Bobcats look toward upcoming season at SBC Media Days

Basketball season is around the corner as the Sun Belt Conference hosted Basketball Media Days for the first time since the 2012-2013 season.

Texas State women’s basketball took to the podium Tuesday. Head coach Zenarae Antoine said having a team filled with not only upperclassmen but players who have valuable game experience makes her feel positive about this year.

“I feel good about our team,” Antoine said. “The one positive is that when you have a veteran squad is there are things that are already understood and they know so our installs don’t take as long and when you have the Covid seniors that we have that are returners in Da’Nasia Hood and Kennedy Taylor there is a understanding of job undone, what needs to be finished and how we find  opportunities to continuously get better. Right now we are in a position to get better and we’re halfway there.”

The Bobcats finished the 2021-22 season in sixth place with a 15-14 overall record and a 9-6 conference record.

Texas State’s season ended in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, falling in the second round to the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns.

Texas State returns several starters from last year’s team including Pre-Season All Conference First Team graduate senior forward Da’Nasia Hood and Pre-Season All Conference Second Team graduate senior guard Kennedy Taylor.

Coming into this season, a major area of improvement for the Bobcats is working on their defensive game rather than their loss in the conference tournament.

“For us it’s not even about Louisiana,” Antoine said. “It’s more about us and what we can do to be better. Right now it’s about defense and we have spent a lot of time working on our defensive scheme and being able to do a good job guarding the best players. The women here are all conference players for a reason so we need to find a way to slow them down, get a stop and force the other players to score.”

With Hood coming back for another year at Texas State rather than turning pro, Antoine’s relationship with the star forward is one that goes beyond the basketball court.

“Having a first person all conference team come back is always special,” Antoine said. “But what’s special to me is that Da’Nasia has been with our program from the very beginning. She has gone through all the growing pains of being a student athlete and what I love even more is that she is a Central Texas kid. Her home is right in our backyard in San Antonio. What she has been able to do in regards to influencing the local student athletes, the student athletes on our team, and greater Texas State. As a first-gen college graduate and now on her master’s program is just phenomenal, for me it goes way beyond basketball.”

For Hood, leading the team in more ways than one is a significant part in stepping up her game this year.

“I see my role as being a leader more vocally,” Hood said. “Just stepping up in other ways where the team needs it, whether it’s in game, off game, on the court, off the court, so that is where I see myself evolving. Continuing to be an influence that uplifts the teammates like the coach said.”

The Bobcats enter conference play in a seemingly brand new league with both the Little Rock Trojans and the UT-Arlington Mavericks leaving the Sun Belt and being replaced with James Madison, Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss.

With all four teams being in the thick of their conference races the year before, Antoine expects the Sun Belt to be highly competitive.

“I can tell you that it’s going to be tough,” Antoine said. “I’m really excited to listen to the coaches and anticipate what those scores are going to look like when we go out into the non-conference to play…you are adding four really strong women’s basketball teams that are going to add to the landscape and I look forward to competing against them.”

“The new league is going to be a lot more competitive,” Hood added. “It’s going to be exciting to see new faces and compete against new girls. I’m happy that the league added new teams and I look forward to playing them.”

Texas State’s season tips off Nov. 7 against Howard Payne 7 p.m.  Monday Night at Strahan Arena.