PUGH READY TO PUT 2004-2005 SEASON BEHIND HER
6/1/2005

"Inconsistent." That's the word that best describes the 2004-2005 edition of the Southern University women's basketball team.

"This was a disappointing season for us with all the expectations we had going in," said head coach Sandy Pugh. "The injury to Fred (Fredreika Lewis) was what slowed us down from a fast team to a slow team."

Point guard play was the achilles heel for the Jaguars as they had to replace Jovanni Anderson, who did not return. Replacing a player like Anderson was not easy for coach Pugh, but she felt Tiffany Jones was the player for the job.

"The one thing we miss with Tiffany at point is speed," Pugh said. "With Fred gone we weren't able to match up with teams like we want to."

Along with trying to find that right player at point guard, to fit a team that had 14 different starting line-ups, the Jaguars had other injury problems. The SWAC Player of the Year Rolanda Monroe went through a couple of games with tooth problems then an injury to her head. Tiffany Jones injured her foot which prevented her from pushing the ball up the court and restricted her ability to play man-to-man. Sophomore LaToiya Hill went down in January with a knee injury that ended her season.

"We were slow all ready trying to find that glue needed to jell the team but when Tiffany injured her foot that made us adjust the defense," Pugh said. "We started playing a zone defense to slow the ball down on both ends of the court. LaToiya was just starting to play at the level we needed her to when she went down," Pugh said.

Up and down is how the season went all the way through to the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament championship, where Southern lost 47-56 at the hands of Alcorn State University.

With players shuffling around playing positions that they were not use to the shooting was inconsistent, rebounds were up and down and turnovers went high and low.

Having only one player averaging in double figures throughout the season wasn't healthy at all, some nights the Blue and Gold would struggle from the field. It showed as they finish with a record of 1-5 when scoring 49 points or less, 7-5 when scoring 50-59 points, 5-4 when scoring 60-69 points and 3-0 when they scored 70 or more.

"With players like Ciara Shiggs being asked to step up and hit shots when she is mostly a defender, some nights she is going to hit some and some nights she wasn't able to buy a lay-up," Pugh said. "But she is a player who will do anything to help her team win. When it seemed that she couldn't hit a basket, Shiggs would hustle up rebounds and create second opportunities for the other shooters."

The rebounding factor played a big part in winning and losing for the Jaguars. They were out-rebounded by 10 or more rebounds eight different times and finished with a record of 6-10 when it happened. But when they did out-rebound a team they went 9-3 and 1-1 when they tied in rebounds with their opponents.

"Our best rebounder was Krystal Huggins she was a force at positioning her body for the rebounds," Pugh said. "Ashley Blake and Talesha Dokes also help in grabbing the boards for us. Early on we did a good job of rebounding and even though we were undersize we still grabbed our fair share."

On nine different occasions this season Southern committed 20 or more turnovers, 27 different times they committed 11 or more turnovers. The Blue and Gold only played three games where they turned the ball over less than nine times.

"A lot of it has to do with the kids not playing together. When you have players that want to get out and run and the point guard is doing something else, some things will be forced and when that happens mistakes take shape," Pugh said. "Tiffany's injury affected us because of the way she had to change her style of play. As a team you never want to average 20 turnovers. I always say the better the team the smaller the window of error."

The 2-3 zone has helped Southern win games because a lot of teams had problems staying with Monroe. With most teams playing the 2-3 in the SWAC guarding Monroe was a problem because of her ability to create a shot. In a lot of games she was double covered and when that didn't work they would jump trap her.

At the beginning of the season Monroe did not step up as coach Pugh had hoped she would. She did not get the swagger or level of confidence that she needed until the Jackson State game in Baton Rouge when coach Pugh expressed her disappointment in her efforts about not playing up to her potential. It registered as she came out and salvaged the second half of the conference season.

With the 2005-2006 season on the horizon the goal for Southern and any team is to remain healthy.

"You cannot predict injuries. We train the players and get their bodies ready, and we don't sit and moan about who or what we don't have," said Pugh. "With the players we have coming in and getting Fred and Rolanda back we should have a stellar season.