Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where for the
Speaker 1: first time in our lives, we're actually glad that one
Speaker 1: specific bracket challenge doesn't include a women's bracket, probably because
Speaker 1: anyone smart enough to fill out a women's bracket knows
Speaker 1: better than to be interested in a trip to Mars
Speaker 1: on a piece of SpaceX debris. It's Thursday, March twentieth,
Speaker 1: and on today's show, we'll be talking to legendary Yukon
Speaker 1: hoops coach Gino Oriama about why being delusional is a
Speaker 1: good thing at least of your pagebackers, the changes that
Speaker 1: he wants to see in the NCAA tourney format, how
Speaker 1: his coaching approach differs when it's NCAA tournament time, and
Speaker 1: the moment he officially retired from playing basketball, Plus a
Speaker 1: comedy we can't wait to watch, a warning to all
Speaker 1: who apply, and the wait for Unrivaled begins again. That's
Speaker 1: all coming up right after this welcome back slices. Here's
Speaker 1: what you need to know today. Let's start with Unrivaled,
Speaker 1: where the inaugural season wrapped up on Monday with Rose
Speaker 1: BC taking the chachampionship with a sixty two to fifty
Speaker 1: four win over Vinyl BC, one day after scoring thirty
Speaker 1: nine points in the semi finals against the Laces.
Speaker 2: Chelsea Gray recorded.
Speaker 1: Eighteen in the final, including a half court buzzer beater
Speaker 1: to give her Rose team a two point lead heading
Speaker 1: into the fourth quarter. It was Britney Sykes who scored
Speaker 1: the championship winning shot, a free throw to finish the
Speaker 1: game with her season high twenty one points. Each Rose
Speaker 1: player took home fifty K in prize money, and Gray
Speaker 1: was named Finals MVP. By the Way, shout out to
Speaker 1: Rose coach Nola Henry and Vinyl coach Teresa Weatherspoon, the
Speaker 1: two teams with women at the helm ended up in
Speaker 1: the championship coincidence, we think not.
Speaker 2: One last piece of unrivaled news.
Speaker 1: To wrap up a spectacular inaugural season, the league also
Speaker 1: announced the remainder of its end of season award winners,
Speaker 1: with Nafisa Collier earning MVP honors, Angel Reese, who missed
Speaker 1: the championship game with a hand injury, taking home Defensive
Speaker 1: Player of the Year, and DJ Sackman, whose Lunar Owls
Speaker 1: posted a thirteen to one regular season record, named Coach
Speaker 1: of the Year to College Oops while Tomorrow is the
Speaker 1: official start of the sixty four team NCAA Women's college
Speaker 1: basketball bracket. We've got two more first four games today,
Speaker 1: including Niches alma mater, William and Mary taking on High
Speaker 1: Point tonight at nine pm Eastern.
Speaker 2: And while we're.
Speaker 1: Talking March madness, don't forget to fill out a bracket.
Speaker 1: To be part of our good game pool. You got
Speaker 1: to get it in before eleven thirty am Eastern on Friday.
Speaker 1: Link is in the show notes. More Women Soups. There's
Speaker 1: a scripted comedy show about the WNBA in the works
Speaker 1: called The w It'll be executive produced by Cheneo Gumackay,
Speaker 1: who played in the WNBA till twenty twenty three and
Speaker 1: is now an analyst for ESPN, and her longtime agent,
Speaker 1: Allison Gaylor, with the show loosely based on their relationship.
Speaker 1: The show will be developed by Peacock, with Carly Mensch
Speaker 1: and Liz Flahive, the creators of Netflix hit Glow, serving
Speaker 1: as showrunners.
Speaker 2: Even More Women Soups.
Speaker 1: The ESPN original series Full Court Press has been renewed
Speaker 1: for a second season. The series gives viewers unmatched access
Speaker 1: insight into the journeys of select hoopers at schools across
Speaker 1: the country through exclusive interviews.
Speaker 2: Game footage, and more.
Speaker 1: This upcoming season will feature Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo,
Speaker 1: USC forward Kiki Eriefen, and LSU guard Flaje Johnson. The
Speaker 1: first season, produced by Omaha Productions and Words and Pictures
Speaker 1: in partnership with the.
Speaker 2: Worldwide Leader, premiered in May of last year.
Speaker 1: That one featured iOS Kaitlin Clark, South Carolina's Camilla Cardoso
Speaker 1: and UCLA's Kiki Rice. It was a really good watch.
Speaker 1: I'm super excited for this edition. First two episodes of
Speaker 1: this Full Court Press Season two will premiere May third
Speaker 1: at one pm Eastern on ESPN. To the NWSL, where
Speaker 1: the owners of Expansion Side Denver announced plans this week
Speaker 1: to build a fourteen thoy five hundred seat stadium. The
Speaker 1: brand new facility will be located at Santa Fe Yards,
Speaker 1: a spot just inside the city limits that has access
Speaker 1: to public transportation. While the team, which doesn't yet have
Speaker 1: an official name, will begin play in twenty twenty six,
Speaker 1: they'll have to wait a little longer to play in
Speaker 1: the stadium, which is expected to open into twenty eight
Speaker 1: per ESPN. Details on a training facility and temporary stadium
Speaker 1: are expected to be announced later this month.
Speaker 2: More NWSL news.
Speaker 1: Racing Louisville's Bethany Balser, one of the league's most prolific
Speaker 1: scorers and a former NWSL Rookie of the Year, announced
Speaker 1: on social media that she's taking some time away from
Speaker 1: soccer to focus on her mental health.
Speaker 2: Quote.
Speaker 1: I've always preached that when soccer is no longer fun
Speaker 1: and you don't find joy in doing it, something needs
Speaker 1: to change, and it seems I haven't been listening to
Speaker 1: myself for a while. The last year and a half,
Speaker 1: I've found my identity slowly slipping away. Being consumed with
Speaker 1: soccer and being a professional athlete, I've been chasing things
Speaker 1: that are material. I've become bitter and have lost my
Speaker 1: love and joy for the game. End quote, per ESPN's Jeffcasoof,
Speaker 1: a Racing Louisville spokesperson, confirmed that Balser has not officially
Speaker 1: decided on taking leave, and she remains on the team's
Speaker 1: active roster as an excused absence. Last August, Balser was
Speaker 1: traded to Louisville by the Seattle Rain. At the time,
Speaker 1: her thirty three goals over the previous five years were
Speaker 1: tied for third in the NWSL. She's long but a
Speaker 1: strong advocate for mental health, and last year she launched
Speaker 1: a brand called BB eight Bring Your Best. In her
Speaker 1: Instagram post, Balser went on to say that she's excited
Speaker 1: to explore her identity outside of the sport and that
Speaker 1: she's confident she'll return to the field again. We're sending
Speaker 1: Bethany our best and we're happy she's taking care of herself.
