TSU women’s basketball coach Evans wants Tigers to have starving mentality
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BVM) — Tennessee State University’s newest women’s basketball coach Ty Evans didn’t deny knowing the position his team was in heading into his first season at the helm of a college program. When a poll voted on by the Ohio Valley Conference head coaches and communications directors predicted the Tigers would finish the 2020-21 season in 12th place, otherwise known as last, in the conference, Evans was unafraid to mince words during his participation in the OVC Virtual Media Day.
“I know you guys picked us 12th, but we don’t care,” Evans said. “We come to practice every single day with Beats by Dre headphones on. We don’t listen to it. We’re playing to win.”
With that statement, media members were introduced to the attitude they will be sure to expect from Evans as he begins his tenure with the Tigers. That is also the attitude he hopes to instill into his players this season after the team finished last year with a 4-24 record and an 11th-place finish in the conference. To describe the style he wants his team to play, Evans used his favorite word.
“Relentlessness,” Evans said. “We want to be disruptive. We want to be relentless. We want to play with a chip on our shoulder. I tell our players all the time that when that game clock goes off and there’s 00:0, the other team and the other coach should be walking off the court saying to themselves, ‘I hope we never have to play that team again’ win or lose. That’s the mentality we’re trying to instill.”
When talking about his team’s level of commitment, Evans described his players as “hungry.” Typically such an adjective is complimentary towards the players’ efforts. However, Evans wants them to push it even more. He wants his players to be “starving.”
“They’re hungry, but they’re not starving,” Evans said. “The difference between hungry and starving is when you’re hungry you eat and then you get full and you don’t eat anymore. But when you’re starving, you eat, you get full, you continue to eat, then you stuff food in your pockets, your socks because you don’t know when you’re going to eat again. That’s the difference. We don’t have that mentality yet, but we’re working on it.”
When asked to elaborate what the difference is between hungry and starving, senior forward Jaden Wrightsell said it’s about being ready and committed to go 100% of the time 110% of the time.
“With [Evans] constantly bringing that energy, we have no other choice but to follow him,” Wrightsell said. “We have our days so it’s getting there. He knows to stay on us and that’s our best bet to get on his level of starving.”
Wrightsell believes that the team can draw much of its influence from the man who will be leading them. Wrightsell described that Evans was always ready to go and will bring it 110% of the time he is with the team, something that she admitted the girls on the team are close to, but not quite there yet.
“[Evans] is starving and we’re getting on his level, but it’s a relentless practice as well,” Wrightsell said. “His energy stays on 20. We’re at 19. We’re almost there, but it’s getting there.”
With Evans at the helm, the Tigers will look to make its preseason ranking a thing of the past. Evans doesn’t put much stock behind preseason rankings anyway as it is not about how a team starts, but how they finish that matters. When it comes to his team to adjust to his level of commitment, Evans was clear.
“They have no choice because they hear it all the time,” Evans said. “It’s no secret. They picked us 12 out of 12. I don’t care about the preseason rankings because they don’t mean anything. It’s just like potential, it just means you haven’t done anything yet. It’s up to us to go out and perform every single day.”
Over the course of the next few months, Tigers fans will see if Evans’ words of encouragement are good enough to help the team right the ship this season. In the meantime, Evans hopes to get his “starving” girls mentally ready to fight for their nourishment prior to tipoff.
