Penn State Women's BasketballMedia Day -- Head Coach Coquese Washington
Oct. 11, 2016
Q: How have the workouts been going so far?
A: Workouts have been going fantastic. It's been really good having the kids who struggled with some injuries last year, having them back on the court. Sierra Moore and Amari Carter in particular. You know, having those guys back out there, workouts have been going really well and I'm really pleased with where our progress is right now.
Q: Are any of the three that were injured that are coming back, are any of them restricted or is everything full blown?
A: They're not restricted, so to speak, and what I mean by that is they've been cleared for practice and all that. And now you're at that point where you have to see how their bodies hold up, how their knees hold up going from doing half court stuff, going from doing drills and what not to actually playing, playing and practicing multiple days for 90 minutes to two hour stretches. That's part of another rehab that can go a lot slower. So far so good, but it's been a week of practice and so we need to see how they react to long-term practice and things of that nature.
Q: What's the dynamic of having a new and different assistant coach on the staff and in the practice rooms? Has it been much different?
A: It's been certainly a positive. Tamika [Jeter] brings a lot of energy. She brings a lot of knowledge. She's a fantastic teacher. She's really bonded well and built great relationships with our post players very quickly. I think it's allowed our staff to have tremendous chemistry at this point in the season and I think every team, every year is a little bit different. You graduate some seniors. You bring in some freshman. You have changes in your staff and it's always interesting to see how all of those dynamics will work together and I think with all the new faces that we have with the program, it's been very positive. It's exciting where we are from a chemistry standpoint as a program, as a staff and as a team.
Q: You have been turning a lot of players over and one of them was your second leading scorer in (Bri) Banks. How do you think you will replace her production?
A: I think we'll replace her production with some of the new faces. I think Amari Carter is somebody who can put some points on the board for us. I think our two freshman, Jaida Travascio-Green and Siyeh Frazier, have shown promise early in practice and I'd like to get a little bit more out of our post kids, have them be a little bit more impactful. I don't know that we're not looking for one person to replace Bri Banks, but I think we're looking to get meaningful productivity from a number of players to replace what Bri gave us on the court.
Q: You mentioned (Jaida)Travascio-Green and (Siyeh) Frazier. Can you tell us just a little bit about what you saw and what made you want to bring them here?
A: Well Jaida Travascio-Green is a fantastic three-point shooter, and she's a shooter with size. At 6'2", she has the ability to see over people, to shoot over people and to knock down shots. Siyeh Frazier is an incredible athlete. She's a defensive dynamo, really gets after it on the defensive end of the floor, able to get to the basket and be explosive in that respect, so I expect both of them to be impact players for us this year.
Q: Do you expect them to make an immediate impact or is that going to be avoided?
A: Absolutley. Immediately. Yes. You know, we've got a young team. We've got nine freshmen and sophomores on the roster and I expect all nine of those guys to have roles on this team and to be impactful on game day. That could change game-to-game based on matchups and lineups and things of that nature but I have a lot of confidence in all of our freshmen and sophomores that they can be players for us and they can help us night in and night out.
Q: For the first time you guys were able to do those full team practices over the summer, how do you think that's going to affect the season? How does that affect your preparation this fall?
A: It allowed us to get going a little earlier. We tried not to look at them as practices so much as workouts and allow us to establish our foundation so that was our approach to it. It allowed us to kind of set the foundation a little bit early and then when we got to practice it wasn't starting from scratch. It was just building on what we have slowly started to work on in the summer. I think it was a really, really good situation for our freshmen. They got to kind of get thrown into the fire in terms of understanding how much information it is on the college levels, how many plays we have, thinking about all the defenses, all the out-of-bounds plays. So being able for them to kind of have that experience in the summer just made it easier for them to transition into the college game.
Q: Coach, will you tell us some of your returning players that have taken up even another level would take you guys to another level that you're kind of counting on?
A: Well, I've been really impressed so far with Teniya Page and how she's returned and I think she's somebody that can be one of the best point guards in the country with continued growth, with continued development and with continued confidence. She's returned, come back to campus in really good form in all aspects. I think Peyton Whitted and Kaliyah Mitchell and two of our seniors and two of our captains really have impressed me with their leadership. They've impressed me with their focus and their increased work ethic. Typically with seniors, you want to see that and we've seen that out of them so I anticipate those two could be poised to have really fantastic senior campaigns.
Q: You have 14 on the roster. There have been times in the past where numbers weren't exactly all there. How much of a benefit is that going to have a roster that full that you can use?
