Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we've spent
Speaker 1: all morning clapping and singing. Asia Wilson's on top, top Top,
Speaker 1: can't take.
Speaker 2: Her spot, Spot Spot.
Speaker 1: It's Monday, May fifth, and on today's show you'll hear
Speaker 1: my conversation with friend of the show, Corey Close, head
Speaker 1: coach of UCLA women's basketball, from Thursday's espn W summit
Speaker 1: in NYC.
Speaker 2: We talk about trying.
Speaker 1: To feel pride in a great season despite a disappointing ending,
Speaker 1: the challenges of the transfer portal and watching players leave
Speaker 1: her program, the unique challenge that she's going to face
Speaker 1: coaching sisters Lauren and Sienna Betts, and coaching hearts not
Speaker 1: jump shots. Plus it's been a while since we got
Speaker 1: you up on the news. From world records to coaching changes,
Speaker 1: playoff berths to statues, a whole lot has happened in
Speaker 1: the last week, so we'll get to everything you need
Speaker 1: to know. Plus preseason WNBA action and an ad deserving
Speaker 1: of a Queen. It's all coming up right after this
Speaker 1: welcome back slices. Here's what you need to know today
Speaker 1: in WNBA news. The twenty twenty five preseason got underway
Speaker 1: over the weekend, and in exciting fashion, for the first
Speaker 1: time in the league's twenty nine seasons, every preseason contest
Speaker 1: will air on national television or stream online, which means
Speaker 1: no more watching on a fans cell phone live stream.
Speaker 1: This is progress, people, big time progress. Fans were treated
Speaker 1: to two of those national TV games on I on
Speaker 1: Friday night. First, the Dallas Wings fell to the new
Speaker 1: look Las Vegas Aces Squad one twelve seventy eight that
Speaker 1: game on Notre Dames home floor. Number one overall pick
Speaker 1: Page Becker's getting the start in that game, posting ten
Speaker 1: points and four rebounds for the Wings in.
Speaker 2: Her first w action.
Speaker 1: Fellow Dallas rookies JJ Quinnerley and Aiah James added sixteen
Speaker 1: and ten points, respectively. It was also a homecoming for
Speaker 1: Dallas guard Arigaygunbawale, longtime ACES star Jackie Young, and new
Speaker 1: Aces acquisition Jewel All Notre Dame Melums. Later that night,
Speaker 1: My Chicago Sky defeated the Brazilian national team eighty nine
Speaker 1: sixty two in a homecoming game for Angel Reese and
Speaker 1: for number eleven pick Hayley van Lith that took place
Speaker 1: at LSU's Pete Marovitch Assembly center Reese checked out with
Speaker 1: a fifteen point, ten rebound double double, while HVL notched
Speaker 1: seven points and five assists in her first WNBA action.
Speaker 1: Then on Saturday, it was the Indiana Fever and Washington
Speaker 1: Mystics putting on a show for viewers on NBATV and
Speaker 1: those in person at Gainbridge Field House. In the first
Speaker 1: overtime game of the preseason. Indy pulled out the seventy
Speaker 1: nine to seventy four win behind twenty one points and
Speaker 1: eight boards from new acquisition Sophie Cunningham. Both teams got
Speaker 1: strong contributions from their draft picks as well, most notably
Speaker 1: number three picks Sonya Citron posting fifteen points and four
Speaker 1: rebounds for DC. No Caitlin Clark in that game as
Speaker 1: she rested a leg injury, but she was in action
Speaker 1: on Sunday when the Fever took its turn against Brazil
Speaker 1: back at Carver Hawkeye Arena on the Iowa campus, whereas
Speaker 1: were lined up down the street to see Clark back
Speaker 1: on her college court, sink and trays, and she was
Speaker 1: in mid season mid court three form, already draining from
Speaker 1: deep and given the crowd a show. The Fever crews
Speaker 1: in that one one oh eight forty four. We'll get
Speaker 1: some more first looks at teams and players this week.
Speaker 1: And one thing I noticed about getting to watch all
Speaker 1: this WNBA preseason action for the first time, it's not
Speaker 1: just that it's exciting to watch sure things like Page
Speaker 1: Beckers get their first pro minutes. We're also getting to
Speaker 1: watch bubble players and draft picks that are bubble players
Speaker 1: get minutes. And with some popular college players already getting
Speaker 1: cut from teams and surely more cuts to come, I'm
Speaker 1: actually really glad that fans are being given the chance
Speaker 1: to see these games. Not only can you see them
Speaker 1: fighting for those spots and maybe start to understand why
Speaker 1: they don't make it, but also, while you hope it's
Speaker 1: not the case for some of these players, it could
Speaker 1: end up being their only WNBA action, so it's nice
Speaker 1: for fans to get to see it. Speaking of, with
Speaker 1: roster spots at a premium, cuts are inevitable, especially for
Speaker 1: rook keys, and sometimes.
Speaker 2: They happen before they even get in a game, which we.
Speaker 1: Saw on Saturday when the Golden State Valkyries waved number
Speaker 1: seventeen draft pick Chyenne Sellers before the Mariland grad got
Speaker 1: any run at all in a violet jersey, and unfortunately,
Speaker 1: we've already seen some heartbreaking injuries in this young season.
Speaker 2: Two.
Speaker 1: Former Kentucky guard and Mystics number six draft pick Georgia
Speaker 1: Amore sidelined indefinitely with an ACL injury suffered in practice
Speaker 1: last week. Also, Seattle Storm forward Katie Lou Samuelson is
Speaker 1: missing this season with her own ACL tair also sustained
Speaker 1: during practice. We're wishing both of them the best and
Speaker 1: we're sending out injury free vibes for the rest of
Speaker 1: the WNBA preseason. More hoops all of season two of
Speaker 1: ESPN's Full Court Press is now available on Disney Plus
Speaker 1: and ESPN Plus. This season follows Notre Dames Hanna Hidalgo,
Speaker 1: Lsusvlaje Johnson, and USC's Keiky Erie Fen, who's now with
Speaker 1: the Washington Mystics in the w By the way, speaking
Speaker 1: of Hannah Hidalgo, did y'all see that clip of her
Speaker 1: and former teammate who recently transferred, Olivia Miles. The two
Speaker 1: were in a very heated conversation at this weekend's WNBA
Speaker 1: game back at Notre Dame, and a security member eventually
Speaker 1: appeared to encourage them to take their conversation out of
Speaker 1: public view. Very interesting. We'll post the clip to our
Speaker 1: show notes if you want to check it out to
Speaker 1: NWSL news. Chicago Stars FC made a big change Wednesday,
Speaker 1: letting go of head coach Lorne Donaldson. Donaldson, the former
Speaker 1: Jamaica women's national team head coach, had been with the
Speaker 1: Stars since last season. He took over a team that
Speaker 1: finished dead last in twenty twenty three and led them
Speaker 1: to a ten fourteen and two regular season record last
Speaker 1: year with a playoff berth. This season, though, Chicago holds
Speaker 1: a one to five to zero record, currently in fourteenth
Speaker 1: place in the league. Now, they've been without star Mouse
Speaker 1: Wantson all season, and they started the year with just
Speaker 1: five defenders on the roster, so many are wondering if
Speaker 1: Donaldson was in any position to succeed either way. He's gone,
Speaker 1: and the club's first assistant coach, Masaki Hemi, will step
Speaker 1: in as interim head coach while the search for a
Speaker 1: new leader takes place. This is the team's third coaching
Speaker 1: search in four seasons. In on field action, both of
Speaker 1: the NWSL's top teams, number one Kansas City Current and
Speaker 1: number two Orlando Pride, dropped their games over the weekend.
