Women's Basketball Preseason Report No. 3
11/6/2007 5:18:00 AM | Women's Basketball
STATESBORO, Ga. ? As the final week of preseason practice comes to a close, the Georgia Southern women’s basketball team makes its final preparations for Friday’s season opener at Jacksonville, and head coach Rusty Cram and the Lady Eagles are excited about the progress on both sides of the court.
“We’re starting to see more looks out of the offense,” said Cram. “That’s the hard part for us with the new movement we put in this year. They’re going to have six or seven options off of it by what the defense is taking away from us. They’ve got to be able to read that and go to the next option. They’re doing a better job of that. We’re seeing pluses here and there and they’re picking up and getting good looks at the basket.”
In addition to improving the offensive set, the team is also working on the transitions between offense and defense.
“We’ve got to continue working on the transition offense and defense,” said Cram. “We’re trying to find those numbers right now and trying to get eight, nine, 10 people deep that we feel very good about. They’re there; we just need to make them play those numbers to where they’re going to play hard the whole time they’re out there.”
Depth is a major strength of the team as it returns all five starters and key reserves from last year’s squad. On the other side of the ball, the Lady Eagles are balancing out their defensive threat.
“We’ve really tightened it up this past week,” said Cram. “We’ve tightened it up on pressuring the ball a little bit more, but really focusing on our help side defense and getting in passing lanes. We’re already working on that and its certainly getting better to the point where we feel like we can start extending the floor a little bit and start picking up three-quarter court.”
The Lady Eagles will have their first test at the season-opener atJacksonville, slated for 7 p.m. The team will continue its road trip in theSunshineState, taking on Stetson on Sunday (Nov. 11) inDeLand,Fla.at 3 p.m. Then it’s on toAthens,Ga.to face in-state rival Georgia, Tuesday (Nov. 13) at 7 p.m.
For ticket information call 1-800-GSU-WINS.
