The highly-rated New Zealand franchise has a talent-laden line-up but is yet to deliver on its potential.
The Mystics have lost all four of their games and face another daunting match-up on Monday when they play the Southern Steel at Stadium Southland in Invercargill.
The venue has been a graveyard for visiting sides for the best part of a decade and the Mystics can ill afford another loss.
But Willering wants her players to shed their expectations, have fun and concentrate on the task at hand - getting their first win.
‘‘We really are focusing on one game. I know that might sound a bit corny,'' she said, ‘‘but we're not looking at the semis or any long-term goals. We're really just focusing on the now.
‘‘There is a lot of pressure from people out there but right now we've just got to stay really strong within the team itself.
‘‘We need to just bring that enjoyment factor back because with that your flair will come back and also you will just play the game for what it is - a game.''
The Mystics are far from out of the competition. They still have nine games to play and can still claw their way back into contention.
But bad starts have a way of compounding. Once a side loses confidence, it stops taking the sorts of risks which the good teams take and then reap the benefits. It is a point not lost on Willering.
‘‘I think that is starting to show in our game, where we are not wanting to pass it [the ball] to players until they are really free just in case. You can't play the game like that.
‘‘We just need to have faith in each other and ourselves and let the ball do the work.''
Focusing on the negatives is not productive so Willering has asked her players to examine their mistakes, learn from them and move on quickly.
‘‘Some of the press [criticism] is justified. We are 0-4 and we've got to accept that. It is just the way it is but I think it is really important that we don't dwell on it.
‘‘But we've got to be so careful that we don't put ourselves under so much pressure that it is going to take away from the game out on court.''
Willering acknowledged some of her players were not as fit as they could be, and the lack of match fitness had cost the Mystics dearly in their opening round loss to the Canterbury Tactix.
But it was unforced errors and poor timing which had contributed the most to the Mystics run of four consecutive losses she said.
Consequently, the word playoff has disappeared from the vocabulary.
‘‘We've got to forget about the steps leading to the top of the competition . . . We just need to nail our first win and really that has to be our total focus.
‘‘The rest of the season, at this stage, is irrelevant.''
