Don’t try to claim that Ole Miss women’s basketball coach Matt Insell isn’t a positive man.
The Rebels’ third-year head coach might be the most upbeat coach in the Southeastern Conference. It’s not surprising. After all, Insell guided Ole Miss to a seven-win improvement and a postseason berth last season.
Entering this season, Insell had one of the youngest and most athletic teams in the SEC and was picked sixth and seventh in the SEC preseason poll by the media and league coaches, respectively. It is the first time Ole Miss has been picked in the top half of the league since it expanded to 14 teams.
Insell still believes his team has that kind of potential — and then some — but he has learned that he needs to stay positive because young teams have a knack of frustrating their coaches due to their inexperience. Ole Miss showed its youth Thursday in an 81-58 loss to No. 15 Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. The Aggies outscored the Rebels 40-18 in the first half and held them to 26.9 percent shooting. Ole Miss regrouped to shoot 45.2 percent in the second half and played Texas A&M to a virtual standstill, but Insell said his team’s lack of execution and proclivity to “shoot itself in the foot” proved to be too much to overcome.
Insell hopes Ole Miss (9-8, 1-3 Southeastern Conference) will deliver a faster start at 6 tonight (SEC Network) when it takes on No. 7 Mississippi State (16-2, 3-1) at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville.
“We had 16 possessions in the second quarter (against Texas A&M) and in 12 of them we just did not execute our game plan,” Insell said. “When we get hit a little bit, our young players don’t hit back. That is the frustrating thing, and getting that consistency is very important. We’re not getting that right now.”
Insell has used four starting lineups in an attempt to find that consistency. The fourth lineup of Alissa Alston, Madinah Muhammad, Erika Sisk, Shandricka Sessom, and Shequila Joseph debuted against Florida and took the court in the last two games. With Alston, Muhammad, Sisk, Sessom, A’Queen Hayes, Kiara Golden, and Torri Lewis, Ole Miss has a ton of athleticism and quickness that fits Insell’s aggressive style of pressure defense. Ole Miss is first in the SEC in forcing turnovers (25.4) and steals (13.4 per game).
But the Rebels commit 16.2 turnovers a game and are 13th in the SEC in field goal percentage defense (40) and scoring defense (64.2). When you shoot 36.9 percent from the field (13th in the league), those can be difficult numbers to overcome, which is why Insell wants to see his team play with more consistency.
“We’re not 1-3 in the league because we’re young, but we are 1-3 in the league because we are young,” Insell said. “It’s hard to get that consistency when you really don’t have a lot of experience out on the court.”
With five freshmen and 11 of 13 players in their second season in the program, Insell knew there were going to be growing pains. He saw them in a 82-78 loss to Louisiana-Lafayette on Nov. 15 and in losses to Missouri State (91-78 on Nov. 19) and to Middle Tennessee State (84-75) on Nov. 22.
But Ole Miss regrouped to win its next four games before it stumbled in a 57-38 loss at Southern Mississippi on Dec. 12. The Rebels went 3-1 to close the non-conference portion of their schedule before they rallied for a 55-52 victory against Vanderbilt on Jan. 3 in the final game at Tad Smith Coliseum in Oxford. Sisk drove from midcourt for a layup as the buzzer sounded and completed a three-point play that gave Ole Miss the win. Losses to LSU, Florida, and Texas A&M have followed and put Ole Miss in a position where it has to try to get back on track in arguably the toughest part of its schedule. After tonight’s game, Ole Miss will play host to Kentucky, travel to South Carolina, and play host to Missouri. All three teams were ranked in The Associated Press poll last week. Those games will give Ole Miss to bolster its resume in an attempt to improve on its Women’s National Invitation Tournament appearance last season and advance to the NCAA tournament.
Insell, a former assistant coach for Matthew Mitchell at Kentucky, knows there aren’t any breaks in the SEC. He said he will keep pushing the Rebels and continue to be upbeat because he knows how important confidence is to a young team. He said the players see on videotape that they are hurting themselves with mistakes and that they have to eliminate those miscues so they can start to capitalize on things opponents are giving them.
Insell said execution on both ends of the floor is the biggest area of self-inflicted pain. He said the Rebels need to do a better job of communicating on screens. He said they also have to do a better job of mastering plays and taking care of the basketball.
“This team will never get down,” Insell said. “They have a coach who never will get down, and will keep grinding on them every day. I believe in them. My players will tell you I believe in them. That belief helps them stand up and keep
pushing.”
Sessom leads Ole Miss in scoring (16.2 points per game), but Sisk is the team’s top scorer in SEC action (10 ppg.).
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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