Speaker 2: We got to take a quick break.
Speaker 1: When we come back, we get d Lulu with coach
Speaker 1: Gino Oriema stick around.
Speaker 2: Joining us now.
Speaker 1: He's the head coach of the Yukon women's basketball team.
Speaker 1: He holds the record for most wins and highest winning
Speaker 1: percentage among college coaches men's or women's. Since becoming head
Speaker 1: coach at nineteen eighty five, he's led Yukon to nineteen
Speaker 1: undefeated conference seasons, including six that were part of undefeated
Speaker 1: overall seasons. He's led the Huskies to eleven national championships,
Speaker 1: the most in women's college basketball history, and has won
Speaker 1: eight National Naysmith College Coach of the Year awards in
Speaker 1: his time as coach to the US national basketball team.
Speaker 1: The team won two World championships and two Olympic gold medals.
Speaker 1: He's in the Naysmith Oral Basketball Hall of Fame and
Speaker 1: the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. He's got his own restaurants,
Speaker 1: wines and sauces, And contrary to popular belief, he was
Speaker 1: not the inspiration for the Carl Fredrickson character in Up.
Speaker 2: It's gino Oriema. What's up? Coach?
Speaker 1: It's always a long bio no matter how much you
Speaker 1: try to trim it. Coach, just an unbelievable career and
Speaker 1: here we are again, getting ready for another NCAA tournament.
Speaker 1: I have to say we have mostly talked about parody
Speaker 1: in the women's game this year. In fact, just the
Speaker 1: second time in nineteen years that there is no zero
Speaker 1: or one loss team in the field. So I have
Speaker 1: to start by asking you when exactly would you say
Speaker 1: Yukon stopped being bad for women's basketball.
Speaker 3: Uh, yeah, it's a good way to put it. I
Speaker 3: think there was a drop off right after FISA Katie
Speaker 3: Lou when that group graduated. I think there was a
Speaker 3: drop off in the level of talent that we had
Speaker 3: at Connecticut, and that coincided with more players going to
Speaker 3: more diverse schools, and so as people were getting better,
Speaker 3: we came down a little bit, and so that had
Speaker 3: we been able to maintain that. But it's hard to
Speaker 3: go to the Final four every year, you know, and
Speaker 3: we went, well, we've gone fifteen out of the last
Speaker 3: sixteen year or something.
Speaker 2: Not bad. Not bad. Yeah, I mean in a lot
Speaker 2: of ways, it.
Speaker 1: Was I think, and I used to argue this on
Speaker 1: ESPN all the time. It was good for the game
Speaker 1: to have this team that everyone was trying to knock off.
Speaker 1: And now it's good for the game that there are
Speaker 1: many teams that people want to watch and get behind.
Speaker 1: It's all about the cycles and the different times. I
Speaker 1: want to actually go back to the very beginning. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I really know the story of why
Speaker 1: you ended up in women's basketball. You emigrated with your
Speaker 1: family from Italy when you were seven, You taught yourself English,
Speaker 1: Your parents were working factory jobs in Pennsylvania. How do
Speaker 1: you end up a hoops fan and end up coaching women?
Speaker 3: Well, when we came over here, we moved in with
Speaker 3: my uncle and my aunt, and they happened to live
Speaker 3: right across the street from an elementary school. Dad had
Speaker 3: a playground and I happened a good fortune of living
Speaker 3: next door to a guy that was older than me.
Speaker 3: He was probably twelve, I was seven eight. So he
Speaker 3: took me under his wing. We would get a catch
Speaker 3: every day, and baseball became my first love. I wanted
Speaker 3: to play baseball every single day, winter, summer, spring fall.
Speaker 3: I didn't care. So I grew up just doing that.
Speaker 3: And then you know, I met some guys. You know,
Speaker 3: they played basketball, you know, blah blah blah, and I
Speaker 3: got cut from my freshman team in high school, and
Speaker 3: then you know, I said, forget it anyway, I don't care.
Speaker 3: I just want to play baseball anymore. And then sophomore year,
Speaker 3: a couple guys say, hey, coach saw you playing in
Speaker 3: this pickup league, you know whatever. He wants you to
Speaker 3: try out for the team. So I did. I made
Speaker 3: the team. I ended up starting my senior year.
Speaker 2: Just like Michael Jordan.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah. And so you know, I went to college
Speaker 3: and I played, and Jim Foster, coach at Saint Joe's Vanderbilt,
Speaker 3: Ohio State all those years, just came back from Vietnam.
Speaker 3: So he is in school and somehow we strike up
Speaker 3: a friendship and one day he comes in and he goes, hey,
Speaker 3: I just got a job coaching girls basketball at Bishop
Speaker 3: mcdavidd High School. I go, yeah, that's great, congratulations. He goes, can, I,
Speaker 3: you know, can you come and help me? I said no.
Speaker 3: And this was like ten times he kept asking me.
Speaker 3: I kept saying no. If I wanted to coach, I
Speaker 3: would coach boys. Why would I ever want to coach
Speaker 3: girls basketball? All they did was take up court time
Speaker 3: when we were in high school. That's how you thought
Speaker 3: back in the early seventies, right, So no, no, no.
Speaker 3: Finally I went went to practice. I'm twenty one, kids
Speaker 3: are seventeen, and I'm like, yeah, okay. So we go
Speaker 3: over a couple of things. He's run some drills and
Speaker 3: they look at me like I know what I'm talking about,
Speaker 3: and they're like so happy. I go back the next
Speaker 3: day and the next day and the next day and
Speaker 3: the next day. Next thing you know, I end up
Speaker 3: helping them for the whole year. Next thing, you know,
Speaker 3: he calls me and he goes, hey, I just got
Speaker 3: the job at Saint Joe's. I go, what you He goes, yeah,
Speaker 3: a Saint Joe's and they want, you know, I want
Speaker 3: you to be my assistant. Oh Jesus Christ, I know, well,
Speaker 3: they're going to pay you a thousand dollars. I'm in
Speaker 3: for the year, right, I'm in.
Speaker 2: For the year.
Speaker 3: For the year. So I had to have a construction job.
