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MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 28, 2015

Suzy Merchant

East Lansing, Michigan

An Interview With:

COACH SUZY MERCHANT

COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Good afternoon, everyone. Excited to start media day. I guess I'll say this, though. Before I do talk about our team and our program, I'd like to just sort of send my well wishes to Jerry Kill at Minnesota. I guess in many ways I wouldn't be here at this job, in this position if it wasn't for him. He helped in the hiring process when I was at sag nah valley. I was 25 years old, and he gave me a shot. So I look at my career and kind of where I've been, and you sort of appreciate those people that believed in you maybe even before you believed in yourself in some ways. But that was a pretty heart-wrenching press conference so watch. So Jerry, if you're out there, I just wanted to say I'm thinking about you and your family and God bless, get well.

So I'm excited about the season. I think we're definitely looking forward to having a healthy roster. I think it starts there, and that's exciting. We returned 80 percent of our offense, over 60 percent of our rebounding. That's exciting whenever you start any season that you have that much back. A lot of that obviously came from Tori Jankoska and Aerial Powers. They're two of the Top 5 scorers in the Big Ten, exciting players to watch, do a lot of different things on both sides of the ball for us and obviously our preseason all conference, which many of you.

Also looking forward to having healthy Jasmine Hines and Brandi Agee. Those are the kids that probably over the course of their career have been starters and contributors for a lot of years and were injured last year, obviously.

And then you add that to the fold of the 22nd ranked recruiting class in the country with some new faces, eight new faces, six freshmen and a couple of transfers, and it's been an exciting time in practice. I have to say, it's very competitive. We have tremendous point guard play. We are athletic. We're big. We're deep. We bring a lot of energy and enthusiasm. I mean it's a really exciting time.

I think our coaching staff really appreciates going to practice every day, not that we didn't last year, but I'm not sure you call walk-throughs practice, and now we're actually up and down and competing and have some depth and some exciting pieces, and it's just going to be fun to sort of put it together.

Our schedule is challenging. We play obviously a very strong -- in a very strong conference on top of our non-conference play with teams like Georgia and Baylor and Louisville, teams like that, which have had a lot of success in the postseason. So we're looking forward to those battles as well as just keeping in tradition with sort of what Mark Hollis appreciates about us as coaches and maybe giving back to those teams in the state as well, getting opportunity to play Western Michigan and Detroit and Oakland and people like that. So we have a nice mix of that as well.

But I think at the end of the day we're going to be prepared and battle tested for a very, very tough Big Ten conference. So with that, I'll open it up to questions. I'll be happy to answer any that you have.

Q. You mentioned the point guard. I assume you're referring to specifically Morgan?
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Well, I know we have depth at the point guard position, not just Morgan. Certainly there's Morgan Green, and as you know, Tori played some point guard for us last year, as well as we have a freshman point guard in Kalabrya Gondrezick.

Q. What makes Morgan so good?
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Well, she just had surgery on her nose yesterday and she's in the gym right now. That's what makes Morgan so good. She broke her nose in practice and was back the next day. I mean she's tough. She's quick, she's athletic. She can score. She can set people up. She's extremely competitive, mature.

To me, when I coach her in the month that I've had the opportunity to do so, I feel like I'm coaching a fifth-year senior. I mean she's that mature. There's some things she's gotta do better, like everybody, but for the most part her IQ is tremendously high. She's incredibly quick and athletic. She's competitive. She communicates. She can break people down and engage her defender, which sets people up. We were really missing that this last year, not having anybody that could kind of break people down besides the two people that you wanted a break down for in Aerial and Tori. So I think that's the one thing that she really brings to the table.

So it's nice to have her as well as Kalabrya and Tori, and we just have some depth there that we haven't had.

