An Interview with Assistant Women's Basketball Coach, Kent Jones

Q: As a season starts, what lessons were learned from last season to help make this season a success?

Last season, we had all first-year players.  We had to learn the speed of the game and the physicality of the game.  Our team this year has some great first-year players, but we will be leaning on the experience and focus of our second-year players.  They have grown in confidence, and have matured with their basketball IQ.

Q: As a first-year assistant coach, how do you want to make an impact?

We want to continue with the focus of creating a culture of excellence here at MCC.  We want to be able to impact the lives of our players off the gym floor as well as on it.  By creating a culture of winning in life and in basketball, our student-athletes will be prepared to make changes in their world. 

Q: Do you change your style a bit, or do you adapt to the players you have each year?

Our style is fundamentally sound basketball.  We will look to get out and run and make our opponents play our style of basketball instead of the other way around.  At this level, we have to build our schemes for the players we have and understand what our culture is and that next year's team won't look like this year's team.

Q: I noticed a lot of your players are returning, and you do not have a lot of height, but you have high IQ players, and a few that can shoot quite well, do you run more of a 4 out 1 in, or do you have something else in mind?  I have heard that to win at this level, you need great guard play. 

Well, we have guards who can play great.  We are planning on playing a spread type of offense with a ton of movement.  We will work on controlling the tempo of each game to keep the teams with more height than us on their heels.  Our defensive strategy will be a lot of pressure and quick feet.  We will be fun to watch for sure.

Q: During a long season and long bus rides have you thought about how to keep this team up and ready to go each and every night? We all know basketball season is a grind…do you have any fun ways of keeping practice fun, bus rides better, places you eat less boring, and music you play more upbeat? I know a kind of goofy question, but seasons are truly a grind. 

We are blessed to have a great staff and Athletic department here at MCC.  The coaching staff has put together "family" nights where we can all get together and break bread and just hang together without the pressure of basketball.  The coaching staff always looks at ways of making practices fun and creative with our training.  Allowing the players to come up with drills and ideas for practices helps keep them interested in practices and bought into our mission.

Q:  Why should a fan come to see this team play? 

These women have put a ton of work into their craft in the off-season and we are going to have an exciting brand of basketball to come and watch.