Speaker 3: I worked in a steel mill. I did anything I
Speaker 3: had to do just so I could coach. And it
Speaker 3: was And now Phil Martelli's running the Kathy Rush basketball camp,
Speaker 3: the number one basketball camp in the country. And I
Speaker 3: go to work at that camp. And next thing you know,
Speaker 3: Phil goes, Listen, I'm the head coach at year Old
Speaker 3: High School and I need an assistant. And I went,
Speaker 3: of course, I'm going to coach. That's what I'm gonna do,
Speaker 3: coach high school boys, teach English. I'm in and I
Speaker 3: hold there and I do it, and out of nowhere,
Speaker 3: he gets a phone call from Debbie Ryan at Virginia. Hey, Phil,
Speaker 3: I need assistant. You interested. Phil goes, no, but I
Speaker 3: got a guy who might be who used to do
Speaker 3: that stuff. I go down there. I'm like, what this
Speaker 3: is what colleges look like. I thought they all looked
Speaker 3: like Saint Joseph, Penn and Temple. I go down there
Speaker 3: and the rest here. I am so not something I
Speaker 3: set out to do, and I'm stuck.
Speaker 1: When do you think, at what point do you think
Speaker 1: it was your first choice and not. I guess I'll
Speaker 1: do it because but eventually I'll get back to the
Speaker 1: boys and men.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think when I when I was coaching high
Speaker 3: school boys, I thought that's it, That's where I'm going
Speaker 3: to be. Then I realized high school coaches that were
Speaker 3: teaching English and history, I would be teaching history. We're
Speaker 3: making like thirteen thousand dollars a year, yea, And they
Speaker 3: had to teach just so they could coach. So when
Speaker 3: I found it, I can have a full time job
Speaker 3: doing this and that's all I have to do is coach, recruit,
Speaker 3: blah blah blah. That's when I went down there to
Speaker 3: the UVA spent four years there, and that's when I realized, Okay,
Speaker 3: this is what I'm going to be doing, and I
Speaker 3: want to make sure that I'm really, really.
Speaker 2: Good at Yeah. I want to talk about Page Beckers.
Speaker 1: Just an incredible talent on the court, but so special
Speaker 1: off of it too, and you have such a fun,
Speaker 1: quirky relationship together.
Speaker 2: I wonder what it's like coaching Page.
Speaker 3: Frustrating as hell, would be one way to describe it.
Speaker 3: Another would be very much enjoyable because you get to
Speaker 3: see on a daily basis what other people maybe just
Speaker 3: see on game day. Right, you get to experience the
Speaker 3: lows that people don't see. Right, You see her as
Speaker 3: something other than you know, Page Beckers, So you get
Speaker 3: a three sixty view of who she is and what
Speaker 3: she's all about. And like anything else, there's always a
Speaker 3: sides to what you see on the basketball court. You know,
Speaker 3: thirty sometimes a year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, fans sort of when she gets injured, she disappears
Speaker 1: and then we wait till she's back. But for you,
Speaker 1: those moments, those stretches, are you trying to keep her
Speaker 1: spirits up, keep her motivated, keep her enthusiastic about when
Speaker 1: she comes back.
Speaker 2: What it's going to look like.
Speaker 1: And that's a big part of the job that we
Speaker 1: never see. I wonder how you've seen her as a
Speaker 1: person as she's gotten older, deal with setbacks differently.
Speaker 3: I think one of one of Page's biggest strengths is
Speaker 3: the fact that she's delusional. Okay, yeah, that just helps
Speaker 3: her so much and it carries her through all those
Speaker 3: things you're talking about that when she's hurt she acts
Speaker 3: like it doesn't bother me. I'm fine, everything's good. I'm
Speaker 3: just here for my teammates. I'm here, you know, blah
Speaker 3: blah blah blah blah. But meanwhile, that's not even close
Speaker 3: to the truth, because when she goes home every night
Speaker 3: back in those days, from not being able to play,
Speaker 3: not be able to do the one thing she loves,
Speaker 3: you know, in life more than almost anything. So the
Speaker 3: fact that she, you know, doesn't allow anything ever to
Speaker 3: get in the way of I'm great. I'm the best.
Speaker 3: No one's ever been as good as me. I can
Speaker 3: be better than anybody that ever lived. Every time I
Speaker 3: miss a shot, it's an act of God, not my fault, right,
Speaker 3: not my fault. So that I think more than anything,
Speaker 3: and I think all the great ones have a you know,
Speaker 3: a little Delulu a fair amount of that, right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, not just the play, but the attitude, the confidence,
Speaker 1: the on court presence she is. I believe she would
Speaker 1: be on the Yukon All Time smart Alec team. I've
Speaker 1: got her and Dinah Tarassi Art who's the next name?
Speaker 3: Uh? They certainly would be one, two, three and four
Speaker 3: with them. A lot of people give Sue Bird a
Speaker 3: pass because she did it silently. But uh no, she
Speaker 3: would not get a pass of being a smart ass,
Speaker 3: not even close.
Speaker 2: No, she's full of it too.
Speaker 3: She's full of it one hundred percent. She's another one
Speaker 3: those three people we just mentioned, and I've said this
Speaker 3: one hundred times, the only words you will never hear
Speaker 3: come out of their mouth. You're right, it's the best
Speaker 3: you're going to get from Sue. I don't disagree.
Speaker 2: Amazing, right, I love that. I love it.
Speaker 1: Speaking of great player Sarah Strong, so dominant already in
Speaker 1: her freshman season, your face just lit up, like, oh God,
Speaker 1: I get this girl for another couple of years. What's
Speaker 1: the ceiling for Sarah Strong?
Speaker 3: Yeah? When you when you bring in a player that
Speaker 3: you think watching play in high school, you go, wow,
Speaker 3: this kid has generational type stuff, you know, And somebody
Speaker 3: will say, well, what do you mean? Well, you know,
Speaker 3: kids her size are not supposed to be able to
Speaker 3: handle the ball the way for him. They're not supposed
Speaker 3: to be able to pass the ball the way she passed.
Speaker 3: They're not supposed to be able to shoot it the
Speaker 3: way she shoots it. Be as smart as she is,
Speaker 3: see things developed before they develop, and not at that age, right,
Speaker 3: So then when she gets here, I'm thinking, okay, a
Speaker 3: little bit of a learning curve, maybe none zero. You know,
Speaker 3: we talked about recently, she had one really bad game
Speaker 3: at Tennessee. She played like a freshman. She had five turnovers,
Speaker 3: had eighteen points and nine rebounds. When that's considered a
Speaker 3: bad game, right. So again, and her personality I think
Speaker 3: allows her to be in the big moments. You know,
Speaker 3: she doesn't say a lot when I talk to the team.
Speaker 3: Her eyes are burning a hole in mind that like
Speaker 3: they come out the back. She wants to know everything
Speaker 3: about everything, and she doesn't miss a thing.
