Tiger Blogs :: Women's Basketball

Blog #13

Well I guess I can stop calling these summer blogs now...The girls who were here for summer school finished exams last week and are likely back home enjoying a week or so off before returning to start the fall. Move-in day into the dorms on campus is Thursday, Aug. 21st for the entire U of M community, but since most of the team was here for summer school, they are already moved in and are probably enjoying some last days at home with their families while the rest of their classmates are just getting settled.

If you see Jeff Brightwell today, make sure to say Happy Birthday...I'm not going to reveal his age, but he emailed me and said he's now closer to 40 than he is to 30.

The tournament in the Bahamas has changed a bit. Mercer and Florida Atlantic are no longer our possible opponents in the draw. We'll open against Texas-Arlington on the first day of the tournament, and then face either Winthrop or Georgia Tech in the second round. We played Winthrop two years ago at the Louisville tournament and they were almost entirely a roster of sophomores then, so we could be facing a team with a lot of seniors on it. Georgia Tech sports a familiar face to long-time Tiger fans, as former assistant coach Sytia Messer is the associate head coach at Tech. She was promoted in May to the associate head coach spot after spending the past five years on the Tech staff.

Speaking of former Tigers in coaching, congrats to Jennifer Sullivan. Sullivan was named the assistant coach at McNeese State University back in July and will be coaching under another former Memphis assistant, Brooks Donald-Williams. Sullivan played at Memphis from 2001-2004 and finished with 800 career points, 310 rebounds and 99 steals. She then spent two years on the coaching staff at Rhodes before spending last season at Memphis.

Blog #12 -- Summer Update #6

Wow, over a month between posts...sorry about that, but July has pretty much found the women's basketball staff out and on the road. They had a few days to take a break from the road, but are just starting to trickle back in to the office.

The traffic is really starting to pick up in the AOB. I've seen a lot of the girls walking through on their way to the business office to turn in their book receipts for the summer session that is currently under way. And believe it or not, football reports to camp on Sunday night. It'll be a busy couple of days of meetings for the fall athletes, but that means summer has officially come to an end for a lot of AOB staffers.

Rumor throughthe grapevine regarding the women's basketball schedule is that one exhibition game and one non-conference game have been added to the draft of the schedule that's put together right now. Hopefully we'll have a schedule to share with everyone soon, but I will tell you to mark down Nov. 28-29th for the Women's Basketball Thanksgiving Tournament and it looks like right now, our home opener could be Nov. 14th. With Memphis hosting the Conference USA volleyball championships, the Elma Roane Fieldhouse will have a busy November and will hosts quite a few games/matches in a really short time span. It's a real balancing act to keep the facility set up for both volleyball and women's basketball and the student managers for both teams do a great job of getting stuff broke down from one practice and set up for the next one.

And while not women's basketball-related (yet), please check out our volleyball, and men's and women's soccer pages. On Tuesday we taped the first of what will be weekly "Virtual Coaches TV Shows" through the All-Access part of the website. Jeff Brightwell, voice of our women's basketball team, was the host with all three of the head coaches (M&W Soccer, volleyball), and all three pre-season shows are being offered for free. We will stream as many home games this season as our one-camera and short-staffed video department can swing, and Brightwell will also voice the play-by-play for both soccers and volleyball for select games.

Blog #11 -- Summer Update #5

Sorry for the delay in between posts, but things are kind of slowing down here in the AOB for a little bit from the media relations front (except for the football media guide!). On the other side of our wall, the women's basketball staff is getting ready for the upcoming Evaluation Period which runs July 6-15th. In that short period of time, the women's basketball staff plans on hitting 15 different tournaments around the country, including stops in Texas, Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio and Florida. Following that evaluation period, there is a quiet period from July 16th-July 21st before the next evaluation period begins on July 22nd. That evaluation period runs until July 31st and will find the four members of the staff out on the road at 15 different tournaments, covering stops in Kentucky, Illinois, North Carolina, Tennessee, Maryland, South Carolina, Georgia, New Yok and Mississippi. The first signing day for the kids of the 2008-09 signing class will be November 14th until November 21st for the early signing period. The regular signing period will be April 16th to May 21st. That's 30 stops in about 16 total days.

And speaking of newcomers, the staff still is not done adding newcomers for the upcoming season. Check back sometime next week and we should have information regarding another newcomer for the upcoming season!

