How managing 9 younger siblings prepared Mataya Gayle to run Penn’s offense

During Penn’s practices, women’s basketball coach Mike McLaughlin often tries to get freshman point guard Mataya Gayle to think of home.

Not a common coaching tactic, but Gayle doesn’t have a common home life. The Woodstock, Ga., native is the eldest of 10 children, and McLaughlin readily reminds Gayle of her siblings to motivate her.

“You’re used to fighting for everything,” he says. “You got nine siblings, right? You’ve got to battle.”

Gayle just smiles and laughs, but whatever McLaughlin is saying seems to be working.

In the season opener against Marist, she started at point guard (the youngest of 10 on the floor, for a change) and hasn’t given up the role. She’s the Quakers’ second-leading scorer (15.1 points per game) while chipping in 3.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.

“She’s a good athlete, gets up and down the floor really fast, excellent in the open court,” McLaughlin said. “And she’s shown she can score in all different ways. She can shoot the three, she can really pull up and shoot it all the way to the basket. Offensively, she’s skilled.”

As the eldest sibling, Gayle has responsibilities that included babysitting when her parents were out and household chores like dishes and laundry. Naturally, there was a lot of “extra stuff,” but, she said, “it wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t have probably normally done if I had two siblings.”

While some might balk at the idea of nine siblings, to Gayle, it’s all she’s ever known — and all she ever wants to know.

“I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” she said. “They’re the most important thing in the world to me. It’s such a blessing coming from such a big family that people might think it’s crazy or scary because they don’t understand it. But to me, it’s amazing.”

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Penn came into Gayle’s view fairly late. Around September of her senior year of high school, she was looking through her Twitter messages and saw an old one from a Penn coach. Gayle responded to it and later committed to the school on a visit with her father.

“It just felt right,” she said.

During her recruitment, McLaughlin explained his vision for Gayle, which she’s already brought to fruition.

“He didn’t promise anything about starting, but he said he wanted me to be our point guard,” Gayle said. “He made it clear that I had to be up to the task and want it and work for it. It was a main focus of mine in the preseason, and, as time went on, I felt like I sort of was working my way up to that.”

The 5-foot-7 Gayle entered Penn’s program at arguably the perfect time: The previous starting point guard had just graduated, and there wasn’t anyone else who had significant experience at the position.

But before she ascended to the starting role, Gayle had some troubles out of the gate, according to McLaughlin.

“She started off, at times, a little hesitant,” he said. “She was a little bit reluctant to take command, understandably. These kids have been here two, three four years, and she’s going to be the primary ballhandler right out of the gate. It’s not an easy task.”

Added Gayle: “It’s just kind of learning where I fit into [everything] and not coming across as pushy, because I still am younger and have a lot of respect for the older players, but at the same time, figuring out how to do my job as well.”

McLaughlin slotted another player into the starting lineup, but Gayle took such a strong leap during the final stretch of preseason that the move was reversed.

“When she got pushed back a little bit, she accelerated forward,” McLaughlin said. “The next time we were talking about who’s going to be our point guard, there was no doubt.”

Her scoring prowess has been a welcome addition for Penn (10-8, 2-3 Ivy League), particularly in how it adds another dimension to the lineup.

Gayle has attempted a team-leading 116 three-pointers, of which she’s hit 28.4%, a figure she’s looking to improve upon as she adjusts to the deeper college three-point line. No other Quaker has attempted 60 threes. In Penn’s blowout loss to Columbia on Saturday, Gayle was one of the few bright spots, knocking down 5 of 13 triples enroute to a team-high 21 points.

In 10 of her last 12 games, she scored at least 14 points and quickly is becoming one of Penn’s go-to options offensively.

And she’s doing all that in her freshman season.

“I do think the sky’s the limit for her,” McLaughlin said. “I think she’s going to continue to grow her game, and hopefully she does get to the point where she can be one of the top few point guards in our league.”