By Harry Minium
There's only one opportunity to make a first impression, and Old Dominion women's basketball coach DeLisha Milton-Jones and her staff wanted to make a grand debut Thursday night during her first home game.
So, they dressed for success. The men were decked out in coats and ties while women wore evening wear. Milton-Jones wore a black dress with high heels.
How you dress may seem like a small thing, but Milton-Jones says looking good is part of her coaching philosophy.
"When you look good, you feel good. As players would say, when you look good, you play good," she said.
"This is our first game, and we wanted to show people that we are professional, that we're about our business. This was the first time our fans saw us as a staff as a team. As new employees for Old Dominion University, I wanted to make sure we had our best showing for anybody who saw us."
Although the crowd was limited to just 250 because of state COVID regulations, the Monarchs indeed made a memorable first impression.
Coming off a disappointing 55-37 loss at George Washington last week, ODU rebounded with a 70-47 thrashing of William & Mary.
A bigger test awaits Sunday at 2 p.m., when the Monarchs host VCU. But clearly, this isn't the same team that played lethargically against a GW zone that left the Monarchs flat footed.
ODU pushed the ball up the court relentlessly and, as the Monarchs did last season, played tenacious defense. The Tribe made just 26 percent of its shots and except for a brief time in the third quarter, when W&M cut the lead to six, was never competitive.
When the team came back from GW, Milton-Jones said "we had to go back to the drawing board and have a nice little come to Jesus conversation with ourselves, and put the mirror in front of us, coaches included. We had to ask ourselves some hard questions.
"We came out of it realizing we can all do more and pay attention to details. We realized that that's not the identify of who we are.
"We wanted to let people know tonight that we are here, and we are serious. And the brand of basketball they are accustomed to watching will be on full display."
ODU's three top returning players played well -- Ajah Wayne had 21 points and 15 rebounds, while Amari Young added 16 points and Victoria Morris 14.
Freshman Lanay Wheaton added nine points.
"It's going to take some time, but the others will contribute more as we continue to get better," she said.
Like virtually every college basketball team, the Monarchs have struggled because of COVID.
ODU was 24-6 and seeded second in the Conference USA tournament early last March, and appeared likely to go to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008.
But as the Monarchs were preparing to leave the hotel for their first C-USA game in Frisco, Texas., the tournament was called off because of the pandemic.
The team was separated during the spring, as ODU and other institutions closed in-person classes. And then coach Nikki McCray left for Mississippi State. Milton-Jones was hired in April but did not see her team in person for months because of COVID restrictions.
The Monarchs missed practicing the month of August and when they finally began to work out, were limited to five players because of injuries. It wasn't until three weeks ago that ODU had ten players in practice.
The experience was at times painful, Wayne said, who added that Milton-Jones has coaxed and prodded and encouraged the players through the preseason ordeal.
"Coach D is full of energy," Wayne said. "I think her mindset is just feeding us confidence every day, especially in practice, she's always feeding us confidence.
"She's so good at just talking to us and building us up."
Even so, Milton-Jones came down hard on the Monarchs in practice this week.
"We created a narrative in terms of intensity when we were coaching in practice," she said. "We weren't letting up for one minute.
"We were like a cage of ravenous pit bulls, barking and nipping at everything that did not look the way it's supposed to look.
"They responded well to that. They came out tonight, when they get going, you really can sit back and just watch. They can coach themselves when they are playing with that type of intensity."
They also celebrate with intensity. When Milton-Jones made her way to the locker room following the game, she was greeted with a shower of confetti and balloons.
"I'm glad they didn't have water and Gatorade," she said.
ODU has three more non-conference games before tipping off Conference USA play on New Year's Day at home against Florida International. FIU and ODU meet again on Jan. 2, which is the pattern C-USA will use this season – back to back games every weekend.
"We have a long way to go. We're not nearly where we need to be," she said.
"I know that with each passing game in December we're going to better and stronger and faster and more efficient, so that when we tip off for conference play, we should look the way we need to look."
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: ODU Women's Basketball Coaches Dressed for Success for DeLisha Milton-Jones' First Home Game
