopes his teams calling card is their defense.

Defense is kind of a nonnegotiable.

We have to be competent defenders and competitive defensively to be successful and to be a great team, Sankey said.

ADVERTISEMENT The Jimmies open their season at 2 p.m.

on Friday, Nov.

1, when they take on Bethel College (Kansas).

Early season basketball is always about unknown opponents, Sankey said.

We dont have a clean look, we dont have a big body of work from them this year.

Are we prepared to problem solve any challenges that they show us and they will certainly challenge us on Friday.

Early season basketball is also about being the best version of yourself that you can be, are we in the right mindset? Are we competing? Are we connected? Do we handle adversity well and can we play game situations the right way? The Jimmies play their first five games of the season away from home, which Cordes said gives the squad time to bond off the floor.

I think last year we were very successful on the road so hopefully we can carry that with us, Cordes said.

Were definitely traveling a lot more this year.

Well see how that impacts us but I think were all just excited to start games so whether theyre home or away I think the excitement will be very high for those games.

This season, the Jimmies only have one game against a future Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference opponent Minot State on Nov.

19.

Were really focused this year on finishing our last year in the NAIA in the postseason, Sankey said.

Its been an incredible experience for us.

Two years ago we made it to the second round of the national tournament, last year we made it to the Sweet 16, thats something our players will remember for a long time and was just a blast.

...

Thats really what were focused on, how can we finish this last year in the NAIA back in the national tournament, whats it gonna take to do that?.

This article has been shared from the original article on jamestownsun, here is the link to the original article.