UNIVERSITY PARK — Coaching changes are often met with trepidation. Fans and players alike are put in unfamiliar waters, surrounded by uncertainty and almost always anticipating rebuilding and growing pains.
What sometimes gets overlooked, though, is the excitement the change injects might be just what the program needs.
The Penn State Lady Lions aren’t tempering expectations coming off a 12-18 season. As Carolyn Kieger comes over from Marquette to take the helm, promising a change in attitude and an attacking style, a Big Ten championship was being casually thrown around as one of the goals for this winter.
“I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people,” freshman forward Anna Camden said.
Those are pretty lofty aspirations for a team that graduated the conference’s second-leading scorer in Teniya Page and isn’t predicted to finish in the top half of the Big Ten by either the media or the loop’s coaches. However, this also is a team that returns three players that averaged at least 9.5 points per game and its top three rebounders from last season, when the seven of the Lady Lions’ 13 conference setbacks were by eight points or fewer.
Penn State tips off the season on Tuesday, Nov. 5 with a trip to Towson.
“(Coach Kieger) just doesn’t settle,” said junior guard Kamaria McDaniel, who averaged 9.7 points per game last year when she usually was the first player off the bench. “She won’t let us settle to be mediocre, and that’s the main thing, like we’re never trying to be average at anything.”
On media day, Kieger set the bar as making the NCAA Tournament.
“We’re asking these young ladies to give us stuff they’ve never had to do in their lives,” Kieger said. “We’re asking them to work harder than they ever have. We’re asking them to play a new offense, play a different defense, change the culture and just play at a very high standard every single day. It’s been a challenge, and they’ve embraced it.”
Key to any change of course in the Lady Lion program will be the contribution of the returning quartet of McDaniel, senior guard Siyeh Frazier, junior forward Alisia Smith and sophomore forward Lauren Ebo.
The only player to start all 30 games last season, Frazier is the team’s leading returning scorer at 9.9 points per game. She also averaged 4.7 rebounds and led Penn State with 48 steals.
Smith, meanwhile, collected 9.5 points and a team-best 7.1 rebounds in 26.3 minutes per contest. The 6-foot-4 Ebo got 11 starts as a freshman, scoring 5.7 points and pulling down 5.8 rebounds; her 29 blocked shots also were tops on the Lady Lions.
The Lady Lions also thought they would have Jaida Travascio-Green back, but Kieger announced on media day that a knee injury will keep the 6-2 senior guard off the court and she’d be serving as a student assistant coach.
If Penn State is to arrive ahead of schedule, Frazier almost certainly will have to be a big part of it.
“She had a phenomenal summer,” Kieger said of Frazier. “She looks like a brand new player. She’s excited. She’s leading. She’s scoring. She’s defending.”
Kieger also is high on the 5-10 McDaniel.
“I look for her to explode in a scoring role, coming off the ball screens, shooting the 3, attacking the rim,” Kieger said. “Playing our style and pace is going to fit her well.”
Smith is working her way back from and Achilles’ tendon injury. Until Smith is full strength, Ebo and 6-3 sophomore Bexley Wallace will be called upon to be a bigger part of the inside game.
“If she’s not one of the most improved players in the Big Ten this year,” Kieger said of Ebo, “I’ll be shocked. She’s drastically changed her body. She’s drastically changed her mindset.”
A strong, five-player recruiting class that includes Camden and Pennsylvania Class 6A player of the year Makenna Marisa augments the returning cast. Marisa, who can play either guard spot, figures to be an instant-impact player, and late signee Shay Hagans could play a lot in the backcourt, too — bringing superior athleticism and quickness to the table that should be a good fit into Kieger’s scheme.
“(Marisa’s) going to be someone we rely on heavily at the point guard and the combo guard spot. She was recruited as one of the best guards in the country, and I think you’re going to see that from Day 1,” Kieger said.
Camden (6-3), Mya Bembry (6-1) and Jayla James (6-1) are tall, lengthy players with some perimeter skills.
“We kind of can play positionless basketball with them,” Kieger said.
The Lady Lions also added guard Nia Staples to the roster as a graduate transfer from West Virginia who still has two years of eligibility.
“The biggest area we need to improve right now to be where we want to be is our depth,” Kieger said. “That’s something that comes as more of our players return from injury. I think we need to get to a point that we have 10, 11 players that can play 20 minutes a game if need be.”
The reason for that is the style of play the Lady Lions will employ. Kieger said she would like to see her team get more than 100 possessions per game.
Kieger not only wants the Lady Lions to get out and push the pace, she wants all of her players to have the green light to shoot, and, in most cases, to shoot from beyond the arc. Penn State will utilize a positionless approach that has come into vogue.
“Everybody’s a threat. We like for our guards — and everybody — to be a threat from 3, from pull-up and getting to the basket,” McDaniel said. “We’re going to create plays for each other, and it’s going to be fun to play.”
It’s been five years since Penn State last made the NCAA Tournament. Despite the questions from outside the program, those on the team seem confident they can end that drought this winter.
“We have talent,” Ebo said. “It’s all about putting it together. Change is hard, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