Speaker 1: On Friday, it was Seattle rain FC stymying the current
Speaker 1: winning one nail up in the Pacific Northwest behind Lynd
Speaker 1: Biandolo's first goal for her new club, and then on Saturday,
Speaker 1: the Portland Thorns put one in the side of the Pride,
Speaker 1: also earning a one nail victory. Raynarees strike in the
Speaker 1: sixteenth minute gave Portland the edge more NWSL. The league
Speaker 1: confirmed to ESPN in a statement on Friday that it's
Speaker 1: formally applied to the US Soccer Federation to launch a
Speaker 1: Division two women soccer league, with plans to kick off
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. Now Persebia Sports. Eight of the
Speaker 1: fourteen NWSL teams have already committed to the D two league,
Speaker 1: and each club would be required to have a second
Speaker 1: tier team within the first four years. The idea behind
Speaker 1: this second division is to offer a player development pipeline
Speaker 1: under the NWSL, selling that fans and players and execs
Speaker 1: have been hungry for in recent years. Commissioner Jessica Berman
Speaker 1: telling ESPN quote, it's not as if the players aren't there.
Speaker 2: They're there.
Speaker 1: They need to be identified, they need to be in
Speaker 1: the right technical environment. They need to be invested in
Speaker 1: and developed in an age appropriate way that allows for
Speaker 1: them to ultimately graduate into what we need for our
Speaker 1: teams as we continue to scale, and what the US
Speaker 1: national team needs as well.
Speaker 2: End quote. So more footy news.
Speaker 1: We got a shout out nwslstar Midge Purse of Gotham FC.
Speaker 1: She isn't just talented on the pitch, she got acting
Speaker 1: chops too. Purse made her Broadway debut on Thursday, delivering
Speaker 1: the opening monologue for the critically acclaimed musical Chicago.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: This isn't the first time Purse has flexed her creative
Speaker 1: muscles outside of competition. You remember, of course, she also
Speaker 1: created NWSL reality series The Off Season, which debuted last
Speaker 1: year to PWHL News. With playoff spots on the line,
Speaker 1: it all came down to Saturday's regular season finales. Marie
Speaker 1: Philip Puland scored twice to lead the Montreal Victoire to
Speaker 1: a three two winner for the New York Sirens that
Speaker 1: secured them the top spot for the postseason. The Ottawa
Speaker 1: Charge or to playoff birth with a two to one
Speaker 1: overtime winner for the Toronto Scepters, who had already clinched
Speaker 1: their spot in the playoffs in the Minnesota Frost grabbed
Speaker 1: the final spot with an eight to one win over
Speaker 1: the Boston Fleet. Now, the first four games of the
Speaker 1: playoffs run Wednesday to Sunday, with the Montreal Victoire on
Speaker 1: Toronto Scepterors hosting the first two games of best of
Speaker 1: five semi finals. In the PWHL, the top seeded team
Speaker 1: actually gets to select its semi final opponent, and on
Speaker 1: Sunday night, the Victoire elected to face the three seed
Speaker 1: Ottawa Charge, so it'll be Montreal versus Ottawa and Toronto
Speaker 1: versus Minnesota. Also little bit of bulletin material for Ottawa
Speaker 1: as Montreal chose to face them instead of the lower
Speaker 1: seeded Frost. Of course, the Frost last year's PWHL champions.
Speaker 1: This is the last PWHL playoffs stemming from a pool
Speaker 1: of six teams because the league announced a second expansion
Speaker 1: team on Wednesday, bringing next season's total to eight teams.
Speaker 1: Seattle named as the next city getting a franchise. Vancouver
Speaker 1: was announced as the first expansion team back on April twenty,
Speaker 1: third to the pool where Katie Ldeki broke her own
Speaker 1: world record en route to winning the eight hundred meter
Speaker 1: freestyle on Saturday night in a TYR Pro Swim Series
Speaker 1: meet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Ladeki now the owner of
Speaker 1: the ten fastest eight hundred times ever and twenty three
Speaker 1: of the top twenty five races at the distance. It
Speaker 1: was her first world record swim in seven years. At
Speaker 1: that same event, American Gretchen Walsh also twice lowered her
Speaker 1: own world record in the one hundred meter butterfly, winning
Speaker 1: that race Saturday night in Track News Grand Slam Track
Speaker 1: the Pro League created by Team USA, Olympic legend and
Speaker 1: four time gold medalist Michael Johnson, held its second Slam
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty five this past weekend, and friend of
Speaker 1: the show and Team USA gold medalist Massi Russell put
Speaker 1: together a historic performance in the women's one hundred meter
Speaker 1: hurdles on the first night of racing. She ran a
Speaker 1: win legal twelve seventeen to set a new American record.
Speaker 1: That winning time also the second fastest in world history.
Speaker 1: We see you, Massi, and we also see you Akira Nugent,
Speaker 1: who actually bested Massi for the short hurdles slam win.
Speaker 2: She combined a third place finish in.
Speaker 1: The hundred hurdles with a win in the one hundred
Speaker 1: meters All You Race. Officionado's Grand Slam track has two
Speaker 1: more slams on the schedule for this year to get
Speaker 1: excited for we'll link to the schedule in our show notes.
