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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYS (WOMEN)

October 28, 2010

Joe McKeown

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

JOE McKEOWN: Just really excited about our team this year. We have a lot of experience coming back I think for the first time in a while. I think we spent the last two years building a foundation of what we feel like it takes to win in the Big Ten and compete nationally. Hopefully if we can stay healthy, it'll be a really -- not just a good year but a fun year, because the last two years have been a lot of challenges for us trying to rebuild this program.
I just feel like we're on the right track. That's about it.

Q. I just have a question about Meshia Reed one of your seniors. She's been a spot player the past couple years. Do you see her role increasing at all or any change during her senior year?
JOE McKEOWN: Well, I hope so. I asked her last year to come off the bench and be the best sixth player in the Big Ten, and she kind of embraced that role and really helped us. I think as a senior you want to reward her for those type of things, but she's worked really hard in the off-season. I'm kind of looking forward to seeing how she comes out in November and December.

Q. Last year you lost Kristin Cartwright but you have a couple new freshmen and transfers. How have they integrated into the team?
JOE McKEOWN: I think we're still trying to get people to merge into the right traffic lanes right now, and I think for our freshmen it's been a big change. We do have a transfer, Tailor Jones, from the University of Florida, who sat out last year, and the same thing, they haven't played basketball in college or it's been a while. So I think at the end of the year by the time we get to March or late February, I think they're all going to have to help us for us to be good. Mylan Woods is a freshman from Ohio, is really gifted. But trying to pick up a whole new system, a whole new way of playing basketball. They just need to get some time.
But La'Terria Taylor is from Chicago, Von Steuben High School, got hurt the first day of practice, so she hasn't practiced yet, but I think we'll get her at some point. And then our other freshman Meghan McKeown has played pretty well so far for what we've asked her to do. So all those guys I think will help us down the road.

Q. When you took over this program, it wasn't a winning program. I believe one Big Ten win the season before you came. What has been the hardest part in making it to the Women's NIT this year and possibly an NCAA berth this year?
JOE McKEOWN: Well, I think when you take over a program that had such a poor history for about a 10, 12-year run, you just try to change the culture of -- you have to start with the players in the locker room, start with the people in the gym and kind of work your way up, and I think that's what we did, just really started within and just changed people's attitudes about how to work, the commitment that needs to be made to play in the Big Ten, from a recruiting standpoint to really put Northwestern out there as what it is, one of the top academic schools in the world and an opportunity to play.
And for us to be out there recruiting against the Stanfords and the Dukes and the people like that, they're the changes I felt like we had to make. I think some of these are short-term changes and some are long-term changes. But I think the thing that helped me more than anything else is having an Amy Jaeschke in your program when I got there, who's now to me one of the premier players in the country. It gave us somebody to build around and somebody to also just give our players some confidence that, hey, we have somebody we can compete as a teammate, too, if that makes sense.

Q. Can you talk about what Amy has done to improve and where her game is at right now?
JOE McKEOWN: I think the biggest thing she's done, she's taken on the challenges that myself, our coaching staff, has put on her, not to change who she is personally. She's a terrific kid, in the community. The kids love her on campus. She's done more or campus than probably 90 percent of the student body in doing things. She works hard in the community. She's a terrific young lady. I think where she has really helped herself as a player is learning how to compete every day, realizing how good she is. Coaches live in clichÃ© worlds, but one of the things, she's so unselfish that it becomes selfish, and what I mean by that, she wants to pass -- she wants to get everybody else involved, and at the end of the day, I told her, you're a role player, and your role is to be an All-American, your role is to score.
And sometimes -- so I think now she's starting to embrace, kind of like that again, where the ball goes through her, and she -- I think it's more those type of things. The other thing she did last year that was probably a little bit deceiving because she's challenged a little bit vertically, but she led the Big Ten in blocked shots in a league with tremendous post players and size. Some people playing last year are in the NCAA record books. I think she's really changed the way she plays defense because when we got here she didn't play defense. It was an upward spiral.
And then really just her work ethic now, even her -- her understanding of how good she can be. That's a long answer, but she's so -- she's a really gifted kid.

Q. As you go into your third season here at Northwestern, what are some of your realistic expectations going into the season, and as you keep the rebuilding process going forward, in recruitment and other things?
JOE McKEOWN: Well, I think last year was a big step for us just because they hadn't had a winning season since I think 1997 or '96. And we had big mile markers along the way. We beat DePaul for the first time, we beat Purdue for the first time since I think '94. When you hear those numbers, you realize we've got some work to do. But our players that are here now believe that they can play with anybody, and I think that's the important thing.
As we go forward, as tough as the league is, it's just convincing our players you've got to compete every night, and then from a recruiting standpoint to just let people know. In our sport, in women's basketball, there's a lot of great players out there that to me would fit the profile of a Northwestern. When you look at Stanford, back-to-back Final Fours, you look at what Duke is doing, you look at what a lot of institutions that are similar to us, and I think we should be in the mix with those schools recruiting. That's our goal.

End of FastScripts

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