Speaker 2: I bet she says you're right a lot.
Speaker 3: Well, she doesn't speak, so she just goes.
Speaker 2: You can feel it go through the eyes.
Speaker 1: She actually chose Yukon despite her mom, Alison Feaster, being
Speaker 1: roommates with Carolina coach South Carolina coach John Staley back
Speaker 1: in their w NBA days. Does it feel a little
Speaker 1: extra good when you land a big recruit like her
Speaker 1: over a great coach and a great program like South Carolina.
Speaker 1: You got done in the media being like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what what happened there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you get some that you're supposed to get.
Speaker 3: You don't get some that you're supposed to get you
Speaker 3: think you should get sometimes, you know. You know, one
Speaker 3: of the things that I think helped us was we
Speaker 3: saw Sarah when no one else knew who she was.
Speaker 3: So I remember calling USA Basketball when she was going
Speaker 3: to be a sophomore, and I say, hey, you know,
Speaker 3: you guys have this thing with fifteen and unders or
Speaker 3: sixteen under whatever. Uh, you're missing a kid on the list.
Speaker 3: And they're like, oh, yeah, she's one of those on
Speaker 3: the list of keep an eye on. I go, good,
Speaker 3: you just keep an eye on her, okay, because the
Speaker 3: less people know about her, the better call them.
Speaker 2: You really called them to tell them that they were
Speaker 2: missing one.
Speaker 3: I said, you know, I obviously I have a soft
Speaker 3: spot for USA basketball because and I thought, this kid's
Speaker 3: better than the kids you have out there. Well, yeah,
Speaker 3: we're going to keep an eye on her see if
Speaker 3: she develops.
Speaker 2: Okay, who was the head coach at the time there, I.
Speaker 3: Don't think it wasn't about the head coach. It was
Speaker 3: about just whoever was running.
Speaker 2: The committee right committee at the time. Yeah, good, good
Speaker 2: Dodge there.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Don Staley, she and Lindsay Gottlieb were miffed
Speaker 1: about their team's bracket seedings. When did you turn into
Speaker 1: the peaceful zen coach of the bunch that just says, oh,
Speaker 1: you play who they put in front of you.
Speaker 2: That's how it's always been.
Speaker 3: You know. First things first, there's a lot of there's
Speaker 3: a lot of problems with the way the NCAA Women's
Speaker 3: Basketball Committee does things all right, a lot of times
Speaker 3: there is there's not enough basketball people on that committee
Speaker 3: that actually know this is how we do it. Okay,
Speaker 3: So you're gonna get screw ups all the time. And
Speaker 3: I've had my thing to say in the past, and
Speaker 3: people with bitch and moan all the time whenever go, well,
Speaker 3: you play in Albany a lot or you playing Bridgeport
Speaker 3: a lot? Yeah, And we also played in Lincoln, Nebraska,
Speaker 3: and we played in Dayton, Ohio. And we played in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
Speaker 3: and we played in Trenton, New Jersey, and we you know, so, yeah,
Speaker 3: we've played a lot of places. The reason we play
Speaker 3: close to home is because we're the number one, number
Speaker 3: one seed yea ninety percent of the time. Yeah, back then,
Speaker 3: So if you're that, you deserve to go a certain
Speaker 3: place that's been taken away now because there's only two regionals,
Speaker 3: So that's stupid. They need to get away from that. Second.
Speaker 3: This is one of those few years when everybody in
Speaker 3: those top four they all beat each other, right, So
Speaker 3: is there really a big gap between number one and
Speaker 3: number two in the seeds versus number three and number
Speaker 3: four number one seeds? So if you're the number one,
Speaker 3: number one, is there really a big gap between you
Speaker 3: and number two in the seeding or number three or
Speaker 3: number four because you all beat each other, right, I
Speaker 3: think what screw what screws it up is for the
Speaker 3: two seeds because now maybe you're getting the wrong matchup, right,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: Well, and that's that's part of it. I think.
Speaker 1: I think it was clear that Don was a little mad,
Speaker 1: but then looked at her path and was like it's okay,
Speaker 1: though Lise was like Lindsay was like, well, we're kind
Speaker 1: of mad because.
Speaker 2: We got Yukon in our region. I mean, it's we
Speaker 2: even get to the final four.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. And I've always said that it's be careful
Speaker 3: what you wish for, because you just might, you might,
Speaker 3: you might you might exactly you know, through the day
Speaker 3: that you said.
Speaker 1: That you haven't liked that super regional format in the past,
Speaker 1: and this time again you will go three time zones.
Speaker 1: If you make the Sweet sixteen, you would like to
Speaker 1: go back to the previous format.
Speaker 2: That's what you think worked at best.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it works best for a lot of reasons,
Speaker 3: one being the fans. Okay, you're a fan of women's
Speaker 3: basketball and you live anywhere near Connecticut. Are you going
Speaker 3: to get on a plane and fly to Seattle to
Speaker 3: or put Spokane to watch US flight? No? Right now,
Speaker 3: we have sold no tickets to go to Spokane. Now,
Speaker 3: if that was somewhere east of of Mississippi, if there
Speaker 3: was an option to do that, then obviously more people
Speaker 3: will be able to go. So you picked two places
Speaker 3: that are so far away from each other that you're
Speaker 3: you're you're doing this for the benefit of TV. You're
Speaker 3: not doing it for the benefit of the fans.
Speaker 2: Right, So so Chicago put them both in. Put everyone
Speaker 2: in Chicago's what you're saying. My thing would be, that's
Speaker 2: what I would like, coach.
Speaker 3: I agree with. If you're only going to do two,
Speaker 3: put them both in the middle of the country. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that way, no one has to go three time zones
Speaker 3: and there's going to be a three time zones every year. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it seems like until they do away with this. Plus,
Speaker 3: not to mention, there's eight teams going to be in Spokane,
Speaker 3: no disrespect because I've been there a bunch of times
Speaker 3: and I really love that city. Are there really eight
Speaker 3: comparable hotels to host all eight teams? M Chances are
Speaker 3: probably not.
Speaker 2: And the NCAAs signs those right.
Speaker 3: The NCAA signs those correct. If you're in the one seed,
Speaker 3: you get this hotel. If you're the two seed, get
Speaker 3: that hotel. Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of pressure every year, especially for you.
Speaker 1: It's kind of almost always win or bust year. You've
Speaker 1: got asy Fudd potentially making a decision on her draft
Speaker 1: status based on the team's success in the tournament. You've
Speaker 1: got Pagebeckers, who many would argue would be the best
Speaker 1: Yukon player ever to graduate without a title. If you
Speaker 1: don't win, do the stakes feel even somehow a little
Speaker 1: bit higher this year?
