With five freshmen on this year’s Marian women’s basketball team, coach Katie Gearlds has given her players a few team-bonding exercises.
One thing Gearlds does before each game is write down each players’ name on a notecard and then have each one pick a notecard. Each player then says what attributes they want the person whose name they drew to bring to the game that day or night.
Whatever her teammates have been asking Imani Guy to bring, she’s brought it in a big way. The senior from Columbus North has led the Knights to 10 consecutive wins and a No. 6 ranking in the national NAIA poll.
“I think we’ve all stepped up,” Guy said. “We have three senior starters, and the leadership of being on the court and bringing energy has been big.”
Guy leads the Knights with 14.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game in her second year in the program after transferring from University of Southern Indiana. She is shooting 54% from the field and 66% from the free-throw line.
“I feel like I’m getting there,” Guy said. “I feel like I’m progressing right now. I’m really happy about where my game is, so I’m feeling confident when I step on the court. I feel like I’m crashing for rebounds harder.”
At 6-foot-4, Guy has a size advantage against most of the post players she goes up against.
“Imani is physically gifted,” Gearlds said. “She has something that a lot of people don’t have, and that’s size and length. On top of that, Imani has a lot of basketball skills, and she’s grown into what we’ve needed her to be. Whether she’s touching the ball or not, she impacts the game in so many ways.
“With COVID, having an offseason wasn’t really allowed for us,” she added. “But now that we’re in the middle of the season, I think the maturity of who she is as a player, her growth has been exceptional this past year, just understanding that, ‘Hey, I want the ball, I want to score,’ but making a difference when she’s on the court.”
Marian won last year’s Crossroads League title to qualify for the NAIA Tournament. But that was canceled right at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My heart goes out to the seniors that didn’t get to finish the season because we had such big goals,” Guy said. “This year, I’ve just been trying to play every play my hardest because something like that could happen, and we wouldn’t get to finish. I’m just not taking things for granted.”
Those seniors that had their season prematurely ended last year included Guy’s former North teammate, Elle Williams.
Guy had perhaps her best game as a Knight on Sunday. She led Marian with a career-high 28 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks in an 81-62 win against Concordia (Michigan). On Monday, Guy led the Knights with 16 points, nine rebounds and two blocks in an 80-46 win at Huntington. She then led Marian with 17 points, eight rebounds and five blocks in Wednesday’s 105-68 win at Bethel.
“I think we’re really setting into our pace,” Guy said. “In our past few practices that we’ve had and our past few games, we’re finding our game a little bit more, and we’re getting better. We’ve gotten better in these past few weeks. It’s starting to get to my favorite time of the season when we start making our push.”
After starting 6-4, the Knights are 16-4 overall and 9-0 in the Crossroads League.
“We want to stay that way,” Guy said. “That’s been our biggest goal this season — being undefeated in conference play. You get everybody’s best game because everyone wants to beat the best when you’re No. 1.”
Because of the pandemic, Guy will have another year of eligibility remaining if she opts to use it. She plans to graduate in December with a degree in communications and concentration in public relations, with a business minor.
A potential professional career in Europe or elsewhere also looms.
“That’s always been a dream of mine, but finishing my degree is what I’ve always wanted to do,” Guy said. “Because of transferring from USI, I lost a bunch of credits, so I’ll have another semester after this year ends. My coach thinks that I have a really good shot of playing overseas, but my main focus right now is staying undefeated (in the Crossroads League) and winning a national championship.”
