Veteran Toledo team with new coach prepared to challenge for the MAC Title

Photo courtesy of Toledo Rockets

It’s not often in the college basketball ranks that when a coach leaves a program for another, the veterans stay behind with the new coach coming in. However, that was the case for the Toledo Rockets team when long-time coach Tricia Cullops went to South Beach and the University of Miami last April.

The Rockets had been regular-season MAC champions the previous three years and had several seniors returning. Regardless, Cullop left, and in stepped Ginny Boggess, who came to Toledo after a brief head coaching stint at Monmouth University. Boggess had been an assistant coach for several other high-profile programs, including Penn State and Marquette.

Despite the change at the top, the Rockets have continued to soar under Boggess’s coaching guidance. The team has continued to display a championship mentality with a core group of veterans and has earned the No. 2 seed going into the MAC tournament at Rocket Arena in Cleveland starting on Wednesday.

A new perspective 

When I talked to coach Boggess recently, she addressed the fact that her new team might be benefiting this season from a new view on the game.

She said recently, “It speaks to my team’s willingness to improve and get better, and you know, I think it may have been a blessing that I came in and they got a fresh start in that they weren’t asked to continue the roles they’ve always been in. You know I saw them each, brand new for the first time.”

Coach Boggess knew that the team she was taking over was a championship team already. She mentioned later, “They were willing to do whatever this team needed. Obviously, they won three regular season championships…but maybe it was a blessing in disguise in that they got to see themselves through ‘new’ eyes, and I believe that players become what you see in them, and we wanted them to know that we see their potential and their greatness.”

The other part of Boggess’s coaching talents comes from the fact that she’d been an assistant coach for years and that part of coaching the team has given a coach like Boggess an advantage at working with her players. I asked her about that advantage coming from the assistant’s view and she remarked, “ I went from the Ivy League to the Big East and then to the Big Ten and the higher we went as a staff the more I realized that this is just basketball and these are just kids… these kids just want to know what the plan is for them, if they aren’t playing everybody wants to know how to be the best they can be and everybody wants to add value…I just want to create an environment where these players know we have a plan for them, if they’re getting 40 minutes or four minutes that they bring value to the team.”

Boggess continued about that assistant’s point of view, “I got the benefit from all the hard conversations when players would come in saying the ‘head coach is only nice when we win’ chatter… I try not to forget that my words really matter when I’m in this seat (head coach), and I get to choose what I want to say to them, and I want to choose to be positive and uplifting but truthful at the same time.”  

The Team

When you look over the box scores of the Toledo team, you immediately notice they have a very balanced attack with three of their starters averaging 11 points or more. On defense, they are only allowing their opponents to average 63 points a game.

Senior guard Sammi Mikonowicz averages 13.5 points a game to go along with 6.3 rebounds. Senior guard Khera Goss averages 11 points a game and about four boards a game. Senior Jessica Cook starts at forward and averages about 5 points and 3 boards a game. Their go-to bench player, senior Nan Garcia, averages almost 8 points a game to go with about 5 boards.

The team has two sophomores in the starting five, including Kendall Carruthers and Cadence Dykstra. Carruthers is averaging 11.5 PPG while Dykstra averages about 4 points a game.

The balanced play by the Rockets is what Coach Boggess wants to see as she commented, “That’s how we want to play. You know we want to have five willing and able scorers, five willing and able passers on the floor at all times… you know we run a completely different system then we ran in the past and I think they are thriving… if you look at our seniors they are all having career numbers…it just speaks to their willingness to improve and get better…”

Not just “hungry” but “starving”

The Rockets will play Wednesday against the Central Michigan Chippewas, who are the No. 7 seed. Despite the Chippewas’ 14-16 record, Toledo knows that they’ll be a difficult opponent to play in the quarterfinal game.

Coach Boggess suggested, “Yeah, everybody’s hungry this time of year, so we have to be starving. We have to take our game to another level and be the most confident, competitive, and connected team. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Central Michigan. They are really a well-balanced team who’s peaking at the right time… they annihilated us on the boards the last time we played, so we’ll have to be a lot more disciplined in our box outs and in our rebounding pursuits…it’s gonna take all five (players).”

For a Rockets basketball program that has prided itself on winning basketball and that has included nine trips to the NCAA tournament dating back to 1991, they currently have a team primed and ready to challenge themselves to be their very best as they enter the MAC tournament. If they can be the best over these next three potential tournament games, then this veteran team with their first-year coach can go “dancing” in the NCAA tournament for the 10th time.