UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – On Friday afternoon the Penn State Lady Lions formally introduced new head coach Carolyn Kieger. A young rising coach who left her alma mater Marquette following two straight Big East titles, Kieger is poised to take the reins and bring the Lady Lions to national prominence.
Following the welcome celebration in the Bryce Jordan Center Friday, here are a few takeaways from the Lady Lions' exciting day.
Relationships Matter
Kieger wants to establish a team attitude centered around creating relationships with her players and her coaches.
"What attracted me to Penn State was the unmatched commitment from the university to develop young people and better student-athletes," Kieger said. "To grow better people, better students and better players."
Kieger has already met multiple times with her team and is working on hiring her new staff as soon as she can. She plans on building relationships with her team which she believes will eventually lead to a championship.
"Most of all I coach for relationships. If you have strong, deep relationships you get better player leadership," Kieger said. "With better player leadership comes championships. Relationships always come before leadership and leadership always comes before championships. We will build deep relationships and we will develop tremendous leaders. And we will in turn win championships because of that process."
Offensive Strategy
A former point guard and four-year letter winner at Marquette, Kieger plans to play an up-tempo offense with the Lady Lions that will hopefully energize fans at the Bryce Jordan Center. She is the all-time assists leader at Marquette as well as a three-year captain. That should help the maturation of young guards on the current Lady Lions squad such as upcoming sophomore Karisma Ortiz.
"Offensively, we are going to push tempo. We want to score as many points as possible in the first 10 seconds," Kieger said. "We want to turn the Bryce Jordan Center into a track meet and run people off the floor. We will be unselfish and we will be purposeful with our actions. We will become the standard of exciting, fast-paced, positionless basketball."
While Penn State played an up-tempo game last year, Kieger wants to take this to an even higher extreme.
"First and foremost, I think it's all going to be about the transition from when we obtain the ball, and that's going to be something we're going to implement right away," Kieger said. "How fast can we get the ball up the floor with the pass or the dribble?"
Big Goals
After a nine-win season in her first year at Marquette, Kieger has had three straight winning seasons. She has also made the second round of the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons, but that is not the end goal. The end goal is a national title.
"There are a lot of reasons why I coach," Kieger said. "I love to compete, I love to win, I love to build programs of excellence. You coach to pursue national championships. The commitment from Sandy Barbour and Penn State to building an elite women's basketball program is second to none."
She went on the discuss her admiration for men's wrestling coach Cael Sanderson and what he has built at Penn State, winning eight national championships in nine years.
"His program is the model for all NCAA sports right now. I'm excited to be around coaches like him, coach [James] Franklin, coach [Patrick] Chambers, and all the other great coaches in our athletic department."
Igniting a Community
One of the major keys for Barbour when looking for a head coach is someone who can "ignite a community" and she received feedback that Kieger could absolutely do just that. If Kieger's intensity and passion in her opening speech is any indication, Barbour accomplished that goal.
"I promise to you that we will produce a product that you will be proud of, a team that you will want to rally behind and a culture that will embrace you whenever you choose to come home," Kieger said.
Following the celebration Friday and a fun weekend of Blue-White activities around campus over the weekend, Kieger is truly embracing the Blue and White, and ready to take that into the Bryce Jordan Center next fall.
