Patterson ratchets up intensity to build on Southeast Missouri State women's basketball success

A white piece of paper with the words "Be great or go be somewhere else because being average or giving less than your best should feel weird in a championship culture," typed across it sits on the edge of Southeast Missouri State women's basketball coach Rekha Patterson's desk.

Now, as the Redhawks prepare for their second season under Patterson, the motto of "She believed she could, so she did," is not enough.

The group has the belief they can be good after they accomplished the goals they set for last season, so now it's about reaching a level of greatness.

"I told the young ladies at our very first team meeting [of the summer] that expectations are going to be a little different this year," Patterson said. "I don't think we're going to surprise anybody. Who knows where we're going to be picked to finish [in the Ohio Valley Conference] -- don't really care about that, but I think we started to gain a little respect last year and so our approach has to be different."

During that same team meeting the team set its goal for postseason play. That doesn't just mean securing a spot in the OVC tournament, which the Redhawks did last season for the first time since 2009, but to also compete for the tournament title and an NCAA berth.

But Patterson and her staff have been quick to make sure her players realize that making the OVC tournament again is no guarantee.

Although it's months before the team will play a game, let alone fight for a spot in the conference tournament, the preparation has already begun.

The team spends five days a week in the weight room training with strength and conditioning coach Ryan Johnson, and commits the allotted two hours each week to various ball handling, passing and shooting drills.

In everything the players do, Patterson said the goal has been to "amp it up," whether that is Johnson pushing the players out of their comfort zone to make them physically and mentally tougher, or increasing the intensity and attention to detail when working on fundamentals.

The Redhawks return eight players from last year's squad that went 15-15 and 8-8 in the OVC -- guards Bri Mitchell, Adrianna Murphy, Ashton Luttrull, Hannah Noe and Hilma Mededovic and G/F Olivia Hackmann and Kaley Leyhue.

Newcomers are freshmen Jessie Harshberger (G/F), Iyanna McCurdy (G) and LaTrese Saine (F), along with junior college transfers Lakyn Gulley (G) and Mandy Madden (F).

Patterson also added Missouri transfer and South Pemiscot grad Carrie Shephard, but she'll have to sit out next season due to NCAA transfer rules.

"I think our returners are doing a good job of making sure our team chemistry is where it should be, and they're feeling welcomed and part of the family," Patterson said. "Sometimes you can deal with competition in a bad way, but I think the returners have done a really good job of setting the tone of how our summers are going to be with our chemistry."

Hackmann and Mitchell are the lone seniors on the roster. Hackmann led the team in scoring last season before suffering a Jones fracture in her right foot. She was able to redshirt, but is also recovering from surgery to her left foot, which was bothering her before the fracture.

"She has been cleared to do some things," Patterson said. "She's not running yet and I said, 'Listen, it's the summer. I want you to have as healthy of a senior year as you can possibly have and so we can go really slow during the summer to get you healthy.' Mentally she is so ready and so excited for her senior year -- you can see it in her eyes. And I think health-wise she is moving in the right direction."

Sophomore forward Deja Jones, redshirt freshman forward Imani Johnson and freshman guard Corneisha Henderson, who all started at some point last season, have departed from the program, as has reserve freshman forward Katia Polk

"I think just like any program that you have standards and you are trying to change the culture, and if you are unable to meet the standards of the culture that we are creating, then this just may not be the program for you, and that's OK," Patterson said "Great kids, but we're trying to move this in a certain direction and everybody has to be on board."

For Patterson, mental toughness, something she spoke constantly of in her first season at the helm, particularly as the Redhawks lost five of their final six regular-season games, must improve.

"There's no doubt I feel like we limped through the end of the season and I think some of that is because these players had never experienced playing a game in February that mattered, so they were mentally exhausted, and if you're mentally exhausted then it doesn't matter if your body can -- if your mind thinks you can't, then it's going to be hard to get your body over that hump," Patterson said.

But she was immensely proud that her team was still able to secure the six seed in the tournament, falling to No. 3 SIU Edwardsville 80-76 in overtime in the first round.

"That did nothing but make me hungry, even more hungry for the next step," Patterson said. "And I know we're going to have our bumps and bruises and our lessons from the season, but I think everybody has those -- maybe except UConn. But for the rest of us humans, we're going to have to deal with adversity and how are we going to respond."