Ezell, women’s basketball preparing for upcoming season

Set to begin at the end of November, the college basketball season is coming up fast, and ETSU’s women’s basketball team has been getting ready for their season. 

The team kicks off their first game on Nov. 28 at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.  

“We are looking for an extraordinary amount of effort, connectivity; we expect them to care more than is normal,” said head coach Brittney Ezell. “I don’t ever put on our kids that I expect them to make every shot or that I expect them to be perfect, that’s an unrealistic expectation.”

Along with strong returners like junior Kaia Upton (Nashville, Tennessee) and junior E’Lease Stafford (Lawrence, Kansas), who was tabbed to the Preseason All-Southern Conference Team, Coach Ezell welcomed four new players on National Signing Day — guard Aaliyah Vananda (Maryville, Tennessee), point guard Jada Ryce (McDonough, Georgia), guard Meleah Kirtner (Wytheville, Virginia), and guard Sarah Thompson (Gate City, Virginia). 

“What I do expect is our standard of behavior, or standard of preparation and our standard of care,” said Ezell. “That’s who we are, that’s what we do in everything and that’s just not when it comes to practice or playing.”

“It’s how you prepare, how you perform, and our expectation revolves around your attitude and your effort,” Ezell continued. “It’s how you treat people and those things will sustain you throughout your life, not just through a basketball season that’s going to be as hectic, as crazy and as unpredictable that I’ve ever seen.”

The delayed season has and will continue to keep everyone on their toes with potential changes happening at the drop of a dime. The schedule is the most challenging aspect for the season, coach Ezell mentions. 

“If any of our team gets sick, it’s going to cancel games for other people, if other teams get sick or exposed, it’s going to cancel games for us,” Ezell said. “I think that is going to be the most critical element considering that on the women’s side in the [Southern Conference], we only get 14 games and in the non-conference, it looks like we’re only going to get about five or six. The minimum for the NCAA tournament is 13, so we have to make sure that we get enough games.” 

“Scheduling in flux and in real-time is going to happen in the season; we are not married to our schedule,” Ezell concluded. “We’re not locked into it… we’re just going to have to be very understanding and work through it as it comes.”