March 20, 2025 • 48 mins
Geno Auriemma, UConn head coach and the winningest head coach in college basketball history, joins Sarah to share why Paige Bueckers’ biggest strength is her delusion, changes he'd make to the NCAA Tournament format, how his approach to coaching differs from the regular season to the tournament, and how he found out Diana Taurasi was retiring. Plus, a new stadium in the Mile High City and Cam Brink gets an "ick."
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where for the
first time in our lives, we're actually glad that one
specific bracket challenge doesn't include a women's bracket, probably because
anyone smart enough to fill out a women's bracket knows
better than to be interested in a trip to Mars
on a piece of SpaceX debris. It's Thursday, March twentieth,
and on today's show, we'll be talking to legendary Yukon
(00:22):
hoops coach Gino Oriama about why being delusional is a
good thing at least of your pagebackers, the changes that
he wants to see in the NCAA tourney format, how
his coaching approach differs when it's NCAA tournament time, and
the moment he officially retired from playing basketball, Plus a
comedy we can't wait to watch, a warning to all
who apply, and the wait for Unrivaled begins again. That's
(00:44):
all coming up right after this welcome back slices. Here's
what you need to know today. Let's start with Unrivaled,
where the inaugural season wrapped up on Monday with Rose
BC taking the chachampionship with a sixty two to fifty
four win over Vinyl BC, one day after scoring thirty
(01:05):
nine points in the semi finals against the Laces.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Chelsea Gray recorded.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Eighteen in the final, including a half court buzzer beater
to give her Rose team a two point lead heading
into the fourth quarter. It was Britney Sykes who scored
the championship winning shot, a free throw to finish the
game with her season high twenty one points. Each Rose
player took home fifty K in prize money, and Gray
was named Finals MVP. By the Way, shout out to
(01:29):
Rose coach Nola Henry and Vinyl coach Teresa Weatherspoon, the
two teams with women at the helm ended up in
the championship coincidence, we think not.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
One last piece of unrivaled news.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
To wrap up a spectacular inaugural season, the league also
announced the remainder of its end of season award winners,
with Nafisa Collier earning MVP honors, Angel Reese, who missed
the championship game with a hand injury, taking home Defensive
Player of the Year, and DJ Sackman, whose Lunar Owls
posted a thirteen to one regular season record, named Coach
of the Year to College Oops while Tomorrow is the
(02:02):
official start of the sixty four team NCAA Women's college
basketball bracket. We've got two more first four games today,
including Niches alma mater, William and Mary taking on High
Point tonight at nine pm Eastern.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And while we're.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Talking March madness, don't forget to fill out a bracket.
To be part of our good game pool. You got
to get it in before eleven thirty am Eastern on Friday.
Link is in the show notes. More Women Soups. There's
a scripted comedy show about the WNBA in the works
called The w It'll be executive produced by Cheneo Gumackay,
who played in the WNBA till twenty twenty three and
(02:37):
is now an analyst for ESPN, and her longtime agent,
Allison Gaylor, with the show loosely based on their relationship.
The show will be developed by Peacock, with Carly Mensch
and Liz Flahive, the creators of Netflix hit Glow, serving
as showrunners.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Even More Women Soups.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
The ESPN original series Full Court Press has been renewed
for a second season. The series gives viewers unmatched access
insight into the journeys of select hoopers at schools across
the country through exclusive interviews.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Game footage, and more.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
This upcoming season will feature Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo,
USC forward Kiki Eriefen, and LSU guard Flaje Johnson. The
first season, produced by Omaha Productions and Words and Pictures
in partnership with the.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Worldwide Leader, premiered in May of last year.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That one featured iOS Kaitlin Clark, South Carolina's Camilla Cardoso
and UCLA's Kiki Rice. It was a really good watch.
