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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S MEDIA DAYOctober 16, 2014Matt BollantCHICAGO, ILLINOIS THE MODERATOR: We're joined by head coach Matt Bollant. Coach, an opening statement. COACH BOLLANT: Obviously very exciting time of year. October is one of my favorite times of the year where we get to practice and get better every day, get 20 hours a week to be in the gym and practice our craft and just be around our players. And we're undefeated. We're 0 and 0 going in and haven't lost a game yet. It's a fun time of year and really excited about the future of our program. I think in coming to Illinois we had a high level of athleticism. Certainly the first year with Karisma Penn and Adrienne GodBold, those two kids graduated. And we weren't quite as athletic and not as skilled as we needed to be to do well in the Big Ten. And I think we've addressed that in our recruiting and changed that. Kyley Simmons, who sat out last year, was starting point guard at Missouri, I think will be one of the best point guards in the Big Ten. One of the best shooters I've ever coached and a great leader. That's going to be huge to have your point guard on the floor be your leader, your best player, I think she's going to add a tremendous amount. Obviously rebounding was an issue last year. Adding Chatrice White to the mix will help change that. And an McDonald's All‑American. In that game, one of the announcers said she may be the best rebounder on the floor in the McDonald's All‑American game. And I think she's one of the best rebounding freshmen in the country. I know she sat at a game last year with the recruits and the recruits said, boy, they're not rebounding very well. And Chatrice said I promise you that's going to change next year. And with Chatrice on the floor, Jacqui Grant, now being 6'3" and 6'3" inside that will make a huge difference for us. Adding Brittany Carter was a great pickup for us. She will come in as a senior, has a great chance to be our starting 2, passes the ball, really skilled. Her and Kyley have come in, two new players, our two best shooters. We do a shooting drill each day. We did it yesterday in practice where they shoot 50 3s. And in the past, if we had somebody make around 30, we'd feel pretty good about that. Yesterday, Kyley was disappointed that she made 38 and Brittany made 37. And this is after we did an hour of defense where they're tired going into that. So Kyley has been making between 40 and 45 on a regular basis, and her and Brittany will add a great deal. Then we did a thing called Celtic Shooting, where they have to make two from five spots and rotate around, making 10 different spots, making two in a row. Last year if we got one of our 14, two of 14 to make it, we felt pretty good about that. Yesterday we had 10 kids doing it because we had a couple of injuries. Five of the 10 made it‑‑ 50percent of our kids made that 3‑point shooting drill, which is better than we've had, similar or better than we had at Green Bay. Excited about our skill development. I think our practices are extremely intense. I know the coaches that come and go watch other practices, most of them say we've never seen a practice like that. And our kids bust their butt and give a great deal. And I've got a great staff. We challenge and stretch the kids every day. And I know I felt like at Green Bay, when we were close to even talent‑wise, we won those games, and we beat those teams. When we are at that in the Big Ten we'll do extremely well, as we did the first year. And I think we've closed that margin and talent this year. And it will be exciting to see where we're at. But I know the future's bright. The recruiting has gone extremely well. We do have a McDonald's All‑American Chatrice White, and WBCA All‑American in Amarah Coleman. And I think we're the only Big Ten school to have two different kids on those teams. So pretty exciting being our second year. Q. I'll ask you about the recruiting aspect when Chatrice White says "yes." What are those moments like for a coach. And again for somebody who is in the process of trying to build something. COACH BOLLANT: Yeah, it's huge. Recruiting is certainly a passion of mine and our staff. And Coach Divilbiss and I made five trips over to see her play. Eight to nine hours to Shelby, watch a game, drive eight to nine hours back, get back at five in the morning, and we practiced at 7:30. We were at practice 7:30 in the morning. We did that five times during the year. We did that with a girl from the UP as well. And we took second on her. So it doesn't guarantee anything, but Chatrice said I want to play for a staff that makes me feel wanted and important. And I'd make 50 trips to go see that type of kid in a year if we could if it was legal. So it changes your program. I think if anything, I learn from last year was that, boy, recruiting is a huge piece of it. Because our practices last year were intense and our kids gave a lot but we weren't talented enough to win. So you've got to get players, it's about bringing in the right kids and bringing in talented players and Chatrice White is a program‑changer for our program. Q. I know you've added a lot of depth this year, but it's kind of come from different places between incoming freshmen and transfers and whatnot. How is the chemistry going in the first few weeks of practice? COACH BOLLANT: That's been great. That's the one thing we've really challenged our returners. I'll say they've had great attitudes. It's not easy. We talked a lot about the incoming freshmen and about the transfers and our returning players, they have some pride, too, and they want to be on the floor. And Ivory Crawford is a senior and really important to our program and Jacqui Grant was having a great freshman year, would probably be on the All‑Freshman team until she got mono in January. We have other seniors, Nia Oden, really embraces what college basketball is all about. If you watched Nia practice every day‑‑ two years ago we told Nia, I don't know that you're going to play. And last year she busted her butt, found a way to be on the court. And doing the same thing this year. And give her a lot of credit. Alexis Smith has been out with an injury, expect to get her back next week. And Taylor Tuck is a senior. We have kids in the program, they want to win and value the right things. We challenged them day one, put the team first and be unselfish. And that's what you need to be in this program. If you can't do that, then we're not going to let you stay. And they've done a great job embracing that and having a great attitude and doing whatever they could to help the program. And our chemistry, when I ask players and kind of take a random poll every few days or once a week and grab, how are we doing in the locker room, how are we doing chemistry‑wise, and every one of the players this fall said it's the best it's ever been. And excited about how they get along and how they act towards each other. Q. Looking at this great mix of chemistry and looking at the competition across the Big Ten, what would you say is your biggest area of strength with this particular team? COACH BOLLANT: Yeah, it's a little bit early on, honestly, to know that. Because we have so many new faces, Kennedy Cattenhead, the girl that tore her ACL, didn't play last year. Looks great in practice but until you get to games you really don't know. I think the one thing we're going to be a really skilled compared to what we were last year, but then you look across the Big Ten and what it returns and top to bottom it's as good as any league in the country. So I think it's a little early for us because we have so many new pieces. I will say the way we play, most coaches would say they play as hard as anybody in the country, and I think that's something that separates us, the effort that our kids play with, the level of intensity. I know the way we practice every day not many teams do that. I know the high school coaches that come watch us go to other programs, they usually say: Gosh, your practice is way more intense than anything we've seen. So hopefully that will show in the games as well. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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