Joaquin Wallace, first year women’s basketball coach for SF State, is in charge of turning around a program that went 7-20 last year. So far they are 5-12 with 10 games remaining, but that is not good enough for him and his players.

At the start of the season Wallace dreamed that they would be one of the top teams in the regionals. Seventeen games later expectations have fallen back to earth.

“Realistically our goal is to exceed the win total of last years team,” Wallace said.

Farryn Lewis, the team’s leading scorer with 14 points a game, had lofty expectations as well, only to be disappointed by the team’s lack of a killer instinct.

“We expected to go to regionals or at least have a winning record,” Lewis said. “We had many opportunities, but we just didn’t know how to finish teams off.”

Though the season is not over to Lewis, it seems expectations and spirits have both gone down the tubes.

“We have fallen short,” Lewis said. “We started off really well but I think a lot of people have sort of given up. So I don’t know if we will be able to exceed any expectations.”

Wallace said at one point during the season Lewis said that they didn’t know how to win. The coach sees this as a losing mentality.

“It’s like a disease, there were games we were winning in the first half, and we look up and say we are not supposed to win this game,” Wallace said. “We don’t expect to win, that is the culture of the program.”

According to Leslie Miller, a senior guard, that mentality was exemplified by a single word, during a recent seven game losing streak.

“Depressing. It’s hard to keep giving the same speech after a game like ‘well let’s use it as motivation to win the next one.’ You never want to get used to losing,” Miller said. “Losing should be devastating every time, but unfortunately when you lose seven games in a row… as a team, that fifth, sixth, seventh doesn’t come as much of a shocker, which is a bad mentality.”

With an eye toward the future, Wallace said that turning the program around starts with him and how he recruits.

“I’m very excited about the class that is coming in,” Wallace said. “That is going to be the turning of the corner for us.”

As for the rest of the season Wallace is thinking smaller, as in baby steps.

“We need to minimize turnovers and try to win our individual match ups,” Wallace said.

Lewis agreed saying that one of their biggest weaknesses has been turnovers. The Gator’s give up a staggering 22 turnovers a game.

“If we didn’t turn the ball over so much we would of won so many more games,” Lewis said.

Wallace equates this with what he calls the team’s young basketball IQ.

“A lot of the games we were losing, it was fundamental things,” Wallace said.

According to Lewis it has been an emotional year full of many peaks and valleys.

“It’s up and down. We are proud that we are starting to play better as a team, but frustrated that we are not winning,” Lewis said.

Yet optimism flows, as Lewis wants to finish her senior season on a high note.

“One day it’s going to click for us and you will see us winning games that we should win and even some that some wouldn’t think we should.”

Though there have been many losses Miller is not ready to give up yet. She even sees this season as a stepping-stone for possible success in the future.

“(We have) definitely fallen short, but the season isn’t over yet,” Miller said. “We still have half of the league games to try to turn some things around. I’m pretty confident this year was a kind of learning year and will help push the team next year to get there with Coach Wallace.”