Last Sunday the Mercer women’s team beat Wofford by 22 PTS in the SoCon tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to next week’s NCAA tournament. The Bears finished January with a home loss to Chattanooga but won 8 of their final 9 games to claim the school’s 3rd NCAA tourney bid in the past 4 years. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with assistant coach Sydni Means about playing in the NCAA tourney a few years ago and what it feels like to make the NCAA tourney again as a coach.
As a senior at Mercer you led the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.80), and you graduated with the 2nd-most AST (686) and STL (246) in school history: what is the key to being a great PG? Having good teammates! I would not have been successful without them, especially with the assists. I had some really good teammates and was a decent passer as well.
In the 2018 NCAA tourney you scored 11 PTS in a 5-PT loss at Georgia: how close did you come to pulling off the in-state upset? Really really close. It was 1 of those games that we knew would be a battle: we played them every year and knew we could potentially win. Our goal was not just to make the NCAA tourney but to try to make some noise.
You graduated with a major in Communications and a minor in Media Studies: how do those subjects help you in your current job (if at all)? Communications help in any profession because you have to be able to talk to people. I had intended to perhaps go into sports broadcasting but when I got an offer to coach it was too good to deny.
You have spent the past 3 years as an assistant to your former coach Susie Gardner, who is the all-time winningest coach in school history: how did you like playing for her, and how do you like working for her? I love both. We were able to build a really good bond during my playing days: as you know, the PG is like the coach on the floor so she looked to me for leadership. It was a smooth transition for me from player to coach because she believed in me.
In 2019 your team extended its the streak of regular season conference wins to 34 in a row: did it reach a point where your team just expected to win every single time that it stepped onto the court for a conference game? There was maybe a hint of that. We built a program that demanded greatness so we never went into a game expecting to lose. It was bad when the streak got broken but we just kept preparing as we had in our 34 prior wins.
What is it like to be a college basketball coach during a pandemic? It is difficult to describe: you have to pay more attention to detail in every single facet of the game. It has been a tough year for everybody so you have to be in touch with your players to see how they are feeling. The biggest thing is to be a good leader and set an example for them with your poise. I give credit to our team for being locked in all season.
Last Sunday you set a SoCon tourney title game record by holding Wofford to just 38 PTS in a 22-PT win: what makes 2-time defending conference DPOY Shannon Titus such a great defender? Her length/effort. She has made it a point to shut down the other team’s best player and looks forward to it. She watches film and has taken on this role because she wants to show that she is the best defender in our conference every single night.
Your team is now 15-0 this season when leading after 3 quarters: what is the key to holding onto a lead in the 4th quarter? We ask our team if they are playing to win or to not lose. It is a very subtle thing but when you are confident in yourself and your teammates then the goal is to just win the next 10-minute quarter. Last weekend our goal was to win each quarter, and if you do that then you will win the game. It is a way to visually simplify the game because 40 minutes can sound like a long period of time, but they did a great job of staying focused all season long.
Mercer has now won 3 SoCon tourney titles in the past 4 years: are the Bears just on a great run or is it fair to start using the “dynasty” label? The praise goes out to Susie for building the program where she wanted it to be and then holding everyone to that high standard. The players we brought in have bought in to that great leadership, which has led to great results, as has their unselfishness. I am not sure if I would call us a “dynasty” but people are starting to learn more and more about Mercer basketball.
What kind of seed do you think you deserve, and what kind of seed do you think you will get? Personally I do not want to think about it because there are a lot of upsets that could still happen, and I truly do not know…but we have been in the 13-15 range before. We will trust whatever the NCAA decides and will be prepared to play whoever we face.