Gulf Coast womens team heading west, and working along the way to Nationals

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) -The Gulf Coast Commodores are one of two area Juco womens basketball teams heading to the national tourney in Lubbock, Texas. That begins Wednesday. Gulf Coast one of the teams playing in that, and Monday afternoon, I spoke with the Commodores head coach as his team made its way down I-49 east of Dallas!

“You know we got off last night, we got to Baton Rouge and had a nice little night there.” Coach Rory Kuhn told me via Zoom. “And woke up this morning and practiced at LSU. My assistant coach Jaelyn (Harris), you know she played there so we got a nice little tour of the facilities. And obviously got to practice on that floor which is a pretty cool experience for these young ladies. Had a cool little night at LSU and practiced there, and now it’s on our way to Dallas. Which we’re on the bus right now, will practice at SMU tonight when we get there.”

And practicing at venues like LSU and SMU in Dallas, well that should be a big help as the team prepares to play at a college venue in Lubbock.

“A 100%. You know there’s different ways of looking at it.” Kuhn told me. “People will drive 12 hours in one day and practice in some high school gym or something. But we are going to have them practice at the LSU gym like you said. Backdrop lighting, the baskets back, a Stadium-like feel which is what Lubbock is like. SMU will be a different type of court. Yeah these are places where you don’t normally play. So it’s good to practice on different courts, different experiences, depth perception, shots and stuff like that. So yeah hopefully it works to our advantage you know.”

Gulf Coast will play a first round game against Three Rivers Thursday at one out in Lubbock. The Lady Raiders with a first round bye, they’ll play their round two game Thursday at five.

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