What Makes a Great Floor General?

Valley Women’s Coaches Tell Us

(St. Louis, MO) – Missouri Valley Conference women’s basketball teams have outstanding point guards and so much college basketball success comes from having that key position filled with a special person. So, we asked Valley coaches ‘what makes a great floor general?’

Do they need to be ‘pass-first’ players? Must they be someone that makes everyone else better? Can they be a liability on defense or lack long distance shooting range? Are there important personality traits unique to these skilled ballhandlers?

Floor General – Extension of the Coach

Valley coaches want their floor generals to be extensions of them on the court. These team ‘quarterbacks’ have to know what the coach wants and when they want it. Coaches want their players to hear a consistent ‘voice’.

Illinois State coach Kristen Gillespie says she wants her point guard to be the quarterback of the team. She notes, the Valley is filled with outstanding ‘floor generals’ including ILS’ Maya Wong.

“Point guard play I tell you what, our league has some of the best point guards in the country,” said Gillespie. “It’s so much fun watching different teams but I do love our point guard. She’s taking great shots and she’s still facilitating and the other thing she’s doing a great job, but she’s leading our team. We always talk about important spot. You’re the quarterback of the team. You’re kind of the extension of me and, and I think she’s taken a great leap with that.”

Evansville coach Robyn Scherr-Wells says the point guard spot is the most important position on the floor.

“To me, it’s the most important spot on the floor,” said Scherr-Wells. “You gotta have a good point guard and a ‘stretch four’ if you have those two things, you’re probably in pretty good shape. They do need to be the extension of you as a head coach. And, you know, they don’t always have to be the same personality as you but they’ve got to have an understanding and a connection where you know, when they look over the sideline that they can take cues quickly, that there’s a level of trust and confidence in each other.”

Point Guards – Competitive Nature

Coaches used terms like ‘tone setter’, ‘bulldog’, ‘competitor’ when talking about what they’re looking for in their floor generals. Scherr-Wells says her point guards need a strong competitive streak.

“I always want my point guards to be as competitive as me,” she said. “That’s one of the first things I look for in a point guard is ‘are you just a dog?’ Are you going to compete out there?”

Referencing her point guard, Drake head coach Allison Pohlman says Katie Dinnebier is a ‘bulldog’.

“I call her a bulldog,” said Pohlman. “Because that’s exactly what she is. She does for this team, really, at any given moment exactly what we need, whether that’s make a big shot, get a big stop, you know, pump up her teammates, all of those sorts of things.”

Missouri State coach Beth Cunningham has great confidence in her point guard Lacy Stokes. She loves Stokes’ confidence and tenacity.

“She just has those intangible qualities that that you can’t teach,” said Cunningham. “I felt like she was somebody that could really learn our system and excel in our system with the people around us. But whether she’s struggling or she’s playing well and you can never tell the difference. She just keeps coming at you. And that’s how she is every day in practice.”

Floor General – ‘Uncommon Effort’

Southern Illinois coach Kelly Bond-White says like many things in basketball, being a point guard requires the desire to be a ‘tone setter’ and to give uncommon effort. SIU is one of the top Valley teams in stopping the three-point shot and she says her point guard Quierra Love is largely responsible for that success.

“They set the tone for the players behind them and I think I have the best tone setter in Love,” said Bond-Wells. “So ‘Q’ knows what we expect out of her. But once she does that, it allows some of our other kids to get a little further up the line and we can start playing some passing lanes and really getting some deflections, which sometimes lead to steals but just knocking off people’s timing is what we have to do. We can challenge our kids to meet that and give us an uncommon effort while still maintaining our discipline. You know, we can make some good things happen.”

Bradley coach Kate Popovek-Goss says point guards and head coaches need a high degree of communication and understanding. She says Illinois State’s Maya Wong is the best floor general in the Valley.

“Someone who is able to execute the identity of what you are to be on both ends of the floor,” said Popovek-Goss. “I think putting people in positions to be successful knowing where everyone’s supposed to be all the time. Really honestly having a relationship with the head coach to communicate what they feel was going on in the game.”

MVC Floor Generals

Point guards can win and lose games but their statistics aren’t always the most telling metric. In Stokes’ case against Northern Iowa, she had a difficult time scoring but made the right floor and defensive decisions. Then, she hit the game-winning shot.

Dinnebier leads the league in scoring (19.4 ppg) and assists (5.3 per game) and is second in steals (2.7 per game), while Wong is ninth in scoring (13.9) and second in helpers (4.6). Stokes leads in assist-turnover margin (2.2) and Belmont’s Tuti Jones is fourth in assists (4.3), fourth in steals (2.3) and fifth in ATO (1.8). Love is fifth in assists (4.3) and third in steals (2.5).

Murray State splits its point guard role between Bria Sanders-Woods and Haven Ford and the Racers, Missouri State, Belmont and Drake are the only undefeated (2-0) Valley teams.

How these floor generals perform over the next 18 conference games will go a long way to deciding the Missouri Valley standings and seedings for Hoops in the Heartland.

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Editor: Cover photo of Maya Wong courtesy of goredbirds.com.