Speaker 1: And some more track news. Athlos NYC, the women's track
Speaker 1: event organized and back by Alexis Ohanian, is returning in October,
Speaker 1: and it's now boasting some field to a new event,
Speaker 1: the long jump. Tara Davis Woodhall, who took home gold
Speaker 1: in longtip at the Paris Olympics, is set to headline
Speaker 1: the list of competitors come fall. Athlos's twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: meet will take place on October tenth. In addition to
Speaker 1: the long jump, there will be races in the one hundred,
Speaker 1: two hundred, four hundred, eight hundred and fifteen hundred meter
Speaker 1: as well as one hundred meter hurdles. A track at field, folks,
Speaker 1: you're getting fed today. Go ahead and put that on
Speaker 1: your calendar too. In rugby news, a record breaking night
Speaker 1: on Friday as Canada defeated Alonamar in the US twenty
Speaker 1: six to fourteen in front of ten thousand, five hundred
Speaker 1: and eighteen fans in Kansas City. That's the biggest attendance
Speaker 1: for a women's rugby game ever in the US. The
Speaker 1: teams were facing off in the Pacific Four Series, which
Speaker 1: is a four team tournament also featuring Australia and New
Speaker 1: Zealand as they continue to prep for this summer's Rugby
Speaker 1: World Cup in England. Finally, last week, the city of
Speaker 1: Columbia honored South Carolina women's basketball coach Don Staley with
Speaker 1: a statue on Senate Street.
Speaker 2: Since being hired at SC in two thousand.
Speaker 1: And eight, Stay has led the game Cocks to three
Speaker 1: national championships, seven NCAA Final fours, nine SCC regular season championships,
Speaker 1: and nine SEC tournament titles. She's also helped thirteen Game
Speaker 1: Cocks earn twenty nine All America selections and has sent
Speaker 1: eighteen players to the WNBA Draft, eleven of them first
Speaker 1: round picks. Staley rejected the idea of getting a statue
Speaker 1: at first, but it was those future generations that changed
Speaker 1: her mind. She said, quote, I agreed to this statue
Speaker 1: not for me, but for the girl who walks by
Speaker 1: one day and wonders who I was. I hope she
Speaker 1: sees I was a champion for equity and equality. All right,
Speaker 1: slices before we hit a break, got a shout out
Speaker 1: a story about our good game side Minnesota Aurora FC,
Speaker 1: written by.
Speaker 2: Friend of the show Jenna Tanelli.
Speaker 1: It outlines the moves that the pre professional club has
Speaker 1: been making to lay the foundation for a jump to
Speaker 1: the pro ranks. We'll link to it in our show
Speaker 1: notes so you can give it a read. Also a reminder, y'all,
Speaker 1: the Aurora's two game preseason starts May eleventh, and the
Speaker 1: regular season kicks off with their home opener on May
Speaker 1: twenty second, so mark your calendars. I'm hoping to make
Speaker 1: it out there for the June twelfth game, so I'll
Speaker 1: give you more on a slices get together that maybe
Speaker 1: we could put together if I can swing it. I
Speaker 1: also want to shout out friends of the show, Ali
Speaker 1: Riley and Sid LaRue on the recent launch of their
Speaker 1: BFFR podcast. They've got undeniable energy and chemistry and that
Speaker 1: show has been so fun to watch on social so
Speaker 1: a podcast is going to be great. We love to
Speaker 1: see him thrive, and we'll link to a story about
Speaker 1: the pod launch and where you can subscribe in our
Speaker 1: show notes. All Right, we got to take a quick
Speaker 1: break when we come back coaching hearts with Corey close
Speaker 1: stick around. I'd like to bring up someone who did
Speaker 1: more this year, more than ever before in the history
Speaker 1: of her program, first ever trip to the Final four
Speaker 1: with her team. She's the head women's basketball coach for UCLA.
Speaker 1: She has been since twenty eleven. Last season, she led
Speaker 1: her squad to the program's first ever overall NCUBA Tournament
Speaker 1: number one seed and their first ever trip to the
Speaker 1: Final Four. Before UCLA, she had a couple stops as
Speaker 1: an assistant coach, including at Florida State and UC Santa Barbara,
Speaker 1: and back at UCLA as an assistant. As a player
Speaker 1: for UC Santa Barbara, she was team captain for two seasons,
Speaker 1: led them to the NCAA Tournament. In both seasons, she
Speaker 1: was mentored by the legendary John Wooden. She drops knowledge
Speaker 1: while driving in her car rides with Corey series. She's
Speaker 1: the AP Nate Smith and WBCA Coach of the Year.
Speaker 2: It's Corey glos.
Speaker 3: Coach that bio is getting longer and longer. I just
Speaker 3: need to hang out with you more often. It's way
Speaker 3: better than it actually is.
Speaker 1: Well that is, first of all, not true, and secondarily,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start cutting it so we have more time
Speaker 1: to talk. What a season for you, unbelievable. Now, of
Speaker 1: course you want to win it all. Every year, you
Speaker 1: want to win it all. Your team came up short
Speaker 1: in the final four against the eventual winners in Yukon.
Speaker 3: That's such a nice way of saying it. Thank you,
Speaker 3: kep short. Yeah, a little short, a little short, little short.
Speaker 1: How long before that disappointment subsided and the raining emotion
Speaker 1: could be joy about what you'd achieved?
Speaker 2: Or are we still working on it?
Speaker 4: I'm still waiting on it.
Speaker 3: There's this thing called the transfer portal, and you know,
Speaker 3: so literally the moment we touched down after the final four,
Speaker 3: it has been fourteen hours a day ever since then.
Speaker 4: But there will be a time.
Speaker 3: We did have one night where we had our celebration
Speaker 3: banquet that I was able to go, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: we did do that. But I'm not there yet, but
Speaker 3: I am sure going to get there.
Speaker 2: That's hard.
Speaker 4: It is hard.
Speaker 2: That stinks. Yeah, it had such a great season.
Speaker 3: It is just part of our new landscape and as
Speaker 3: a whole sport, and it's some things we need to
Speaker 3: address in that. But I'm not going to forget about it,
Speaker 3: but it is. You know, we're talking about growing women's
Speaker 3: sports and NIL and all the different things, and the
Speaker 3: reality of how that translates in my world is I
Speaker 3: got the ground running right now.
Speaker 1: I want to get to the transfer portal later, but
Speaker 1: I want to ask you an honest question. If not
Speaker 1: for the transfer portal, do you think you would have
Speaker 1: landed and been able to process what happened and be
Speaker 1: happy or is that just who you are that you're
Speaker 1: going to take a while to get over the disappointment.
Speaker 3: I think both, you know, honestly, you know, I think
Speaker 3: that I usually, you know, do a deep dive and
Speaker 3: sort of like what happened?
Speaker 4: What can I learn? And those kinds of things.
Speaker 3: But I do try to pause and count the victories
Speaker 3: good and I want to live in sort of a
Speaker 3: healthy tension of diving deep about how I can grow
Speaker 3: and what it taught me and celebrating the things that
Speaker 3: we did right and we want to continue to do right.
Speaker 1: Satisfaction in the moment is super important, even if you're ambitious.
Speaker 1: You've been at UCLA for fourteen seasons, the last ten
Speaker 1: of them postseason runs, last year's Sweet sixteen this year
Speaker 1: final four.
Speaker 2: You just keep building. So in your mind, what would.
Speaker 1: You say were the keys to getting the program where
Speaker 1: it is now, where you're among the best in the country.
