The Crimson Tide’s official basketball season is under way. The Alabama women’s basketball team has been anxious to start the season.
This season’s lineup is playing like a whole new team, out for redemption after ending last season on the bottom half of the conference 4-12, 12-18 overall.
Alabama plans to buckle down and find its identity as a team in its 2011 term. Head coach Wendell Hudson and his coaching staff have big plans to put the Tide back into a winning swing.
“We’ve been concentrating on Alabama and what we really want to do and clean up the way we want to play,” Hudson said. “That’s what we’ve been doing and that’s what we’re going to continue to do. We’re going to spend some time and talk about some tendencies of some teams, but what we’re really and truly looking forward to is playing the way we want to play. And we’re going to play that way against everybody, it doesn’t matter who.”
The Tide participated in an exhibition game against the University of Alabama at Huntsville on Nov. 6 and gained its first substantial win, 103-58.
“That was a good feeling,” Hudson said. “The last couple of years I didn’t know if we could’ve got to one hundred with a pencil. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We’re going to play that type of tempo and we’re going to have a few more turnovers than some people can live with, but we’re going to run every possession.”
The drastic change in the team’s game play this season is undoubtedly due to the new combination of chemistry, ability and leadership both on and off of the court.
“We have leadership now that we didn’t have last year,” Hudson said. “Tierney Jenkins is a leader. Katie Hancock is a leader. Varisia [Raffington]. Three people who’ve been with us since we’ve taken over the program have stepped up to become leaders.”
The senior class isn’t the only group willing to step up and make calls. Hudson said that he sees leadership from every class. Even the younger players like junior Erika Russell are willing to improve and make some dynamic plays.
“You can see them working together,” Hudson said. “They talk about basketball and they’re helping each other.”
This season, each player has shown Hudson a significant amount of improvement from the years before. In practice, the Tide shows better communication and execution than last year and the main goal is to keep it consistent.
Keeping tabs on other team’s strategies is not in the forefront of the Tide’s mechanics this year. Hudson says that Alabama wants to focus more in its personal execution and fluidity this time around.
“When you get your best players working harder than anybody and you get some senior leadership then everything else is a whole lot easier,” Hudson said.
Scoring more than 100 points in an exhibition game certainly shows that Alabama has been working hard on its skill development and that the labor has paid off.
The next two games followed suit with the first. Alabama ran a 82-55 win over Tennessee State at home on Nov. 12 and topping Central Arkansas Sunday 87-76.
