VIDEO: Women's Basketball Media Availability

HEAD COACH DAWN STALEY TRANSCRIPT

– [Reporter] Any team players that you want to tell us about? Your scout team players that have some WNBA experience?

– Yeah, yeah, Tiff, and Tiff is actually leaving on Thursday, so she wanted to come in and get her lungs workin’. A’ja on the other hand, probably wants to continue that series they lost. But it’s always great to have them back in the fold, and hopefully some of our players are picking up some of the skill, not necessarily just having them around, just they talk, they understand how to play with anybody, like they got three guys on our scout team they were playing with, and they beat us today. And they haven’t played with those guys forever, and that’s what I want our players to pick up on. I mean, it’s always good to have some pros coming back to give them a glimpse of what our younger players want to aspire to become.

– [Reporter] When did you touch down, and are you still jet-lagged?

– I touched down, it was about 1:30 yesterday. Came in the office, and yeah, yeah, nothing.

– [Reporter] Was that a fun experience down in Puerto Rico?

– Yeah, it actually was a great experience. It was a lot different than my experiences with USA basketball as a coach because we took a young team, and when you take a young team, you never know what to expect, but it was a lot of newness, a lot of fun, it wasn’t as, didn’t seem as pressure-packed. So, I mean, I enjoy getting to know everybody and hopefully, some of the young ones may flourish in their future with USA basketball.

– [Reporter] I mean, it laid a good base, I guess, for what may be ahead, and not just the next Olympics, but the Olympics beyond that.

– Yeah, so I think the younger players need to have a glimpse of what the big picture looks like. You know, 2020 looks like we’ll get probably a good handful of the players that played in 2016. So if you’re young, I don’t think 2020’s out of the picture, but certainly things open up in 2024.

– [Reporter] What does 20 years mean to you, 20 years going to be?

– 20 years?

– [Reporter] For you, what does it mean?

– God, I didn’t see myself being in this profession for 20 years. 20 years, well 19 of them, 19 years have gone by so quickly, but they’ve been incredibly gratifying. You coach some players from, like CJ in our office, and Ari in our office, they work in our office. They were in my very first recruiting class at Temple, and they been with me almost their entire adult lives, or mine. And when your former players become your friends that you’ve been in the business a long time, but you also know that you keep people around you that understand you and know you and love you for who you are, the good, the bad, the ugly at times.

– [Reporter] Lots of times you see a strong player, they don’t make the greatest coaches, but what has worked for you, how have you been able to make that transformation?

– Well, I think it helps when you’re a point guard, you’re a coach on the floor out there, you have an understanding of what a coach needs, and I was fortunate enough to play and coach, so I was kind of doubly good in that. In the locker room, I could be a sounding board, or I can be someone that can explain stuff as to what the coach is seeing out there on the floor. And I been a player that my ego always has been in check, I only want to win, it doesn’t matter how it looks, I just want to win basketball games, and fortunately for me I took that into the coaching ranks, and I stuck around for a long time.

– [Reporter] Ty says she wants to follow in your footsteps, but she doesn’t know if she wants to be a coach yet. Could you see her coaching?

– I could see Ty coaching, I mean, Ty has a really good understanding of the game. Ty probably has to get out of being young, I wouldn’t do it as a youngster. I wouldn’t do it as like a 24-year-old because I probably could have ’cause I got an old soul, but a young 24 now is a young 24 where I don’t think they have enough perspective because they haven’t lived enough. And they live through their phones and social media, so you know as coaches, we keep those things in perspective.

– [Reporter] I know you been working out with the team, but what is the first official day of practice, what’s that like? Is there that same anticipation everyday?

– Well, you know the anticipation was there, of the first day. The execution wasn’t, but it’s good. I think it’s, we got a type of team that needs probably to understand both sides of the basketball. I think they realize they’re a good individual, we have good individual players, but how we get that individual mentality to mesh as a team, we’re a long way from that. So, you know we’re going to need a lot more practice to understand our worth and our value to each other. And it’ll come ’cause there are glimpses of it, but not enough.

– [Reporter] Coach, there’s a lot of excitement around the new recruits, how are they adjusting to the collegiate level?

– I think they’re doing great. I think there’s enough of their day that keeps them occupied that they’re not really thinking about the basketball portion of it. They probably are now, now that we’re starting practice, but I’m sure there’s a lot of hoopla around campus and around, just you know, if they’re goin’ to the malls, or the movies, they’re recognizable. But you know they haven’t won a game here yet, so we got to keep that part of it in perspective.

– [Reporter] Dawn, going back to having players come back like A’ja and Tiff, do they serve as extensions of you in reinforcing all the stuff that you hammered into them for four years?