Speaker 2: What was the intention there?
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's you know, coaching within your lane
Speaker 3: in terms of knowing who I am and I you know,
Speaker 3: you mentioned being mentored by John Wooden. One of the
Speaker 3: biggest gifts he gave me was that it was never
Speaker 3: about trying to do it like somebody else. He would
Speaker 3: always say, Hey, don't do it like me, do it
Speaker 3: like you're made to do it. And I think one
Speaker 3: of the keys for me is being really principal centered
Speaker 3: and value based and knowing exactly what kind of program
Speaker 3: was going to fit my leadership. And I think, you know,
Speaker 3: there's a big piece of consistency growth that surrounds knowing
Speaker 3: who you are and the way you want to lead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think you mentioned Woden. You had
Speaker 1: Tuesdays with wooden seventeen year mentorship. You're just an assistant. Yeah,
Speaker 1: starting out at UCLA, you're terrified to meet him, yep,
Speaker 1: and you end up having a seventeen relationship where you're
Speaker 1: now taking jobs far away and working to come back
Speaker 1: and make sure you keep that connection. What was the
Speaker 1: best or the biggest takeaway from those years with him?
Speaker 3: I'm always asked that, and it's like it's this rolodex
Speaker 3: that goes if anyone knows what a rolodex still is,
Speaker 3: and yeah, I'm not.
Speaker 1: But also important note, and you can be honest, is
Speaker 1: there any young person.
Speaker 2: Here doesn't know who John Wooden is? We will not
Speaker 2: be met.
Speaker 4: Most of my recruits don't until I educate them.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, Like just just a legend of coaching, not just.
Speaker 3: Basketball more national championships, ten national championships in.
Speaker 1: Twelve years US and caremid of success is in every office,
Speaker 1: in every basketball of Like it's just it's worth noting
Speaker 1: that that is what we're talking about here is someone
Speaker 1: who took you under his wing, verry late in his life.
Speaker 4: Very late in his life.
Speaker 3: And you know, I just got done going to the
Speaker 3: Wooden Awards and his whole family was there, his you know,
Speaker 3: his grandkids and really his great granddaughter Corey is the
Speaker 3: reason I got in the door that my name was
Speaker 3: spelled correctly like hers. But I think that you know
Speaker 3: the biggest thing for me learning under him was it
Speaker 3: was really never about the championships. That was a by
Speaker 3: product of coaching young men's hearts. For him, it was
Speaker 3: the men's basketball team. And he used to always say,
Speaker 3: you know, you're not coaching people's jump shots.
Speaker 4: You're coaching people's hearts.
Speaker 3: But if you coach their hearts really well, usually their
Speaker 3: jump shots end up pretty good too. Yeah, And it
Speaker 3: really was about He used to always say, I don't
Speaker 3: judge a season by whether we win the championship or not.
Speaker 3: I judge a season, all right, judge my coaching of
Speaker 3: young men, of who they are ten years down the road,
Speaker 3: twenty years down the road. And you know, he really
Speaker 3: taught me that the only two things that stay with
Speaker 3: you for the rest of your life from these four
Speaker 3: years as a student athlete is who you become and
Speaker 3: who you impact. And all the championships, all those other
Speaker 3: things are really a byproduct of doing those things.
Speaker 1: Well. I think the underestimation of culture is so massive,
Speaker 1: particularly now when there is so much movement, or when
Speaker 1: athletes you believe that they can kind of just coach themselves,
Speaker 1: or you know, I think I always find when I
Speaker 1: look at championship teams early in the season, there's already
Speaker 1: like a little bit of magic there that you see
Speaker 1: between them, and then when they win later, you're like, oh,
Speaker 1: we kind of saw this all along. And then there's
Speaker 1: really talented teams that should be winning more and they're
Speaker 1: just missing whatever that is. And to me, that's usually coaching,
Speaker 1: and that's bringing people together around things that are much
Speaker 1: bigger than just the x's and o's are.
Speaker 2: And that's such a huge part of your job.
Speaker 1: You've been coaching in some capacity for thirty years, which
Speaker 1: is crazy. You're now the winningest coach in Ucilly women's basketball.
Speaker 4: So while these hot flashes keep happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that way Chili Faudi calls that personal summer.
Speaker 3: Oh perfect, Yeah, I knew, I love Faudy. Okay, A
Speaker 3: nice way to put a spin on something exactly. To
Speaker 3: study with science so we understand this absolutely.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I want to hear how your job has changed since
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety three, because yes, it's been x's and oaths,
Speaker 1: but I'm thinking about what's happened since ninety You have
Speaker 1: cell phones that arrive in the locker room, you have
Speaker 1: nil deals, the transfer portal leaps and TV coverage popularity
Speaker 1: are known walking around campus. They're making millions of dollars.
Speaker 1: The professionalization of the game is so good. It also
Speaker 1: means player management, team building, Your interactions with the athletic
Speaker 1: department and everything else have changed.
Speaker 2: How do you sum up what that.
Speaker 1: Thirty years has been like in terms of growth and
Speaker 1: understanding what's different now?
Speaker 3: Well, I think, you know, you were used to be
Speaker 3: leading a team and now we're leading an organization. And
Speaker 3: I think, so, you know, the good news is that
Speaker 3: we're experiencing all that growth. The bad news is there's
Speaker 3: a lot of competing things that could have the potential
Speaker 3: to erode your values or the reason people have fallen
Speaker 3: in love.
Speaker 4: With women's sports.
Speaker 3: And so I think the balance of trying to lead
Speaker 3: into opportunity, lead into great business models to maximize and
Speaker 3: pivot for what the women's sports industry is demanding of
Speaker 3: me as a leaders who's in essence of CEO now
Speaker 3: and still coaching people's hearts and caring about culture and seeing, Okay,
Speaker 3: where do we need to go?
Speaker 4: So what are these changes of landscapes really mean?
Speaker 3: And how do we reverse engineer so that we're maximizing
Speaker 3: opportunities and pushing forward as well as really you know,
Speaker 3: staying with coaching people's hearts and knowing what you're made
Speaker 3: of as an organization, and there's no substitute for that.
Speaker 1: How do you get the players to buy carefully? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like if you're a kid and someone's dangling a bunch
Speaker 1: of money, and that's awesome, and that's great and we
Speaker 1: love that for them, but you have to help them
Speaker 1: see the bigger picture, the longer road, the future, and
Speaker 1: what it looks like if they keep the main thing,
Speaker 1: the main thing, which is.
Speaker 2: Ultimately putting the ball in the basket.
