Gruber and Huskies women’s basketball hope to be a perfect match
Season set to start Monday with Winona State
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HOUGHTON -- When they take the court Monday evening, the Michigan Tech Huskies women's basketball team will debut their new roster and a new coaching staff led by new head coach Eric Gruber.
The good news? Gruber has already had a soft debut in a scrimmage at Michigan State. The Huskies lost that exhibition game, 100-53, but considering that the Huskies only had two minutes of play from senior guard Alyssa Wypych, that was not a bad result. Add to that fifth-year guard Kaitlyn Maxwell's 16 points, and the fact that Huskies scored 29 points in the second half, and there is plenty to be excited about.
"It was good," said Gruber. "I think we took a lot of positives out of it. We obviously played pretty much without Alyssa, she got in there for whatever it was, a minute, go against her sister a little bit, but she’ll be a big boost when she gets back.
"There were a lot of positives. Obviously, (there is) a lot of stuff to work on, to figure it out, but the second and third quarter were very big positives for us. I think we lost by 14 combined in those with five total turnovers. So, we took care of the ball. We scored it. We defended a little bit better, rebounded better. So, I think it was exactly what we needed out of it."
For Gruber, having the exhibition game against a team like the Spartans gave players a chance to be bit more loose and focus on their own games.
"I don’t think I struggled with it at all," Gruber said. "I think they seemed like they were in good spirits too. Going into the game, (they) didn’t seem too nervous. I talked to them a little bit, pressure and nerves are very different. Nerves are good. I think it means you’re excited, you care. Pressure is usually when you’re not prepared, it’s a little bit different. So, no, I think it’s good, half of it is too, you talk about being loose, you kind of know what to expect in terms of they’re supposed to beat you. You don’t take it away as it’s a negative. They’re supposed to beat you.
"They know they’re supposed to beat us, too. So, it’s just about getting better. They’re going to expose things for us to get better at. That was the goal of it, too. So, it helped us learn a lot about ourselves and kind of move in the right direction. It was really good for us."
Gruber feels that he has a pretty good sense of what the Huskies are going to be this season.
"We had a scrimmage against Bay (College) and now Michigan State, I think the couple things we’ve learned is we share the ball really well, which was good," he said. "I think that’s been a big emphasis for us is just kind of the ball movement, sharing it, constant movement in our offense, and what we do. I think that part’s been really good to kind of see that in live action. Then, I think, just seeing people in game action has been a little bit different. You see them against our own team all the time. So, seeing them up against different people has been good."
Looking at individual Huskies, Maxwell's 16 points was significant.
"I think she said something to me along the lines of like, it’s the most free she’s played in a long time, which is really good," said Gruber. "That’s the goal. I think that she’s going to be one of the best shooters on our team, hopefully one of the best shooters in this conference.
"She does a lot of things really well for us. She sprints the floor really well. She does all the little things. So, she’s a leading scorer in the Bay game. She’s a leading scorer in the Michigan State game. She’s playing really well. She works as hard as anybody on this team, so just, hopefully, it just pays off all year for her, and she can keep it going."
In her college debut, freshman guard Jenessa Eagle had four points, but she showed plenty of promise.
"One of the gifts I think she has is the ability to get her own shot, and her touch her around her mid-range game," Gruber said. "A lot of that is kind of natural talent I think too, which is awesome. Not everybody has that. I’ve talked to her plenty about the shots that she feels comfortable with. She should know what a good and a bad shot is, and kind of playing under control.
"I think one of her biggest adjustments is just kind of learning what’s within our offense as opposed to what was in high school. That’s always going to be different for everybody She’s done a really good job of adjusting to that."
Scouting the Warriors
The Winona State Warriors are already 2-1 on the season having defeated Lubbock Christian and Hawaii Pacific as part of the Hoops in Hawaii Classic. They did drop their final game of the weekend against No. 2 Colorado Mesa.
Senior Vivica Bretton leads the team in scoring with 13.7 points per game. Junior Megan Schman is averaging 11.7 per game. Junior Sydney Cherny rounds out the top scorers with an average of 10.0 per game.
Game time
The Huskies and Warriors are set to meet for opening tip-off at 6 p.m. at the SDC Gym in Houghton.