Oct. 15, 2008

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - - It's less than a month until the women's basketball team opens the 2008-09 season against Northern Arizona, and the team and coaching staff is plenty busy in the days leading up to the open of practice.

"The NCAA keeps a pretty tight rein on us, so I haven't had an opportunity to spend a lot of time with our players, but we have talked about many of the goals for our program, and now we're also able to put in some of our fundamentals - our footwork, our philosophy, how we defend, how we run, those kinds of things," Head Coach Melissa McFerrin said. "So even though it's been two hours a week, it's been more than zero hours and gives us an opportunity to make some progress. But it's slow progress right now because every player in our program is a freshman in terms of terminology and philosophy. But the thing I've been very pleased about, they are very anxious to get in the gym and work at it."

On Thursday, McFerrin and seniors Paris Leonard and Ashley Thornton will participate in Conference USA Media Day at FedExForum. Fans can view the press conferences live at www.gotigersgo.com. McFerrin will speak in the first women's coaches group at approximately 12:45 p.m., while Leonard and Thornton will speak in the student-athletes group at approximately 1:30 p.m. Fans can view the live press conferences in the All-Access player on the Tigers' home page (www.gotigersgo.com).

The Tiger trio will then participate in the CBS College Sports Women's Media Slam event, which will be broadcast live from the Grand Lobby at FedExForum. The Memphis contingent will be the last trio to be interviewed as part of the women's festivities, at approximately 3:46 p.m.

Fans can view the live show on CBS College Sports from 2:00-4:00 p.m. (CT). CBS College Sports is channel 222 on digital cable in Memphis. It is also channel 152 on DishTV and channel 613 on DirecTV.

The women's team was picked to finish 11th in a pre-season coaches poll. The Tigers return three starters and eight letterwinners from last year's 10-20 squad, which finished in a tie for sixth in the league after being picked 12th in the pre-season coaches' poll.

The team will continue its preparation for the upcoming season on Friday, with their first official practice.

Fans who belong to the Fast Break Club can view a scrimmage and then have the annual Fast Break Club Dinner on Oct. 28th. For Fast Break Club membership, please download an application from the right hand column on www.gotigersgo.com on the women's basketball page.

Season tickets also remain on sale for the entire women's basketball schedule. Tickets are $75.00 for chairback seats for the entire 15-game regular season schedule, and $50.00 for general admission, bleacher seats. Senior citizen tickets are available for $40, while a family pack of five tickets, good for two adults and three children, costs just $100. Parking passes for the garage are $45 for the season.

Memphis will host one pre-season exhibition game on Nov. 7th, then will open the season against Northern Arizona, Nov. 14th, at 7 p.m. The Tigers will host seven of their first nine games of the season at home, including contests with Louisiana Tech (Nov. 18th), Ohio University (Nov. 24th), Wichita State (Nov. 28th) either Stephen F. Austin or Jacksonville State (Nov. 29th), Arkansas (Dec. 3rd) and South Alabama (Dec. 11th).

The games against Arkansas and South Alabama in December will be played at FedExForum, meaning the Tigers will play six games (including the exhibition game), in the Elma Roane Fieldhouse, before heading downtown for back-to-back games.