ALBANY STATE WOMEN’S PREVIEW: Lady Rams hope to build on past success

ALBANY — The Albany State Lady Rams basketball team is proven, talented and confident heading into this upcoming season. Head coach Robert Skinner believes this could be a recipe for success or disaster depending on what the Lady Rams do on the court starting on Nov. 13.

The Lady Rams have won back-to-back SIAC titles, made it to the NCAA tournament twice and held their own both times. They enter the 2015-16 season as the preseason favorite to finish atop the East Division in the SIAC and in addition to a bevy of upperclassmen, have three SIAC preseason team players as well as the Preseason Player of the Year on their roster. With all of these elements working in their favor, Skinner said they have the opportunity to do something special this year. He also said the hype and the previous success could become a distraction if the team allows it.

“My biggest fear is that we’re overconfident based on what we’ve done the last two years at the end of the season,” he said. “My biggest fear is that they don’t really see the big picture and the big picture is everyone’s out to get you. Everyone wants to beat you and you’ve got to play at a totally different level than you’ve played before in order to be champions.”

Skinner said the team had a scrimmage earlier this week and got beat pretty badly, but the team knows not to panic because they’re fully aware they weren’t playing at the level they’re capable of.

The Lady Rams understand staying the course and sticking together after starting the first six to seven games winless the past two seasons. Skinner said it’s hard to say whether getting off to a good start is really important because he’s had a team go 13-0 to start the season and not win the conference championship, and a team go 0-9 that did win it.

“It’s kinda hard to say how important it is to start fast,” he said. “I know how important it is to finish, but to say that it’s a priority to start off fast, no, not really. I want to be able to win games early in the year this year, but if we don’t, I’m not gonna panic.”

He did say it’s important for them to mesh early and that they should have no problem being on the same page offensively and defensively. Right now, it’s just a matter of getting in the gym and getting the reps in.

“I can say that we’re more prepared this year than we were last year,” he said. “We’re better prepared physically, but you still gotta play the game, so I don’t know what’s gonna happen.”

They’ll be without a few key pieces in Zury Frost, Kyasha Wilson and preseason All-SIAC player Iesha Young as well as a few others for a few games to start as grades and injuries get taken care of, but he expects recent transfer Elisia Foster, from upstate South Carolina, to help fill the void.

They’ll still have SIAC Preseason Player of the Year Artisha Holston in the starting lineup, as well as her fellow All-SIAC member Keidra Green.

The Lady Rams face their first test of the season in Columbus, Ga. as they take on Georgia Southwestern University on Nov. 13.