Last Saturday Middle Tennessee beat Liberty 65-51 in the CUSA women’s tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Blue Raiders won 28 games last year and somehow took it up a notch with 29 wins so far this year as they are heading to the NCAA tourney for the 3rd time in the past 4 years. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Middle Tennessee SO G Ta’Mia Scott about her team’s remarkable run.
What makes Nina Davis such a great assistant coach? Her experience playing at high levels: she knows exactly what to say. She works with our post players a lot but also know about the guards as well.
You went 28-5 last year and this year you are 29-4 and have won 19 in a row including the CUSA tourney title over Liberty on Saturday: has it reached a point where you expect to win every single time that your team steps out onto the court? We do: we know that we will come out with a win no matter what happens during the game. The motto has been to not get too high/not get too low. It is a matter of how hard we want it and how hard we work for it.
Your team is top-10 in the nation with 34.9 FG% allowed/54.3 PPG allowed: what is the secret to playing great defense? Assistant coach Matt Insell puts an emphasis on our defensive principles. 1 of our main weaknesses is when defenses try to drive down the middle of the lane so we focus a lot on how to prevent that defensively during practices.
How do you feel about being an 11-seed in Albany, and what do you know about Louisville? We feel good regardless of our seed: it is special to play in the NCAA tourney. We faced Louisville last year so we have some confidence but will get started by putting in the work.