Q. You mentioned playing teams with tournament experience over the course of your non-conference schedule, and can you just explain maybe, there's a lot of big-name schools on the program. What is it going to be like having a team that's finally healthy getting that long period of time to gel against really good competition before you head into Big Ten play in the new year?
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: I think as a coach you always want to have that good balance certainly in the schedule. You want to be challenged and you certainly want to have opportunities to play different combinations and things like that. So for us, knowing what we had back certainly with Aerial and Tori, we felt like we can play with anybody in the country.

Last year as limited as we were, we fought pretty hard against Baylor. We were up 15 at halftime in the tournament last time we played them, and we just couldn't play for 40 minutes. So to me what's exciting about having opportunities to play some of those storied programs is that we actually have the depth this year to really be able to rest those kids that need to kind of be there down the stretch; and we can hang on. We can keep our lead. We can have those kids out there where they're not playing so exhausted.

And that's a tough thing to do, and they had to do that all year long. So to me it was exciting to put a schedule together where we're going to be challenged early right out of the gate.

Q. What would an ideal stat line for Aerial look like this year? I remember there were games last year it was almost a triple-double, but with turnovers, too, it was like 33, 11 and 9 or something.
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Leave it to you media guys to bring up the bad stuff; right? No, I'm just kidding.

What, she had 24 double-doubles last year, second in the country in double-doubles, 22 and 12 a game. Those are numbers that are pretty special, but the best part about Aerial is as good of a player as she is, and many of you in this room have watched her and watched her game develop and how she's matured and she can do a little bit of everything, right, which makes her a very tough matchup.

She's excited about the fact that we have more depth and more kids that can score this year so she doesn't have to be in situations where it's always just about her, Tori, trying to make something happen.

So what's an ideal stat line? I don't know. That's a good question. To me she's certainly going to take higher percentage shots. She's going to have more around her, so I think her ability to create one-on-one without double and triple teams is going to allow her to kind of showcase some more things that she can do and be more efficient.

So I look at her stat line, you know, and I think her percentage will go up, field goal percentage will go up, because she won't play as tired. I think those turnovers will go down because she won't play as tired.

But still, that kid's gotta score for us. She's definitely a big part of what we do. I see her being a double-double. Maybe not in the 20s, but certainly I think that kid's no question going to be a double-double for us night in and night out.

Q. I got a two-parter. First of all, can you just talk about your reaction when you walked into the gym the first day of practice and saw bodies? And then my second part of the question is maybe two young ladies that are unknown to a lot of people, the girl from Czech Republic and then Nathy Dambo.
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Well, first, I walked in there and I thought I was coaching Izzo's team, there were so many people in there. But honestly, we all had a smile on our face. They were in a huddle getting ready to leave our strength and conditioning coach who just warmed them up to come to us, and I was like, wow. There's a lot of them, but they're also pretty big. I mean our guards are 5-11, 6 foot and our bigs are 6-3, 6-4, 6-5 kind of thing. So not only do you look at a team that has a lot more on in terms of numbers, but athletically you're looking at some pretty talented and good-sized kids. So that was kind of fun. I had a smile on my face, no question about it.

You mentioned Hana, the kid from the Czech Republic. You know, she's interesting. She comes from a great bloodline. I mean her brother was, I think, the sixth overall draft pick in the NBA a couple of years back. Is that right? You know, just a talented guy, obviously. Her mom was a professional volleyball player. So she's got some really, really good bloodlines.

The thing about Hana is she's so skilled, as you would expect a foreign player to be. She can do things at 6-5 that I've had some guards on my team not be able to do. So now it's about for us, it's about getting her a little bit stronger, getting her a little bit more physical.

But the one thing that I'll tell you about her that I think is going to help is normally with foreign kids and new kids and freshmen in particular, regardless of where they're from, is the pace of the game. Right? It's so much faster at this level, and that's usually kind of shocking to kids, I think, catching up to the pace of the game.

But her speed, north and south speed, I mean she's one of the fastest kids on our team, and I'm excited for you guys to watch her play, because not only can she score; she's got those nice little hooks and finesse around the basket, but she can fake up, shoot 3s, handle it, pass it, she can get a rebound, bring it down the floor. And she has a little point forward in her, and her speed north and south is really good.

