Cancun tourney offers Wichita State women three days of regrouping
Wichita State’s women’s basketball team is a handful of possessions from a 3-0 start, but familiarity offers little consolation.
The Shockers lost by single digits nine times while winning eight games last season. Their incremental – or significant – improvement was supposed to show in turning some of those defeats into wins.
WSU got one, a season-opening 62-54 win over Creighton, but it followed that with losses to UMKC and Texas-Arlington by six combined points.
“It just goes back to trusting the system – trusting the offense, trusting the defense,” WSU coach Jody Adams-Birch said. “And trusting each other, and playing for each other. It’s one thing to play together but it’s another thing to do what a great team does, and that’s to play for each other.”
The Shockers begin a three-game stop in Cancun, Mexico with a Thanksgiving game against Purdue, followed by games against No. 11 Stanford and Northeastern. WSU’s first three games have included positives such as depth – eight Shockers have played at least 12 minutes in a game.
Adams-Birch is still sorting out the roster and how to use it. Freshman Kayla Williams started for the first time on Sunday against UTA, scoring eight points and making her only three-pointer.
The 6-foot-1 Williams possesses perimeter scoring ability and strong interior defense that makes her a difficult matchup at both ends.
“Kayla has been very, very consistent in practice and she’s been consistent in games,” Adams-Birch said. “Now it’s our job to find her. We’ve never had a shooter be shooting like she is shooting. She needs more touches. And she’s open, she’s flat-out open. We’ve got to get her the ball.”
The goal in Cancun is to rediscover the results-oriented improvement the Creighton win afforded the Shockers, who led by 22 during that game. It also is to use the three days, even with the festive holiday ambience, to become closer, between the lines, as a team.
“This team can bond really well off the floor,” Adams-Birch said. “They know each other. Now I think this could be a great opportunity for them to bond on the court. They talk about it being a business trip, and we’ve supported that. We’re going there focused.”
This story was originally published November 23, 2016 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Cancun tourney offers Wichita State women three days of regrouping."