Speaker 1: Like, if you forget that, the money and the cool
Speaker 1: stuff goes away. Yeah, And how do you cause I
Speaker 1: hate to say it, but like, coaching people's hearts sounds
Speaker 1: corny if it's not followed by authenticity and everyday investment
Speaker 1: in people. So how do you get them to buy
Speaker 1: in that that's really what you're doing and you're not
Speaker 1: trying to use those platitudes to access some next level
Speaker 1: of basketball performance.
Speaker 4: Well, I think there's two things. One is we still
Speaker 4: are demanding.
Speaker 3: The standard is a standard, and there are still championship
Speaker 3: habits that need to be upheld. And that's in how
Speaker 3: we interact, that's in how we practice, that's in all
Speaker 3: the different areas of our organization. So you know, the
Speaker 3: standards don't change because people are pouring in money. It
Speaker 3: just takes more responsibility to much as given, much as required.
Speaker 3: But I think the other part of it is playing
Speaker 3: the scenario out for them and.
Speaker 4: Say, hey, is that enough?
Speaker 3: What if you do chase the money and what if
Speaker 3: you get all the money you want?
Speaker 2: Is that enough?
Speaker 4: And I really believe.
Speaker 3: That comparison is not only the thief of all joy,
Speaker 3: it also stunts your maximum growth. So I'm like, you know,
Speaker 3: is that what you want? I always say, if you
Speaker 3: want to do nothing, you can experience self centeredness and
Speaker 3: a titlement and because that's just what the culture will
Speaker 3: tell you. But if you want to have a healthy organization,
Speaker 3: you want to have great relationships with your teammates, if
Speaker 3: you want to be proud of who you've become at
Speaker 3: the end of that season or the end of your
Speaker 3: four years. Now you've got to Now you've got to
Speaker 3: be willing to put your phone away and not check
Speaker 3: social media of how they define you. But you have
Speaker 3: to be willing to have pure accountability of how those
Speaker 3: values are playing out. I just think, you know, I
Speaker 3: just say what do you want at the end of
Speaker 3: your road?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: And is that enough? And I know a lot of
Speaker 3: people who have won championships and have been really empty
Speaker 3: and lonely the next day because they didn't keep the
Speaker 3: main thing the main thing, and they didn't really do
Speaker 3: it the right way, that that was a byproduct and
Speaker 3: not the outcome being the most important thing.
Speaker 1: It's like so cheesy, but the process is really the point.
Speaker 1: It really not the end to point, because there are
Speaker 1: so many Olympic gold medalists that are like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: I thought when I finally want it would fix all
Speaker 1: my problems. You has fixed zero of my problems. That
Speaker 1: the problems were unrelated to my goal of winning. It
Speaker 1: was who I was, or who my relationships were and
Speaker 1: all those other things.
Speaker 4: Well, just real quickly.
Speaker 3: I always think about when Kobe Bryant was having his
Speaker 3: banner raised number retired in then Staples and he said,
Speaker 3: you know, this is not reward. The greatest reward of
Speaker 3: my career was the work and who I became as
Speaker 3: a result of the work. And I just always remember
Speaker 3: that that that is the real reward in all this.
Speaker 2: That's a good story to tell you your players.
Speaker 1: And I know another one you tell your players involved
Speaker 1: putting on your shoes and socks.
Speaker 4: It's really interesting because one of the mentorship.
Speaker 2: Relations and how hard it is to bend down as.
Speaker 4: You get older. Well that yeah, or really it's getting
Speaker 4: back up.
Speaker 2: Now they have a tool for that.
Speaker 1: I found, So if things really start to go awry
Speaker 1: for me, you can use a tool to put it on.
Speaker 4: Can you send me that? That would be great?
Speaker 3: Okay, well, but that is really an amazing story that
Speaker 3: I'd heard a hundred times. Coach wouldn't used to tell
Speaker 3: everybody that the number one thing he did on the
Speaker 3: first day of practice is teaches players how to put
Speaker 3: on their shoes and socks the exact same way and
Speaker 3: to do it the right way and as well. Of
Speaker 3: course he needed to do that. They had terrible shoes
Speaker 3: and they got blisters, right, But I really missed the point.
Speaker 3: And all these years later, when I became the head
Speaker 3: coach at UCLA, I would bring in his former players
Speaker 3: to do that for us, and one year it.
Speaker 4: Was rayfer Johnson.
Speaker 3: He passed away several years ago, but he Olympic gold medalist,
Speaker 3: you know, lit the torch in the eighty four Olympics.
Speaker 3: So on and so forth also played basketball UCLA, and
Speaker 3: he was teaching our players and he was just meticulously saying, well,
Speaker 3: then you do this, and then you do that in
Speaker 3: this gentle voice. And I was like, oh, isn't this cute.
Speaker 3: We're keeping the memory alive. But he really got me
Speaker 3: because at the end of it, he looked around our
Speaker 3: room and he said, you know, actually I was really
Speaker 3: insecure when I played basketball for Coach Winden. There was
Speaker 3: all these all Americans, and I just was a track
Speaker 3: guy that could run fast.
Speaker 4: And he said, but it didn't matter. We had guys from.
Speaker 3: Different religions, different backgrounds, different geography, different strengths. And he said,
Speaker 3: but we actually learned how to become a team because
Speaker 3: we all started by putting our shoes and socks on
Speaker 3: the same way. I thought, oh, it's not just about
Speaker 3: avoiding blisters.
Speaker 1: Yep, no, no, no, no, so simple, but very very profound.
Speaker 1: You mentioned the transfer portal London Jones, one of your
Speaker 1: players entered the transfer portal and has now headed of
Speaker 1: all places to your crosstown rival US. How do you
Speaker 1: imagine that matchup will be the first time you're on
Speaker 1: the court facing off against her.
Speaker 3: Well, a mix of emotions because I will always adore.
Speaker 4: And love London Jones.
Speaker 3: And you know, we had really honest conversations right when
Speaker 3: we got back about what do you want for this
Speaker 3: senior year? And then is there alignment of what I
Speaker 3: can promise you? And there I had this moment. I
Speaker 3: didn't know it was going to happen at our banquet,
Speaker 3: but I go through the top ten moments, and I
Speaker 3: had talked about just her career and there's there's no animosity,
Speaker 3: it's it's I just I deeply love her and she
Speaker 3: will always be a part of that building process that
Speaker 3: you eloquently described. And I bottom line is is that
Speaker 3: if I'm going to be true to my word about
Speaker 3: coaching people's hearts, I will root for her every game
Speaker 3: except for two.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know. And honestly I was talking about.
Speaker 3: Her and I just lost it at the banquet and
Speaker 3: I just looked at her and she got up out
Speaker 3: of her seat.
Speaker 4: From the back of the room and just came up
Speaker 4: and just held me.
