Q&A with Head Women's Basketball Coach Paula Lee

November 6, 2021

Saturday November 6, 2021: Women's Basketball

This week, Alanna Donaldson sat down with Lady Bear's Head Coach Paula Lee to discuss the upcoming 2021-22 season. Coach Lee, begins her twelfth year at the helm of the Lady Bears program. Lets see what she had to say about her team and the season.

Q&A Session

General thoughts about this year's team?

Coach Lee's Answer: Once everyone catches on to what we need to do on the offensive and defensive ends of the floor, we will put ourselves in a position to be very competitive and win.

Talk a bit about which True Freshman do you think can make an impact on this season.

Coach Lee's Answer: Without a doubt, I am hoping that all True Freshmen will make an impact on the season. But I expect Verd Fontaine to make the biggest impact because of her willingness to work and her attitude that she wants to get it right.

Which return or group of returners are you looking to lean on this season?

Coach Lee's Answer: I am looking to lean on all of them. Based off of half year that Alanna Donaldson had running the 1, Angel Bradford playing the 3, and of course Tronayia Issac and An'Tiesha Griffin coming back for their final season, I think we have a good nucleus of season vets that should lead the team with the right attitude and right competitive nature going into every ball game. Without a doubt, they had a number of in game experiences that should have them prepared to produce this season.

Role of 3rd year players Nae & Nuney- Leadership on the court.

Coach Lee's Answer: They better be setting the tone offensively and defensively. Not a whole lot has changed within what we do, we just need to do it better. I think Nuney (An'' Tiesha Griffin) and Nae (Tronayia Issac) are seeing things that they haven't seen in the past. That's typical because they're our 3 year participants, and that's usually a junior at a 4 year school. That's kinda when the light bulb goes on. I am hoping that they see stuff on the court, be able to make the adjustments, be able to help the younger kids, and be able to take advantage of it.

Keys to success, keys to returning to the BRCC winning culture?

Coach Lee's Answer: The main key for us right now is having everybody healthy. It's very difficult right now to put together a simple practice because you can't put the right things or pieces together if you're missing pieces. I know that may have sounded a little crazy, but it's kind of hard to practice and see where your man to man defense is if you're missing three key components of that defensive unit. So the key is us staying healthy, and then once we're healthy how quickly are we going to pick up on stuff and implement it and put it into game situations.

Strength of team so far.

Coach Lee's Answer: In all honesty I can't identify a strength right now. Because as a coach I still feel like we're in the learning process or learning mode. Defensively I see glimpses of people getting better at on the ball defense and people reading the screens, but it's not consistent enough. While I think we're going to get there, we're just not there yet for me to identify one specific strength. We're making strides forward, we just don't have the strength yet. I would like for that strength to be our defense, but we're not there yet.

Areas of improvement.

Coach Lee's Answer: Our defense and our minds. I need to get the team thinking like basketball players and not like people who play basketball. That's the biggest thing. Defensively, if we catch on to defense, we can make life pretty miserable for some people. If we have to continuously set up against someone else's half court defense, I don't think that would be the recipe for success for us. I think our defense, both transition and half court, as well as our offense transition. If we can push the ball, I think we can be pretty good.

Game style- uptempo/slow?

Coach Lee's Answer: As much as I think some of the players would want to play slow, I don't want to play slow. I want us to be uptempo because the more we slow things down and the more the young people are forced to think, it's going to create issues for us. Because when they start thinking they start standing. I definitely want to play uptempo. I want to get to a position in the season where we're pressing after every made basket; no matter if it's man, zone, half court or e quarter court zone, I definitely want to play uptempo.

Addition of Coach Jones- What has she brought to the program?

Coach Lee's Answer: Coach Jones has brought a fresh set of eyes from a different perspective being that she's played on the highest level possible. With her and coach rushing both playing at high level basketball and being able to see things from a player's perspective as well as a coaching perspective it brings a huge wealth of knowledge and a way to articulate it to the players. Coach Jones has brought a sense of discipline and accountability that I think has been missing in some of my assistant coaches in the past. Simply because she holds the players accountable. And I think it's not just me all the time being the accountability holder. I like that, and I think it's a good thing for our program.

Overall goal of the season?

Coach Lee's Answer: To win. Without a doubt I want this group like no other group to be the group that changes the trend that we've been having in Women's basketball. And you may say what trend is that? For the last 3-4 years we have not represented this conference at the regional tournament. We haven't even been to the tournament. Without a doubt I would love for my 3 year players to get a taste of what it means to go to the region 23 tournament, have an opportunity to go to Mississippi College, play at the Coliseum, and see exactly what competing and playing for survival because you know it's one and done. I think this group can be the group that can start us on that winning trajectory of going upwards and not just staying even kill or dipping down a lil bit lower than what we have. So the ultimate goal is to start the upward trend for the program into winning again

The Lady Bears open the 2021-22 season at home on November 6 in day two of the Lady Bear Classic. The Lady Bears will face Rend Lake College Warriors at 11 am.