Lady Bearcats look to be more aggressive

11/4/2008

Brescia first-year coach Swickrath brings change of philosophy to program

By Rich Suwanski

Messenger-Inquirer

First-year coach John Swickrath changed the philosophy of the Brescia University women's basketball team and will be more aggressive to take advantage of the Lady Bearcats' strength.

"We're not real big, so we have to try to play uptempo defense and put more pressure on teams," Swickrath said. "Offensively, we're going to push the ball a little bit, get up and down the court, and try to dictate tempo as best we can."

Brescia finished 18-13 last year, but graduated three players and had two others transfer. BU opens its season with a home game against Lindsey Wilson at 6 p.m. today.

Under previous coach Sean Page, Brescia tended to stay back defensively and protect the basket. It took a while for Swickrath to change the culture and get the returnees to attack more.

"The biggest obstacle at first was getting the girls to buy into what we wanted to do," Swickrath said. "They'd been successful in the past, but we emphasized that if they did what we wanted them to do, we could be good, too.

"Sometimes it's hard to make a change."

Swickrath's style is to play fullcourt, deny the ball on the wings and try to force mistakes.

"Last year, they were more like a soft man-to-man with soft help-side," he said. "It was a bend-but-don't-break philosophy.

"But we want to get steals and turnovers. We want to change the pace."

Swickrath said his approach this year has been dictated by the team's makeup.

"We have a bunch of guards, so we can't stay back and let teams pound it inside and take advantage of us," he said.

Christal Floyd, a 5-foot-11 senior center from Henderson County, is Brescia's top returning scorer and rebounder at 10 points and four boards per game. Webster County's versatile Paula Carver returns to play any of the perimeter positions. She averaged six ppg last year.

"Christal is real strong in the post with good moves and a very soft touch," Swickrath said. "Paula can play the one, two or three spots. She can shoot, get to the rim, rebound and play great defense.

"She's multi-faceted."

A pair of Grayson Countians figure to start on the perimeter with Carver, 5-3 sophomore Brittany Bird and junior Natasha Farris. And freshman Hollie Anson is expected to start at forward.

"Brittany is quick and tireless and a great defender," Swickrath said. "Natasha shoots the 3-pointer real well, and Hollie does everything. She's the glue to the team."

Swickrath also expects contributions from Henderson County freshman Whitney Bingemer and junior Ty Sanders.

"Whitney is a real good shooter, and Ty is really athletic and a great defender," the coach said.

Swickrath said his team expectations are to simply improve once the players get used to his system.

"I think we can compete on a high level about midway through the year," he said.