STARKVILLE — After several years of continuity, some new faces are in charge of Starkville’s historic basketball programs. Both the boys and girls teams are experiencing early success under new leadership, picking up key wins ahead of a critical January in terms of playoff chances and seeding.
Both teams have shown the strength of years past, but it has had to come together for the Jackets after some difficult early tests.
Jacket girls head coach Matt Willbanks spoke highly of his team after a strong win over Murrah last week, which his team then followed up with a 75-43 win over Olive Branch last Friday, taking their record to 9-5.
The wins came in response to a couple of poor performances and an out-of-character loss to Choctaw Central at home. A team meeting brought the squad’s concerns out in the open, and the response was evident in the two wins that followed
“I thought we had a good team meeting after the Choctaw Central loss, the next day at practice. I said some things that needed to be said and we had a player step up and talk about things that needed to change.”
This weekend, Willbanks’ team will play Hancock, DeSoto Central, and Terry in non-district tournament action as they prepare for the final stretch of the regular season.
Willbanks took over a well-run program from former state champion head coach Kristie Williams, and it’s clear there is a high level of knowhow in the squad. Whenever there is change there are always new things to work through, but Willbanks is seeing more and more of the full picture of what is possible in his first year in Starkville.
“It doesn’t matter how good a team you have, how many stars you have when you come in at a new place with a different personality and system and stuff,” he said. “Kristie is a legend, she did a great job her whole tenure here. I have nothing negative to say about her. It’s challenging in Year 1. You’re trying to change things here and there that philosophy-wise is a little different. The first couple of games all we talked about was effort, we didn’t put much offense in. Now that we’re running a little more on offense it’s good to see us play a little basketball. I’m pleased with that.”
The Jacket boys team, now 12-3 on the year, will face off with Oxford (Ala.) in Gulfport at 6 p.m. Thursday It will be their final test before the new year, and it’s a chance for Anthony Carlyle’s group to show their grit in neutral-site action once again in his first season.
Two weeks ago the Jackets lost to Huffman in their last test against an Alabama team, but they responded by rattling off three straight wins against Murrah, Olive Branch and Jackson Academy.
“I think they did well,” Carlyle said last week of the team’s response. “Each opportunity we get a chance to perform, the better we can work on our chemistry and playing together as a team. We took a tough loss on Saturday and we have two more tough games this weekend. It’s a chance to see if we have improved on that.”
In the win over Jackson Academy last weekend the Jackets had three scorers in double digits. Defensively the team has only allowed more than 50 points on one occasion this season and they aim to continue that team-focused approach to the game going forward under Carlyle.
“We’re trying to stress team-ball,” Carlyle said. “We want them to understand some nights may not be your night, and some nights may be someone else’s night. It’s hard to get kids to understand that nowadays because everybody is focused on points, but I think we’re slowly making that transition.”
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