WKU Women’s Basketball hosted its annual media day on Friday, previewing the year and sharing expectations for the upcoming 2021-2022 season.

Head coach Greg Collins, sophomore Hope Sivori and senior Meral Abdelgawad were present and all expressed their hunger to gain respect within Conference USA.

Collins began the press conference by sharing how a new coaching change will impact his program. Collins said that last season’s assistant coach, Jocelyn Wyatt Brown, had to step away from the team due to the birth of her daughter. Former Lady Topper Ivy Brown was promoted in Wyatt Brown’s absence.

“That’s part of the reason that Ivy had this opportunity and we’re so excited and thrilled for Ivy, I always knew that she’s gonna be a great coach,” Collins said. “So now this is her opportunity, and she’s been great with our young ladies. So we’re excited about that.”

The Lady Toppers had a sub-par 2020-21 season. They finished with an overall record of 7-16, going 6-10 in conference play and finishing last in their division. The program looks to bounce back this year and it has its sights on the Conference USA championship and a bid in the NCAA tournament.

“I expect this team to win the championship this year and go to the NCAA [tournament] and to get more respect from our conference,” Abdelgawad said. “Because they haven’t seen us this year. They don’t know anyone from this team. So if they don’t give us their respect this year, our freshmen will kick their ass because they don’t know them at all.”

The Lady Toppers have a very young roster with Abdelgawad as the lone senior. Collins emphasized that his main goal this offseason was to work on player development.

“I take a lot of pride in player development,” Collins said. “I take a lot of pride in seeing players like Meral Abdelgawad be a lot different than she was when she got here. All the returning players have gotten better significantly, I think Hope Sivori has improved her ball handling and shooting. Selma Kulo, Jordan Smith, Torii Hunter, all three have improved from last year and that’s what you want. You want growth each year. The goal is to see improvement individually and as a team each day and each week and then by the end you’ll eventually be fine. You’ll be where you want to be.”

The main problem with the Lady Toppers last year was their youth, and during the prime of the pandemic it was hard for the team to build chemistry. Abdelgawad thinks chemistry will not be a problem this year.

“I think this year is so different,” Abdelgawad said. “The chemistry is so good this year, we are playing so well with each other, we play hard every day, every practice. So I think this is going to be different than last year.” 

Sivori highlighted that the main difference from last year’s team is a renewed sense of positivity.

“There’s a lot more positivity, not just on the court,” Sivori said. “Outside the court, you’ll get a text saying ‘hey, do you want to get dinner?’, and stuff like that.”

Abdelgawad has taken on a huge leadership role in mentoring the younger players, setting aside time to bond with them.

“For this year, I’m trying to do a lot of things that are different from the last three years,” Abdelgawad said. “I’m trying to hang out a lot with them, the past three years I was always sitting in my room not talking to anyone so I’m just trying to be different and talk more with them and do everything with them.” 

The Lady Toppers’ season begins next week and they are excited to finally play in front of fans once more.

“That’ll be the fun part, just playing in front of fans,” Collins said. “Even seeing the girls get excited and fans getting excited.”

The Lady Toppers kick off their season with an exhibition at home against West Virginia State on Wednesday, Nov. 3. WKU will host Purdue on Nov. 10 to officially start the season.

Women’s basketball reporter Joseph Thompson can be reached at [email protected].