UNI women’s basketball preaching patience with young roster

CEDAR FALLS - Patience. That was the key word from 11th year women's basketball head coach Tanya Warren at Northern Iowa's annual media day Wednesday.

With five freshmen on the roster - freshmen well in the mix for considerable playing time - the Panthers head coach went as far to say she's going to get the word 'patience” tattooed on her wrist.

'We're doing a lot of teaching, which we love as coaches. Really reiterating the importance of carryover and communication,” Warren said. 'I think anytime you have five freshmen, to understand the consistency in which they have to be able to carry over with the intensity from drill-to-drill is a huge learning curve. Then the communication piece. At no time can you be on the floor not communicating. So it's something we're constantly reiterating.”

Along with the challenge of getting five freshmen up to speed, Warren and her staff are working on how they'll go about replacing the production of Madison Weekly. Weekly scored more than 15 points per game last season and finished her UNI career as the program's third-leading scorer all-time. Candidates to assume the point-scoring role include senior guard Ellie Howell and Iowa City West alum Mikaela Morgan.

'I don't know that I would put any more (on Ellie offensively) because she's been such an integral part of what we've done offensively the last year anyway. That doesn't change,” Warren said. 'The fact that Mikaela Morgan has made such a great jump will allow Ellie to continue to do what she does. (Rose Simon-Ressler) has made a tremendous jump as well. So if those two can continue to do what they've done in practice and continue to get better it takes a lot of pressure off of Ellie.”

So it appears to be a by-committee approach that'll make up for the lost points to graduation. Warren also mentioned that sophomore forward Megan Maahs is being looked to for more production on offense.

Defensively - where Warren's team's usually excel - is where the Panthers could wreak havoc on their Missouri Valley Conference peers. Much of UNI's backcourt is made up of players 5-foot-10 or taller, giving them length at positions that's largely been absent during Warren's tenure.

'We're really excited about (our length) because it really allows us to switch up defenses, do some trapping,” Warren said. 'We talk a lot about tips in practice, which we have not spent a lot of time talking about in years past. But we really feel that the length at our guard position allows us to do what we love to do and that's switch up what we like to do defensively.”

While the 2017-18 roster comes in as Warren's youngest ever at UNI expectations remain the same. After an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament a season ago, Warren easily could have decided to ease up on what is annually one of college women's basketball toughest non-conference schedules.

'We love the non-conference schedule. Are you kidding?” Warren said. 'You got Iowa, Iowa State in the McLeod Center. You've got Creighton, (Kansas State), South Dakota State, North Dakota. We certainly didn't schedule down by any means with five freshmen. But we're never going to do that. We really believe that no matter what happens in our non-conference it prepares us for our conference season.”