Speaker 3: I can get ooked up right now thinking about it,
Speaker 3: because bottom line is, we've shared so much and so
Speaker 3: you know, the transfer portal will always be hard. It's
Speaker 3: not even though it's a lot more now. It has
Speaker 3: always been hard. It breaks my heart every time somebody
Speaker 3: chooses to go to somewhere else but what I wanted
Speaker 3: any other way, because that would mean I don't care,
Speaker 3: And so I really wish her and her family the best,
Speaker 3: and I think it was the right choice for her, honestly,
Speaker 3: and I think we couldn't provide for her this next
Speaker 3: year what she really wanted, and so then I need
Speaker 3: to say go.
Speaker 4: And I support you one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: I love that the Transfer Portal. Fifteen hundred and fifteen
Speaker 1: players entered the transfer Portal when the season ended. Just
Speaker 1: for those who don't know, you could stay with your
Speaker 1: team even if you enter. If your coach welcomes you back,
Speaker 1: you can go somewhere else, or your coach can say
Speaker 1: just heads up, if you enter the transfer Portal, your
Speaker 1: position here is no longer valuable to us or available
Speaker 1: to you, and good luck. And then if they don't
Speaker 1: find somewhere else, they go to a different division, take
Speaker 1: a year off.
Speaker 2: So it's a risk.
Speaker 1: And I never really got the idea that, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're gone, sometimes you can come back, but you
Speaker 1: have to have that relationship in that conversation before you
Speaker 1: try to enter. All four players from your freshman class
Speaker 1: entered the portal.
Speaker 4: Why, yeah, I think there are a lot of things.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Nol Fortner, who just retired from Georgia Tech and a
Speaker 3: great coach. She said to me during the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 3: She said, sometimes Corey, you can have too much talent.
Speaker 3: And I think that was a reality for us that
Speaker 3: we had thirteen I mean too many. There was only
Speaker 3: one other team in the country that had more McDonald's
Speaker 3: all Americans than we did, and I think there was
Speaker 3: just not enough minutes to go around, and we didn't
Speaker 3: have any seniors. We had the potential to have everybody
Speaker 3: coming back, and so those freshmen were like, there's no
Speaker 3: improvement chance for me. I'm not going to get more
Speaker 3: minutes than I'm getting right now, probably, And so I
Speaker 3: just I think I learned a lot as a leader
Speaker 3: that probably it's impossible to keep that many people happy
Speaker 3: this day and age, and so you know, they decided
Speaker 3: that there were going to be experiences that were going
Speaker 3: to be better for them moving on, and you know,
Speaker 3: I think that unfortunately, that is our new normal in
Speaker 3: terms of that if it doesn't happen pretty quickly, you
Speaker 3: know they're going to move on, but there were four
Speaker 3: great kids. They are four great kids, great families, and
Speaker 3: you know it just it didn't work out for their
Speaker 3: complete to complete their careers for four years.
Speaker 2: And you're going to root for them every game except
Speaker 2: for when you're.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well that is interesting because all of them except
Speaker 3: for one went to Big ten schools and the other
Speaker 3: one we're playing that team.
Speaker 4: Great, so see all of them.
Speaker 2: Here we go ice reunion.
Speaker 4: Yeah, hug it up.
Speaker 1: How do those moves really affect your planning though, because
Speaker 1: it almost becomes like a professional team where if you
Speaker 1: have everyone on essentially one year deals, if you're recruiting
Speaker 1: and thinking I'm not going to need that, I've got
Speaker 1: another three years of this player that has a similar
Speaker 1: skill set.
Speaker 2: You can't really do that anymore.
Speaker 3: No, you have to be very adaptable, and we're lucky
Speaker 3: to be in a place like Los Angeles that we've
Speaker 3: been able to actually leverage that to our own benefit.
Speaker 4: But I don't think everyone has that luxury.
Speaker 3: We've been lucky enough to have an nil budget that
Speaker 3: can attract people, as well as to have opportunities in
Speaker 3: LA that people want to come to on especially the
Speaker 3: second time around.
Speaker 4: So, but it's really hard.
Speaker 3: And I think the other danger that's really important for
Speaker 3: especially this room, is that one of the things that's
Speaker 3: been so great about women's sports is that fan bases
Speaker 3: can develop a connection over time. We don't have as
Speaker 3: many one and done's before the transfer portal like men
Speaker 3: have it in the transfer portal and in the NBA.
Speaker 4: We got to be.
Speaker 3: Careful that we really people love to support our teams
Speaker 3: because they love to be connected to the journey of
Speaker 3: our student athletes.
Speaker 4: And so I think it's a real challenge for me
Speaker 4: as a leader in.
Speaker 3: With all this mobility is how do we keep the
Speaker 3: connections with our fan base and how do we make
Speaker 3: them still fell apart when we have a lot of turnover.
Speaker 3: So that's going to be a real challenge that way,
Speaker 3: But it really is a pro model. Now we need
Speaker 3: to have some better boundaries. We need Congress to get involved,
Speaker 3: We need some other things to help put some healthy boundaries,
Speaker 3: salary caps and things like that in women's basketball, in
Speaker 3: college sports in general. But the reality is is that
Speaker 3: we have a different challenge now.
Speaker 4: It is not the same.
Speaker 3: It is not our We can't pretend it's this amateur,
Speaker 3: little pure college environment anymore. It is a pro model
Speaker 3: with some additions of scholarships and going to class and
Speaker 3: other things. But I have to adopt as a leader,
Speaker 3: and we're going to have to try to find a
Speaker 3: healthy tension in that.
Speaker 2: And I think that's what a lot of people are saying.
Speaker 1: They're saying, we agree with the transfer portal and players
Speaker 1: having the chance to make a choice the same way
Speaker 1: coaches can leave.
Speaker 2: But there might need to be some more guardrails around.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the first one is a freebie, I agree,
Speaker 1: and then after that you have to sit out a
Speaker 1: year to make it really worth that decision that you're
Speaker 1: making for both yourself and the program you're leaving. And
Speaker 1: also you mentioned salary cap. A lot of people may
Speaker 1: be confused about that. In the college space, we don't
Speaker 1: have time for it. But it is about to be
Speaker 1: the wild wild West if you haven't dug in deep
Speaker 1: on House versus NC DOUBLEA on the impact of essentially
Speaker 1: what's going to be a certain amount of money allocated
Speaker 1: to each school each year based on the TV rights
Speaker 1: package deals. They will get to decide of their own
Speaker 1: right who that money goes to. They could give twenty
Speaker 1: million to a quarterback that they want to come that
Speaker 1: they think is going to win a title, and zero
Speaker 1: to everyone else. They can split it between basketball and football,
Speaker 1: they can give it to just men, they can give
Speaker 1: it to just women.
Speaker 2: Ha ha. That would never happen. And that's gonna be wild.