Speaker 3: Well, not for me necessarily, but certainly you can make
Speaker 3: a case step for them, it may mean more. You know,
Speaker 3: I've seen freshmen play at Yukon that think that every
Speaker 3: single year they're going to be in the National Championship
Speaker 3: game because they were in the National CHAMPIONSI Game their
Speaker 3: freshman year. And then they realize, no, you're not. And
Speaker 3: as you get older and you see it start to
Speaker 3: slip away. Now you can go one of two ways.
Speaker 3: And it's the same for you know you're going to graduate.
Speaker 3: You can either tang because you're scared to death what's
Speaker 3: next for me and I'm not ready? Or you just
Speaker 3: you know, blow up because this this is the moment
Speaker 3: I've been waiting for my whole life to go out
Speaker 3: with a bang, win the National Championship my senior year,
Speaker 3: right off into the sunset, which is what I should
Speaker 3: have done with Stewie. When Stewie left, I got on
Speaker 3: that train that she was on.
Speaker 2: A pretty long time ago.
Speaker 3: Coach Happy trails to everybody.
Speaker 2: Yes, four in a row, and I'm out, I'm out,
Speaker 2: I'm out. We'll get back to that. We'll get back
Speaker 2: to that decision. I want to ask if you have
Speaker 2: a specific practice or.
Speaker 1: Habit for trying to get your players centered and grounded
Speaker 1: as you head into this stressful, most important part of
Speaker 1: the season.
Speaker 3: What I have found works the best at this time
Speaker 3: of the year is less, less practice, less angst, less
Speaker 3: harping on things less because and I'm guilty of that
Speaker 3: this year a little bit up to this point, because
Speaker 3: we're such a young team. We have Page who's played
Speaker 3: here for four years, asy hardly played it. All the
Speaker 3: rest are freshmen and South Forest, so we're like a
Speaker 3: goofy team. We got this, and then most of our
Speaker 3: guys are down here and you come to realize whatever
Speaker 3: is wrong with our team, whatever our issues are, are
Speaker 3: not getting fixed, not at this point in the season.
Speaker 3: So all you can do is keep harping or accentuating
Speaker 3: what our strengths are. This is what we're good at,
Speaker 3: this is what we have to keep doing. Boom ba
Speaker 3: boom ba, boom ba boom And if we keep doing this,
Speaker 3: we're gonna win. If we keep doing this, we're gonna win.
Speaker 3: Instead of what you do during the regular season is
Speaker 3: we suck because we do these things wrong all the
Speaker 3: time and if we don't fix these we're not gonna win. Well,
Speaker 3: that's what get you through five months. But this time
Speaker 3: of the year can't be like that. And be like
Speaker 3: that now with Diana and Sue and Swim and Asia
Speaker 3: Stewie and those guys, it didn't matter what I did.
Speaker 3: They were so good and so talented. Just point them
Speaker 3: in the right direction. But today's world that we live in,
Speaker 3: you gotta be it's okay, sweetheart, everything's fine, You're great, right,
Speaker 3: You're perfect? And then you got to text them when
Speaker 3: they get home. Did I tell you you're perfect? Did
Speaker 3: I tell you how great you are?
Speaker 2: Wow?
Speaker 3: Just to remind everybody, Hey, it's all about my self esteem,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 2: I can compliment sandwiches coach.
Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2: It's a different style now.
Speaker 3: Different style, different style. I can say back in the day,
Speaker 3: I can say that's the worst goddamn past I've ever
Speaker 3: seen in my life, and they would look at me
Speaker 3: and go, no, it's not yeah, and then it was
Speaker 3: just play on these guys. They would go, Coach thinks
Speaker 3: I'm the worst pastor in the history of the world.
Speaker 2: I guess I should quit.
Speaker 3: I didn't say that. I said that's the worst past
Speaker 3: I've ever seen. I didn't say you're the worst past
Speaker 3: I've ever seen in my life. But that's how things
Speaker 3: get interpreted sometimes today.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a very tough thing for coaches to adjust to,
Speaker 1: that's for sure. And the whole game is there's been
Speaker 1: a lot of adjustments. And you know, even just a
Speaker 1: couple of years ago, Sodona Prince and a couple others
Speaker 1: were posting about the inequities and the march madness treatment
Speaker 1: of the.
Speaker 2: Men and the women.
Speaker 1: And I wonder, even in natural time, if you've seen
Speaker 1: specific improvements to the infrastructure and everything else. Obviously the
Speaker 1: players are changing, but what about what they're playing in
Speaker 1: and what's still lacking ever since those changes started taking place.
Speaker 3: You know, the most interesting thing ever, when I saw
Speaker 3: that post about what the weight room looked like, I thought,
Speaker 3: there's a weight room at the Final four. I didn't
Speaker 3: know that been the Final four twenty three times. Now
Speaker 3: one of my kids is lifted a weight, Like, how
Speaker 3: would you even know that there's not a weight room
Speaker 3: or there is a weight room, or that the weight
Speaker 3: sucked or whatever? And who cares? Now? If you want
Speaker 3: to say, listen the time between Monday when you finish
Speaker 3: in the regionals and now you got to play Friday night.
Speaker 3: That needs to be fixed. So if you're going to
Speaker 3: look at what needs to be fixed, look at the
Speaker 3: big picture and fix the big things that really matter.
Speaker 3: That go into winning and losing. What kind of weight
Speaker 3: room you have doesn't go into winning and losing. That's
Speaker 3: just a but as.
Speaker 1: You know, the tangible nature of that and the fact
Speaker 1: that it was visibly so different is ultimately what inspired
Speaker 1: and independent review, a massive new TV contract, all of
Speaker 1: the things, even getting to use the name March Madness.
Speaker 2: It all stemmed from for a lot.
Speaker 1: Of people needing to see visually just how disparate the
Speaker 1: resources are, whether or not they really matter to your success. Right.
Speaker 3: But you know what's funny, Sarah, The people who decided
Speaker 3: they didn't want to use March Madness were the women's
Speaker 3: basketball committee when it was first offered to them twenty
Speaker 3: years ago.
Speaker 2: I don't know this.
Speaker 3: Tell me this, coach, Well, listen, we want to use
Speaker 3: my No, we don't want to be associated with the men,
Speaker 3: so we're going to do it different. And then all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, when it benefits you to be associated
Speaker 3: with the men, now you want it and you pretend
Speaker 3: like you never had an opportunity to get it, And
Speaker 3: that's not true.