– I would hope that they are that, but I want them to be an extension of themselves, and I want them to be an extension of being a pro athlete because all the 12 players on our team aspire to become what they are, so I just want them to be someone that can tell them the real deal in how to be a pro, both on and off the court and what it takes to sustain ’cause a lot of people can go and be a one-hit-wonder, but to have some sustainability and some longevity and play at the top level is a different mentality.

– [Reporter] I know it’s kind of early, but have you gotten a sense of what this team this year will be like? What kind of attributes are thriving this year?

– I mean, it’s really hard to tell, because they haven’t meshed as a team. I think we see glimpses of, in the visual talent, and some great plays but we haven’t, there’s a lot of dynamics to our team right now. Like you have some older players, like Ty and Kiki, they want to be pros, and they want to have a good senior year so they can raise their stock and be like a top draft pick. You have someone like Lele Grissett, she wants to break into playing full-time and a lot of minutes. You have some of our sophomores who had a glimpse of playing a whole lot of minutes, they want to continue that. Then you’ve got a freshman class that they just want to play right now, and they want to showcase their talents. So how we get those dynamics to work together, that’s pretty tough, but day by day, I think what we do is we just keep, we got to break ’em down. You got to break ’em down. You got to break ’em down, and then you got to build them up so they’re playing with confidence and they’re playing together. ‘Cause I don’t want us to assume because we have a team full of talent that it’s just an automatic win, and we know that we can’t go on to the season thinking that way.

– [Reporter] Dawn, I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up with the pay-for-play, but you know South Carolina, one of the few states that’s proposing something like that for our college athletes, is that something that you would be in favor of?

– You know what, I was told by somebody that’s in the thick of things, that if I mention it, I could get subpoenaed to be a part of the case, and I don’t want to be that. What I want is everybody to be happy. So that’s as far as I’m going to go with that, I want everybody to be happy, I want the NCAA to be happy, I want the players to be happy, I want the student athletes to be happy, I want a happy ending.

– Sure.

– [Reporter] Do you have a sense of how quickly the freshman might be able to contribute? Do you think you could ease them in early in the year, or they could be forced to play?

– Oh, they going to play, they got to play. There’s some returners, but not enough to sustain. They have to play and contribute right away, and I think they will be up for that challenge.

– [Reporter] How important does that make this next month now, given how challenging the non-conference is?

– Well, I think all of summer was important. I think the 16 practices that we had in the pre-season, I think the 26 or 27 practices that we had before our first game, they’re all important. I just think that how much they process and learn and how much they’re able to connect the days are going to be truly important, and it’s hard. It’s hard, the pace that they have to play at, the things that we’re implementing on both sides of the ball is much different than they’ve ever experienced. So they have to be quick learners when it comes to that.

– [Reporter] You mentioned Lele, has she taken a big step forward this summer?

– Yeah, Lele is playing well. We’re probably going to have to move her around a little bit more, most of her reps have been at the guard position, but I think her best contributions will be playing some post-play.

– [Reporter] You mentioned Lele playing guard and forward with Kiki and Brea’s versatility, is that something that can be an attribute of this team this year? Is it you have a lot of players who are versatile and can play all over the place?

– Yeah, well Kiki will be primarily being a stretch-forward for us, and Brea is a little bit different in that. She’s got a little bit more versatility in that she can play perimeter, she can post up, we can post small and play her at the stretch-forward position. She embraces anything we throw at her. She’s very intelligent. She doesn’t mind the physicality of playing, and she’s probably the most physically ready to play at this level, and she really hadn’t lifted a weight before she got here, but she just embraces that. She’s kind of a utility player that can play all over the place and embrace, she embraces it all.

– [Moderator] Last question for Coach?

– [Reporter] Any update on Destiny or any timeframe when you might know about anything her?

– No, I think we’re in the mix of the waiver, so we’re just waiting to hear back.

– [Reporter] But it has been submitted?

– I believe so, yeah, but I’ve been gone, but I was hoping I come back to some good news, but not yet.

– Thanks, Coach.

SENIOR GUARD TYASHA HARRIS, FRESHMAN GUARD BREA BEAL TRANSCRIPT

– [Reporter] First day, what’s it like? That, first, first official practice for you guys?

– [Tyasha] Um, it was a great feeling just because it was the first official, but I mean, we been going for a long time. It’s just longer drills, and um, I think we’re getting better, and we going to try to get better every day.

– [Brea] I think moreso for me, uh, you know, it was a, you know, eye-opener, ’cause I’m not used to those, you know, three-hour practices coming from high school. It was more of like a hour and a half, so it, it was tiring, but it, it is exciting.

– [Reporter] Ty, what’s it like to have so many freshman on one team now?

– [Tyasha] It’s great, just because they like my little sisters, and uh, they’re willing to learn, and they’re, they have open ears, and uh, they like to get coached so it’s, that’s a good thing.

