Butler, lady Tigers off to a 5-1 ACC start
Head Coach Amanda Butler and her lady Tigers are off to a fast start in ACC play. Last season, the Tigers only won one of their ACC games, this season however, the Tigers have won five out of their last 6 games. Since Butler took over the program last April, she has changed the the lady Tigers playing scheme. The Tigers are now playing much faster and are now forcing their opponents to play at a much faster rate than what their opponents are used to running. The Tigers rank 1st in the ACC and 19th nationally forcing 21.6 turnovers per game.
“We are better than we’ve were in June, July, August, September, October. But we said back in August that we want to play better basketball December than we were in November and play better basketball in January than December and that’s just going to be a commitment to daily improvement and you cannot lose sight of that.” Butler said during media availability
It’s clear that Butler has made an impact on her team. Senior Danielle Edwards who is one of the best defenders in the league ranking second with 54 steals behind teammate Simone Westbrooke. “The biggest thing when there was a coaching change was that we were going to stay together. We were all just eager to learn from coach, a new coaching staff, a new style of play and to have new people as a part of our team to make us better. We were really excited to get started and it was just a matter of us staying together
While Coach Swinney has “ALL IN” and Coach Brownell has “Clemson Grit”, Butler uses TLC to carry her team. “Trust, loyalty and commitment and we don’t refer to our culture or anything like that. It is “are we trusting each other and what do we look like from a relationship standpoint and from a loyalty standpoint, being loyal to this university that has given them an opportunity for a fantastic education and given me an opportunity at a fantastic career. The commitment to things that make us different from everyone else our way of doing things that we want to distinguish ourselves from other people.” Butler said.
The Tigers face a tough road test this Thursday as they travel up to Raleigh, NC to take on the 8th ranked NC State Wolfpack. The Tigers will be back in action at Littlejohn on February 10th against North Carolina. Butler said that “This is a team definitely worth coming to see.”
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