A: Well we do have 14 on the roster. Keke Sevillian will be taking the first semester to focus on some personal issues, so she won't suit up for the first semester, so that leaves us with 13. And the great thing about the 13 that we have is all of them. I anticipate all of them being able to be on the floor on game day and give us something. We're one week into practice. We're still finding our identity with so many new players, but it's a good way of finding our identity, because so many people are capable of performing and they're really looking at working together as a team. Sometimes at this point, you could have people jockeying for a position, 'I want to be a starter or I want to,' and it's been really interesting. We don't have any of that. They're completely focused on learning what they need to learn to be the best that they can be and being the best that they can be for the team. That's been really, really cool to see and I think it's going to pay dividends for us once we get on the court on game day.
Q: Does it make it interesting for you as you go through the process of trying to figure out who you want to start and put in rotation?
A: Well, what makes it good for me is I can just play around with different lineups. I think we have a lot of versatility on our team this year and when I look at our schedule, we play a lot of different styles and different types of teams. The versatility we have on our roster is going to allow us to play different lineups to match up with other teams and play different lineups to create mismatches for our opponents, and when you have a team full of personalities who don't care about anything other than what's in the best interest of the team, it makes it easier for us to play around with lineups this early in the season.
Q: You guys ranked 12th in scoring defense and 14th in assist-to-turnover ratio. Do you think that having some of the returners will be able to give you better ranks in that regard?
A: Well defense has been a focus. We definitely want to be a better defensive team and there's a number of different things that we need to do to be a better defensive team. I think that having depth is one thing that will help us. I'm not playing people so long in moments of fatigue so that we can be more competitive on the defensive end. I also think that having more experienced players, I think we can make better decisions with the ball on the offensive end. I'm really pleased with where we are in both of those areas right now but keep being mindful that we have some room to grow and we want to continue to get better in both of those areas.
Q: Coach, the Big Ten as a whole, is it better than it has been? I know Maryland's kind of been the national player of the league. Is it deeper? What are you facing there?
A: I think the Big Ten is a deep conference. I think often we beat up on each other. Certainly Maryland and Ohio State right now kind of lead the charge, but when you look at the rest of the conference and what they bring back: Michigan brings back I think pretty much everybody from and NCAA tournament team, Indiana brings back their starting five, Michigan State is going to be competitive again and the other thing what I think is a hallmark of our conference is just the incredible coaching. We're a conference where there's no style in the Big Ten. Coaches play a variety of styles offensively, defensively, set plays, motion offense, transition, walk it up, and I think that helps us. You've got to be on your toes. When you look at the caliber of players, you look at the WNBA draft last year, I think the Big Ten had four out of the top six draft picks or the first three went to Connecticut and then the Big Ten had the next four or five or something like that. There's really good players in this conference. There's dynamic players and we have arguably the player in the country coming back in the Big Ten in Kelsey Mitchell. She led the nation in scoring last year so there's tremendous talent from a player standpoint. There's tremendous talent from a coaching standpoint and I think that's what makes our league one of the toughest leagues in the country to perform.
Q: The women's game has concerned a lot of people towards the end of last year were saying that the UCONN dynasty was kind of hurting the game, because they win every year. I think you know where my drift is. Is that a good or is that a bad thing or where do you come down on what they've been doing to basically the rest of the country for the last several years?
A: I don't think having a good team is a bad thing. You look in most sports leagues and there's a dominant team. The Patriots, you know, they kind of dominate the NFL. In men's basketball, Duke is pretty good year in and year out. I'm not sure why the emphasis so much is on UCONN. They certainly have had a great run, but I think if you look beyond that game, beyond the national championship game and you look at the Sweet 16 games, there are so many competitive games. There's so many great games, outside of UConn, you look at the rest of the teams that were in the Final Four, those teams change every year, so I think our game is very competitive. I think women's basketball is as competitive as it's ever been and I don't think UConn, where they are, is bad for the league, bad for the game. If anything, it's good for the game, because it's making everybody else be better.
Q: Any rule changes to note this year?
A: No rule changes this year, but stay tuned for 2017-2018.
Q: Sarah McMurtry was a walk on at this point last year and now she is a team captain, what has surprised you most about her over the past year?
A: I can't say anything surprised me. What I love about Sarah is, number one, her dedication to being a great teammate. Her focus is completely on what she can do to help the team be the best that the team can be. So, sacrifice is a part of who she is. She is somebody who her teammates really respect. She doesn't speak a lot and she doesn't speak loudly. You are probably too old to remember E.F. Hutton but, when she talks, everybody gets quiet and they listen to what she has to say because she uses her words wisely and impactfully. So, when it came time for us to pick captains, it was almost a no brainer that she was somebody who would be a great leader for us, and she has been.