Speaker 2: So I imagine you were not part of that committee.
Speaker 3: No, I wasn't on that committee. No, okay, I mean
Speaker 3: I think the things that we should be talking about
Speaker 3: are competition wise, Yes, we all want to stay in
Speaker 3: the best hotels. Well there isn't enough for them to
Speaker 3: go around for everybody, so great, so just suck it up.
Speaker 3: And you think every every men's team stays in the
Speaker 3: four seasons, No they don't. So you're the top seeds,
Speaker 3: you're going to stay in certain places you're not. Okay, great,
Speaker 3: I get that. Then why are we having Why are
Speaker 3: we having these things where there's eight eight teams and
Speaker 3: one location. So we say what we want, but then
Speaker 3: we do things that don't give us an opportunity to
Speaker 3: have those things. So for me, it's why are we
Speaker 3: playing Friday night? So the team that plays Monday is
Speaker 3: at a huge disadvantage. The guys finished playing on Sunday
Speaker 3: and they don't play it on Saturday. So they have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Speaker 3: Monday Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We finished Monday, you
Speaker 3: have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday to get ready to and one
Speaker 3: of those days of the travel day to get ready
Speaker 3: for the biggest game of the year and biggest game
Speaker 3: of these kids' lives. That's the stuff they should be
Speaker 3: looking at. To me the other stuff. You know, it's
Speaker 3: like you're going down the shore, right, You're going down
Speaker 3: the shore to visit your friends. They don't have a bed.
Speaker 3: What are you going to do? There's twelve people staying here.
Speaker 3: Throw a blanket on the floor and sleep on the floor.
Speaker 3: Why Because you went down there for the ocean. The
Speaker 3: party is the fun. So now you're going to the
Speaker 3: final four? Do you really care about anything other than
Speaker 3: we're here to play, man, So let's give everybody a
Speaker 3: chance to play their best. Yeah, it would be my.
Speaker 2: Argument focus on that.
Speaker 1: You know, as these changes happen, we've seen a lot
Speaker 1: of coaches, particularly on the men's side, sort of walk away.
Speaker 1: They're like, I don't want to deal with nil and transfer,
Speaker 1: portal and other elements of this changing landscape. How have
Speaker 1: those changes affected you and why do you think it's
Speaker 1: less of a big name departure on the women's side
Speaker 1: as results of the changes.
Speaker 3: Well, most of the older coaches in women's bast I've
Speaker 3: already left, so you're left with a bunch of young
Speaker 3: coaches who don't know any better. So that's number one. NIL.
Speaker 3: I'm big proponent of in IL. I love it. Transfer
Speaker 3: portal that's ruined the game. Okay, not that they can
Speaker 3: transfer and not sit out, but they can't do it
Speaker 3: every year. How were we supposed to put together a team
Speaker 3: when every year you have to put together a new
Speaker 3: team potentially, how are you supposed to operate when every
Speaker 3: kid is a free agent at the end of every year.
Speaker 3: So in the NBA, the NFL, you know who the
Speaker 3: free agents are. Here, every kid on every roster is
Speaker 3: a potential free agent who can operate in that kind
Speaker 3: of circumstance. And then you have they all have agents
Speaker 3: and they'll say to you, this is what this kid's worth.
Speaker 3: I'm like says who says, who, Well, this is the
Speaker 3: market that this kid's worth. Okay, show me where that
Speaker 3: kid has an offer that's worth that. So you've got
Speaker 3: the agents that now are running these families and these kids,
Speaker 3: and what are you going to have. You're going to
Speaker 3: have tremendous inequity where only a certain number of schools.
Speaker 3: It's going to become like football, it's going to become
Speaker 3: like college fobal that if you're not one of those
Speaker 3: ten schools, you will have no chance to ever play
Speaker 3: in the National Championship Game.
Speaker 1: And I feel like there's a lot of benefits to
Speaker 1: player mobility. You only have four years to play, so yes,
Speaker 1: go somewhere where you get to play and where you're happy.
Speaker 1: And also the ability to leave and do it so
Speaker 1: quickly and keep doing it means that every time you
Speaker 1: come up against adversity or challenge, you might just decide
Speaker 1: I'll be happier somewhere else, and then you never learn
Speaker 1: how to work through the thing that's holding you back
Speaker 1: where you are.
Speaker 3: And it starts in high school. I don't like my
Speaker 3: high school team, I just go to a different high school.
Speaker 3: I don't like my AAU travel team. I just go
Speaker 3: start a new team. So when you go watch high
Speaker 3: school kids play, now, it's horrendous why there's only one
Speaker 3: good player on every team, right because all the other
Speaker 3: good players left because they weren't the best player.
Speaker 1: Right, So inconsistency and every rhythm and everything. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: understand coaches argument on that side. I do think it's
Speaker 1: right that players don't get stuck somewhere for their whole
Speaker 1: career and sit out. But I do think, yeah, there's
Speaker 1: there's probably some limits on movement that would make the
Speaker 1: game better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because that imagine if you were an NBA owner
Speaker 3: and you didn't have any contracts.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like James Harden. Every year, am I supposed
Speaker 1: to build a team? You're on a seven year contract
Speaker 1: and every year you're like, no, I'm out.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, imagine if we had to do that, I mean,
Speaker 3: if they had to.
Speaker 2: Do Yeah, it's not fair in terms of building.
Speaker 3: You're also going to have players going I'm not playing
Speaker 3: because they see it in the pros. Hey trade me
Speaker 3: or I'm out. I'm not playing, So now what are
Speaker 3: you gonna do it? Hey, I'm not playing in that
Speaker 3: Bowl game?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: What's going to happen in basketball when somebody goes, listen,
Speaker 3: I'm not playing in a conference tournament because I don't
Speaker 3: want to get hurt and jump down my future.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: There are so many benefits to the influx of investment, attention,
Speaker 1: everything in the women's game, and then it also means
Speaker 1: that we will be plagued by some of the issues
Speaker 1: that are plagues in the men's side. No question, I
Speaker 1: want to talk about Diana Trossi's retirement.
Speaker 2: How did you find out?
Speaker 1: Did she offer you at least a text or a
Speaker 1: phone call or was it the way we all found out.
Speaker 3: I did get a heads up, and you know when
Speaker 3: I went out there last year for her last regular
Speaker 3: season home game, you kind of knew that. I mean,
Speaker 3: she's at an age where and this is this happened
Speaker 3: with her, it happened with a lot of the other players.
Speaker 3: Sue mentioned this a lot, staying in shape the entire
Speaker 3: year when you're forty forty one, forty two.
Speaker 2: Not.