You asked me about Nathy. Nathy is actually an academic redshirt for us this year. She's from Martinique originally, spent a couple of years in Paris in high school and then a couple of years in LA. And when NCAA kind of looked at her transcripts, they came back and said she could come to school, she's on scholarship, but she can't practice with us. And right now, she has to get a 2.5 and pass 12 hours this first semester, and if she does, she'll be able to practice in the second semester.

So we believe she's on track and she is on track to achieve that. So honestly, we're really looking forward to December with her where she can join our team full on and we can work with her individually.

But you're not going to see her in a uniform necessarily this year. In the first semester she's not allowed to be on the bench or anything like that. She can do some things with our team, but any film sessions, practices, she can't watch any of that stuff as an academic redshirt, so hopefully this semester brings us good news and we can dive into her.

But I mean she's a talented kid. She can really pass the ball as a 5 man. She's 6-3. She's thick; she's powerful. She can work out with our strength and conditioning coach, and she has been, and you can look at her and see she's just getting stronger as well. So it'll be interesting to see.

But she'll be technically a redshirt for us this year. She won't play at all. Yeah, yeah. We'll just leave her and bring her back the next year, which isn't bad because Hines is a fifth-year senior, so obviously Hines plays that same position, too, so it'll be kind of a nice opportunity for her to get used to and watch somebody that has been there and played her position.

Q. Obviously very young. How important and special is it for you to have Jasmine and Akyah back just to kind of have some experience there in that spot?
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Yeah, I appreciate you bringing both of those guys up. Certainly Jasmine is -- you guys know, there's not a post player in our league that's as strong as she is. She can really score the ball with people hanging on her.

I'm excited about the new post rules, alleged post rules, if the officials will enforce, because I think she's be at the free throw line a lot if that continues.

Obviously there's a displacement piece, but you used to be able to put more points, like two or three points on a body at once, and you can't do that anymore. I know when they turn and face up, you gotta have your hands up. They become like a dribbler. So if you hand check them, it's an automatic foul. And with Hines she's really so good at burying people, if they put more than one point like a leg, an arm and shoulder on her, it should be a foul.

So I hope that continues, you know, to be the case. They assure me it is, so I look forward to her getting to the free throw line a lot.

And to answer your question about Akyah, I appreciate you bringing her up because I'm telling you that kid is going to be the glue to this team. She is exactly what we need, exactly what we needed. She does all those things that most people don't want to do. I mean she took a charge in Midnight Madness, for crying out loud; I mean who does that? You don't even play defense, let alone get yourself in a position to take a charge. But she's a great communicator, a tremendous leader, hustles, talks, in a stance. Her greatest gift is the defensive end and rebounding. She's tough. She sets the best screens in the country, honestly. She's going to get people open, and she just does all those things that most people don't really want to do, and really, it's about the team. It is really about the team being successful, and that's her No. 1 goal.

So getting her back, you know, personally I wish she would have never left. To me as a coach I was really excited about her, but we're just really happy to have her back and part of what we're doing. She's going to be a big part of what we're doing.

Q. Did you notice a change at all in Aerial's game when she -- with the experience of USA basketball?
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: I haven't seen her much. She's been nursing like a version of tendonitis in her achilles, so she hasn't even really practiced with us. But when I watched her with USA, certainly I think what I saw a lot of is that she played a little bit more of a natural position.

When she goes to the league, she'll be more of a 3 man, and we play her combination both 3, 4. She's a tough matchup at this league in the 4 obviously as a ^ face-up guy. And last year we weren't able to really move her around much. Her and Annalise her freshman year were really fun to have because we would just mess with people. I mean as soon as they put a guard on Annalise at 6-4, we'd put her on the block and vice versa with Aerial. So now it'll be fun to have that depth to be able to do some of that.

