Destinee Rogers provides offseason updates for Arkansas State women’s basketball

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) - Arkansas State women’s basketball has made several spring headlines. I had a chance to chat with the leader of the pack Tuesday afternoon.

Bre Sutton (ULM), Cheyenne Forney (Denver), Emma Imevbore (Lamar), and Kendra Gillispie (Baylor) all signed with A-State women’s basketball over the last 2 months. Head coach Destinee Rogers likes what they’ll bring to the Red Wolves.

“We needed another dynamic point guard that can see the floor, that can get us in our stuff, and kinda run the show at that point guard position. And she brings that. She brings that level of experience that this level, and this conference. Both times we played her, she thumped our head for about 19 and 21. So just super excited to have her join our squad. Cheyenne is 6′3″, she can stretch the floor, she can shoot the 3. She can catch and go from the high post, as well as back to the post. We’re just real excited about the versatility that she brings. So we had a 6 footer leading our presses. We can now have a 6′3″ kid leading some of our presses. So super excited about the versatility of her. And then Emma is that 6′4″ rim protector. She can sit in the paint, block shots. You can lob it over the top, she can finish right and left. So she brings more of that back to the basket type post player that can really protect the rim for us defensively. Kendra, just a dynamic player that can really really score. So we’re super excited about her. And just excited about everything that she’s going to bring in terms of experience, she can score, she can defend. She can step out as well and stretch the floor. Obviously we signed a really good class. But this was kind of that ending splash, just a really big get for us.”

The first A-State signee of the season is a unique story in college hoops. West Virginia guard Wynter Rogers will be coached by her sister.

“We recruited her out of high school, so she’s actually been here on a unofficial visit,” Rogers said. “And she’s seen everything as well as come visit me sometimes when she was at home during the summer. But for her, as soon as she entered the portal, she called and was like, sis, I want to come home, I want to be close to family, I want to come back to Arkansas, and I really want to help you build something at Arkansas State. So it’s just really special to have her coming back here to help us build something. I can’t tell you how excited I am to coach her.”

The Red Wolves bring plenty of experience and momentum to offseason workouts.

“This spring’s workouts were just different,” Rogers added. “You could just see they’re hungry, they want more, they got to experience a little bit of success at the end of the season because we got hot. Won 7 of the last 11 games at the end. Every one of them at the end of year meetings said we want more. You know we can do this, we know that winning is what we can do here, and we want to stay here and we want to build on that.”

You can watch the entire interview above. I asked Rogers about non-conference scheduling and an update on the search for a new assistant coach.

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