1. Being a new head coach with a new team, what were your expectations this season? Our expectations of our team are to play at a very high level of intensity each and every game; we want to compete every single night and be a contender for the WCC Championship at the end of the year. Our goal is to get to the NCAA Tournament once again.
2. How far do you think this group can go? Is a repeat appearance in the NCAA in the future?
Again, I want us to compete every night and hopefully give ourselves an opportunity, so that at then end of the year, we will be looked at by the NCAA Committee for the Tournament. I know that Santa Clara has never made it past the first game of the tournament since it expanded to a full bracket, so our goal is to get past that first round, but first and foremost, we want to contend for the WCC Championship and take it from there.
3. The league seems wide open this year. Who do you think is the favorite to win the WCC?
As of right now, Pepperdine is the defending champion. However, our conference is very competitive. I think teams have moved up in the conference and it is wide open to take the championship. We definitely hope we are one of those teams competing for it at the end of the season.
4. Being a Bay Area native, have you always wanted to coach here?
I have always followed Santa Clara University and its women??s basketball program. I grew up just 10 minutes away from the school and was recruited by SCU. I have followed their progress through the years and had a lot of respect for the program, so you can imagine I always thought this was a place I could see myself coaching and be very happy. And that is exactly what has happened. I feel very fortunate.
5. Since this is your first head coaching position, do you feel pressure to be successful right away?
No, I don??t feel pressure to be successful right away. I know in everything that I do, I always put my heart and soul into it, and I know that I will have the team prepared the best way that we can and we definitely will work our tails off to put ourselves in a position to have an opportunity to be successful.
6. What type of style of play do you prefer, up-tempo or half-court?
We definitely do prefer an up-tempo style. We feel like this year??s team has a good balance between our inside game and our outside game, so we??d like to take advantage of that and get as many transition points as we can. If not, we??re also very comfortable with the system that we have implemented as our half-court offense.
7. Losing a starting backcourt is always tough; how have you dealt with the graduation of the starting senior guards?
Losing two players such as Becki Ashbaugh and Caroline Gruening are definitely hard to replace. They both had wonderful careers here and were very successful. Our backcourt is very young this year, and our guards have been thrown into a position where they have to contribute immediately. I will say it is a tough situation to be put in, but Kayla Huss, Quinn Thomas, Whitney Sutak??all new players??have handled it very well. So these players are young and inexperienced, in the fact that they entered the season without a lot of minutes under their belts, but experience will come with time, which is what they??re getting during this non-conference season. They have stepped up their game and are handling everything very well.
8. What type of player do you try to recruit?
We try to recruit student-athletes that are a few things. We obviously need player that are going to sustain the academic requirements that Santa Clara has set. As far as on the basketball court, we are looking for players who are competitors, hard-nosed and talented, and are willing to go through a wall and do whatever it takes to win a ballgame. I want fighters out on the court.