Speaker 1: Because also when you're recruiting, you're gonna have to start
Speaker 1: telling players, hey, we have this much of our nil
Speaker 1: house versus NC double a budget allocated to our women's
Speaker 1: basketball team, and I'm willing to give you thirty five
Speaker 1: percent of it right for the first year, But then
Speaker 1: the second year the amount changes, and then we have
Speaker 1: to change the percentage because now we have to also
Speaker 1: act like a pro team in that way.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a mess.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's gonna keep a lot of lawyers in business,
Speaker 3: I'll say a lot of lawyers in business. But also
Speaker 3: on top of that, it's like, where does Title nine
Speaker 3: fit into all that? Ye, women's sports you described a
Speaker 3: rocket ship and then we have this going well, but
Speaker 3: we're going to give you eighty five percent of it
Speaker 3: to in sports and so and I am all for that.
Speaker 3: I want men's sports to continue to do great things.
Speaker 3: I'm not trying to take anything away from that. But
Speaker 3: how does do these decisions ride the wave of where
Speaker 3: women's sports are showing they can go and.
Speaker 1: Ultimately the might they reinforce decades and decades of history,
Speaker 1: which is while men perform, so we'll give it to them. Oh,
Speaker 1: we've never tried to see if women will perform if
Speaker 1: we give it to them, we're going to continue to
Speaker 1: not do like It's just it could be a repeat
Speaker 1: of that and fights we've already had over and over again.
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you quickly about your player
Speaker 1: rotation and how that affects the transfer portal, because this
Speaker 1: is something you're learning as you go. You have these
Speaker 1: nine player rotations that are great for basketball and for
Speaker 1: the team, but they are hard when you have to
Speaker 1: convince people to stay on your team and get the
Speaker 1: attention and the time and the points and the whatever
Speaker 1: that they need.
Speaker 2: Are you gonna have to adjust that with the transfer portal.
Speaker 3: I don't think actually it's gonna be more. I think
Speaker 3: it's actually gonna be less. I think you can do
Speaker 3: it maybe more during this early in the season, but
Speaker 3: there's gonna be an adjustment where people are like, well,
Speaker 3: but I thought this was gonna happen or I thought
Speaker 3: I would owe this or can I just get a
Speaker 3: few minutes, And I'm like, there's no you know, charity
Speaker 3: minutes here. You know, like this is a pro model. Now,
Speaker 3: this is professional sports, and you're gonna have to perform.
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean I love you any less off the court,
Speaker 3: doesn't mean I'm pouring into you or your development any less.
Speaker 3: But the reality is is that we have a responsibility
Speaker 3: to perform. We have a responsibility to win, and you know,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna play the people that are gonna help us
Speaker 3: do that. And if that means that, I'm gonna have
Speaker 3: to now plan that if you're not in the top eight,
Speaker 3: probably you're not gonna get much time. And if that's
Speaker 3: going to be the case, then we're gonna have to
Speaker 3: have some I'm gonna have to plan accordingly that probably
Speaker 3: more and more people are gonna leave.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's hard.
Speaker 1: Some are arriving, though, like Sianna Betts, five star recruit
Speaker 1: es fans number two player in the twenty twenty four class,
Speaker 1: joining her superstar sister Lauren, who is already completely unguardable
Speaker 1: and a total problem. Now we're gonna have another Bets
Speaker 1: in the mix there. I was just at a conference
Speaker 1: last week and I was talking to you about this,
Speaker 1: and you got to watch this. I'm so glad you did,
Speaker 1: because these two sisters. What a fascinating dynamic. So much love,
Speaker 1: so much support, and so much tension. Oh my goodness,
Speaker 1: what a special, unique, contentious relationship sisters have, and particularly
Speaker 1: when they both are extremely talented. And this is unique
Speaker 1: because the younger sister's dream was UCLA and it was
Speaker 1: not Lauren's dream, but she transferred to you, tell me
Speaker 1: how you're gonna deal with all of this magic and challenge.
Speaker 4: Well, first of.
Speaker 3: All, they both want to win, and I think that's
Speaker 3: what I keep going back to, is right now, do
Speaker 3: you help each other win? And that has to trump
Speaker 3: everything else, right, And so you know, the reality is
Speaker 3: a Sienna. You know, it was hard when when Lauren
Speaker 3: committed to us to transfer. You know, Sienna wasn't very
Speaker 3: happy for a while, and so really trying to convince
Speaker 3: her for that one year that this could be a
Speaker 3: really cool thing. It was really a neat actually story
Speaker 3: that Sienna was on her visit and Lauren was in
Speaker 3: her first year at UCLA, and Lauren did a whole
Speaker 3: PowerPoint presentation about why Sienna needed to be a Bruin
Speaker 3: and I look over and just tears down Sienna's face.
Speaker 3: There is a love there and a connection there. But uh,
Speaker 3: Sienna is not Lauren's little sister. And that's the biggest
Speaker 3: thing I am going to protect if I can, I
Speaker 3: won't be able to protect it all the time. Is
Speaker 3: that Sienna is on her own incredible journey and I
Speaker 3: can't wait to see that unfold. And she is not
Speaker 3: Lauren's sister. She is Sienna and that's it, and so
Speaker 3: and and Lauren the same. And I think there will
Speaker 3: be challenges in that, but I just keep going back
Speaker 3: to why did you choose us? And what you say
Speaker 3: you want to get accomplished and your behaviors need to
Speaker 3: match that.
Speaker 2: And that doesn't change just because your sister is here.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, but it does add some interesting wrinkles. It could
Speaker 1: be absolutely incredible, and it'd also be a very new.
Speaker 2: Challenge for you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I didn't have enough right exactly, I didn't
Speaker 3: have enough.
Speaker 1: To do. List what have you learned over the years
Speaker 1: thirty years of coaching about how each individual person needs
Speaker 1: to be coached, differently led, differently managed, inspired, motivated differently.
Speaker 3: I think the biggest thing is uh, you know, I know,
Speaker 3: I keep going back to coach John Wooden, but he
Speaker 3: said the biggest form of partiality is to treat every
Speaker 3: player the same. And I think there's a misnomer that
Speaker 3: if you're treating players differently, that means you're changing the
Speaker 3: standards for them.
Speaker 4: Those are not the same.
Speaker 3: I can my style of teaching can be different and
Speaker 3: still hold the standard the same.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: Sienna and Lauren are actually a great sample of this.
Speaker 3: I think I will coach Siena much differently than I
Speaker 3: coach Lauren. And you know, they are wired differently, they're
Speaker 3: motivated differently, they have different things that get in their way.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I always say that performance equels potential minus interferences. So
Speaker 3: really it's not about how much talent you have, but
Speaker 3: how you manage.
Speaker 4: We all have interferences that come in.
