ShawneeDispatch.com

Freud might want to take a look at this year's Lady Jaguars.

Last season's Jaguars were a dysfunctional bunch. Tension, seniors Annie Krause and Sta ‘Nisha Garlington said, was prevalent. Smiles were few and far between during the 9-12 season.

First year coach Diana Krull has notice that the Lady Jaguars seem more like an experience team that works hard and is more in sync with one another.

This year's team features almost the same roster as last year. But a few things have changed. There are five seniors instead of just two like in 2005-2006. What was a young squad last year is suddenly experienced. And the biggest change is new coach Diana Krull.

"It's a new program," Garlington said. "Everyone is open about things, and we've just gone with the flow."

But a happy team has not necessarily resulted in success. The Jags are only one win better than they were a season ago during Christmas break -- 2-2 instead of 1-3. However, when visiting practice it doesn't take long to figure out this team is different and could potentially be dangerous after a three-week break between games.

"Once each one of these girls gets their role, we're going to have a phenomenal season," Krull said.

At practice, it seems like a team that has already had success. Teammates joke around, Krull spits out occasional one-liners. Things are more laid back, Garlington said.

"At practice, it just feels better," she said. "You're not pressured to do everything 100 percent all the time because she knows you can't do that for two hours straight."

Krause finished Garlington's thought, "Expectations are still high, but they're reachable expectations."

Krull's biggest expectation seems to be that her players work hard. They remind each other throughout practice as they shout "hard work" when they finish a drill and when they break the huddle.

"We work hard," Garlington said. "That's the thing. Since it's so laid-back, we work that much harder because we like having that freedom. We actually want to come to practice and we want to work hard."

The Jags also actually like seeing each other everyday. Garlington said last year's seniors didn't hang out off the court and were not that close, but this year's seniors are tight and the junior class is the same way.

"It's easier to work if you have a friendship outside of basketball; it's just easier to trust a person when you're on the court," Krause said.

That trust has enabled the Jaguars to come back from big deficits in its last two games. The Jaguars have found themselves trailing at halftime of each of their last three games, but instead of the tension building and fingers pointing, the Jags have put together comebacks in all three games.

Unfortunately, the Jags' play in the second eight minutes this season has made it so they are usually playing from behind.

"It's the second quarter," Garlington said. "We come out really good and in the second quarter we fall into a comfort zone where it's like, ‘Oh, we've still got a second half,'" Garlington said.

Unlike last year, a few bad quarters hasn't killed the psyche of the team and the Jags are ready to show that they're psychological makeup is going to result in success down the road.

"I don't think anyone is down," Garlington said. "I think since we've lost those two games, it's going to make us better. Just because we lost those two games doesn't mean anything, we still think we're good."

Mill Valley returns to action at 6 p.m. Friday against Lansing at home. Last season the Lions beat the Jags in all three meetings.