BIG TEN BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYS

October 9, 2023

Robyn Fralick

Michigan State Spartans

Women's Head Coach

ROBYN FRALICK: Thank you so much for being here today.

I'm really grateful to be at Michigan State. I'm really grateful to be back home. It's where I was born and raised, and it's been a great start.

Some things that have stood out about our team and our program so far, I've been really impressed with our work ethic, and I've been really impressed with our pursuit of getting better.

I know we have a great challenge ahead of us with our season and with our conference, and I'm really honored to be part of this great conference.

I'm excited for the challenge and journey ahead.

Q. Thanks to Matt Ishbia, you were able to go to the desert, check out all the facilities, and of course a brand new practice facility is on the way for the Mercury. What did that session for you and your group mean over the summer as you build the Spartans?

ROBYN FRALICK: Well, I love that you bring that up. Matt Ishbia is an amazing Spartan national champion and great supporter of Michigan State. So our staff had the opportunity to head out there and spend some time with the staff and the team and get the full experience.

One of our biggest takeaways when we got back was how great the facilities we have at Michigan State, too. We left really feeling like, all right, this is what the pros have, and we offer, just state-of-the-art facilities and resources and have that connection.

To have a Michigan State grad own a WNBA team is something that we really value in our program and what we can offer.

Q. As one of two first-year coaches in this very deep conference, what do you anticipate being the biggest challenge for you, acclimating yourself to what might be the best conference in the country right now?

ROBYN FRALICK: Yeah, that's a great question. I that I that's part of the challenge ahead when you're new is figuring out the context, the level, tendencies, teams. When I took over at Bowling Green State University, it was the same sort of challenge when you get into a new league.

But we're excited for the challenge. Seven teams in the tournament last year, it's some of the highest level of basketball.

I just think that we're going to have a lot to learn, and we're going to operate out of the posture of knowing that, and giving our team the best possibilities to be successful.

Q. What has been the biggest challenge for you coming in and seeing all the new faces in the gym, kind of like a lump of clay? What have you been able to accomplish, and what is still yet to be accomplished with what you want to employ as your philosophy for the program?

ROBYN FRALICK: Well, it's interesting with transitions. They take a lot of time and energy.

For example, my family, I think we've all been together in the same space now for maybe six weeks, seven weeks, so even just moving a family. I have a ten year old and a seven-year old, and finding a place and the energy it takes with figuring out how to use the copier and your phone, there's all those sort of transitional pieces.

But we've kind of recently especially found our tread and our rhythm with us all being in the same spot.

With regard to the team, I'm not naïve to the fact when you come in as a new leader with a new team there's a lot of emotional continuum that goes with that, new, exciting, challenging, frustrating, as we all sort of do this together.

I think the biggest thing is we just name it. There's a challenge in this, and we're going to be in this together; let's figure out how to do that.

For us, culture is incredibly important, something that we have a high importance on every single day of who we are and what we're about and how we're going to act and how we're going to treat each other in our huddle and how we're going to work.

Day by day, step by step, if you stay consistent and intentional with those things, I think kids can really, really thrive with that consistency.

As a staff, that's something we've been putting a big premium on.