Missouri Southern Men’s and Women’s Basketball talk adjustments for upcoming year

KANSAS CITY, MO – With MIAA Media Day kicking off at the College Basketball Hall of Fame in Kansas City, Missouri, both the Missouri Southern State men’s and women’s basketball teams reflected on coming off of tough losses in the opening round of the MIAA Championship Tournament last season.

The men are in a bit of a rebuilding stage, while the women have six returners and are looking to carry the momentum from their 20-9 record last year.

The women were also picked fourth in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Polls. Despite their powerful year, not having the ability to close out games was what diminished their chances of winning down the stretch of the regular season. However, the team is showing promise with a few new faces.

“The returning kids are doing a good job of teaching our new kids how we do things as far as both offensively and defensively and how we expect things to be done,” head coach Ronnie Ressel says. “They’ve done an outstanding job at that, as well as working hard, and they’re meshing really well together.

“Once we tighten up the ability to close out games I feel like we can be in an even better spot than we were in last year, especially with this young core we have coming in,” redshirt senior guard Kaitlin Hunnicutt adds.

On the men’s side of things, they ended up finishing their season three games below .500 with a 13-16 record. However similar to the women, they feel that chemistry is what will get them over the hump this upcoming season.

“It’s everyday. It’s consistency. Anyone can do it when you feel good, but, it can you do it when you don’t feel good,” head coach Sam McMahon says. “That’s what our guys have really zoned in on this offseason.

“We’re doing a lot of team bonding and we’re meshing really well together. Everybody gets along inside the locker room and outside the locker room. Just sticking together, building that bond, building that chemistry is one of the biggest things right now. for us,” senior guard Cortaviaus Seales and Martin Marcenis mention.

The Missouri Southern men will kickoff their non-conference schedule and the official start to their season on November 8th at 7:30pm at Arkansas Tech University, while the women will start things off on November 2nd in the NCAA Division II Tip-Off Classic Tournament starting at 5:30pm versus Texas Women’s University.

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