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LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 22, 2018Nikki FargasBaton Rouge, Louisiana THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Nikki Fargas. COACH FARGAS: Excited about the upcoming season. We've been working extremely hard. The offseason was very productive. You may have heard or read where we worked out with our police department, what we call fourth quarter Fridays for seven weeks in the summertime. And I really thought that was beneficial for our young ladies as well as the officers. But for us to be able to train in that environment really I think is going to help us continue to win ball games and especially those when they come down in the fourth quarter because we can kind of flashback to the summertime. We've been working on getting better offensively and defensively, and with the post game returning, the leadership of Ayana Mitchell and Faustine Aifuwa, they're going to be dominant players in the game for us. They're going to be players we lean heavily on and they're players who have produced throughout our practices. The guard play is strong. We are returning the starters of Jaelyn Richard-Harris. Shanice at one point started for us and as well as Khayla Pointer. So I'm looking forward to their veteran play, helping the young ones kind of come along and learn our system. This team is going to be again a team that is going to defend and rebound. We love the fact that we get in the passing lane, turn people over 20-plus times. So that's something that we consistently will harp on day in, day out. We are shooting more 3s in practice. We've got more 3-point shooters. So that helps. But I also like the fact that we're able to get to the lane and play some inside and play inside outside type basketball. Q. You talk about shooting. Are you seeing a big improvement there from the last season? COACH FARGAS: Yes, I am. I'm seeing a team that's taking on more responsibility of getting in the gym throughout the summer in preseason. We're putting up more shots from the 3-point line than we've had in a long time. I'm seeing the play of the young ladies I mentioned earlier just being very consistent but also an improvement from last season. So they know they're going to have to pick up that scoring slack. We're going to get a lot more from our post game having a post game that's a little bit more seasoned. A post game that held it down for us finishing in the top four in the SEC, nationally ranked. That group is going to be instrumental in overall success of our program. Q. You've talked about the importance of post play this year. Could you break down your point position and who will run the offense for you on the floor? COACH FARGAS: Right now we've got Khayla Pointer running the point as well as Jaelyn Richard-Harris. Those two did a nice job last year just controlling the offense. They did a nice job of also being threats from the perimeter. There are two top returning scoring guards. So we expect them and we expect that number to increase. But they're more comfortable. The longer you're in the system, the more comfortable you become. Their ability to run the team has been interesting because they haven't had a chance to run together and last year we had a chance, there was chances there where we played both of them together. So I like the fact that both of them are seasoned like I said and they understand what the demands are at running the point for our program. Q. How big of a difference does it make returning point guards and point guard production like that when looking at your team? COACH FARGAS: It's huge. Your point guard is like your quarterback to your team. So to have two of them returning from last year's team, they understand what I want from them. They understand the system. They understand time and possession. Their teammates are obviously looking at them to get them into the offense and distribute the basketball. But anytime that you got point guards that you're not having to replace, to me I'm not having to sit there and call a lot of play action because they're already going to know what's expected of them and what to run. Q. Your contract extension got tabled three times what was that period like for you being in limbo for lack of a better term for a while? COACH FARGAS: The communication obviously stayed open between Joe Alleva and myself and the administration and their belief in what we're doing here and what our young ladies have accomplished. It was still something that we need to get done and the board's ability to get that done for us in the college basketball world, the timing wasn't the greatest. But it definitely showed that the support of the board, the support of this administration, loving the fact that these young ladies are competing at a high level nationally for LSU, all my student-athletes have graduated with their degree. Some have gone on to get their masters. They're great citizens. Where they are now is even an impressive resumé they've built from whether they're playing overseas, playing professionally in the WNBA or going into their respective careers. And I think the thing to say about contracts, it's just part of it. And I'm glad that I'm here. And I plan to be here for a long time. Q. You guys added Ashley Johnson to the staff over the offseason. What do you expect her contributions to be and her experience as a player here? Are the players reacting to that differently? COACH FARGAS: Whenever you can bring back one of your own, that's a great thing. Ashley is someone who is well-respected in not only the LSU program but also within women's basketball. And her experience you've got somebody who has physically, emotionally been in their shoes. And our student-athletes are able to talk to her, use her as a resource. She's our director of player development. She