Blog #10 -- Summer Update #4

Monday night was the Fast Break Club's Meet and Greet with the entire coaching staff, a bunch of folks that it's hard to get all in one room! The reception was well-attended and thanks to everyone for coming out. I loaded a photo gallery from the evening's festivities to our website at www.gotigersgo.com. In the left hand column of our home page, go to Photo Galleries, and the gallery is loaded there. It is also located in the link below:

June 16, 2008 -- Fast Break Club Meet and Greet

A majority of the team is on campus and taking summer classes. The team will have a new strength and conditioning coach in the next week or so. As you may know, Carrie Yerty left Memphis to become the volleyball head coach at Wyoming, meaning her husband, Lee, also left the staff at Memphis, where he was the strength and conditioning coach for volleyball and women's basketball, as well as tennis. So there has been a bit of upheaval for the team since the season ended with an entirely new coaching staff and some new support folks as well.

Next up on the women's basketball calendar is recruiting, which begins on July 6th. The coaches will hit the road to begin the evaluation period for the next recruiting class, looking for likely four more players with the senior class of Paris Leonard, Jessica Jackson, Jessica Hall (assuming she is back for this season) and Ashley Thornton heading in to their final collegiate basketball seasons.

Gaylon Hall, the Fast Break Club president, would also like to get a couple of dates out there for women's basketball fans. July 23-25th marks the River City Classic, an event that the Fast Break Club works the concession areas for, and is in need of volunteers. Also, on September 5th, the Fourth Annual Women's Basketball Golf Scramble will be held in Bartlett at Quail Ridge. Entry forms are located at www.gotigersgo.com in the right hand column of the women's basketball page. Hole sponsorships are also available and prizes are being collected to be used as door prizes. So if you can help out, contact Gaylon at 901-372-4677 or by email at ghall65068@aol.com.

Blog #9 -- Summer Update #3

Well as summer heats up, the women's basketball staff is now all in the office and is preparing for a pair of summer camps, beginning with a team camp this coming weekend (June 14-15th) and then the individual camp (June 16-19th).

While that is going on, former Lady Tiger Tamika Whitmore has helped her new WNBA team, the Connecticut Sun to first place in the WNBA Eastern Division with a 7-1 record. Whitmore, who was traded from Indiana in the pre-season while she was playing over in Europe, is averaging 15.2 ppg and 5.0 rebounds per game and has helped the Sun to four straight wins. That streak will be on the line Tuesday, June 10th when the Sun plays at the Lynx at 7 p.m. (ET) on ESPN2.

For fans who cannot catch the ESPN2 game, the WNBA is also offering 90 games on their live webcasts for free. I saw the link on the Sun's website under their schedule page: http://www.wnba.com/schedules/ in the right hand column.

Blog #8 -- C-USA Plans for 2008-09

Mark your calendars, the Lady Tigers will participate in the 2009 C-USA Championships Mar. 5-8 in New Orleans, La., as Tulane will host the next C-USA Championships....Cafe du Monde Beignets here we come!

Blog #7 -- Summer Update #2

May is almost over and Coach McFerrin has been on staff for just over a month now. Speaking of staff, she rounded out her staff with the addition of Tempie Brown (Northwestern) and Danielle O'Banion (Minnesota) in the past week and now has just one spot remaining to fill -- the team's Director of Basketball Operations spot.

Since a lot of folks ask me this question, the Director of Basketball Operations (DBO) for the women's basketball team is kind of our team's traveling secretary. He/she makes sure that Lou Strasberg with Travelennium gets our schedule prior to each season. From there, Lou books hotels and flights and it becomes the DBO's job to make sure the team gets to the airport/gym on time and to get the team checked in and out of hotels once we arrive. On the road, the DBO also coordinates all the meals, whether it's finding a restaurant to eat out at or arranging for pre-game meals in the hotels we stay at...it's a busy, busy job. He/she also has to make sure that we pack everything that the coaching staff may need during the game (wipeboards, markers, water bottles, cough drops, gum, it's an endless list sometimes).

The DBO also oversees our student managers, of which we currently have three great managers -- John Nunnery, Ashley Snyder and Cornelius Sullivan. In pre-season, that foursome handles everything from uniforms and shoes getting ordered and logged in to the inventory to doing the team's laundry (both at home and on the road...we have some student managers who can probably tell you the location of laundrymats in a variety of cities across the country!). Once the team is in town and practicing, the DBO and the student managers arrive early to set the gym up for practice, run the clock during practice and keep any stats/video required, then break down practice in order for the Tiger volleyball team to get ready for their respective practices. The Elma Roane Fieldhouse is a pretty busy place from about noon to 6 p.m. on non-game days.

