Transcript
With us on coaches corner, KWBG, gonna talk some DMAC women's basketball. Jocelyn Kovark joining us as he bears. Get ready to take part in the, well in the NIAC Invitational here this week and they're gonna be up in Mason City and get a couple of games actually back to back and Jocelyn, not a lot of opportunities to have that happen during the season. So I guess early in the season is okay to kind of have to play back to back. Yeah, we'll take it. Well, you know, the girls are ready to play. You practice and you do a few scrimmages in October, but by the time game comes around, the girls just want to play. So I mean, we, I guess by the end of this weekend, we'll play six games in nine days and they've shown up so far. The girls keep coming to play. Well, tell me about some of the scrimmages to start this season, Jocelyn, because I know basically when the girls step on campus, you're right in the gym, you're right in the weight room, you're at the study tables. I mean, it's kind of like, hey, I know the season doesn't start for a little bit, but I know you get them acclimated pretty quick. Give me kind of some things you saw back in the scrimmages in October. Yeah, in early October, we went to our conference scrimmages and we played four Jucos in the same day, just running clock, quick games. We won all four. So that was a great start, great confidence builder for the girls. And then our next three scrimmages were all versus four year schools, you know, and then you get your juniors and your seniors and they've been playing a little bit more. They understand the system sometimes. And so you, we held our own, we held our own, but we played Wayne State in there. They were very good. Grandview was very good. And it's a great learning opportunity for the girls. I mean, like I said, they're happy to be on the floor and just playing other teams. But you go back and you watch film and it's very obvious some of the growing pains we have as a young team, but it's also a lot of fun to watch them grow. I was gonna say, I know it's fun to have a veteran group where that group kind of knows what you want when you want it. And you maybe even don't have to talk that much about it because they kind of know what's coming. But is it also a little bit exciting when you have such a young group? It is, it is. And like you said, I, you know, I love our sophomores and we have great sophomores this year and they've been leading unbelievably well. They're talking, I mean, they talk, they communicate, they reach out to the other girls. It's just, yeah, but it's also those youngsters and they come in and, you know, just little things that they tweak along the way, watching them put the offense together, watching them get tough, you know, at certain times and they need to get tough. It's, yeah, it's pretty cool. It's neat to see. Well, you've had an opportunity to already play four games that counted and coach a couple of nail biters in there. I said, listen, you need to remind the ladies that gray hair is something we don't want till we're older, older, but you did get a couple of wins. You knock off Triton by a couple and you get Milwaukee area tech by one. Yeah, yeah. And Triton, they're a D1 Juco. So that was a big win, super athletic team, you know, and they shot 40 free throws. Like Iowa lakes and they played them and I think we held them to like seven. So that was a huge part of the game. The girls just being disciplined, rebounding, you know, not fouling on the drive. And then, yeah, Milwaukee tech out of Wisconsin, they were, they were tough too. They had a young lady who scored, I mean, way more than we wanted her to on us. She's a tough player and the girls again held their own and for a bunch of, you know, young freshmen out there too, they listened really well at the end of the game as far as pulling out those wins. Well, and you also had kind of an interesting game on Wednesday because with Veterans Day, you had a chance to play an afternoon game, which is a little different than obviously you guys are normal, you know, well, I guess used to having, especially on a Wednesday, usually about 5.30 or so with your tip, but boy, a 19 point victory over Blackhawk Moline, apparently that the afternoon tilt wasn't bad. Yeah, it was a different time for sure. I'm glad we played and got it done. It was nice of them to come over to us. But yeah, and we started out really hot in that game. I think we got up by almost 30 at some point. The girls were just, it was first home game, ready to go, you know, and then it's one of those things we talk about with them afterwards though is all four quarters. You know, we've put together first halves and second halves and it's just at some point here, you know, we're gonna get, we're gonna get in trouble from not putting all four quarters together. So we use that as a big emphasis in that game. Is that a tough one, Jocelyn? And you've coached a bunch of games obviously and you've obviously played in a bunch of games too. You have such a big league going into the fourth quarter. And I know what you're talking about against Blackhawk Moline cause they did outscoring in that fourth quarter. It's tough to keep that focus though, isn't it? It is, it is, you know, and right now with the numbers we have, we've got 10 playing and we play all 10 kind of throughout the game. We don't have a huge drop off on, you know, who we're putting in or there's no end of the venture or, you know, we were playing everyone. So sometimes when you get way ahead like that and you get in the fourth quarter, it's fun to see, you know, your last couple that usually don't play a lot come off the bench and adds a little excitement. So it was kind of different not having that, but at the same time, I'm fine having 10 that, you know, can play all game. So, but yeah, it'll definitely be something we need to keep in mind and play through, finish things, finish things. With the youngsters and then your sophomores mixing in, Jocelyn, we're early in this season, we're four games in, I don't expect you to give me the prognosis of the entire season, but how are they meshing so far? Oh, really well. This group is coming together really well. And they're just good people. I mean, you know, every once in a while, you know, you get, if you get a bad apple in there, it really kind of turns things around, you know, it can hurt, but we have got a, our full roster is 14, and we've got 14 really good people, you know, that know what's right and know how to treat people. And we also got some tough gals where if someone says something that's not right, they're going to stand up and say it, you know. So it's been really fun to see them mesh, you know. Jocelyn, I don't expect to get the conference breakdown, but boy, when I saw the preseason poll and I saw how good the league looks like it's going to be against this year. Plus I thought it was really nice to see you guys getting some votes up there as well. This looks like this region 11 tournament. We probably say this every year and it's probably fair every year. This is going to be knocked down, drag them out this year, isn't it? It is, it is. Yeah, I, the preseason rankings, Kirkwood, Nyak, Central and us and, you know, I, and even, I mean, beyond that, I, you know, Ash at Iowa Lakes coach, coach Ash over at Iowa Lakes. She always has good tough teams. I mean, Northeast Nebraska, he always brings them. I mean, our whole conference, I know that, you know, southeastern over in Eastern Iowa is up this year. He's got some players in there and yeah. So it'll be, every game will be a competition. Every game will have to come to play, you know, no breaks, no breaks when conference gets going here. No, for sure. All right, so let's, let's talk about the intern because you get an opportunity to play coming up today against Blackhawk Technical College and then United tribes coming up tomorrow. Give me a couple of things, Joss. What would you like to see here, the next couple of games as you get ready for, then Waldorf JV gets a chance to come to Boone and then Highland for the DMACC Classic. Yes, we got a rebound. So when we rebound, we're a really good team. We're a really good team. When we decide not to, we're not, we're not. You know, especially the next game here at Blackhawk Tech, again, not fouling. They're super aggressive into the paint. United tribes that we play on Saturday, they're in and out. They run hard and they shoot a lot of threes, you know? So kind of balancing the difference in some of those teams and making sure that we can adjust, you know, one day at a time each game. But yeah, we had 27 O boards, not last game, but the game before, you know, and that'll be our game. That'll be our inside game. So big boards and then, you know, we've got some gals that can shoot. So making sure we get them at the right time in out action, into the paint and out to them so they can get a good shot off will be big. But yeah, yeah, we've got four more non-conference. So it'll be fun to finish through that. I can't believe it's already at four. That's, Joss, don't you fast forward this hoop season on me, all right? That's all I'm going to tell you. I want you to, I want to slow it down and enjoy it. So let's do that anyway. Best of luck heading up north here, the next couple of games. So Joss, we'll talk to you again in a few weeks. Awesome, thank you very much. I appreciate it. You bet. DMAC women's basketball Jocelyn Kovaric joining us. KWBG's coaches corner.
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