understands the lay of the land here, academically, what they need to do. And she's just somebody who brings a different passion to the game, and I'm glad that she's joined our staff. And she's going to be one of those great coaches in the near future. Q. In terms of this team's leadership, Ayana was expecting to have a little bit of help with Chloe this year. Obviously that's not how things have worked out. How has she handled kind of being that sole experience leader for this team and is there anyone else who has kind of stepped up to help her out in that regard? COACH FARGAS: Well, it's not easy running the point for any program. So to have Khayla Pointer and Jaelyn Richard-Harris returning that's huge for our program. We have Shanice Norton, who has been in our system for four years now as the lone senior. She understands what's expected of her as well. So those three in particular we're going to lean on their leadership and their experience. They've gotten the most minutes from last year's team coming into this season. The post play, you know, Ayana Mitchell is arguably one of the best post players in our league. We're going to expect a lot from her, not only from her scoring but her rebounding, her ability to just really be that emotional player for us. And when she's like that, the other players feed off of her. I like that. Faustina Aifuwa, definitely stepping into that responsibility as being a true post player inside for us. She and Yasmine establishing that dominance. And Raven Farley, she's come a long way. And I think she's going to be somebody that we're going to look to to run the 4 and the 5 as well. So they're going to do that by committee inside that post game. The addition of our newcomers has been huge. Mercedes is one of the most vocal kids that I've coached in a long time. She talks constantly. And to have her on the roster has been a bright spot. Obviously when you look at Ashley and what LaToya can do from the 3-point line, these are young ladies that are learning our system, but they're not first-years in the game. They come from the junior college world. So there's that experience that we've gained by adding those three to our roster. Q. You touched on Raven. Can you expound on her role and how you plan on getting her involved a little more this year? COACH FARGAS: You've got a McDonald's All-American who we're expecting to play big this year. She's got a nice stroke. She can spread the defense. We're looking to put her in some more of the pick-and-pop situations, letting her cut down in the trail spot and knock down some 3s for us. But she's also been scoring the ball in the paint for us. Raven is somebody that has a high basketball IQ. And the motion offense we're running this season is going to play well to her talent. Q. What did you think of Devin White's suspension -- I'm kidding. Everyone else has been asked. I'm joking. COACH FARGAS: I can't comment. Q. I'm not trying to get you a fine. I'm kidding. You have the height in the front court that probably you've sought for a long time. Maybe the guards are maybe a little undersized by what standards you'd like. Can you compensate with speed? Is it something that you can -- or depth? Is it something that you can try to make an advantage or less of a disadvantage? COACH FARGAS: Well, you know we run a matchup. So I like the speed of our team. I like the quickness that we present and we've always been a team that gets after you defensively. When you look at the size of our team, Jaelyn Richard-Harris is standing at 5'4" on a good day. But everybody else is -- you know around that 5'7'', 5'8". And when you add Rakell Spencer, who is now able to play, she gives us size on the perimeter. LaToya Ashman gives us size on the perimeter standing about 5'9". And Mercedes can run both the 3 and the 4 standing at six feet. That gives us size on that perimeter. As well Jalin Cherry, her athleticism is pretty impressive. And so through the size, the athletes, the mobility of our post game, we're going to be tough to guard, we're going to be really tough to guard this year. Q. Last year you only lost one game at home. What is it about the PMAC that you bring -- you always come out and bring the speed here. COACH FARGAS: Well, it's home. I mean, there's a sense of pride that you have when you put on the purple and gold and you're playing in front of your home crowd and your fans and you're able to put a product out there on the floor that they keep coming back and wanting to cheer for. We obviously want to take care of that home schedule. That's important. But it's also important that you win on the road. So we've got to be able to do both. And to only lose one game here in the PMAC, when we had three or four top 20 teams come in here, to be able to say that we not only competed with the best but we also beat the best, that's a testimony to the hard work that these young ladies have put forth. Q. How do you bring that intensity that you have at home bring that when you go away (indiscernible)? COACH FARGAS: I wish I knew that magic formula could work on the road as easily. But I think the thing is that we try to take our team on the road and put them in hostile environments. My team was really young. They're still young with one senior, with Shanice Norton. I remember we were playing at South Carolina last year and I asked the young ladies who's been in this arena. And two of my kids raised their hand. So that's how young we were last year, as far as being a road team. And I think the experience that they have gotten I know it's going to help them going into this year and being a much better road team. Q. You've talked a lot about your two bigs, how do you think they pair together on the floor? How do their games complement each other, Faustine and Ayana? COACH FARGAS: They're two of the best combos in the post game in our