INDIANAPOLIS – Part of a blueprint towards success includes postseason play and after making the conference tournament two of the past three years, Ohio Valley is heading in the right direction.
The Fighting Scots finished with the No. 6 seed in the G-MAC Championship under interim head coach Jazmone Turner and with that interim label removed, Turner has the green light to mold the program to her own vision.
OVU finished 2015-16 with 7-21 overall record and ended with a 4-10 league record. The Fighting Scots head into the new year ranked seventh in the G-MAC Preseason Coaches Poll presented by Under Armour.
“I think the team looks pretty good,” Turner said. “We are getting after it in practice and learning a little bit every day. Right now, I think we can be a contender and be in the top five of this conference. We just have to work hard every day.”
The good news is that senior forward Shicole Watts is an absolute matchup nightmare. Had she played in a few more games, Watts would have been the league leader in scoring and rebounding. With a full body of work over the course of the year, Watts is a legitimate conference player of the year candidate.
The tough news for OVU is that she won’t be in uniform for the first half of the season.
Watts averaged 19.4 points per game and over 10 rebounds in a limited sample size, but also allowed for Faith Miller to roam more freely with not as much defensive focus on her.
Miller would average 13.1 points per game in G-MAC contests, but is not back on the roster after finishing her junior season last year.
OVU is young – no seniors were on last year’s roster, but the foundation was built last year with momentum heading into 2016-17. Despite struggling with offensive numbers when stacked up against the rest of the league, OVU still ranked fourth in scoring defense and was third in both blocked shots and steals.
That kind of defensive intensity should help open up the offense as Ohio Valley is able to lock down one end of the floor.
“I think the girls remember what we did last year and I think they have kept that fire within them,” Turner said. “We’re encouraging each other every day.”
Turner has five freshmen and Cincinnati State transfer Cyndey Franklin on board this year.
One of the goals as referenced by sophomore Ariel Johnson is the Fighting Scots want to go undefeated in Vienna on their home court. She also as aspirations to be a top three rebounder in the conference.
Johnson will be the team’s top returning scorer on the floor when the Fighting Scots tip off the new season. She averaged just over seven points per game as a freshman and hauled in 7.5 rebounds per game.
Johnson started 23 of the 28 games she appeared in as a rookie and could be asked to do a lot more in Turner’s system early in the season.