Women's Basketball Preview: All new faces at Eastern

By Corey Stolzenbach, McAlester News Capital

It's not the first time Brandon Taylor has dealt with a situation like this.

The head women's basketball coach at Eastern Oklahoma State College is the only person this season who is returning from a year ago. The Lady Mountaineers do not have a single player back from last year's team that endured a 12-game skid and finished 8-23 with a loss to Connors State College in the opening round of the National Junior College Athletic Association Tournament. 

"At previous schools that I worked at, we had instances like that, so it's nothing new for me," Taylor said.

Samaria Howard, last year's assistant who served two games as acting head coach, is not back either. She left to go to Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Fla., while Taylor searches for an assistant.

Taylor told the team to step forward and keep getting better every day, not to let that affect them. He is hoping to have a new assistant coach soon, looking for someone who has recruiting ties and is good with skilled development.

Eastern has 12 players on its team, with four of them being sophomores. Some of these sophomores transferred over from NCAA Division I schools.

K'neshia Bush comes to the Lady Mountaineers from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. Taylor praised Bush's size and can move the ball well and work around the basket. Tiamya Butler has transferred over to Eastern from Southern University A&M College in Baton Rouge, La. 

"They've been fantastic sophomores," Taylor said. "They kind of help me out right now without an assistant helping with the youth that we have in our eight freshmen."

Another Division I talent is Britnee Grimes, who committed to Jacksonville University, but then decommitted after a coaching change. Taylor said she chose Eastern over schools such as Tallahassee Community College, Daytona State College, Gulf Coast State College and other Division I schools.

He described her as "very, very athletic," standing more than six feet tall. 

There are also some guards that "will handle business," Taylor said. He mentioned Butler, Eneily Rodriguez, Joselyn "JJ" Guzman, Julianna Delcid-Rosado, McKenzie Patton and Alonna McGahee as guards who have caught his eye during scrimmages. 

What Taylor said he was looking for in assembling the team was athleticism, wanting to put in the work and wanting to win. 

"Wanting to win has to be a part of the mindset," he said. 

Taylor did not list any freshmen who have looked more advanced than the others, saying one or two freshmen might have a big performance in a scrimmage, whereas it might be somebody else performing well in another game. Taylor is looking to get everybody on the same page.

Even though the personnel from last year is different, he said not much would change from last year. Taylor said the Lady Mountaineers will still be a defensive-minded team this season. 

Taylor said the team has scorers, but is looking to create points off the performances of the defenses. 

"We haven't really focused much on offense," he said.

The Lady Mountaineers scrimmaged Bacone College on Tuesday, winning, 83-37, according to Taylor. 

Taylor thinks his players are excited and ready for the season opener. He thinks the Lady Mountaineers are tired of practicing against one another throughout the week while waiting for competition on Saturdays. 

Eastern was scheduled to have one more scrimmage at Paris Junior College Saturday before the season opener Nov. 1 at home against Southwestern Christian University.

"The things that I want to do is I want to press, I want to outrun people and I want just us to have fun," Taylor said.