Exit Casey Baker, enter Tania Walters and Alaya Mitchell. The Marshall University women’s basketball team enters a new season with a pair of sophomores taking the lead at point guard.
Baker was an All-American at Lincoln Trail College in Robinson, Ill., before transferring to Marshall in 2007. Ranked in the top 15 in the nation for steals in her first season in Conference USA, Baker became a leader in her two years with the Herd.
“Casey was a great leader for us,” Marshall head women’s basketball coach Royce Chadwick said. “She really set the tone for our youngsters in the way that she played and what she brought to our program every day. She set the tone for our seniors about what it takes to be a leader. I do believe that Tania and Alaya are better players because Casey Baker was an influence to them.”
The attributes Mitchell said she associates with Baker are essential to successful point guards.
“Patience, leadership, confidence,” Mitchell said. “Those three things are a big deal. Being a point guard, she had a lot of expectations she had to hold up. I definitely admire her game.”
Walters said she is influenced by Baker’s leadership and her ability to drive to the basket.
“She was more aggressive than I am so that influenced me to be aggressive going to the basket,” Walters said. “Be more outspoken. Be more of a leader and try to get everybody to do what’s supposed to get done.”
The combination of Baker’s example and the drive Walters and Mitchell exert in practice has set the pace for defensive plays this season. Chadwick compared the intense energy of the duo to that of two well-known boxers.
“I think it’s like having Muhammad Ali and Larry Holmes sparring every day,” Chadwick said. “We’ve got two very, very tenacious people going after each other every day in practice. It makes each of them better. I think that we are working on situations to play them together where we could bring some double misery to some opponents because of the tenacious defense that both of them play.”
Baker was the lone senior of the 2008-09 Marshall team that progressed to the semifinals of the 2009 Conference USA Tournament before falling to eventual champion Southern Miss and ending with a final record of 17-15. Everyone with the exception of Baker has returned this year.
“It’s easier for us to do our plays because everybody knows what’s going on already and we all know each other’s style of game,” Walters said. “It’s not really much to really put in or get used to.”
Walters and Mitchell had significant playing time as freshmen. Walters started in 10 games, averaged 19.3 minutes per game and her 36 steals was second highest on the team. In the C-USA Tournament, she averaged 30 minutes per game. Mitchell appeared in 23 games her freshman season and played at least 10 minutes in the final five regular season games.
Benching freshmen is not Chadwick’s philosophy. Game time experience early on in the collegiate career develops players like Walters and Mitchell, Chadwick said.
“I think one thing that we’ve tried to do with every young player is give them the opportunity to play,” Chadwick said. “You don’t grow much as a freshman when you’re going in playing scrap minutes but you grow as a freshman when you get in there when the game’s on the line and the pressure’s on.”
The experience of playing in the C-USA Tournament is still vivid to Mitchell. Making it to Tulsa in March has been a goal of this year’s team since summer practices, Mitchell said.
“We were so close and we didn’t get there,” Mitchell said. “That experience was amazing. A lot of people say that, but it really was. It helps because I got in the gym in the summer time and everybody was there. The whole team was there in the gym and ready to work because we want to get there this year.”
With a year of collegiate basketball behind them, Walters and Mitchell have assumed leadership positions. The “surprise” players of the C-USA tournament are exhibiting experience well beyond their years, Chadwick said.
“They are playing much more like they have 100 college basketball games underneath their belt,” Chadwick said. “We want them to be the type of people that can lead a basketball team. We want them to understand their role and accentuate the positives of the other players around them on the floor. I believe that they have grasped that role and basically done a very good job of being the auxiliary and the straw that’s stirring the drink for the rest of the team.”
Marlowe Hereford can be contacted at hereford4@marshall.edu.
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