– [Reporter] Is it hard at all? Is it, is it tough kind of adjusting to?

– [Tyasha] No, it’s not tough because I mean, they’re, they were good, good kids, I mean, they were good athletes and players coming out of high school. So they know what it is expected, and we have standards, so they live up to it.

– [Reporter] You’ve had seniors that you’ve looked up to before and kind of emulated, now, so now it’s kind of your turn now to sort of show the young ones how, uh, how to get it done. So just talk about that role you have.

– [Tyasha] Yes, sir. Um, I mean, I’ve been a leader since, uh, my sophomore year, but uh, obviously they’re younger, so it’s kind of just showing them the ropes, and um, leaving my legacy here, so they can continue it on.

– [Reporter] Ty, since you have so many youngsters on the team this year, uh, does it seem like you’re more of a big sister or mom to these young ladies?

– [Tyasha] Big sister. Not a mom. We not going to go that old.

– [Reporter] Ty, did you, uh, have to fight the urge to kind of dump it down to A’ja, down the middle there when she was on the court?

– [Tyasha] No, because she wasn’t on my team, so it was all right.

– [Reporter] Brea, how quickly do you think the freshman can contribute to this team?

– [Brea] I think we’re willing to learn, we’re willing to, you know, we go through, uh, trial and error, so I think with that, havin’, you know, the upperclass there to guide us, and the coaches there to guide us, like, we want to learn, we want to be yelled at, so it, it won’t take long.

– [Reporter] What’s been the hardest transition from the high school to the collegiate level for you guys?

– [Brea] I think in the collegiate level, it’s like, you got to know what you’re doing. You got to be able to get out there, when you’re thrown out there, and know what spot you’re in, what position you’re in, so that’s the biggest challenge.

– [Reporter] You know, Ty, going from one of the most dominant players, you know, in the middle, that’s played, you know, college basketball. What’s the, what’s the identity now of this team without A’ja? You think is it more guard-heavy? Is it still inside out? Do you guys have an identity yet on offense?

– [Tyasha] Um, I don’t think we have an identity just because everybody’s versatile, I mean, she plays post and guard, and um, there’s a lot of people who can go interchange in every spot. But, I mean, we’re going to be good, I feel like, and um, we’re just going to try to figure out and try to flow with everything, and see how it goes.

– [Reporter] Ty, just how excited are you to start your senior season? Or are you maybe a little melancholy because this is the end?

– [Tyasha] Um, ah, it’s bittersweet, sweet. I mean, I, um, I’m ready, excited to play, but I don’t want to go too fast ’cause then it’s next level.

– [Reporter] It’s, is it hard to believe? It seems like just yesterday you were the freshman on the national championship team and now you’re a senior?

– [Tyasha] It is, it is. I mean, it goes by fast. I remember my freshman year, I was like, “I want to just be a junior so that I can be adjusted,” but now I’m like, “I want to be a freshman again,” ’cause, I mean, everybody was telling me it was going to go by quick, and I was like, “Naw, we got this long preseason, this and that,” but it does go by quick. As soon as the season starts.

– [Reporter] It seems like you kind of just walked on campus, as a newcomer. I mean, how, has it really flown by that fast?

– [Tyasha] It, it does. It really do.

– [Reporter] It’s Coach Staley’s 20th season as a head coach. How special is it to be part of her 20th season?

– [Tyasha] Um, it’s amazing. I mean, I only been a part of three, but it’s amazing feeling just for her, all her accomplishments and everything she been through. Especially ’cause I want to follow her footsteps.

– [Reporter] How strange is it to, or is it strange, you know, you see your coach, win a uh, world title, just a few days ago, and now she’s back here coaching you guys. Is that an eye-opener for you guys to know she’s such a figure on the world stage too?

– [Brea] I think more so for me since it is my freshman year, and it’s crazy to think she was just out of the country, she won that, and now she’s back here, right in front of me, teaching me what to do, like, it is, it’s kind of crazy.

– [Tyasha] It ups our, it ups our intensity too, Just because, like, you know, she playing, coaching pros, and they know everything, and they do everything, little things, so now, it just, it’s more intense on us.

– [Reporter] And her energy, I imagine it’s pretty high.

– [Tyasha] Yeah, yeah, yes, it is.

– [Reporter] You said you want to follow in her footsteps? Does that mean you want to be a coach one day?

– [Tyasha] I don’t know yet, but her story is that she didn’t want to be a coach either until later on, so, I say no right now, but it could change.

– [Moderator] Anything else for Ty and Brea?

– [Reporter] Brea, what’s been the biggest piece of advice from Coach Staley early on in this one? Of early on in your time here?

– [Brea] It’s really like, when you’re going to get down on yourself, you just got to keep fighting. The coaches are going to get on you non-stop, so you got to know, you got to keep pushing every step of the way.