Ready to return
Whitaker will finally take court for Mocs
Last basketball season was a difficult one for Arianne Whitaker.
Now a redshirt sophomore at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Whitaker sat out the 2016-17 schedule after transferring from Winthrop University. In her lone season at the Rock Hill, S.C., program, she averaged 7.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per game on the way to All-Big South Conference freshman team honors.
She came to UTC in May 2016 in hopes of being put in a situation in which she could improve, and her new program provided just that.
There was only one problem: By NCAA rules, she had to sit out a season, so she could only watch from a distance as the Mocs finished 21-11 and won their fifth consecutive Southern Conference championship before falling to Louisville in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
“It’s so difficult, because you watch everybody,” Whitaker said Wednesday. “You watch them out there playing, and all you can do is practice, all you can do is weightlift. When they’re gone, all you can do is work out by yourself. You’re not really with the team as much, you’re not experiencing everything the same way they do. It was different for me because I’m used to playing so much, I’m used to that energy from the game, and I just didn’t have that last year so I really had to pump myself up.
“It wasn’t the games that got me going, it was the thought of getting better, the thought of making my team better.”
UTC coach Jim Foster called Whitaker a “big, strong” player.
“She can rebound and she’s an opportunistic scorer,” he said. “She’s very good defensively.”
One benefit Whitaker received from being a practice player last season was the opportunity to focus on her offensive game. Going against three-time All-Southern Conference first team forward Jasmine Joyner — who finished her UTC career with 437 blocks, which was a program and SoCon record and eighth in NCAA history — helped sharpen Whitaker on that end of the court.
Now that Whitaker is expected to be one of UTC’s primary posts, that will help her in league competition.
“Last year helped me create countermoves and get more offensive, because before I was more defensive-minded,” said Whitaker, who was ranked the No. 17 forward in the country as a recruit coming out of high school. “Now I feel like I’m balancing it out more thanks to her (Joyner) and everybody else around last year.”
One of the big things Whitaker wants to do in her first season back on the game court is remind people she’s still a good player — and that despite the loss of six players from last season’s roster, the Mocs are still a good team.
“I’m ready to show people I can still play,” Whitaker said. “Taking a year off didn’t hinder me; it got me so much better. I’m so excited to have three more years to play basketball and get my education. I’ve got three years to do stuff right — three years to make a difference in academics and on the court and play the game I love.”