So, that's the short list on what the final piece of the coaching staff puzzle will possibly be doing. With each coaching staff, the duties vary a little, but in general, that's how that position has worked in the past. So the next time you meet the team's Director of Basketball Operations, be sure to thank them for keeping our travel party in line. We are a group of about 25 folks when we are on the road and keeping us all moving in one direction is quite the challenge!

P.S. -- Speaking of student managers...congratulations to former student manager Toby Bush. Toby was a student manager with women's basketball during his undergraduate and graduate career before joining former assistant coach Brenda Welch-Nichols staff at Mercer. Last year, he was the head coach at Neosho Community College in Kansas, but will be back closer to home after getting the women's head coaching job at Pearl River Community College a couple of weeks ago. Congrats!

Blog #6 -- Summer Update

Well the Lady Tigers are all back in their respective homes for a couple of weeks for the summer now that exams are done and books are turned back in, but the women's basketball office is still hoppin' over in the Athletic Office Building. Memphis will be adding one more assistant coach in the coming days as Northwestern's Tempie Brown starting logging some hours in the office last week. Coach Brown will serve as one of Coach McFerrin's assistants for the upcoming year, meaning there will be one more assistant coaching hire and a Director of Basketball Operations hire still coming up. Coach Wholey is working on putting together a session for women's basketball camp, so watch for that on www.gotigersgo.com as well in the upcoming weeks.

Memphis added two more signees in the late signing period (see their release on www.gotigersgo.com on the women's basketball main page), bringing a northeastern flavor to the roster. One signee from Brooklyn will be just the fifth Lady Tiger ever from the state of New York if my research so far is correct. The last New Yorker on the roster was Annquinnette Burkes from Buffalo from 1996-1998. Prior to that, the 1979-80 team had three New York residents: Nancy Lemp (Islip Terrace), Marcia Monk (Warwick) and Mary Ann Scheirmeyer (Averill Park).

The Tigers are also getting their first-ever player from the country of Cameroon and the second from the continent of Africa if research so far holds up. If anyone knows of any other athletes who have played for the Lady Tigers that hail from outside the United States, please let me know at tdegroff@memphis.edu...Here's what I have so far:

Aroha Jennings, New Zealand, 2006-08
Charity Egenti, Lagos, Nigeria, 2002-2004
Jordie Soso, Australia, 2002-2004
Kalara McFadyen, New Zealand, 2000-2002

Some of the team will roll back in to town for summer classes next month. The full summer session begins on June 9th and will give incoming student-athletes a chance to earn some credits before the regular academic session gets going, allowing them to carry a more manageable course load during the academic year when the team is traveling and missing class time. The full summer session ends August 15th. For those who drive by the university daily, you'll still notice some traffic. That is the pre-summer session, which runs May 12th-May 30th. In total, the university has four summer sessions (pre-summer, full summer, 1st half and 2nd half).

Blog #4 -- Good Luck Tigers!

Yesterday marked the last day of classes for the 2007-08 Memphis women's basketball roster and today (Thursday) is Study Day across campus, meaning I envision lots of U of M students doing some last minute cramming for exams that begin tomorrow. This afternoon is the M Club Senior Luncheon, where all seniors who have finished their eligibility and are getting ready to graduate will be honored by their respective head coaches and will get introduced to the M Club staff. M Club Director Tim Duncan has made some big changes in the M Club this year, and is trying to connect our current student-athletes with former student-athletes to help everyone get off to a good start in their post-U of M lives.

Good luck to the Lady Tigers with exams....study hard and have a good summer!

Blog #3 -- Season-Ending Banquet

First off, let me apologize for the lack of posts on the women's basketball blog. In deciding to launch a blog for women's basketball, none of us knew that a coaching change was going to be so close around the corner, and without a staff, I opted to not ask the girls to post in order to give them some time to process everything that was going on.

Sunday night, April 20th, was the season-ending Fastbreak Club banquet. The Fastbreak Club did a great job of making sure the girls were recognized for their work this season and handled what could have been an uncomfortable situation very well. Freshman Savannah Ellis received the Most Improved Player award, much-deserved for a player with a bright future ahead of her. Junior Paris Leonard was named the Most Valuable Defensive Player, quite an honor for a player who will likely be our next Lady Tiger to 1,000 career points in her senior season. I don't know what Lady Tiger fans thought, but I thought the biggest growth in Paris' game from her sophomore to her junior seasons was definitely her defense. Jessica Hall received the Most Valuable Offensive Player Award. Imagine all those points having to sit on the sidelines over the past two seasons due to injuries for J-Hall...she's made a really remarkable comeback and was also one of 14 players from across all NCAA divisions (I, II and III) across the country to be selected a finalist for the V Foundation's Comeback Award, quite an honor. Ashley Thornton received the Lady Tiger award and the Les Phillips award. Both are awarded to the player who best exemplifies what it means to be a Lady Tiger. The Les Phillips award is a perpetual award, meaning anyone who walks in the women's basketball office back by the door to Coach McFerrin's office can see the plaque in honor of the former Lady Tiger booster hanging on the wall.

