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PAC-12 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYOctober 20, 2016Lindsay GottliebCourtney RangeKristine AnigweSan Francisco, California COACH GOTTLIEB: Thank you. I love this new format. Feel like I'm hosting my own show with these two lovely student-athletes. We're very excited to be here. I think the PAC-12 does an incredible job with this day, just really happy that these two get to experience it. We're all very excited for this season. I think this team comes in with a unique perspective in that we didn't accomplish the things we wanted to accomplish last year, and yet they tasted what we're capable of. A lot of teams don't get that experience, and so I come back with a team that's hungrier than any that I've ever had probably, more competitive, very driven. And even though we're relatively young by national standards, we are far more experienced than we were last year with the same youthful energy, I think, that makes us exciting. Courtney has done an incredible job of leading us. I think when you become a senior, you start to have that perspective of what does the team and program need from me, and she brings that mentality. And obviously to have Kristine back for her sophomore year is something that we're all really excited to see what she can do and what the team can do this year. We're very excited to be here. Thank you. Q. Lindsay, can you identify the areas where you feel like you guys are either better or you need to be better in a really competitive conference? COACH GOTTLIEB: Definitely. I think the number one thing is that last year virtually everyone was doing something that was new to them, right, whether it was brand new freshmen coming in being asked to play 35 minutes and do a lot of things on the court, or even our returners were in a new role trying to be go-to players when they hadn't about before. And I think our biggest strength that the veteran kids are returning in areas that they're more comfortable with, and then they're going to be better at it. We have three freshmen that we definitely expect to make an impact. They're talented, but they also get to be freshmen because we have stability above them, so I think that's the biggest area we've improved. I think specifically, and I've said this before, I would say that Kristine is probably the most improved player on the team. She's a better offensive rebounder, in better shape, has better range on her shot, has matured. And then we're way better in the leadership area. I've spoken about that with Courtney already. We probably shoot the ball better than we have in a couple years, as well, which will probably make us harder to guard. Q. Lindsay, you've always had the ability to play players like what we see up there, not always in their positions where most people might think they belong because of the skill that you are able to recruit to your program and they can play away from the basket, they can play under the basket and be equally effective. How much flexibility will you have this year with your personnel and having them be as versatile as they've been in the past. COACH GOTTLIEB: A ton. I think Courtney sort of started that trend for us, right, this Cal player that plays multiple positions. I mean, she really can play the 2 through the 5. Probably one of our best three-point shooters but also can post-up. And we have several players like that. We've had some looks this year with Mikayla Cowling at the point guard spot and she's 6'2". I think people are more comfortable in their various roles. Kristine can play the 5 or we can move her to the 4 and bring in more even height with someone like Chen. Yeah, a lot of different lineup combinations. The key for me is making sure people are comfortable in what you're asking them to do. You don't want to be sort of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. I think they all bind to the idea that we want to play fast, we want to be aggressive, we want use our length, but there's no question modern basketball utilizes versatility, and we have some very versatile players. Q. What have you been able to see in terms of styles that you've been in this league long enough, and a lot of coaches have stuck in this league, what will you guys be able to do to your opponents with using that length and that speed? What kind of pressure are you looking to put on your opponents? COACH GOTTLIEB: Well, on the offensive end, I'll be disappointed if there's a front court that's better than ours in the country. That's what I expect of our group, and that's a number of people we can put there, right. I mean, Courtney can play the 4, she can play the 2, right. Kristine obviously, I don't know that there's a post better in the county. We can bring in other people. I mean, Nina Davidson finished last year on a tear and hasn't really let up. So we want to be a team that puts pressure on you in the paint, but also defensively the length. The length helps with our ability to press, and mix up defenses and switch ball screens or play various types of zones. We try to utilize it in everything we do, or when we play big wings, be able to post-up -- using the length in terms of matchup problems for other teams. Q. Lindsay, what are you expecting out of your freshmen this year? Are they going to be able to contribute right away? COACH GOTTLIEB: Definitely. I think particularly in the backcourt, Jaelyn Brown and Mi'Cole Cayton both bring sort of a nasty and competitive nature on defense, which almost -- we've been lacking sort of in some ways, like the kind of stuff that maybe a Brittany Boyd would bring where she can pick you up 94 feet. I feel like they bring that. I also feel like they bring the ability to get to the paint off the dribble, which is what we didn't do enough of last year, so we definitely expect them to strengthen our backcourt. And then C.J. West is our