Middle Tennessee women’s basketball is set to start its Conference USA slate with a road trip to Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State.  

Middle Tennessee currently sits in 10th place in CUSA, but the Lady Raiders had the second toughest schedule through their non-conference slate according to Warren Nolen. MTSU lost two quad one games to Tennessee and Mississippi State and lost three quad three games.  

Compared to the University of Texas-El Paso, who sits atop the standings and had the 10th hardest schedule while only playing three games against quad one through three ranked teams.  

Those games against Tennessee, Mississippi State and Auburn are the games that will prepare a team to make a run in conference play and compete for a conference championship, head coach Rick Insell said.  

As MTSU gets set for the start of conference play on the road against a hot shooting KSU team, there are still plenty of questions to answer for the Lady Raiders. 

Perimeter defense 

Insell has harped on the perimeter defense since the first game against Tennessee State when Macie Phifer and fellow forward Blair Baugus both got into foul trouble. Phifer ultimately fouled out, and Baugus had four fouls at the final whistle.  

“I’ve said this for 50 years,” Insell said. “When you don’t play defense on the perimeter, you know who gets in foul trouble? Baugus…We were not playing defense on the perimeter.” 

After MTSU’s last non-conference home game against the Auburn Tigers, who shot 50% from beyond the arc, Insell was still looking for the answer to perimeter defense. To play good perimeter defense you must be gutsy and love the challenge because once you answer the challenge it’s all up from there, Insell said.  

“You have got to play defense [in]Division I and most of the players that they’re matching up against are players that have got experience that are little bigger, little stronger, maybe a little laterally quicker, maybe a little more vertical,” Insell said. “So, they’re challenged, it’s not like they’re walking out there and they’re guarding someone like themselves.” 

The Lady Raiders give up 40.5% of field goals to opponents but only 62 points a game. From beyond the arc opponents are shooting 28.5% against Middle Tennessee which is the fourth lowest percentage in the conference.  

3-point shooting  

MTSU’s offense struggled so far to score on multiple levels with the main production coming from Baugus and Phifer. Baugus is the only player averaging double digit points on the year while Phifer has the second most three pointers and shooting 38.2%.  

Shooting the three ball has greatly improved since playing for MTSU and ultimately is another way to help the team try and win games, Phifer said.  

The Lady Raiders continue to look for production from the rotation of guards though. Transfer senior Alayna Contreras and sophomore Savannah Davis who could step up for MTSU.  

Contreras, who spent the past two seasons at University of Missouri-Kansas City, was brought in to be a shooting threat for the Lady Raiders, Insell said.  

“We give her [Contreras] the green light to shoot the ball whenever she got the ball,” Insell said after MTSU’s game against Auburn. “She just won’t shoot it.” 

Against Auburn, Contreras scored 12 points with nine coming in the waning minutes of the game. The Minnesota native has attempted three shots from deep per game for a total of 38 attempts on the year with a success rate of 28.9%.  

This pace will have Contreras attempt 95 three pointers and knock down roughly 27 of them. Compare this to last season in Kansas City where in 33 games Contreras shot 64 of 195 behind the three-point line.  

From practice to the game  

The final message that has been told by coaches and players alike within the Lady Raiders program is that the final piece is missing from the puzzle.  

The coaching staff lays out the week of practice, and the team responds well, with some of the best practices coming late, and then we go into the game and come out with a loss, Insell said.  

“We practice harder than that, and we got to do a better bringing that from the practice floor out here to starting games,” Insell said. “We got to go through the whole game with it.” 

The missing piece of the puzzle seems to be getting started for Middle Tennessee. In the Lady Raiders 12 games so far in three of their five wins, they have scored double digit points in the first quarter.  

In the seven losses, five of them saw MTSU held to less than 10 points in the first quarter.  

The emphasis has been on getting the ball to the post early in the game, which forces double teams and opens opportunities for the shooters to knock down shots, Baugus said. 

Middle Tennessee travels to face off against Kennesaw State in Kennesaw, Georgia, on Jan. 2, 2026, while the conference home opener is Jan. 8, 2026, against UTEP.