A little later that evening, new head coach Melissa McFerrin landed in Memphis and in arriving at the hotel, crossed paths with some of us leaving the banquet. I think it's fair to say everyone was impressed and excited to meet Coach McFerrin, although we did kind of ambush her in the lobby of the hotel -- sorry coach! So far, Coach McFerrin has had a busy few hours. She had not even been in Memphis for a full 24 hours when she had already knocked out some local school visits and made an appearance at the Tiger Scholarship Fund spring tour event at the DeSoto Civic Center. Today (Tuesday) is the last day women's basketball can be out on the road recruiting, so today will likely be more of the same for Coach McFerrin. Women's basketball enters a Quiet Period beginning on April 23rd, which lasts until July 5th. The NCAA's website defines a Quiet Period as the time when coaching staff can only make in-person recruiting contacts at the member institution, which means Coach McFerrin, in addition to having to hire a staff, will also only have the opportunity to host potential recruits here at the U of M for the remainder of this recruiting cycle. She can begin the evaluation period for her class of 2010 on July 6th when the next Evaluation Period begins.

For this year, the late signing period for basketball ends on May 21st. As of now, Memphis did ink two signees earlier this season (NCAA rules prohibit me from mentioning them again in a second release, but you can find the first releases I did on both signees under women's basketball, news headlines, on our website). For fans who may not know, women's basketball has 15 scholarships. We had 14 players this season, including one walk-on, and lost two to transfers during the season and one to graduation next month (Aroha Jennings).

My Last Game in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse

Looking back on my freshman year, I definitely thought that it would take forever to get to my senior year, but it came with a blink of an eye! It took a while for me to really grasp the fact that my last home game is this weekend. It hit me, and I thought wow, I will never play in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse ever again after this game and it is sad. I have come to feel so comfortable in the fieldhouse. The small environment of the fieldhouse makes it feel like home and I wouldn't have it any other way. The crowd and fans are so close and it's a good feeling knowing we have support right there. It makes me enjoy playing in the fieldhouse so much more. All the people that have continually come to support us thru thick and I want to say a big thank you, as you have such a big impact on our success. Thank you.

The team this season has grown and developed so much and we have really proven a lot of people wrong. We have an amazing fight and have really come to learn how to play well with each other. We have fought thru a lot of adversity, but we have overcome it all together!. It's going to be difficult to leave the team, coaches and managers because we are like a little family and many of the relationships I have developed can never be replaced. It's a very overwhelming experience for me to know that I will never play with this team ever again, because no one team can ever be the same. In my case, this could possibly be one of my last games and I definitely have a lot of mixed emotions and am sad to know that my college career here in America is coming to an end.

My time here at Memphis has literally been some of the toughest years of my life, both physically and mentally, but it has made me stronger and the things that I have been through will carry me through life and the real world. I truly treasure my time here in Memphis and in the United States, even though it has been very tough at times. I have seen the world, played basketball at an intense and amazing level that I would not have be able to experience many other places, and I would never change my decision to come here.

I have had the time of my life, met some amazing people and have had the opportunity of a lifetime to be in America, recieving an education and competing as a basketball athlete. It will be a very emotional time for me entering my last game here in for The University of Memphis as a Lady Tiger for the last time, but I will be strong and take it all in and I will never forget my experiences here and will always be grateful.

I want to thank my family, my boyfriend Efrem, and my friends for always being there for me through the thick and thin. I would not have been able to do it without you all.

Cyah Everyone

Your New Zealand Lady Tiger

Aroha Jennings

Women's Basketball Blog Entry #1

Hey Lady Tiger fans...just a quick note to let everyone know that Saturday's game time against UCF has been changed since we did all the print pieces (posters, media guides, game-day programs). We will now play at 2 p.m. Saturday at the Elma Roane Fieldhouse. That game will also be Senior Night for Aroha Jennings, who will do our first player blog in the next day or so. Thanks and Go Tigers! Tammy DeGroff, Athletic Media Relations (td)