For Carleton Ravens women’s basketball head coach Brian Cheng, hosting nationals is a “luxury,” but also a responsibility.
He said the team’s focus is to earn their way into nationals–to attend not only as the hosts, but as competitors.
“We got to prepare ourselves for that first [nationals] game and we got to sharpen the knife so we can get as close to our potential as possible before that first game,” Cheng said.
The Ravens have made strides this season. The team sits atop the Ontario University Athletics East Division at 7-1, having won five games in a row since their loss to Queen’s University on Nov. 8.
Cheng said all of the players have stepped up since the start of the season, but pointed out rookie guards Tatyanna Burke and Kali Pocrnic in particular.
“It’s natural for them to grow every day,” he said. “At the rate that they’re growing, perhaps that’s something surprising or that we’re excited about.”
From his vantage point, their improvement has come from a willingness to work hard and effectively.
“I think most people work hard at our level,” Cheng said. “It’s learning to be effective with our work. I think they’re learning to economize their efforts and they’re becoming more effective with the time they’re given to develop.”
It comes with constant precision, focus and attention to detail, Cheng said.
For instance, with Burke’s rebounding, defence and moving without the ball, “She’s just doing it at a more detailed rate and she’s doing it with more consistency throughout every possession,” Cheng said.
Burke said she reminds herself of her goals–like rebounding and defence–during the game.
“Before the games I try not to think about it, but during the games, trying to think of the things I can improve on,” she said.
“We’ve all improved, even people individually,” Burke said. She points to Alyssa Cerino’s production, Marlee Ball and Pocrnic’s shooting and fellow rookie Dorcas Buisa’s willingness to attack the basket.
Cerino, who leads the team with 17.2 points per-game, said their growth comes down to the mental side.
“There’s working hard and then there’s working smart right,” second-year forward Emma Huff said. “If you work really hard but you’re not playing smart, you’re putting a lot of effort but you’re not getting the results you want.”
Huff added it comes down to knowing your strengths and weaknesses and putting more effort into working on those weaknesses.
Injuries have also forced players into expanded and different roles. Huff and Ball have had to play forward at times this season.
The team already has second-year centre Deanna Hinds and fourth-year guard Karyne Jolicoeur redshirting the season because of injuries. Second-years Navneet Sandhu (lower leg) and Mallory Katz (concussion) have been sidelined since the summer. Third-year forward Emma Kiesekamp has also missed games because of injury, but is back in the lineup for next weekend.
Meanwhile, fellow third-year guard Madison Reid has missed the last four games with a “lower-body injury” per Cheng. Fourth year guard Jaclyn Ronson has helped take over her role.
“I’m sad about Maddie [Reid],” Ronson said. “We love her being on the team, definitely helps us win lots of games, but I’m also happy to gain more exposure on the court, more minutes … and I’m just excited to play with the girls.”
The biology student faced Lakehead’s constant full court pressure over the weekend and is averaging four points and 19.7 minutes per-game (in all games)–career highs for the guard.
“Being an off-guard over the years, people are going to attack [the basket] for me and I need to be ready to shoot the ball and I developed that over the years and now I’m having to do it more off the dribble and if someone kicks it out to me,” she said.
Ronson, along with Pocrnic and Burke, is one of the main guards responsible for handling the ball and running the offence now. Cheng noted Ronson’s played well and does a lot of good things.
“[She’s] going to keep developing and if she can minimize the times when she loses her head, she’ll even be better,” said Cheng.
Part of the growth of players comes down to understanding and identifying how much work needs to be put into the process of improving and how difficult it can be, according to Cheng.
“We have to figure out where they want to go to and that creates a needs gap,” Cheng said. “Where we’re at today and where we want to be tomorrow. So we take that journey, we take baby steps, meticulously and sometimes mundanely.”
Cheng added that player growth isn’t always linear or exponential. It’s often more difficult.
He’s had numerous years of experience working with players on progress, from his time at the University of Victoria first as an assistant, then head coach from 1997 to 2011, and the University of Western from 2011-2019
Now, he’s the interim coach this season at Carleton until a permanent coach is announced for the 2020-21 campaign.
“They’ve got to cover some of the material and the understanding and the fitness and the game readiness and the mistakes we went through as a young team,” he noted. “They can’t skip those processes. That’s the journey they have to take.”
Meanwhile, his team’s journey – and subsequently, his journey at Carleton – will end at nationals. Their quarterfinal date is already set for Mar. 5, at TD Place. Until then, there’s a focus on improving as much as possible and “earning” that nationals berth – in more ways than one.
“Whether we got there honestly or whether we got there by hook or crook,” Cheng said. “By the time where we play that [quarterfinal] game, we’ve mentally prepared to earn that berth.”
Feature image by Spencer Colby.