Speaker 3: I don't mean just stay in great shape because you
Speaker 3: want to live long to get ready to play high
Speaker 3: level basketball. They can't do it anymore now. If you
Speaker 3: could just say, hey, d you just have to come
Speaker 3: for the playoffs, she wouldn't have retired.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I heard Candace Parker too, tell Sue and Megan on
Speaker 1: their show that one moment she had was playing against
Speaker 1: younger players and thinking, man, I don't want them to
Speaker 1: be like, oh that's Kandace Parker.
Speaker 2: That's it, right, because you're.
Speaker 1: You know, when you're older and playing, you're not peak.
Speaker 1: You the idea of like, oh that's Diana Tarassi. I
Speaker 1: don't know, she's not all that.
Speaker 3: No, but you're forty No, that's what I'm saying. I
Speaker 3: used to play one on. I used to play one
Speaker 3: on one with my son who ended up playing in college.
Speaker 3: He's six to two, and we would play and all
Speaker 3: of a sudden when he was like sixteen fifteen fourteen,
Speaker 3: and he beat me and I never played him again.
Speaker 3: I said, I'm retiring, and my record against you was
Speaker 3: one thousand, six hundred and one. Because you're right, you
Speaker 3: don't want to keep putting yourself in that situation. But
Speaker 3: at the same time, it was bittersweet. It was sad,
Speaker 3: you know it's coming, but at the same time, like
Speaker 3: I'm never going to have a chance to hear play anymore.
Speaker 3: Like the game is not going to be the same
Speaker 3: without her out there. But at the same time, if
Speaker 3: that's not the real her out there, and it's better
Speaker 3: that she's.
Speaker 1: Not out there, what was your relationship with her like
Speaker 1: during her pro years.
Speaker 3: One of the reasons that I took the Olympic job
Speaker 3: was I knew i'd be coaching her, yeah, And I thought,
Speaker 3: who gets an opportunity to do that. Who gets an
Speaker 3: opportunity to coach a kid from when they're eighteen to
Speaker 3: twenty two and then coaching when they're thirty two. I
Speaker 3: thought this would be the greatest thing in the world
Speaker 3: that I get an opportunity to spend eight years with
Speaker 3: arguably the greatest player I've ever coached, and to me
Speaker 3: those eight years to go back there, I had an opportunity.
Speaker 3: I remember one of our first meetings to sit down
Speaker 3: with her, watch some film and go deep. Where's the fun,
Speaker 3: loving kid who played the joy of the game, loving life?
Speaker 3: I said, where did that person go? Because you are
Speaker 3: an angry player? You play angry? And I realized, you
Speaker 3: go to Europe for all that time, you're bounced around
Speaker 3: from this place to that place just to make money,
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden you become an angry basketball.
Speaker 2: Player mercenary exactly.
Speaker 3: And so I tried to bring some joy back into it.
Speaker 3: And we had a lot of great moments, a lot
Speaker 3: of fun times, and I could say probably as one
Speaker 3: of the highlights, if not the greatest highlight of my life,
Speaker 3: was winning an Olympic gold medal with her.
Speaker 1: You have a lot of lure behind you, and for
Speaker 1: a long time, I think back in the old days,
Speaker 1: when you could tell players it was the worst past
Speaker 1: you've ever seen in your life.
Speaker 2: You've got a reputation sometimes.
Speaker 1: For being tough, for being hard, for breaking people down
Speaker 1: at times, but also you have such a sweet relationship
Speaker 1: with so many of your players, and like you just said,
Speaker 1: you worked to bring the joy out of her game. Again,
Speaker 1: what do you think the most common misconception about you
Speaker 1: is as a coach.
Speaker 3: Well, when people come to our practices, they're shocked that
Speaker 3: hew little I yell like they think, you know, I'm
Speaker 3: a yeller and a screamer, and I actually I actually
Speaker 3: do not. Now. I said this to people all the time.
Speaker 3: I said, how many of you have kids? They raise
Speaker 3: their hand. I said, tell me, if you said the
Speaker 3: same thing to your kid three times in the last
Speaker 3: fifteen seconds, tell me your disposition doesn't change, right, right.
Speaker 3: So here's the thing. I make it personal, like I
Speaker 3: want them to think that I'm doing it for them
Speaker 3: because I am. I want them to believe that I
Speaker 3: believe in them because I do, and that I want
Speaker 3: more for them than they think they have. So I didn't.
Speaker 3: I didn't live that life. I took shortcuts all everywhere
Speaker 3: I went, like, you know, go to school, get great
Speaker 3: grades in the subjects I liked, not the ones I
Speaker 3: didn't like. You know, go do stuff until when I'm
Speaker 3: pretty good at it, doing something different. So now my kids.
Speaker 3: If they don't graduate, they don't go up on that wall.
Speaker 3: Why because I'm not going to let them make that mistake.
Speaker 3: If I don't get the most out of them, squeeze
Speaker 3: every drop out of them, then I feel like the
Speaker 3: promise that I made them when I was recruiting them,
Speaker 3: I'm not living up to it. Because at this point
Speaker 3: in my life, do I really need another national champion?
Speaker 3: How does that change my life? Not one iota. If
Speaker 3: Page gets one, it changes her life forever. So I
Speaker 3: don't want to leave any coach, and I don't know
Speaker 3: that you can do that by It's okay, sweetheart.
Speaker 1: No, the best coaches are the ones you don't want
Speaker 1: to disappoint, And in order to feel that way, you
Speaker 1: have to feel the weight of their expectations for you,
Speaker 1: and that requires some manipulation, even if it's not always nice.
Speaker 3: And playing at Yukon is the most rewarding place to
Speaker 3: play in America because if you're pretty good here, the
Speaker 3: entire country knows who you are.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 3: So it's hard to play here. The bar is set
Speaker 3: very high, but it's high for a reason because we
Speaker 3: think you can reach it. And it's my job to
Speaker 3: help you reach it. That's to love that.
Speaker 1: Okay, last two questions. Three players that didn't play at
Speaker 1: Yukon or on the national team that you most wish
Speaker 1: you could have.
Speaker 3: Coached, ooh, that didn't play on the national team.
Speaker 1: Because you got to coach well, or just someone you've
Speaker 1: never gotten to coach, either collegiately.
Speaker 2: Or in the national team that you most would like to.
Speaker 3: Wow man, And I've been so fortunate. You know how
Speaker 3: many Hall of Famers were on those Olympic teams that
Speaker 3: I can't think of anybody right off the bat that
Speaker 3: I h My goodness.
Speaker 2: Graceous we got all of them. What about right now?
