In their preseason press conference on Oct. 13, the Oswego State women’s basketball team expressed emotions about the new season and what changes they have made in their preparation.

Head coach Sean Pinkerton got the press conference underway by saying how his team is eager to get back out onto the court. He also mentioned how each season comes with a new set of chances to take.

“The start of every season is an opportunity,” Pinkerton said. “The girls work really hard in preseason, through the offseason so I think everybody is excited to finally get on the floor and start to put it together as a unit.”

Fifth-year senior Logan Castiglione also recognized the excitement brewing within the ranks.

“Emotions are really high,” Castiglione said. “Everyone’s super excited and can’t wait to just start.”

Sophomore Diamond Pickett gave a possible explanation for the excitement. According to her, this team has a lot to prove after the last season.

“Our team is very good; we’re very talented and last year we struggled a little bit but we’re growing and I feel like this year we have every aspect that we need to win.”

Individually, the two players have other reasons they are looking forward to the season. Castiglione is in her final year with the Lakers and said how the end being in sight is bittersweet. Pickett on the other hand is ready to put the nerves of freshman year behind her and be a leader on the team.

“Last offseason I think I was really nervous especially coming in as a freshman and not really knowing what to do,” Pickett said. “This year I have more of a base of what I’m supposed to be doing and helping the team and being a leader, which is very exciting.”

Pinkerton pointed out the fact that there has been a big step taken by his athletes. He highlighted three, including Castiglione, Pickett and Peyton Daeffler that have become leaders in the locker room.

“Logan [Castiglione] has familiarity with the program, she’s been here for five years,” Pinkerton said. “Peyton [Daeffler], as a senior is getting an opportunity to step up into that [leadership] role even more so than last year. Diamond also, I think Diamond is someone who, amongst her peers … did a great job of leading by example. She definitely has the type of personality that people gravitate towards. She’s a leader by force of personality and force of will and I think she’s done an excellent job of using her platform to lead.”

Pinkerton noted some changes that he has made in the offseason. Most notably he said that he has been able to start at a higher tempo now that his players do not have to worry about being affected by COVID-19.

“We ramped it up a little bit,” Pinkerton said. “This year is more intensive in terms of what we plan for the preseason because we aren’t coming off a COVID year, we’re coming off a year where [the team] had an opportunity to compete, be on the floor and practice. Simultaneously, this year we’re very young but we’re an experienced team because we had so many kids last year in their first year of college basketball get meaningful minutes and got to play a lot. Because they’ve had that opportunity to be on the floor, I felt like we could really ramp up what we were doing in preseason.”

He also noted that in the last campaign they lost a good number of close games. However, he does not  believe it was for a lack of talent, instead it was an issue of maturity on the floor.

“I thought that we did not lose games as a result of a lack of talent, I thought we struggled to get the outcomes we desired because of a lack of maturity and experience,” Pinkerton said. “I thought more often than not it was more of an emotional immaturity that hindered our ability to win basketball games. Being mindful of that, the big thing for us moving forward this year is the maturity, the chemistry and the approach on a daily basis in regards of our mindset.”

Pinkerton rounded off the press conference by saying that his team is further along this year than they were at the same point last year, but he does not think they are where they want to be yet.

The Oswego State women’s basketball team gets their season underway against Hilbert College on Nov. 8 before returning home to tip-off the Oswego Invitational tournament against Keystone College on Nov. 11 in the Max Ziel Gymnasium.

Photo via Spencer Bates