Speaker 3: How you manage those And I just think that it
Speaker 3: all goes back to genuine relationships and authentic culture, because
Speaker 3: if you don't have genuine relationships and understand what each
Speaker 3: individual's interference, you know, is, then you're going to have
Speaker 3: a hard time helping them reach their potential.
Speaker 4: So you know, I think that you can ever substitute.
Speaker 3: Quality time and really being a good listener, and as
Speaker 3: that happens, you earn the credibility. My mom used to say,
Speaker 3: you have to earn or you have to listen to
Speaker 3: one hundred mundane things to have enough credibility to say
Speaker 3: the one really important thing. And I think that's a
Speaker 3: lot of coaching, right is that is I need to
Speaker 3: listen to a lot of mundane things and just be
Speaker 3: in their world and care about them for whatever is
Speaker 3: important to them to earn enough credibility and to have
Speaker 3: enough deposits so that I can say the one really
Speaker 3: hard thing that's or that pivotal.
Speaker 1: Or that they can share the one thing that's really pivotal. Exactly,
Speaker 1: they have to share those hundred things with you and
Speaker 1: have you be there to hear them and see them
Speaker 1: so they feel comfortable enough to tell you the thing
Speaker 1: that you actually.
Speaker 2: Need to hear in order to help them well.
Speaker 3: And I encourage anyone to read the article about Lauren
Speaker 3: Bets's journey in her mental health. That's exactly what I'm
Speaker 3: thinking of and and it will inspire you. Her courage
Speaker 3: has taught me so much, but the reality of that is,
Speaker 3: that's exactly what happened. And I give my associate head coach,
Speaker 3: Shannon lebuff is probably the best I've ever known in
Speaker 3: doing just that.
Speaker 1: Is she related to Shia Labuff, not that I know of,
Speaker 1: but you know she like combination, justsed on some of
Speaker 1: his previous as I.
Speaker 3: Would think not because she's about as pure hearted and
Speaker 3: steady as I've ever known.
Speaker 1: So, now, what's the thing you do differently now that
Speaker 1: in your early years of coaching? I know you have
Speaker 1: this great story about a player from UCSB that taught
Speaker 1: you a ton that's now in this weird.
Speaker 4: Unique I was texting with her right before this. She
Speaker 4: didn't even know I was here.
Speaker 3: She's in New York right now, but she will walk
Speaker 3: on for us at U see Santa Barbara.
Speaker 4: Her name is Melissa Corpus.
Speaker 3: And now her fiance is on Real Housewives of New York,
Speaker 3: so if you want to check it out, Raquel, we
Speaker 3: just love their whole family. But when she was came
Speaker 3: to Santa Barbara, she you know, we are so easy
Speaker 3: to be entitled and to take things for granted. And
Speaker 3: she came as a walk on and right before and
Speaker 3: she didn't travel with us and right before we went
Speaker 3: on a trip for Thanksgiving, we gave her a one
Speaker 3: Duffel bag of gear, and she not only wore the
Speaker 3: gear the entire time we were gone, but she wore
Speaker 3: the Duffel bag and all she kept saying. She had
Speaker 3: the straps on Thanksgiving dinner and she had it all
Speaker 3: with her and she just just kept saying, this is
Speaker 3: the most amazing thing ever. And she just was like
Speaker 3: going on and on, and she was so full of
Speaker 3: gratitude the whole year that it brought joy that was
Speaker 3: contagious to everyone around her. And she had the most
Speaker 3: she could have complained about. She did the same amount
Speaker 3: of work and everything else. And then on top of
Speaker 3: it all, she had a life threatening kidney disease and
Speaker 3: we ended up she ended up having a kidney transplant
Speaker 3: and is doing amazing praise God that she's doing right now,
Speaker 3: but up to this day. But one of the things
Speaker 3: that she said was basketball saved my life, and I
Speaker 3: thought maybe she she meant the kidneys, you know, and
Speaker 3: it wasn't even that. She's like, you know, a lot
Speaker 3: of people in her family are have tough choices.
Speaker 4: And have ended up in not so good places.
Speaker 3: And she said, you know, I'm the only one in
Speaker 3: my family that had basketball, and it absolutely changed the
Speaker 3: trajectory of my life. And now she's a PhD, incredible psychologist,
Speaker 3: worked her way through NYU to get her PhD by Djning.
Speaker 4: In Manhattan, of all things.
Speaker 3: But it just taught me that the structure and life
Speaker 3: lessons and combined with gratitude, changes people's lives. And I
Speaker 3: don't care if it's my first year of coaching or
Speaker 3: now that's ultimate goal.
Speaker 1: And you never know what someone's bringing to you, right
Speaker 1: like you never would have known that her family had
Speaker 1: all those struggles, had so many people incarcerated, all this stuff.
Speaker 1: You just would have known that she had had a
Speaker 1: little different than you. And then she shows up and
Speaker 1: the gratitude and everything pours into you as well.
Speaker 3: I definitely would say, I just have to say that
Speaker 3: my players have taught me more than I've taught. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and that's probably what keeps me young and keeps me
Speaker 3: in this and when that, if that ever flips, I'll
Speaker 3: get out.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well we do have to get out because we're
Speaker 2: out of time.
Speaker 3: Everybody, Coreclost, thanks everyone, thank you very.
Speaker 1: Yes, thanks to us for the honor of hosting the
Speaker 1: summit again and to coach Close for being such an
Speaker 1: honest and authentic interview. We got to take another break
Speaker 1: when we come back. Another shameless plug because this is
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Speaker 1: find the newly released commercials for Asia Wilson's A one
Speaker 1: signature basketball shoes available to buy online on Wednesday. The
Speaker 1: details in the ad from the A one logo and
Speaker 1: the name Asia made of beads in a little girl's braids,
Speaker 1: to the iconic leg sleeve on a pack of cheerleaders,
Speaker 1: to cameos from her parents and a dancing down Staley.
Speaker 2: It's just perfection.
Speaker 1: One of the ads has a little girl teaching Asia
Speaker 1: the clapping and singing routine.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Asia Wilson's on top, top top, and it was directed
Speaker 1: by Malia Obama.
Speaker 2: Love it now, It's your turn. Rate and review.
Speaker 1: Give us five stars, tell us you love us. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening, y'all, See you tomorrow. Good Game, Corey, Good Game,
Speaker 1: and Brava Midge Purse, few heartbreaking WNBA cuts, It's.
Speaker 2: Too Soon, It's too Soon.
Speaker 1: Good Game with Sarah Spain is an iheartwomen's sports production
Speaker 1: in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can
Speaker 1: find us on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network, our
Speaker 1: producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers
Speaker 1: are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan, and Emily Rudder.
Speaker 1: Our editors are Emily Rutter, Britney Martinez, and Grace Lynch.
Speaker 1: Our associate producer is Lucy Jones, and I'm Your Host
Speaker 1: Sarah Spain.