Lakelyn Bouldin walked into the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga last season as a mature, mentally tough basketball player.
But that didn’t stop UTC coach Jim Foster from trying to make her even better in that regard.
The challenges came in practice, where as the lone freshman the 5-foot-8 Bouldin from Van Buren County was continually pushed to be better. It worked, as she finished third on the team in scoring at 10.3 points per game and scored in double figures in nine of her last 11 contests.
Now, a year older and a year wiser, she plans to be a year better. She was voted to the preseason all-conference team.
“I’m trying to take on more of a leadership role, but more a leader by my actions, not my words,” she said after Wednesday’s practice. “I learned a lot from my freshman to my sophomore year, so I’m getting smarter as a player.”
Bouldin said she had to adapt to the pace of the game early last season, but as the season went on she got “more used to the pace. It became more natural and made more sense.”
Of course, Foster’s approach clearly helped. Throughout practice, he kept putting the team’s best defender on her and making her handle the ball.
“He’s mentally challenging, but his goal is to make you mentally tough,” Bouldin said. “He achieves that by pushing you.
“He’s hard on you, but he knows you can handle it.”
Foster said Bouldin’s pedigree – for five varsity basketball seasons she was Van Buren’s best player – helped her a lot.
“If she didn’t play well, her team was in jeopardy, so she learned how to show up every night, and that part of her hasn’t changed,” Foster said. “She’s playing a little bit better, moving without the ball and with the ball after a year of understanding what college is.
“Between the ears, she was a strong person, a disciplined person. She knew how to handle the off-court stuff, the academic stuff. She knew how to lead, ignore the nonsense and deal with what matters.”
The 2017-18 team will be different than last season’s. Jasmine Joyner and her 437 blocks are gone, as are fellow graduates Queen Alford, Moses Johnson and Sydney Vanlandingham and would-be seniors Chelsey Shumpert and Ansley Chilton. Without the presence of Joyner, whose block total ranks eighth all-time in NCAA history, more pressure will be on the guards to keep opposing teams out of the lane.
“We can’t rely on Jasmine to save our butts when we get beat on defense, but it’ll hold us more accountable on defense,” Bouldin said. “This year’s team will be different, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.