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The idea of \u201cexcitement\u201d in preparation for the weekend also came to mind for senior forward and MIAA Player of the Year, Tatyana Legette, who found it difficult to define the importance of the team\u2019s success in securing the home-court advantage.
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\u201cReally, no words other than just that we\u2019re really excited about it. I think the girls have worked really hard for it and it\u2019s shown,\u201d Legette said. \u201cI\u2019ve never gotten to do anything as exciting as being the number one seed for [the] central region so we\u2019re just going to prove that we deserved it and come out swinging.\u201d And that\u2019s exactly what the team plans to do. As the first round of the tournament draws near, Hobson emphasized the importance of rest and recovery before returning to the normal practice routine. \u201cIt\u2019s mainly keeping your team refreshed and engaged mentally and enthusiastic,\u201d Hobson said. \u201cI just don\u2019t see that being an issue this week. If you can\u2019t get excited about what we\u2019re getting to experience, you\u2019re at the wrong place at the wrong time.\u201d Perhaps the greatest struggle for the team will be keeping this enthusiasm alive despite the fact that the tournament includes five teams from the MIAA Conference. \u201cYou get a team you\u2019ve played twice in the last three weeks [Pittsburg State]. So preparation for the first game is familiar,\u201d Hobson said. \u201cFortunately, we have someone in the second round that we haven\u2019t seen. I say fortunately but maybe not. Be careful what you wish for because they\u2019re both good.\u201d Legette underscored Hobson\u2019s belief in the skills of the MIAA teams and credits the proportion of teams in the tournament to the high level of play within the conference. \u201cI think it shows how tough the MIAA is. I personally think it\u2019s the toughest conference and I know that there\u2019s other people out there who think the same way,\u201d Legette said. \u201cI think that for us, it\u2019s an advantage because we know how to guard them and what\u2019s going to work offensively.\u201d Barbieri suggested that familiarity with the teams in the tournament could both help and hinder the Tigers on their path to success. \u201cIt kind of feels like the MIAA tournament again. Most of the teams we have played recently too,\u201d Barbieri said. \u201cThat kind of makes it a little tougher but it also means that we know their plays better. We\u2019re more fresh on those and we know their players and their tendencies, something that could also work in our favor.\u201d Junior guard, Kacey Kennett, weighed this benefit as well as the home-court advantage when considering the upcoming games. \u201cWe\u2019re stoked to have our fans here,\u201d Kennett said. \u201cWe know there\u2019s going to be a lot of people here and it\u2019s going to be loud and it\u2019s going to be a great environment to watch some good basketball.\u201d Hobson could attest to the impact of the Tiger fans upon the team as he recalled the 2015 season in which Fort Hays hosted the tournament regional for the first time. \u201cIt was really great last time. When they (the players) saw the number of people that were here and how loud it could get when it was full, they were impressed,\u201d Hobson said. \u201cThe other teams were impressed with the support we had from our community.\u201d The 6,500 seats in Gross Memorial Coliseum were, in fact, nearly packed during the final game of the 2015 tournament, which brought out a crowd of 5,200 fans. \u201cThere\u2019s no season tickets. There\u2019s no free tickets. There\u2019s no nothing,\u201d Hobson said. \u201cThese are paying customers and they filled it up.\u201d This weekend, Tiger fans prepare to see a confident No. 1 seed team take the court against Pittsburg State University. After clinching the MIAA Championship title and securing the position to host the regional tournament, the Tigers have much to celebrate. In doing so, the women achieved two of their goals for the season in what Hobson believed was a rare occurrence. \u201cIt\u2019s such an honor to get to do this two times in five years,\u201d Hobson said. \u201cThere\u2019s 42 teams in our region. It\u2019s really rare to get to host a regional and for us to get to share this with our fans twice, we really don\u2019t want to let them down and we really want to play well.\u201d Though Legette also recognized the significance of the Tigers\u2019 placement as the No. 1 seed, she recalled that the accomplishment has not altered the team\u2019s mentality as compared to the start of the tournament in 2018. The team entered the tournament last year as the No. 6 seed. However, according to Legette, they plan to play in the same manner, regardless of seed. \u201cDon\u2019t play afraid to make a mistake. Don\u2019t take anyone lightly. That\u2019s the biggest thing,\u201d Legette said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t think our mentality has changed. Obviously, we all know we\u2019re the No. 1 seed but we\u2019re not going to take anyone lightly.\u201d Legette attributed a good portion of this dedicated mindset to the team\u2019s desire to honor their coach and make their Tiger fans proud. \u201cThese girls deserve it. Coach deserves it,\u201d Legette said. \u201cHonestly, this community deserves it because they\u2019ve done so much for us and I\u2019m glad we get to do this for them.\u201d With this focus, the Tiger\u2019s Women\u2019s Basketball Team will take the court in the first game of the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament, Mar. 15, at 5:00 p.m. It\u2019s now up to the Tiger fans to pack Gross Memorial Coliseum as the team tips off against the Pittsburg State Gorillas for the second time in just weeks. It\u2019s time to show some support. It\u2019s time for some Tiger pride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BY MAKENNA ALLEN The bus shook with the cheers of the Fort Hays State Women\u2019s Basketball team as they traveled home from their game against… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":44389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7349,3395],"tags":[604,11634,106,12003,103,290,10804],"class_list":["post-44443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-womens-basketball-sports","tag-fhsu-athletics","tag-fhsu-wbb","tag-fort-hays-state-university","tag-makenna-allen","tag-tiger-media-network","tag-tmn","tag-wbb"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Celebrate2-2.jpg?fit=5240%2C3249&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44443"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44452,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44443\/revisions\/44452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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