Stone Addresses Media Monday
December 04, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Head coach Lisa Stone addressed the media Monday as part of Wisconsin's weekly press conference. The Badgers close out a four-game homestand this week. First up is Illinois-Chicago at 7 p.m. Thursday. Wisconsin will then battle Albany at 1:30 p.m. Sunday in the Kohl Center.
QUESTION #1: Lisa, Mariah has played pretty consistently lately, offensively, defensively. Her outside shooting has been good. I know that you base starting on what they do in practice, but have you pondered maybe putting Mariah in the starting lineup to maybe even prepare her for the Big Ten season '
LISA STONE: Right now I think we have a pretty solid rotation of nine, just looking over minutes played over the last few games. Certainly I like our rotation right now. I like the fact that we're bringing kids along and things are going well for us. And, you know, the wheel's not flat yet, so why fix it.
But you're right about Mariah. She's showing great improvement. I think you also see Teah Gant. She's battling as well. I think it's not who starts the game. It's who finishes the game. Mariah gave us a great spark yesterday. She came off the bench. She had two 3's and a nice runner to the basket, and you're right, defensively has picked it up.
But all of our freshmen have, and I like what I see. I like the balance we have. And the starting nod goes to some practice things and some continuity offensively, but I also like the spark we're getting. You want some energy off the bench, and I think that we 're getting that right now.
QUESTION #2: Lisa, at the beginning of the season, you talked about having a lot of options, not exactly knowing what you had. Do you feel like you have more options now that you know people like Mariah and Teah are playing so well off the bench'
STONE: Well, and likewise I think it's fair to say too, you put Brittany Heins in there, who is hampered by a little bit of an injury, she gives us a nice spark. Sarah Ingison has done a nice job for us out in Vegas, really stepped in. Rae Lin was not feeling well and Sarah picked up. I just, I like our depth. And you're right, the options were always something that we talked about, and it's coming a bit to fruition right now, a lot of ways to go on all of them, along with our returning players. But I do like what I see, and we're getting great contributions from our bench.
QUESTION #3: From the beginning of the season until now, what impresses you most about Dunham's progress'
STONE: Her defense. She's bought in. And she admitted herself, I want to go from a high school player to a college player a little quicker. And it took a week or two to find that out and to get excited about playing on the defensive end. She's one of our most consistent rebounders, obviously can score for us. And she's a team-builder. She's got a personality that 's electric, and she's always had that. And now to combine that with her play, knowing her time on the floor is very important to us and our success, her growth and maturity, it gets better every day.
QUESTION #4: Lisa, you've talked about teaching Danielle. And what specifically have you tried to work with her as far as staying out of the foul trouble'
STONE: Well, first just slowing down. She goes very fast. If you go back to our Southern Miss game, our opening tip, caught it, went over the backboard. I mean, she's just going too fast. And likewise I think that happens defensively, gets pretty excited. The last few teams that we've played have had a very athletic four, power forward, and that's Danielle's match-up.
And if you look at Danielle, the word athleticism comes into play when you think of Danielle Ward. We thought she'd play probably one of her more, one of her better defensive games that she's played since she's been here last night, stayed out of foul trouble. She wants to block shots. We did have eight blocked shots, and she only had a couple fouls. And she's slowing down a little bit. I think that has a lot to do with both ends of the floor.
We want to get her to be a little bit more aggressive on the rebounds. And I thought both she and Caitlin came out of the locker room yesterday with that energy on the defensive end and really hit the boards hard. We were getting out-rebounded, and both she and Caitlin, I thought, gave us a great spark in that category. That doesn't always get written about, but Danielle is maturing and she's getting better. She 's a talent. She's a gift. And we know what she can do.
QUESTION #5: You talked about going nine deep and all the contributions you're getting from everybody. It seems like sometimes there's almost two philosophies on coaching towards the end of the season. Some coaches like to prepare more of just a seven-person rotation rather than nine. Which side do you buy into'
STONE: Whatever is working. I've taken teams to the Sweet 16 with a seven-player rotation. That was due to injury and some adversity that our team faced. I think seven is too short a bench. I think you need to go to at least eight, and I think nine is a really nice number. And when you're two deep at each position, that offers a lot. And it depends on who you're playing. We might need a bigger lineup. We might need a quicker lineup.
We might need to play defense for a more sustained time, and who's going to be best in that situation. If we now are, we implement our full-court press, we have a better pressing team. So I like the fact that we're nine and 10. Injuries, hopefully we stay away from them, and we've got a couple on the mend right now trying to get back. But I like the fact that we can go at least four or five deep on the bench.
QUESTION #6: What's the background on the scheduling of these two opponents' Are there any connections to either squad '
STONE: Well, UIC obviously is close. And if you 're doing a return with UIC, it's a close game. It's Chicago. We recruit a lot in that area. And Albany has got a Wisconsin connection that at this point right now I've not studied Albany enough, but Donna Freitag can fill you in on that. There's a Wisconsin connection with Albany coming back.
I think I said that, again, with Southern Miss, with Biland coming back, we as coaches try to take kids back home and be able to play back home in front of their home crowds, and to allow that to happen with Southern Miss, something that we looked into.
QUESTION #7: With your team off to the best start since you took over here, how much of the feeling right now as you walk around is this is what I came here for' Is it different when you walk around and you hear from other coaches, from people on campus, from fans, even just the looks in your players ' eyes'
STONE: Well, it's a fun group. I met with six of them already this morning, and they're fired up. You know, and it 's important that we stay grounded, not get too high or too low, we stay pretty grounded and continue to improve. I'm really looking forward to practice. I woke up at 5:00 this morning excited that we have a day of practice before a game.
We've been on this NBA schedule here where it's been all scouting reports and then you play a game. And we've endured that with a young team. Tomorrow we go back to basketball camp. I'm excited about that. But this team is unique. They're unique in their ways. You're right. This is why I came here, and I'm excited about it. There's winning teams all around me, and success breeds success, and I hope that we can keep things going.
QUESTION #8: Lisa, what do you look for from your walk-ons, and what have you seen from Ericka and what did you see from Annie before she was hurt'
STONE: Well, I just met with Annie as well, and we're trying to get her back. Obviously she's hampered a little bit. We 'll get her back. We need her. She's a nice shooting guard. She 's got great energy, defensively has caught on quick, very bright player. And we could use her right now in the rotation.
Ericka is a great member of our team. She's a great team-builder. She 's got a tremendous attitude and works hard in practice. She's on the scout team very often and works very hard. She's got a big smile on her face and does nothing but bring great chemistry to our team.
QUESTION #9: I'll ask about two of the other freshmen then. You mentioned Sarah and Brittany a little bit now. Brittany's minutes have gone down recently because of her injury, I take it. And now Sarah seems like she's getting sort of short minutes at a time. Can you just tell us about their development'
STONE: I think certainly the game dictates what happens. I talked with Sarah and Rae Lin, if you see Jolene at the point, it might be from a defensive size standpoint just for a few possessions. I think the game dictates their minutes played, who can get inside a defense. They're young. They're 18-year-old freshmen. Rae Lin sputtered a little bit against UNLV, and Sarah came in and did a really nice job.
The game last night, I thought Rae Lin got inside the defense a little bit better, and some things that each of them need to work on. So their minutes, they're dictated. It's not trying to be an even deal. It's what the game dictates. Brittany Heins has been slowed by her injury. Her ankle is still real sore. But she'll be fine. She's a great player, and you'll see her really, really rise as we get going.
