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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYS (WOMEN)October 29, 2009Lisa StoneCHICAGO, ILLINOIS LISA STONE: We're very excited about the return of our entire team. Over 80 percent of our scoring is back, tremendous leadership, great off-season for us. We're very motivated to have hopefully what we're hoping to be our best year yet. Defensively we made great strides last year and we're building on that. Offensively we've changed a few things up and excited about the changes in terms of our offensive ability and looking forward to a great non-conference season in preparation for the Big Ten and postseason. Q. What's the learning curve been like for your players adjusting to this new offense? LISA STONE: They're excited because I think sometimes anytime there's something new, it's like new freshmen, they're all eager. When you walk them through and know that you can see the lights going on in their head because as an offense it's less pattern and more reads, and taking the chemistry off the floor onto the floor and learning how to work with each other has been rewarding for them. They're excited about it. They're excited about the ability to just play the game instead of playing the play, and that excites the players. They've caught on very quickly. There's days where it looks messy. But right now you're building up fundamental passing and catching, taking care of the basketball, and that's in any offense. But overall, our spacing and timing is pretty decent right now. We'll find out in some early games where we're at and how to build from it. But every single day there's something we grow and learn from it, we talk a lot about it. But it's an offense that's really fun to play, and the players have really grasped it well. Q. Talk about Teah Gant. I know she's one of two seniors, also Rae Lin coming back. Talk about what you expect out of her this year and some things she worked on in the off-season, leadership-wise, those types of things. LISA STONE: Teah Gant and Rae Lin really are two seniors. Rae Lin has been to this event with me the previous two years, and she and Teah, they've been one of the most successful classes in a long time in Badger history in terms of postseason play. They're hungry for the next step. So their leadership and their dedication and their work ethic -- when your veteran players are two of your hardest workers, that's a great step in the right direction. Teah Gant is a very quiet leader. She leads by example. Her classroom strength, her off-the-court, she's an engineering major, does very, very well, and she's quiet, but when she speaks in practice and she steps up to the plate, people listen. She's like E.F. Hutton, she steps right up and people listen when she speaks. It's been a great transition for Teah taking over a leadership role. Both she and Rae Lin will share time at the point guard, and that will allow us to be versatile with some of our new players on the perimeter, as well. Q. You talked about your new offense. I guess what led to the changes? And does your offense have a name? LISA STONE: It's four on one end. That's what it is. It's a four on one end motion offense. What brought about the changes, our personnel. This offense fits our personnel better. Really it's going to look a lot like the swing. The swing is four around one, as well, but we're trying to stretch it out a little bit more, a little more screen reads, a little more freedom to play, and hopefully get to the foul line more, more post touches, screens that lead to scores. But it's a four-around-one motion offense. That's the title. Q. Alyssa Karel made significant strides from her freshman to sophomore seasons. What are your expectations of her during her junior year? LISA STONE: Alyssa is a fun player to watch. To our little friend down in Monroe, she is a fan favorite. I think certainly because of who she is. Getting to no Alyssa Karel as a nursing major, a very strong, one of our very best nursing majors at the University of Wisconsin. She carries that intelligence on the floor. Offensively the freedom that now Alyssa has room to work, maybe a double gap for penetration fits Alyssa Karel very well. The other thing is Alyssa is not going to have to carry the entire scoring load herself, like she had to last year. She's going to have a lot of help because people have worked on their games. It's been quite evident early on that they've worked on their offensive skills in the off-season, and we'll get contributions from others besides Alyssa. But she's a fun player to watch, and her junior year is going to be an exciting one for her. Q. During your tenure, your teams have generally struggled during conference play, so what does this team need to do this season to get over that hump? LISA STONE: Well, we've talked about it. We talked about it to start the season off. For instance, just use last year as an example. We go 10-1 in non-conference and then conference play comes, and do we change into a different team? No, we're still the same people. A, it has a lot to do with the strength of our conference. B, when we reach that conference play, that's when we get even tougher. We've talked about that. We as a staff, myself as a head coach, to communicate with our players exactly where we're at and what we need to do, and then to weather the storms. It's not a perfect year. You're going to run into some adversity, you're going to run into some tough losses, hopefully not an injury but maybe, off-court distractions. Whatever it may be, and to overcome those things is key because the season is very long, and the Big Ten season is right during that tough time. We talk about it as a team every single day right now because our chemistry is at an all-time high. That's easy to say because everybody is happy, no playing time has been handed out, everybody is in a good mood. But going into the season I firmly believe in this basketball team, and I know that we can, again, communicate day-by-day roles, understanding roles and defining those roles so when we get to Big Ten play, people know exactly where they're at and what has to be done. Q. How competitive do you think your team will be this year in the conference? Are you more worried about or focused on beating the lower teams like Michigan and Indiana, or do you think that you will totally turn it around with the record? LISA STONE: Our focus is to compete to win every single game, whether it's non-conference or conference game. We were in every game defensively last year, and we're going to take that, and that's not going to soften us, we're going to hopefully make our defense even stronger this year because we have a veteran squad in terms of our defense. It's in our second year. Offensively it's our first year with the new offense. My hope is that we don't throw the ball away every five minutes. We've got to take care of the basketball and reward our defense. We're focused on every team in the Big Ten. I think a coach is making a big mistake if they don't prepare for every single game because this league is very, very talented this year. It's going to be fun to watch, and it's my hope to have one of the largest representations in the NCAA Tournament this year. End of FastScripts |
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