So for me to watch her play in USA, I saw her play more of that swing position, that guard position, which is her natural position. And she's really worked on her ball handling as she's been able to sit out. That's one of the areas that she really wanted to tighten up. I know Graham mentioned that with maybe some of the decision-making things.

Q. Not to harp on the injuries, but how did last year, going through that situation help grow this team and is there anything different that you do in practice to make sure that those injuries don't occur during net time?
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Well, I mean you really can't. I mean it's like, you gotta put the key in and drive your car and you could get in a car accident. I mean at the end of the day you still gotta get somewhere.

So I look at it where I don't think we do anything different than anybody in the country. We had some very bizarre circumstances, obviously, when it came to that.

What did it teach? I think it taught -- in particular I think it taught Tori and Aerial, the kids that obviously were keyed on the most, it really challenged them to be good leaders. You know, I think that there were times when they certainly were frustrated, you know, when you get triangled and two'd at this level or you're double teamed off every ball screen or everybody's scheme is to beat the two of you kind of thing. I think that they had to learn to really communicate in such a way that it didn't tear the team apart in frustrating times. I think they did a great job of bringing kids together and bringing our team together, even though everything was sort of geared towards them.

So I look forward to watching their leadership this year because I think it just -- it really was accelerated last year in a way that most kids don't have that opportunity, given our circumstances.

Q. Is Brandi back where she was before she got hurt? And has Lexi shown improvement in her game?
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Yeah, both those kids have had great summers. You know, Brandi, to me, is a big X factor for our team. You know, Brandi, she's had a tough run with a couple of ACLs, but she is by far one of the most athletic kids we have on our team. She's really worked hard in the off season on her jumper. I think she was somewhat inspired to watch Aerial's growth between her freshman and sophomore year. She sat there with an ACL just to kind of see how much time she put in the gym and how much it paid off.

So I think Brandi is from that same mold. She really is in the gym a lot. So I look at it from that perspective with her. Is she 100 percent? Her body is 100 percent. I think she's still kind of getting the rust off, to be honest.

You know, for her, it always has been and will continue to be early on about decision making. I think she really tries to create with the ball, which is good, but you gotta take the ball with you when you go, and sometimes she struggles a little bit right now because she just is a little bit rusty. She hasn't played a lot in the last year. And she's had two years where she's sat out to one year of playing.

So I'm really excited about her and her maturity and what she's done in the last season.

The biggest thing with Lexi is she had to get stronger and in better shape. That was part of it. Lexi is who she is, and we really value some of the things that she brings to the team, and I think it'll be nice this year to have some of the pieces around her so we can showcase some of the things she can do.

I think last year she had to do more than what we needed her to do at times, so it'll be exciting for her. But she's really had a good off season, too. That growth between a freshman and sophomore year, I think, is tremendous. I think once you get a taste of a Big Ten run and the grind and understand what it's like mentally and physically, you kind of figure out what you need to work on in the summer to make sure next year you're more prepared, and she's done that.

Q. Some people could argue that since you've been here you've been through pretty much every situation a coach could experience or endure. And obviously last year's was different. Can you talk a little bit about what perspective you took out of the adversity from last year and then maybe some things that you learned that you're going to apply this season?
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: I think the biggest thing you learn, first of all, you gotta understand your team and what you're dealing with.

You know, we -- you know, every coach wants to push, push, push; right? And at the end of the day, I mean, if our volleyball walk-on, Kelsey Kuipers, rolled her ankle, we would have been in trouble. So I kind of went with the NBA thing, and I heard Jeff and Gundy say this once: If you talk it, you can do it.

So we sort of took the NBA thing, and we just said if you talk it, you can do it. Our practices are going to be intense, but they're not going to be physical. Our walk-throughs, we're going to have to go three-quarter speed, but we're going to communicate it. We're going to talk every situation.

