MARTIN, Tenn. – When the University of Tennessee at Martin women’s basketball team knots up its laces for the first time this season, the squad will be relying on a young but talented roster to lead the way in 2023-24.
With six regular season conference championships on his résumé, UT Martin head coach Kevin McMillan enters his 15th season at the helm. During his tenure, the Skyhawks have posted a 265-177 record while winning 73.9 percent (178-63) of their conference games. Heading into the campaign, the Skyhawks were voted fourth out of 11 teams in the annual OVC preseason poll and are looking to improve over a 2022-23 campaign in which the team went 13-17 and 9-9 in league action.
Following the graduation of long-time Skyhawk guards Paige Pipkin and Seygan Robins, UT Martin will feature a roster with just one player in Shae Littleford who has played multiple seasons in a navy and orange uniform. Despite its lack of veteran returners, the Skyhawks do bring back several members of their freshman class which combined to win 12 OVC Freshman of the Week awards and gained starting experience last season. The group of Anaya Brown, Kenley McCarn, Lexi Rubel and Josie Storey started a combined 60 games last winter and are poised to take the next step in year two.
“The returners are noticeably different than they were a year ago,” McMillan said. “I think if they will build off of that, it will be fun to watch us. The only bad thing is we are still so young, so we will go through stretches where we forget that we are college basketball players. We are putting a heavy load on our young kids, but they have made some huge strides over the summer.”
Littleford, a junior guard, is coming off a season in which she averaged 13.0 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game on her way to All-OVC second team honors. She ranked in the top-10 in the OVC in free throw percentage (.864, second), assists (3.3 per game, sixth), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.12, sixth), minutes played (32.8 per contest, seventh), steals (1.7 per outing, ninth) and scoring (13.0 points per game, 10th). While she scored in double figures 17 times on the season, she tossed in 20 points or more in six outings – including a stretch of three straight 20-point games in OVC play.
Looking to take that next leap is the returning group which includes Brown, McCarn, Rubel and Storey. Brown started 19 games for the Skyhawks while averaging 7.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game along with adding a career-high 21 points. McCarn started her freshman season on fire by averaging 19.8 points per game – including 31 points in her collegiate debut – before seeing her season come to an end with an injury in November. Rubel started 18 games for the Skyhawks and averaged 4.4 points and 4.1 rebounds per game while Storey also added 20 starts to her freshman campaign along with 6.2 points and 2.3 rebounds per game.
While the “senior” leadership will have to come from a younger group, McMillan feels confident that his trust is in the right hands. “I think you’re going to see Shae and Kenley be the leaders,” McMillan noted. “It’s going to have to come from other people too and I think you will see both Anaya and Lexi take on that role as well. I think that core of returners will have to take on that leadership role – even though it is a bit beyond their years – but it is what we’ve got, so let’s go.”
The team’s lone senior is guard Sydneey Boykin who played in 26 games last season. While injuries have limited her on-court production, she’s a valuable member of the locker room which is looking to welcome 10 newcomers into the fold. Joining the program are freshmen Amari Bonds, Morgan Borgstadt, Norah Clark, Kendal George, Love Mays, Tori Rubel and Sophie Singleton while adding transfers Ally Collett (Western Kentucky/Eastern Kentucky), Kiya Dorroh (Missouri/Colorado State) and Mah Minthe (Clarendon JC).
“There are pieces here that resemble the 2016 team which won 22 games and a conference championship,” McMillan said. “There is no dominant post player and there are a lot of interchangeable parts. The only difference is there were like four seniors out there and this year there is just one upperclassman. The good things is that we play like that team. We just hope that if we get better and mature, maybe we can resemble and do some of the things that team did.”
Much like in seasons past, the Skyhawks will be challenged early and often with their schedule. UT Martin will face four teams which competed in the postseason last year while squaring off against seven different conferences – including the ASUN, Big East, Mid-South (NAIA), Missouri Valley, SEC, Sun Belt and Summit.
The non-conference slate will begin with a road matchup at Big East foe Marquette on Monday, Nov. 6 before the Skyhawks make their home debut against SEC member Vanderbilt on Thursday, Nov. 9. The rest of the month of November will see matchups against Central Arkansas, mid-major powerhouse South Dakota State, North Alabama and Murray State. Once in the month of December, UT Martin will face off against Evansville, Troy, Freed-Hardeman, South Dakota and Arkansas State before entering league play.
The 10-week OVC season runs from Dec. 28 through March 2 before the league’s top eight teams will advance to the OVC Championship tournament, which will be hosted once again by the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind. on March 6-9. UT Martin will face OVC rivals Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, Little Rock, Morehead State, Southeast Missouri, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech and league newcomer Western Illinois for home-and-home series while playing SIUE (away) and Southern Indiana (home) one time apiece during the 2023-24 campaign.
“We want to challenge our girls and we feel like we will do that once again,” McMillan said. “South Dakota, South Dakota State and Troy are some of the best mid-major programs in the country year in and year out. When you add Marquette and Vanderbilt, you have a heck of a schedule. I don’t know if we are ready for it, but its ready or not, here we come. These kids need to understand where the bar is set and you can either do that in practice every day or put opponents out there that will really challenge them.”
Ready or not, here come your Skyhawks for a new season. Catch all of the excitement by purchasing your season tickets today at www.UTMSports.com/tickets or call 731-881-7207.