other freshman. She's a very solid post player, strength inside, very smart. Just kind of in the right place all the time. We definitely expect them to contribute. I think the difference is, like I said earlier, if they do three great things in a row and then one silly freshman thing, it doesn't sink practice. It's not -- we've got a veteran group that can just say, okay, next thing, where last year we really had freshmen and sophomores in spots where they didn't get to have a bad day, and that can be hard sometimes. But our freshmen are very, very talented and I think we'll be better simply because they have veterans in front of them to kind of show them the way. Q. Kristine, can you talk about your improvement over the off-season and also how you feel about the expectations that will be on you because of such a great freshman season that you had? KRISTINE ANIGWE: Well, I feel like our team is just so close now. Like we rely on each other so much, and we really kind of got that in the PAC-12. We started playing together -- I don't know what happened, it was just like -- kind of like magic, I guess, from March, but that's really what carried on to summer, and that's what's really carried on to now. Like we just have just a rhythm to us, like we're playing together, playing for each other, and I think that's really important. Myself improving, like I just feel like second year, year two, and I had a year under my belt, and it really helped, and it really helps you mature as a person and as a player. Q. Kristine, I know you guys don't really pay that much attention to coaches' polls or preseason blah, blah, blah, but you guys are picked sixth. Do you like the idea that maybe some people are overlooking you? KRISTINE ANIGWE: Honestly, like I don't really think it matters because even if we were picked No. 1, and it's whatever matters like in March and the end of the season, and that's what we're going off of. We played really, really good in March, and I feel like we're just going off of that, and we're going to try our best. And we're not really caring about the polls, we don't really care about preseason polls. We're just really looking forward to tournament time and to our season now and just playing for each other again. Q. What can you tell us about Cal women's basketball's Jaelyn Brown and what she can bring to the table? I know she's coming off some injuries. Will she be ready to go this year, or what have you seen from her? COACH GOTTLIEB: Yeah, so it's a popular name around Haas Pavilion, Jaelyn Brown. Even more funny, the guy Jalen is from Marietta, Georgia, and our Jaelyn is from Murrieta, California, and so the whole thing was quite odd. She's terrific. She's healthy. She's come back off of missing most of her senior year and hasn't missed a beat with us. She's incredibly explosive. I mean, there are some battles in our gym now, when Jaelyn goes up for one and Mikayla and Kristine all at once, you don't know who's going to get it, because they can all get up pretty high. She's incredibly talented. I think she's only starting to realize maybe everything she's capable of. As you get to college, you realize sort of how you put your athleticism together with what we're running together with your instincts. She's got very good instincts on the defensive end, reads things quite well, and I think she'll only get better as she gets into that rhythm more, but she's very, very talented. Like I said, she'll be a contributor for us, no question about it, just another athletic, versatile, good basketball player on the wing. Q. I think you made the conference take pause when you say raining freshmen, everything, Kristine Anigwe is better now than she was just a season ago, so to Kristine and Courtney, what did you do over the summer to improve your games? COURTNEY RANGE: Well, as a team we just -- like we've been saying, we've bought in to what we're trying to do, and we know that we need all 12 girls that we have now to do that. And so like Lindsay says, lock in, clock in, buy in, and we're just bringing it back. Individually I'm just trying to do everything possible that I can to give to this team in order to have a successful season this year, knowing that it is my last season. I want it to be as memorable as possible, so I want to go to bat for the girls, I want them to go to bat for me. And now we're just waiting until that tip-off starts. KRISTINE ANIGWE: Well, the same thing. I feel like -- I don't know, I don't feel like I'm the most improved player, honestly. Our whole team improved so much, like everyone improved so much from the end of the season to the beginning of summer. I feel like I extended my range and just -- I worked on my game a lot during the summer because I was so disappointed and I felt like I could have taken us further. And then I stopped thinking about what I could have done, and I just started thinking about I have so much people that trust me. I trust in so much more people now, and we're just like a team, and it's just so special to be a part of this team, and I'm just excited, and it's going to be so memorable. Coming into our first practice, like Courtney, she makes -- like last year, her shot from last year to this year is incredible. If she doesn't make the shot, she'll post-up, she'll do other things. She'll rebound. Nina Davidson, she improved so much. She's way like -- I think she's the most improved player, honestly. She's way -- COACH GOTTLIEB: Can I just jump in and say they have a very endearing way of saying it, but I think it's the culture change, too. I was getting texts from them when I was on the road recruiting about 10:00 p.m. shooting sessions in the gym, right. So that's where I do think Kristine has had a huge impact. Of any player I've coached, she probably loves the game more and just wants to be in the gym a lot, and that rubs off on other people. And I think Courtney's mentality has rubbed off on other people. Again, we didn't have a senior last year, and seniors all of a sudden get this perspective of it's not about me, I just want the season to be great. So I think that's rubbed off on the team a lot, and I think Kristine's physical work ethic is something sort of stories. She goes hard all the time, and I think that's contagious. And I think the mentality that they're talking about is something that probably started with Courtney and has really gone throughout the team now. Q. Lindsay, you're a Final Four coach and you have two teams in the conference coming off Final Fours. In your perspective, having gone through that, what are some of the things that you've learned that they're going to now experience having gone through that? COACH GOTTLIEB: That's a great question. Spoken like a Final Four coach. Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing I've learned since then is that you have to reinvent yourself every single year, right, that even if one player or two players leave and two players come in, the chemistry, the dynamic changes a little bit, and you have to be -- understand as a coach, the pulse of your team and what you need to tap into. And so for us, the year after the Final Four was a little bit of kind of managing what do you do next, right, how do you get back to where you want to be. With this group, they may say it doesn't matter, but I'll say six, probably one or two or 27 times this year, right, because I don't think we have a group that is comfortable with six, right. Like they say, it doesn't matter. Preseason stuff doesn't matter. But in terms of motivating them to get where we want to go, I know that that as a final number doesn't sit well with them. So you have to know your team and know what it takes to motivate them. Mike and Scott are both very, very smart and I think we'll figure out what their current team needs to do what they want to do, but I did experience coming off that experience that you've got to realize each team is different, and each team has to kind of redefine itself. And that's what I love about this group now is I think they're very, very conscious and cognizant of this is their team, and it's their group, and they get to kind of define what their season is like, and that doesn't happen just in March. You get the fun and the balloons dropping hopefully in March, but that has to happen in nighttime summer shooting sessions and the second day of practice and the fifth day of practice when you're a little sore and every day in between. Q. Obviously that's Cal history and you're part of that history. It's hard to get there, and you guys had a brief taste of that or of being successful in the tournament; how do you build that culture with those kids to do that consistently? COACH GOTTLIEB: Well, I think the good thing for me, from where I sit now, is I don't need to look at them and say, well, this is what we could do, or hey, this is what it might be like. I can point to those games and say, we've done this, but we also didn't do it consistently. I think this is a unique group, and I think they have a vision of both. They sort of know when we weren't good enough and what that felt like, and then they also tasted what it did feel like, and I think that was probably the best thing for us going into the summer. It's hard to go into summer feeling only disappointed. I think we felt like we didn't accomplish what we wanted overall, but they tasted the really good stuff. And I think positive is always a better motivator, right, love and that kind of stuff, better motivator than the bad stuff. So I think them tasting it makes it hungrier and more competitive. Q. You talked a little bit about the improvement of the two players here, but can you talk about three other key players on the team: Nina, Mo and A.T. I mean, they were very crucial in some games last year, as well. COACH GOTTLIEB: Definitely, yeah. Again, the strength of our team is that we have a lot more depth and we have a lot of really good players, so to talk about only two feels like we're missing some of the picture. I mean, if Asha Thomas isn't the most experienced sophomore point guard in the country, I don't know who is. She's a grown woman in a little person's body sometimes. She is unbelievable. She's a great teammate. She's steady. She put a ton of work in in the summer. I'm surprised when she misses a shot. And again, similar to Kristine, when you have a good freshman year, you're kind of winging it. You don't really know what you're doing, you're just trying to go out there and doing it, and now they both have an understanding of oh, okay, I'm good, and also I know what you want, Lindsay. So she's made a huge improvement. She's a leader. I can move her off the ball and play the 2 because she shoots it so well, which allows me to put my freshman, Mi'Cole or Mikayla at the point. Kristine mentioned Nina. When you see Nina, she looks she looks like a different person terrific. She's in terrific shape. She had a breakout several games, but I think that Arizona State game people were raving about her. I think she has a lot more confidence. She gives us a lot of versatility. And Mo is another classic kind of sophomore where all of a sudden you aren't just trying to keep your head above water, you know what you can do and you try to do it well. She's a terrific athlete, great offensive rebounder, really good defender. And that's not to mention Mikayla Cowling. If Courtney can play four positions, Mikayla can play five. I mean, those two are so versatile. And we're anchored with more maturity, and we're anchored with kids who have experience, and we just haven't had that in a couple years, again, like I said, which allows the freshmen to come in make plays without having to shoulder the entire burden. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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