Speaker 2: Maybe then?
Speaker 3: Right now? Well, obviously you know I love Juju and
Speaker 3: I love her game, the way she plays. When we
Speaker 3: played down in South Carolina, Joyce Edwards and Malaysia Full Wiley.
Speaker 3: I mean, those guys are just unbelievably good. You know,
Speaker 3: Lauren Betts with somebody that you know, we tried to
Speaker 3: get involved with and it's hard, but you know, I've
Speaker 3: coached kids like that, you know, when we had Carol Walters,
Speaker 3: you know, and you see what they can bring. And
Speaker 3: then when you have somebody like that, you're automatically a
Speaker 3: different team and you're automatically a favorite to win the
Speaker 3: national championship. You know players like that that are just wow.
Speaker 3: But the rest of them, I mean, god, Lee, I
Speaker 3: can't think of a single player that I didn't I
Speaker 3: didn't coach who I ended up coaching on the national
Speaker 3: team that I just thought.
Speaker 2: Man, man, oh man, You've had it pretty good.
Speaker 3: Nobody deserves this, no this much.
Speaker 1: So when you sit down to take a break, tournaments
Speaker 1: over and you have a little rest, You've got your
Speaker 1: own line of sauces and wines, you've got restaurants.
Speaker 2: What's a treat yourself day look like for Geno?
Speaker 3: Let's see, I'll give you a typical day answer. Get
Speaker 3: up in the morning, go get a workout in, grab
Speaker 3: some lunch, go play golf, hang out with a couple buddies,
Speaker 3: go home, have dinner with Kathy, and repeat every single day.
Speaker 3: And then when I'm at the shore, do all that
Speaker 3: except not GoF go to the beach, read a book.
Speaker 3: Try to knock off three or four books, you know,
Speaker 3: in the span of a month. And that's that's a
Speaker 3: good August for me.
Speaker 2: You got a book on your shelf right now, you're
Speaker 2: looking forward to.
Speaker 3: I just started, uh, the Song of Achilles. Matter of fact,
Speaker 3: the author is a Philadelphia woman, went to pen And
Speaker 3: I've always been a Greek mythology buff, like when I
Speaker 3: was a kid. That's kind of how I learned how
Speaker 3: to read English. You know. I picked anything that was available.
Speaker 3: I would read it like I'm the only person. I
Speaker 3: was the only person in my town who knew where
Speaker 3: Battle Creek, Michigan was, because that's what I make frost
Speaker 3: the flakes, So I would be boxes of cereal anything.
Speaker 3: And Greek mythology became where I could get lost, you know,
Speaker 3: and you know, the whole myth of the whole thing,
Speaker 3: the gods and warriors and just wow, I imagine if
Speaker 3: I could live that lit, you know, in those times. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so Song of Achilles. I just finished reading Gentlemen in Moscow.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you sold the Netflix show. Uh
Speaker 3: so it's harder doing the season. I just finished recently
Speaker 3: reading War by Bob Bob Woodward. So yeah, I'm all
Speaker 3: over the place.
Speaker 2: All over the place. I like.
Speaker 1: I like the obsession with mythology, and then you and
Speaker 1: then you spend your career surrounding yourself with uh, with
Speaker 1: the athenas of the world, the women heroes of the world.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I got a lot of Helen of Troy's you
Speaker 3: know people. That's that's right, that start Wars.
Speaker 2: Diana was the best of them. Coach. Thank you so
Speaker 2: much for the time. It was so great to talk
Speaker 2: to you.
Speaker 1: I have long wanted to have a conversation with you,
Speaker 1: and it didn't disappoint.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Well, obviously I'm a big fan and uh you've done
Speaker 3: a lot of great things in your career and your
Speaker 3: voice that everyone respects and admires. Thank you, and so
Speaker 3: it's been a it's been a treat for me as well.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 3: You're welcome.
Speaker 1: Thanks again so much to Gino for taking the We
Speaker 1: have to take another break when we come back. A
Speaker 1: reminder to never ever read the comments.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, Slash says.
Speaker 1: We always love that you're listening, but we want you
Speaker 1: to get in the game every day too. So here's
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Speaker 1: I got a stack of great women's sports merch with
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Speaker 2: Don't forget to subscribe, Rate and review. It's easy.
Speaker 1: Watch internet dudes be in pervs rating zero out of
Speaker 1: five predictable but no less pestiferous posts review. In an
Speaker 1: episode of her podcast Straight to Cam, Los Angeles, Sparks
Speaker 1: player Hammeron Brink told her co host Sadel Curry Lee
Speaker 1: that she's quote icked out by the male practice players
Speaker 1: that might show up to Sparks workouts. It's common for
Speaker 1: top level women's college and pro teams to have male
Speaker 1: practice players, but when the Sparks tryouts were advertised.
Speaker 2: On social media, Brink looked at the.
Speaker 1: Comments and saw a bunch of purvy bros cracking jokes.
Speaker 1: She said, quote all the comments are like let Cameron
Speaker 1: Brink back me down, or something about Rakia or something
Speaker 1: about Kelsey.
Speaker 2: End quote. I checked, and yeah, a lot.
Speaker 1: Of gross stuff, some smoopy clips from love and Basketball
Speaker 1: and the kind of creepiness you'd expect from anonymous boys
Speaker 1: on the interwebs. Brink said the team normally practices with
Speaker 1: male players from USC and suggested if they're soliciting new
Speaker 1: practice players from off the street, quote, they need to
Speaker 1: go through heavy HR training end quote.
Speaker 2: Agreed.
Speaker 1: Now, I've played pickup ball with guys dozens of times,
Speaker 1: and there's sort of an unspoken rule about keeping it
Speaker 1: about hoops and nothing else. So I hope that that's
Speaker 1: the kind of guy showing up to the tryouts and
Speaker 1: that they get it. But I don't blame Cam for
Speaker 1: being grossed out, and I'm glad she called it out
Speaker 1: because now the team knows they need to fully vet
Speaker 1: these guys. Also shout out to at the teletube who
Speaker 1: got it right, posting all you mfs that say you
Speaker 1: could drop forty on a WNBA team. Now's your time
Speaker 1: to prove it. Crickets right, boys, Now it's your turn
Speaker 1: rate and review. Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good game, GINO,
Speaker 1: Good game, ROSEBC, you boys.
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Speaker 1: With Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in
Speaker 1: partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find
Speaker 1: us on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers
Speaker 1: are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are
Speaker 1: Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our
Speaker 1: editors are Emily Rutterer, Britney Martinez and Grace Lynch. Our
Speaker 1: associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah
Speaker 1: Spain