Nicki Collen Talks Depth of Team as Injuries Put Damper On Early Season Success
Unfortunately, injuries have been an early season storyline for the Baylor women's basketball program.
In the opener against Incarnate Word on Nov. 7, guard Jana Van Gytenbeek (5Sr.) suffered a non-contact injury, later diagnosed as a season-ending ACL tear.
Head coach Nicki Collen praised Van Gytenbeek before the season and mentioned that the fifth-year guard was the team's most improved player over the summer. She was slated to be an integral part of the Bears' success this year.
"It's pretty heartbreaking," Collen told David Smoak in an interview on Wednesday. "Jana has been playing so well from January on. Without knowing exactly why a light bulb goes off for a kid, it can be their freshman year or at any point in their career, but she really started to get it."
Collen added, "Not only was she playing with pace, being super positive and all the things that she's always been, but she turned a corner in terms of understanding defense, being in help-side [defense] and little things that some players don't have."
In just 17 minutes of action against the Cardinals, Van Gytenbeek scored 10 points, drilled two 3-pointers, dished out five assists and collected two rebounds before going down in the third quarter.
"Even though she didn't start, she was like a starter," Collen said. "She's such a good human and has never had a major injury. It's tough for her. It's tough for her family. When I think about rehab and how tough some of these things are, there's no one more wired to get back."
On a positive note, Van Gytenbeek announced that she'd be able to get an extra year of eligibility and will return for the Bears next season.
"If there's a silver lining on a team that is going to lose a ton of seniors, it gives us the opportunity to bring someone back who can be a leader next year," Collen said.
With Van Gytenbeek sidelined, Baylor then headed west to face Oregon at 9 p.m. CT on Sunday; the Ducks were also honoring the best player in program history, Sabrina Ionescu, who recently won a WNBA championship with the New York Liberty.
Two minutes into the non-conference showdown, forward Bella Fontleroy (Jr.) had to exit the game after rolling her ankle; she did not return for the rest of the contest.
Down two key rotational pieces, the Bears fought back and erased a 16-point second-half deficit but ultimately came up just short, 76-74.
"The biggest challenge for us in that game was not that I didn't have good players in the game; it's just that they weren't being as effective as they could be because they were tired," Collen said.
"The challenge in Oregon wasn't losing Jana; it was losing Jana and Bella," she said. "Jana was going to play 20-25 minutes in that game, and Bella was going to play 25-28 minutes in that game. When you think about how we've been playing, the defensive pressure that we've been playing with, the full-court pressure and the offensive pace, Sarah [Andrews] playing 35 [minutes], Yaya [Felder] playing 31 [minutes], it was just too many minutes for them to be effective."
Collen, however, isn't one for excuses and noted that Baylor still had chances to win that game but couldn't find a way. One of the other main reasons for the Bears' loss was that 6-foot-3 center Aaronette Vonleh (Sr.) had just five points and five field goal attempts.
"We didn't do a good job of getting Aaronette the ball, and that was two-sided," Collen said. "Sometimes, she didn't work to get the ball, and sometimes, we didn't look for her."
Baylor ran multiple plays to get Vonleh the ball late, but the Bears couldn't successfully execute. Collen mentioned that getting the preseason Big 12 Newcomer of the Year easy looks inside the paint is a "non-negotiable" moving forward.
"If we don't practice getting it done now and practice it in games, then when we get in tight games, we're not going to see that as the option," she said. "Our focus has to be over the next two weeks to get the ball inside. We have to consistently throw the ball inside and learn to play off of a post-touch."
On Thursday, in the blowout win over East Texas A&M, Baylor's guards prioritized feeding Vonleh in the paint. She finished with 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting.
"While we've drilled it and drilled it and drilled it in practice, it's me demanding that it still happens in the game," Collen said. "When you're playing an exhibition game or winning a game by 50, she's not playing as many minutes because you're up big. Then, all of a sudden, you don't feel that sense of urgency to do it."
As for other positive news, Fontleroy returned from her ankle injury on Thursday night against the Lions and played 24 minutes, scoring 15 points and hauling in five rebounds.
