Tatum Rembao has prepared herself for this season (Juszyk / WBR)
The big question hovering over the Creighton women’s basketball team in 2019-20 is how will they replace the offensive punch of four-time All-Big East performer Audrey Faber, but with sharpshooting wing Jaylyn Agnew back for her senior season in Omaha, the harder answer to find might actually be who does head coach Jim Flanery trust with the keys to the offense this season.
In 25 games last year, Jade Owens averaged 2.5 assists, finished second on the team in steals, and shot 45.0 percent from beyond the arc, but she was a senior and is no longer around to run the show.
During the offseason Tatum Rembao prepared herself to fight for that spot, and by all accounts from her coaches and teammates who have seen her up close throughout preseason camp, that hard work is paying off.
“I think she’s the most improved player on our team,” Flanery said. “She’s been terrific. She’s going to make us better because she’s had a qualitative improvement. She’s still gotta do it over 30 games, and that’s not always easy, but I think she’s going to be able to play through mistakes based on how much she’s going to get to play. I feel like her confidence should stay where it is now. She’s a way better player than she was.”
That confidence has been there in previous years, but never as consistently as it appears to be now. Rembao credits the people around her for instilling it.
“My coaches played a huge role in it,” the junior point guard said. “They’ve had confidence in me since I was a freshman, and I think with taking that step into being an upperclassmen you just naturally get more confidence, and you believe in yourself a little bit more. My teammates and my coaches have the utmost belief in me, which helps me believe in myself.”
Belief is just one component of the growth shown by the Loveland, Colorado native in the past month. Her scoring jumped at 5.5 points per game last season — up from the 2.8 she averaged as a freshman — but at times it looked like she was playing with her hair on fire out there. Her 75 career assists versus 69 turnovers is proof. That’s why she spent time working with assistant coach Chevelle Saunsoci on trying to lock down the ideal speed at which to play at that will allow her to showcase her skills while at the same time reducing some of the feast or famine tendencies.
“That’s been one of the biggest things in pretty much every offseason that I’ve had here,” Rembao said. “I’m trying to stay at a cool six and not a crazy ten. It’s kind of become my motto. Coach Chev drills that into me in every workout that we have together. If I stay at that cool six I give myself the opportunity to make the right decisions and not get too sped up.”
Rembao is helping promote a speedy backcourt (Juszyk / WBR)
It didn’t come right away, but Rembao can sense the difference in her pace of play and not only how it affects everything she does on the court, but what it provides for the players out there with her.
“A lot of repetitions went into it, but it did kind of just click one day,” she said. “Once you have that ability to see how much slower you are going and how much of a better decision you are able to make, it kind of sticks with you. If I stay at a cool six the entire time, then I’m able to get myself and my teammates better shots.”
The other phase of the game that the 5-foot-9 slasher is looking forward to making strides in is on defense. With Rembao and fellow junior Temi Carda spearheading one of the quickest backcourts Creighton has had in years, turning defense into offense has taken on more of an emphasis, especially as a means to circumvent the scoring void created by the loss of Faber.
“Defense is fun,” Rembao says. “And with the way that we want to play defense it’s going to make it even more fun. Getting deflections and getting hands on the ball gives us the opportunity to run, which is something I think our team has a great ability to do.”
On that end of the floor, Creighton will gladly accept more of that “crazy ten” if it’s still in there.
“She has that athleticism and she has more of a disruptive mindset than Temi or Jaylyn,” Flanery said. “They are solid, but they don’t necessarily play with as much of a recklessness as she does. And that’s good, because we’ve got Temi and Jaylyn who are really good on-ball defenders, but less inclined to kind of get out of that. I think Tatum is a good compliment to them that way.”
Rembao and the rest of her Creighton teammates will finally take the court against someone besides themselves when they face Concordia on Tuesday night. Tip-off between the Bluejays and the reigning NAIA national champions is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at D.J. Sokol Arena.