league. Those two together are a force to be reckoned with. They have the size. They have the athleticism and they have the quickness and the skills. And Faustine Aifuwa is on track to definitely have an outstanding year, the way that she came back, her training this summer, preseason, just expecting a lot of great things from her. And Mitchell is just getting better and better each year. So you're looking at two young ladies, one is a sophomore on the court and the other is just a junior on the court. And what they've been able to do and what they did last year with the size that was in our league, you know, we're glad to see some of that size lead, you've got Mercedes Russell who is gone, A'ja Wilson, who is gone. You've got a lot of size that's left. And those two really just did a nice job of trying to compete and combat them. And this year they're going to have an opportunity to really showcase what they're capable of doing. Q. We talked about the players that are returning. We talked about some of the players that left. You guys got a lot of pretty good junior college transfers. Do you expect any immediate big contributions from some of them? COACH FARGAS: Oh, definitely. They're going to be ready to dive in and be able to help us immediately. Again, when you have junior college players who have gone to play in championships in a junior college league and have done very well at their respective colleges, then to come to LSU, they're ready. They've got a chance to be on a bigger stage, but they understand that level of being competitive night in, night out, within our league and within our conference. I think the one thing about the three junior college kids is that everything that we've asked our returning players to do, they've gone through it and hadn't missed a beat. Hadn't missed one workout. Hadn't quit on one workout. They've just taken everything and really have tried to stay and really have excelled in all of those areas in preseason. The play action that we're running, they've picked up on it fairly well. So our pace is moving like we've kind of scripted. And I'm glad that they're understanding what we're trying to do offensively and defensively, because to learn a whole new defensive scheme is not easy as well as learning a whole new offensive package. Q. You have your exhibition match a little more than a week away, what are you looking for in preparation for the rest of the season? COACH FARGAS: You know, we're looking to, one, establish a dominant post presence. I think you can correlate that to football, you want to have that running game. We want to have paint points and we can do that a couple of ways by dribble drive and/or putting the ball inside to our bigs and allowing them to really showcase what they're capable of doing. The other part of that is making sure that we're knocking down the perimeter jump shot. Our transition game is part of our game plan. We always want to run on everything, make misses, turnovers, we're pushing back at other people. And then defensively just being that really hard-nosed defensive team that teams struggle to run their offense against. Our matchup can play like a man-to-man. It plays like a 1-3-1 at times. At times it plays like a 3-2. In the course of a possession we can switch and look like we're in a matchup and then go man on you. So I like the versatility that this group brings because now I can have versatile lineups in there. I can go with a bigger, stronger, faster lineup, or I can go small ball and go with Ayana Mitchell at the 5 with four true guards. So I'm able to play around a little bit with these combinations and that's what we're going to do these first couple of games to see what combination really work and go from there. But everybody's got to be ready. Everybody's getting reps. I'm grateful that we're healthy. And we've got a full roster ready to go. Q. As far as the 3-point shooting goes, is this something you say you want to shoot more, obviously shoot a better percentage. But is this something that you wanted to do? Just hasn't played to your strengths or is this something we need to do this now because of the composition of this team? COACH FARGAS: I think it's both. I mean, I don't want you going back in the old record books but I used to shoot the 3 myself now. I was tagged a 3-point specialist back in the day. No, but I think the 3 ball is something that you've got to work on and hunt for and be intentional with it. I also think it's the kids that you recruit, and we don't have Dekeriya here. We don't have Jenna Deemer. Those were young ladies, they specialized in that. I also see that the 3 ball is expanding more into your post game. So to see Ayana Mitchell stepping up and maybe getting one or two a game, Raven Farley is capable. Mercedes Brooks is somebody that also can shoot the 3, to have that in your game, I think, is going to be huge. There's no question about it. Raigyne Louis added the 3 ball to her game while she was here. But her mid-range jump shot was about as good as it gets. But this team I think is actually going to shoot more. They better make more. If you're going to put them up there we want them to go in. But we are looking for them to expand their game and be comfortable in knocking down that 3-point shot. We made four a game last season and only gave up five. There's teams that not necessarily has that stat ratio. They may make more. But they may just give up just as many. We want to be that team that flips that number, put them at four a game and us move our number up anywhere from six to seven. When you can have your post game adding into that number, I think that's going to be key for us as well as getting that 3-point -- getting the 3-pointer to five, six, seven a game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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