Entering year two of the head coach Tony Bozella-era, the women’s basketball team is ready to show Seton Hall what they’re really made of. Leading the way, is Newark native, graduate student and point guard Ka-Deidre Simmons.
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Simmons or “DiDi” has been a key factor in the success for the women’s team. She enters her final season with the Pirates following an impressive 2013-14 campaign that saw her earn a spot in the 1,000 point club of Seton Hall, this, while breaking the Seton Hall single-season record for assists with 174 and to cap off the year, she was ranked fourth in the Big East in scoring with an average of 16.7 points per game and set a new Seton Hall single-season free-throw record with 195 made free throws.
The main goal Simmons has for her final season is to ensure that her team sticks together.
“I’m trying to keep my team together, and keep the trust level at a high level,” she said. “When you play basketball everyone wants to score but there’s only 40 minutes and one ball. A lot of people can score and trusting that there’s enough possessions for everyone is what I’m looking forward to.”
Simmons is also looking to make the backcourt even stronger this season with the addition of Daisha Simmons (no relation), a transfer and graduate student from the University of Alabama, and former teammate of Ka-Deidre Simmons. The two played on the same AAU team growing up, both have experience and are looking forward to taking charge of the backcourt for the Pirates.
“Playing with Daisha is great,” Ka-Deidre Simmons said. “When we played AAU together it was great. I’m looking forward to having someone in the backcourt who I can trust and who is a great guard, it’s different because I haven’t really had that in the past with someone at her level. The exhibition game we played together was great, the minutes she played she scored. It’s big and just great.”
Last season, the Pirates earned a spot in the WNIT, but Simmons has bigger aspirations for her team this season.
“It’s my last year, I just want to win. We want to play in March, we don’t want to play in the WNIT again. We played in it last year and we know we can make it there. The next step is the NCAA tournament a lot of teams dream to play in it and it’s our dream as well and we’re going to go after it.”
Simmons has put in her all for the Pirates, and if it were up to her, she would play college basketball for the rest of her life.
“Seton Hall basketball means fight—it means desire,” she said. “Always believe in this program, that’s what I’ve done. Everything also happens for a reason, whether it’s me playing my fifth year or coach Bozzella coming in. This is a big year and we’re going to see if all the work we’ve put in will pay off in the end.”
Olivia Mulvihill can be reached at Olivia.mulvihill@student.shu.edu or on twitter @MulvihillOlivia.
