Joni Taylor 'excited' about trajectory of her program entering 2024-25

Texas A&M women's basketball officially begins its 2024-2025 season on Monday, Nov. 4, against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Reed Arena. On Tuesday, head coach Joni Taylor joined to preview her squad as her third campaign in Aggieland is set to get underway.

Key notes from Joni Taylor interview

• The first game of the season is less than a week away. I can't believe it's here. We're excited, ready to see our fans and ready to play some basketball.
   
• We were able to play some this year and go on a foreign tour. You can only do that once every four years. That gave us the chance to get in some really good practice this summer, play against two professional teams in Italy, get acquainted with ourselves from a basketball standpoint, and give us a little sneak peek of how the team will be this year.
   
• I'm excited for our fans and student-athletes who have worked hard. Everyone who has worked hard for our program and committed to raising the level for themselves and our program in terms of culture. While we have not reached exactly where we want to go, we are excited about the movement from last year and building the program to where we want it to be this year.
   
• There's great camaraderie among the new coaches who have been recently hired. We are fortunate to have such great head coaches. Buzz Williams is someone that I lean on all the time because of how great he is in so many areas. We are just fortunate to have a group of coaches who share information, believe in each other, and are willing participants in everyone's success and want everyone to do well.
   
• One thing that people missed was that Aicha Coulibaly was not only our leading scorer, but she also did it and changed positions. Just in our conversations with recruiting her, she expressed that she was concerned about playing at the post and just coming into a new program, learning the system, having new coaches and still doing that while changing positions and still being more efficient. It speaks volumes. It's who she is, her work ethic and her talent level. I'm just excited about all the areas she can impact the game.
   
• We had two players come from the transfer portal: Janae Kent and Amirah Abdur-Rahim. Kent is a tall guard who can rebound and post up with a great mid-range. Abdur-Rahim is from SMU and has been someone we've known for a very long time. She rebounds, runs and aligns with our culture.
   
• I don’t leave out Taliyah Parker. She has been injured, but it isn't season-ending. We're excited to get her back on the court. We have a game coming up against Corpus Christi. They're a really good team, and they made it to the tournament last year. We're excited to start, and it will be a good first test for us.