It is said that change is the only constant. How true, especially in the case of the Southern University Jaguars women’s basketball team.
Gone are Jacklyn Winfield, Tammy Bullock and Tonetta Bracey.
Gone is former assistant coach Greg Adams, who went to San Jose State University. Taking his place is new assistant coach Natalia Issac, who comes to Southern from Temple.
With all that has changed, the Jags still have their constants. They still have assistant coach Lisa Powell. They still have playmakers like senior forwards Ruth Buck, Angela Bullock, Tremesha Colbert, Cherise Sims and guard Tommy Walden. They also still have sophomore guard Kerby Jones and sophomore forward Kanecia Williams.
Most of all, the Jags have the 2002 Southwestern Athletic Coach of the Year and head coach Sandy Pugh.
Adding to the ever-changing “constants’ are junior forward Shere’ Cunningham and Francesca Johnson, and freshman guard Roland Moore.
“We have 12 kids that are eligible and we have to be able to play 12 people,” said Pugh. ‘You can’t replace a Jackie Winfield, but what you do is make sure that the girls who are returning are better.”
Last season, the Jags (26-5 overall, 17-1 SWAC) received their first bid into the NCAA Tournament to face the Lady Buffaloes of Colorado. Getting back to the big dance means winning the conference championship again, and going through conference foe Alabama State again.
The Jags are ranked second only to the Lady Hornets in the SWAC preseason poll and coming back for ASU is sophomore center Crystal Kitt. Although Kitt poses to be a big problem, literally, the Jags are not to be shaken or stirred whatsoever.
“You know…in regular season of course we are going to have to meet them…But unless over the summer her coach has helped her step up her game…Crystal Kitt is just Crystal Kitt,” said Buck. “We are just going to have to get down and put defense against her… I am just going to have to get into her mind and get her out of her game…We held her down in the tournament…she’s just a big girl, we can just go around her as we did in the tournament.”
The Jags will start their season with exhibition play against BABES Basketball on November 11 at 6 p.m. in Seymour Gym. This will mark the start of a new crusade for a never changing constant-to keep the SWAC Championship.
“I don’t think that we will be as bad as a lot of people think we will be,” said Pugh. “It’s a work in-progress in order to get these kids to understand where they are and what they need to do and what it is going to take to be successful.”
