As University of Charleston women's basketball coach Adam Collins looks at his team through its first 14 games of the season, he sees a group that is much better than its record might show.
Tuesday night's 69-53 win at Shepherd was the Golden Eagles' fifth on the year and snapped a five-game losing streak. But, as he said, the wins and losses don't quite tell the whole story.
UC played a difficult non-conference schedule, one that included games against teams like No. 3 Virginia Union and a Chowan team that brought most of its players back from last year's NCAA tournament team. When you put that kind of non-conference schedule with opening Mountain East Conference play against some of the league's best teams on the road, it's been a difficult thing for the young Golden Eagles (5-9, 4-4 MEC) to balance.
"We're really young and inexperienced still," Collins said. "We've got a lot of girls who haven't played together much and we're losing to very good teams in the final two or three minutes of games down the stretch and we're losing to teams that have been together for three years."
But through the ups and downs of everything they've been through so far, Collins has still seen several positives from the team. The biggest thing he's liked from Charleston this year has been the way it has been able to keep a good attitude as the players have started to get comfortable playing with one another.
With a number of new players coming in prior to this season, that's been one of the big hurdles for this group to get over - finding a way to build chemistry while being thrown quickly into the fire against a difficult schedule and the rigors of the MEC.
"When you lose to so many talented teams and you lose it close, you look at the positives and see that we were one or two plays away from it being a different outcome," Collins said. "There's part of me that, with such a young team, that says we could have played maybe a lesser non-conference schedule than we did and have a winning record there.
"But we wouldn't have been as prepared and we would have gone to Fairmont or Wheeling and would have gotten our doors blown off and not played them as tough as we did."
The Golden Eagles have been led by Jordyn Peck this season. Peck, a graduate transfer who came to UC from Wagner, has made a big impact right away - leading the league in scoring at 18.7 points per game. She's averaging more than 21 points against conference opponents.
With Peck, as well as returning players like Mya Walker and Abby Watson, providing leadership - along with contributions from freshmen like Octavia Loll, who went 9 for 10 from the floor to score a career-high 26 points against Shepherd - Collins believes his team's best basketball is ahead of it as Charleston continues to move into the heart of MEC play. UC's conference slate continues with a 1 p.m. game Saturday versus West Virginia Wesleyan in its new home, the Wherle Athletic Arena.
"They want to win as much as I do. They've got so much pride in what they do and pride for this program," Collins said. "They're coming into every game trying to play the right way and do things the way we want them to do it."
Contact Michael Carvelli at 304-348-4810 or michael.carvelli@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @carvelli3.