Middle Tennessee Lady Raiders streaking toward March

Middle Tennessee is the best team in the state, with a resume that rivals any mid-major in the country. Hall of Fame coach Rick Insell has the Raiders out in front of C-USA and primed for a postseason run.

“Someone once told me, ‘time is a flat circle.’”

If that line is true, then the people of Murfreesboro, Tennessee must be living in a Groundhog Day-esque loop, because their Lady Raiders women’s basketball team is back in familiar territory:

On top of the conference standings.

Tucked away 34 miles south of Nashville sits Middle Tennessee State University, home to an undisputed powerhouse in the women’s game. The numbers, simply, are staggering.

Multiple All-Americans have donned the blue and white.

They’ve made either the NCAA Tournament or WNIT in 18 straight seasons and 29 times overall.

They boast 35-combined conference titles across three different leagues.

Since joining Conference USA, they’ve won four conference titles, with eyes on a fifth this year.

The success has been sustained, and this train shows no signs of stopping. With their win this past Saturday, MTSU is 20-4 this year, their fourth-straight 20+ win campaign and 29th in program history.

Most programs, especially mid-majors, would be thrilled to have even a fraction of that success.

Rick Insell keeps driving Middle Tennessee in pursuit of excellence

But if you think Rick Insell, now in his 18th season as coach, is simply going through the motions, then you don’t know Rick Insell.

“Our expectations this year are the Sweet 16 or Elite 8,” Insell said at C-USA Media Days in October. “I know a lot of people will giggle at that, but those ones who do are the ones who haven’t seen our practice sessions. We’re very competitive, we have size, we have great shooters, we have great leadership.”

But even then, why, at age 71, did Insell feel the need to return to the bench?

“Even for an old coach, I’m pretty excited for what we have going.”

In early December, his team showed the nation just why he was so excited. The Lady Raiders crushed then-No. 18 Louisville, 67-49, inside the ‘Glass House.’ It was Middle Tennessee’s first win over a ranked foe since 2011 and the 11th such win in program history.

“We wanted this for Coach Insell,” junior forward Courtney Whitson said after the upset. “This is why he stayed in coaching. People think he’s crazy, this is why. It’s this feeling right here.”

The win garnered national attention to Lady Raiders basketball, thrusting Middle Tennessee into the AP Top-25 for the first time since the 2013-14 season. More importantly, it validates Insell’s belief.

This team really could make a deep postseason run.

What makes Middle Tennessee so good?

In an era defined by high majors ransacking low- and mid-major rosters via the transfer portal, Insell and his staff kept the roster intact, returning four starters from a 27-win club in 2021. Whitson and forward Kseniya Malashka, both All-C-USA picks last year, were back to provide size underneath.

Even still, it felt like something was missing.

Enter Savannah Wheeler.

In what was quietly one of the biggest coups of the offseason, MTSU found a way to pluck the multiple-time All-C-USA pick Wheeler away from Marshall. While Marshall was moving to the Sun Belt, the Kentucky native was staying put in a league she had long dominated.

Wheeler scored nearly 1,300 career points in three seasons, leading C-USA in scoring at 20.3 points per game in 2021. She finished the 2021 season top-100 nationally in field goals made, total points, free-throw attempts, free throws made, and free-throw percentage. Even better, she gave MTSU the true, dominant scorer they’ve not had since Anastasia Hayes in 2020.

The Marshall transfer has been the catalyst for the Raiders this year, leading MTSU in scoring (16.4 points per game) and assists (67). She’s hit double-figures scoring 18 times and scored a season-high 37 against WKU last week.

It’s their depth, though, that makes Middle Tennessee so tough to beat.

“We really have six starters,” Insell said in the preseason. “I wouldn’t have a problem putting any of those six on the floor at any time.”

The Lady Raiders have had a different leading scorer 18 times this season and have seven players averaging at least 5.5 points per game while playing at least 15.0 minutes per game.

Defense is Middle’s true calling card, though. The Lady Raiders enter the weekend as the country’s 24th-best scoring defense and 20th in field goal defense. According to Her Hoop Stats, they’ve allowed the 14th-fewest made field goals in the country this season.

“That’s just our defensive principles. One pass away, deny, two passes away, help,” Wheeler said after Saturday’s win over UAB.

Whether it’s suffocating you defensively or lighting up the scoreboard (they lead C-USA in scoring), Middle Tennessee has shown they can beat you in a variety of ways, which makes them a scary matchup for any team.

Wakeup call

Middle Tennessee, like every other team not named South Carolina, is not perfect. They have lost games. It happens.

However, not many people had an 0-2 Texas trip on their bingo cards for this team.

Except that’s exactly what happened.

The Lady Raiders entered El Paso last week as winners of 16-straight and ranked No. 21 in the AP Poll. When they boarded the bus to leave the Don Haskins Center, the win streak was over, and the ranking was likely gone come Monday afternoon.

“We didn’t make some shots when we needed to,” Insell said. “We’ve got … one day to get ready to play a good UTSA team.”

That single day proved to not be enough; UTSA took a page from their in-state rivals and upset Middle Tennessee thanks to an off-shooting night.

The Blue Raiders shot a season-low 22 percent from the field and the frustration from their head coach was evident.

“We didn’t deserve to win again. We had a 10-point lead in the third quarter and we started playing individual ball instead of team ball. We didn’t make good decisions.”

While it clearly wasn’t make-or-break time, it did feel like a seminal point of the season. Would the leadership Insell had lauded all season step up? Would their toughness shine through?

In short: yes.

The Lady Raiders responded in resounding fashion this week, scoring a season-high 94 points in their ‘100 Miles of Hate’ rivalry matchup with WKU.

MTSU fell behind by double-digits before using a 15-3 run to blow the game wide open. Wheeler exploded for a season-high 37 points and Jalynn Gregory, Anastasiia Boldyreva and Alexis Whittington combined for 45 points, with Whittington notching a double-double.

That performance was followed up with a defensive-minded showcase against UAB, turning 21 Blazer giveaways into 25 points and snuffing out UAB’s offense, allowing the Blazers to shoot just 22 percent.

As proud as he was of his team (something he expressed after the win), Insell wasn’t about to miss a chance to let everyone know what these wins meant, delivering a Hall of Fame quote to match his Hall of Fame resume.

“They thought they killed us in Texas, but they just woke us up.”

As conference tournament time approaches, Middle Tennessee isn’t going anywhere. They’re still in first place and still set on one goal: cut down the nets in Frisco next month. Again.

Do that, and Middle Tennessee will be back in the NCAA Tournament for the 11th time in the last 18 years.

Time really is a flat circle, huh?