Women’s Basketball Head Coach Matt Insell gave a preview of the season at the Tuohy Center for basketball’s media day.
With their first game coming up on Friday against Mississippi College, Insell said he is excited for the year and thinks this season could be one of the best seasons Ole Miss has had in years.
“I couldn’t be happier with where our team is at. We are a lot farther ahead at this point than we have been in a long, long time. We are very well down as a team. For the first time in my tenure here, we are going to put a team on the court that actually looks like an SEC team,” Insell said.
Injuries haven’t hampered the Rebels too much in the offseason, and they will start the year mostly healthy. Point guard player Alissa Alston has a shoulder injury but still might play in Friday’s game. Meanwhile, transfer student Chrishae Rowe will remain ineligible to play until after December due to NCAA transfer rules.
So far, the Rebels have had two scrimmages against a Division I opponent and a practice team, which both went very well, per Insell. Ole Miss has improved its depth through solid recruiting classes in the last couple of years, and Insell said he thinks his program can take a big step forward because of it.
“You could see that when at SEC Media Day, they spoke about teams with top 100 players on them, we are second in the league with top 100 players in the league that are on our roster, and that’s exciting. Our players have grown up,” Insell said. “Last year, you felt like every game we were a player here or a player there away, and we have two exciting transfers joining in with our returners, and along with that, we signed three outstanding prospects in the three freshmen, so we just keep adding depth. We’re not a small team; we have good size this season.”
Several new faces have joined the team this season in both players and coaches. Four new players have been added to the team, including Shelby Gibson, Bree Glover and Kate Rodgers, who are all true freshmen, along with graduate transfer Taylor Manuel. To the coaching staff, George Porcha will now serve as the new assistant coach.
Leading scorer Shandricka Sessom will be returning to the basketball court for her junior year. Last year, she averaged 15.6 points per game. Additionally, Erika Sisk will be only 64 points from reaching her career total of 1,000. Sisk said she also believes the team has a great chance of having a winning season.
“Our expectations are very high now, over the summer I felt that as a player and as a leader going on my senior year, I feel like everybody has just been in the gym including myself more than we have ever been, as far as just working out, we actually want to get better,” Sisk said.
As the Rebels get ready to tip off their season, they already have Mississippi State listed as their most anticipated game. Last year they lost two times to the Bulldogs, falling 79-51 in Starkville and 60-51 in Oxford. With the new roster, they believe their chances of winning are huge, Insell said.
“We are taking a lot of better shots,” Insell said. “We’ve got good experience on the perimeter. We’re doing nothing that we did last year offensively, we are just going back to doing things that we used to do years ago.“
