Women’s basketball team opens new season with new head coach, Popa
The University of Indianapolis women’s basketball team is going in a different direction this year with a new head coach and new names on the roster.
The Greyhounds announced last spring that former Head Coach LeAnn Freeland was resigning and that Assistant Coach Constantin Popa would take the reins as the new head coach.
Popa has worked as the Greyhounds’ top assistant coach for a number of years and helped develop the duo of Samantha Meissel and Katie Lyons.
As the new head coach, Popa believes that taking over the team was a seamless transition because a familiar person was given the position instead of going through a hiring process for outside applicants.
“I am happy for the opportunity,” Popa said.
Senior guard Cayla Keegan believes that Popa was right for the job.
“I am really excited to have him [Popa] as our new head coach. He wants us to be more comfortable. We’re more excited and have a lot more fun,” Keegan said.
The Greyhounds tweaked their motions offense from last year to a newer offense this year that utilizes a lot of screens.
Throughout the 2010-11 season, the Greyhounds struggled with their half court sets. Popa said that he will still keep a variation of a motion offense but wants the first option to be a fast break offense for quick scoring opportunities.
“We’ll look to push the ball a lot more,” Popa said. “I would like to control the tempo of the game.”
Overall, the Greyhounds are still a young team. They return with only two seniors and the rest of the returning players are sophomores and juniors.
Regardless of their age, Popa anticipates that the young players will know what to expect at the collegiate level and will take on the challenge of being a competitive, young team.
“I don’t necessarily look at a leader by what they say or how they say it, but by what they do,” Popa said.
Despite the ages of the team members, the squad will be just as talented as last year, according to Keegan.
“We’re pretty much the exact same team as last year, and the new players fit in well and are good players,” she said.
With the addition of some new presence in the post as well as some taller guards, Popa said the Greyhounds have a potent offense.
“It used to be that our opponents would clog the middle because our post players were so good. But now we have shooters that can shoot about 40 percent from 3-point range,” Popa said. “Every player is a threat.”
The Greyhounds opened their season with an exhibition game on Nov. 5 against Xavier University. The team lost to the Musketeers 58-41.
Sophomore guard Katy Mcintosh led the Greyhounds with eight points as the team shot 20.8 percent during the game.
Despite any players reaching double-digits in scoring, the team only committed nine turnovers.
Junior forward Nickole Gonser and sophomore forward Dajana Jovanovic each totaled six rebounds during the game, while their teammate junior guard Kristin Turner finished with three assists and sophomore forward Eliza Wortman finished with four blocks.
Popa believes that having the tough exhibition games gives him a chance to see how the team will do.
“I think it’s going to be good for us to see what we have right off the bat. I know it’s hard, but knowing our conference, it won’t be an easy season,” Popa said.
Keegan and Popa said the Greyhound’s goal is to win conference and make it into the NCAA tournament.
“You want to win every game but you have to take it one game at a time,” Popa said. “As long as we improve every game I do believe we can go very far with this team.”
