College basketball: Lady Wranglers look skyward

For Ara Baten, perception may exist, but he cannot see it. Can’t see that if one was drawing a graph showing the momentum of the Odessa College women’s basketball team, a line would be clearly ascending.

In Baten’s first season, following the team’s national championship, OC went 7-21 overall, 3-11 in conference play. Last year, the team finished 22-10 overall, 9-5 in conference after a late-season tear and pulled off an upset of a junior college power, Midland College, in the NJCAA Region V Tournament.

Baten’s understanding of the program’s projection and the worth of the win over Midland College — which ended its season at 30-2 — comes from his eyes only, and they do not open wide with thoughts of last season.

The eyes widen a bit with the fact that it was a big victory, but they are focused on this season.

“For us it was big because, let’s be honest, it was Midland,” Baten said. “It was the semifinal of the tournament. From a significance standpoint, it’s a postseason victory and it’s our biggest rival.”

And that’s it — not his words. His eyes.

Yet, among his most important players, there lies a willingness to look at what last year’s record and the victory over Midland College mean.

Their eyes, they brighten a little more. Confidence may be what’s allowing it.

“It was a big win,” sophomore small forward Tammie Thorton said. “We’ve grown from it. We’ve taken that over into the season. We’re just working harder so we can improve.

“It makes it like we something to live up to.”

Before and after the game against Midland College, which had defeated the Lady Wranglers twice before, Baten said OC had nothing to lose. The pressure was on the Lady Chaps.

Now, with improvement from Year One to Year Two of the Baten era, it appears the Lady Wranglers have much to lose: the program’s momentum.

It is a situation the team earned, but one Baten won’t use as the theme throughout the year. For him, it is a process, and early losses will not equal an inability to ride a wave.

“We’re still searching for an identity,” Baten said a week before the season opener at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday against visiting Ranger College. “What we are is probably not what we’ll be in January or February. It takes time for us to develop that. I don’t know that I would look at it as we have something to lose. We want to play as well as we can every time we’re on the court.”

 Sophomore guard Shon Redmond, the team’s third-leading scorer last year with 8.4 points per game and highest returning scorer on this year’s squad, believes it is a better team.

How does she know? Small signs here and there.

“We’re a little deeper. … We’re a running team and we’re stronger inside than we were last year. … We should get farther this year,” she said.

To no surprise, Baten had not yet pinpointed a starting five days before the opener. But this is a coach who does not stay awake at night trying to decide who’s starting.

It’s all about finishing. But, to begin this year, he sees depth.

“I’ll tell you what I told the team a couple of days ago: This is as deep as we’ve ever been into the preseason with me having no idea who’s going to play, who’s not going to play; who would start, who would not start; who would finish the game, who would not finish the game. I don’t know. It is really close at most positions.

“I think I would give a slight edge to returning players because they’ve been there before.”

Those who helped produce the notches on the program’s graph. Upward. With room to go.