Elsewhere, reinforcements are coming in the form of Florida transfer guard Aliyah Matharu (Sr.). Matharu must finish the semester at Florida but will be available for the Bears by the beginning of January; she has one year of eligibility remaining.
"This is a unique situation," Collen said. "We're lucky enough to add someone with that level of talent. When you add someone who averaged almost 20 points a game in 24 minutes, you're adding someone capable of making an impact."
The addition of Matharu became official on Nov. 5, which, after Van Gytenbeek's injury, looks like a genius move in hindsight. Collen, however, struggled with the idea of making a midseason addition.
"It's that decision as a coach that you wrestle with because you're taking a group that's been practicing together, working together and that you felt like you had all the pieces going into the year; you don't want to screw it up," Collen said.
She added, "Ultimately, I did it because she was too good not to take but also because I had a fear of what if someone gets injured? Do we have enough if someone gets injured? I'm not saying every coach thinks a lot about it, but I think a lot about those things. I think a lot about the chemistry of the team and wanting them to know I believed in them. It wasn't adding someone because we weren't good enough, but it was just the right move. Sometimes, you get lucky in those situations, even in the midst of what I feel like is unlucky in terms of losing Jana."
According to Collen, Matharu's playing style is similar to Van Gytenbeek's, whose minutes she will replace when she arrives in Waco.
"It's on me to get her up to speed as quickly as I can and get her to fill in seamlessly," she said. "When you look at what we lost and what we need — she provides all those things. She provides someone who can play with pace and can defend."
But before Matharu gets to campus, the Bears will manage the meantime with an extremely thin rotation. Aside from Van Gytenbeek's absence, guard Ines Goryanova (Fr.) is redshirting as she recovers from an ACL injury, and forward Madison Bartley (5Sr.) is dealing with injury issues of her own.
Collen is now being forced to rely on players who weren't necessarily expected to be major contributors this season in junior college transfer guard Waiata Jennings (Jr.) and forward Kayla Nelms (Fr.).
In the win over East Texas A&M, Jennings and Nelms both made positive contributions off the bench. Jennings played great defense, dropped five points and collected three rebounds, while Nelms totaled eight points and six rebounds.
"If you asked me, going into the season, I would tell you that our team as a whole is in as good a shape as we've ever been in," Collen said. "We were really, really focused on it, knowing that we wanted to turn up the defensive pressure, but you also can't get away sometimes from the injury issues that you have."
With the depth a little shakier than initially anticipated, Collen has to suddenly reevaluate how fast she wants her team to play on both sides of the floor.
"The advantage of the depth was that we were playing with a really, really big intensity on every possession, in particular defensively, and that takes them out of you when you're picking up full court," she said. "It takes something out of you when you're up in denial and forcing catches eight feet behind the arc, and we're being aggressive on our ball screen coverage. When you're doing all those things, it's hard to play 35 minutes and play them effectively."
Collen is a firm believer in keeping players to certain minute loads. Once you exceed that limit, it's tough for players to remain effective when they eventually get worn down, especially this season, as Collen wants to emphasize playing fast on offense and defense.
"I probably have two kids on my roster who can play 35 minutes at that pace and never look tired, and one of them has a torn ACL now, and [Littlepage-Buggs]," she said.
Collen mentioned a funny story of forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (Jr.) asking for a substitute midway through the game against Oregon.
"She asked for a sub in the second quarter, and I tried to ignore her," Collen said. "She was trying to get my attention, and I just looked away. Then my bench was like, 'Buggs really needs a sub.' I'm like, 'Yeah, yep, yep, I know.'"
In a few weeks, the Bears will head to the Bahamas for the "Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament," and managing workloads will be at the forefront of Collen's mind.
"When Aliyah is here, we're back to the numbers we had with Jana," she said. "But for the next week or so in particular, when all of a sudden you've got to play three games in three days in Atlantis, that's where we're going to have to maybe slow down a little bit or where I've got to maybe coach a little differently."
The Bears (2-1) will resume action on Sunday versus Texas A&M Corpus Christi (3-0). Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT, and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.