So for us we looked at it more from an NBA perspective, I think, including on game day. We would do a lot more at the hotel with a walk-through than we would putting our kids on the road in a gym in a shoot-around. It just didn't make sense for us to keep taking their legs from them. Right?

So we really did a lot more, tried to keep their neck down as physically healthy as we can and kind of use the neck-up mentality that the NBA uses a lot with walk-throughs and talking actions and things like that.

And the other thing I think you learn as a coach is never to be too high or too low. You're never as good as you think and you're never as bad as you think either; right?

So for me we started the Big Ten season, I think, ready to go. We're in the top 25 in the country, we're 8 and 3. We had played Baylor really well, beat Syracuse, beat Georgia Tech, played Notre Dame extremely well, up at half against those guys. We had some really good things going for us.

And then we come back on December 26, and three of our players get the flu. So I look at that, and it's like you're so frustrated with what's going on, but there's things that were outside our control. And I think the biggest thing as coaches was never to get too high or too low and try to make the journey and the experience the best it can be.

And if you watched our team play, I thought we got a lot better down the stretch. Our team was playing really, really well down the stretch, and you know, in the postseason and at the end of our regular season. So I was proud of that, and I think that says a lot about our kids and the fight that we had.

Q. Tori obviously had a little bit of experience going to the U. S. trials and over the summer as well, too. What kind of growth did you see her take away from that experience?
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Yeah. She's one of 53 or 54 kids that were invited across the country to have an opportunity to make either the PanAm or the World University Games. So it starts there. You gotta appreciate the fact that you're in that room with some of the best players in the country.

I think with Tori, what she learned a little bit about herself probably is to come back and get a little bit quicker on her feet. You know, I think some of the kids that she was going against athletically were a little bit more gifted that way, and so for her to be in the best physical condition she could be, I think, is a high priority for her. She had a great summer from that regard. I think she kind of came back certainly disappointed.

You know, that kid, I mean she doesn't always outwardly show her emotion as much as like Aerial does, for example, but that kid has the same kind of toughness and grind and competitive spirit. So it isn't surprising that she would take that experience and come back and say I'm going to be in better shape, better condition. I'm going to work on my ball handling. I'm going to play multiple positions. Even though she's a 2, I think that kid obviously can play some 1.

You look at a Lindsay Whelan, for example, who plays in the WNBA, I mean they're very similar in stature and some of the things she can do, and so to be multi-dimensional is another thing I think she took away.

I mean at first she was like, honestly, I don't have to be a point guard anymore. But I also think that she's also looking at it from a perspective of, you know, maybe that next level and it helped me be a better player for my team because I had to think the game a little bit differently, and if I can play multiple positions, it's going to help Michigan State and it's going to help my ability to go on and play, if that's what she chooses to do.

Q. Can you tell us a little bit about the conference, what you're looking forward to?
COACH SUZY MERCHANT: Well, yeah. I mean we've got -- I mean it's a very deep conference. I think the Big Ten, certainly with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers, has brought a little more of a national presence to our league.

You know, the team to beat is Maryland. I mean how can you not say that? I think Brenda has done a really good job out there. They were undefeated and then went on to win the Big Ten tournament and won two back-to-back Final Fours. So they're the team to beat.

I think Ohio State is a team that's certainly in a position with Kelsey Mitchell, one of the best players in the country, led the league last year in scoring as a freshman preseason, All Big Ten, along with her kind of sidekick, we have Aerial and Tori and they have Kelsey and Ameryst Austin, so you're looking at a double-headed monster when you play Ohio State, as well as they've had some injuries, too. I mean they had some transfers sitting out, and they had some injuries that I think are going to add a lot of depth and quickness and different things.

So those two teams. Northwestern had a very good year last year. You look at the league top to bottom, and it'll be interesting to kind of see where people end up. I think there's a lot of really good recruiting classes that have come in, so how those freshmen do and some of those other programs, Penn State, Purdues, Indiana, Illinois. There's been some transitions there and some new kids that have come into the league that I think will make a mark as well.

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