I'm super excited for this edition. First two episodes of
this Full Court Press Season two will premiere May third
at one pm Eastern on ESPN. To the NWSL, where
the owners of Expansion Side Denver announced plans this week
(03:41):
to build a fourteen thoy five hundred seat stadium. The
brand new facility will be located at Santa Fe Yards,
a spot just inside the city limits that has access
to public transportation. While the team, which doesn't yet have
an official name, will begin play in twenty twenty six,
they'll have to wait a little longer to play in
the stadium, which is expected to open into twenty eight
per ESPN. Details on a training facility and temporary stadium
(04:04):
are expected to be announced later this month.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
More NWSL news.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Racing Louisville's Bethany Balser, one of the league's most prolific
scorers and a former NWSL Rookie of the Year, announced
on social media that she's taking some time away from
soccer to focus on her mental health.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
I've always preached that when soccer is no longer fun
and you don't find joy in doing it, something needs
to change, and it seems I haven't been listening to
myself for a while. The last year and a half,
I've found my identity slowly slipping away. Being consumed with
soccer and being a professional athlete, I've been chasing things
that are material. I've become bitter and have lost my
(04:39):
love and joy for the game. End quote, per ESPN's Jeffcasoof,
a Racing Louisville spokesperson, confirmed that Balser has not officially
decided on taking leave, and she remains on the team's
active roster as an excused absence. Last August, Balser was
traded to Louisville by the Seattle Rain. At the time,
her thirty three goals over the previous five years were
tied for third in the NWSL. She's long but a
(05:00):
strong advocate for mental health, and last year she launched
a brand called BB eight Bring Your Best. In her
Instagram post, Balser went on to say that she's excited
to explore her identity outside of the sport and that
she's confident she'll return to the field again. We're sending
Bethany our best and we're happy she's taking care of herself.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
We got to take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
When we come back, we get d Lulu with coach
Gino Oriema stick around.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Joining us now.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
He's the head coach of the Yukon women's basketball team.
He holds the record for most wins and highest winning
percentage among college coaches men's or women's. Since becoming head
coach at nineteen eighty five, he's led Yukon to nineteen
undefeated conference seasons, including six that were part of undefeated
overall seasons. He's led the Huskies to eleven national championships,
the most in women's college basketball history, and has won
eight National Naysmith College Coach of the Year awards in
(05:54):
his time as coach to the US national basketball team.
The team won two World championships and two Olympic gold medals.
He's in the Naysmith Oral Basketball Hall of Fame and
the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. He's got his own restaurants,
wines and sauces, And contrary to popular belief, he was
not the inspiration for the Carl Fredrickson character in Up.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's gino Oriema. What's up? Coach?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
It's always a long bio no matter how much you
try to trim it. Coach, just an unbelievable career and
here we are again, getting ready for another NCAA tournament.
I have to say we have mostly talked about parody
in the women's game this year. In fact, just the
second time in nineteen years that there is no zero
or one loss team in the field. So I have
to start by asking you when exactly would you say
(06:35):
Yukon stopped being bad for women's basketball.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Uh, yeah, it's a good way to put it. I
think there was a drop off right after FISA Katie
Lou when that group graduated. I think there was a
drop off in the level of talent that we had
at Connecticut, and that coincided with more players going to
(07:03):
more diverse schools, and so as people were getting better,
we came down a little bit, and so that had
we been able to maintain that. But it's hard to
go to the Final four every year, you know, and
we went, well, we've gone fifteen out of the last
(07:24):
sixteen year or something.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Not bad. Not bad. Yeah, I mean in a lot
of ways, it.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Was I think, and I used to argue this on
ESPN all the time. It was good for the game
to have this team that everyone was trying to knock off.
And now it's good for the game that there are
many teams that people want to watch and get behind.
It's all about the cycles and the different times. I
want to actually go back to the very beginning. I
don't know if I really know the story of why
(07:48):
you ended up in women's basketball. You emigrated with your
family from Italy when you were seven, You taught yourself English,
Your parents were working factory jobs in Pennsylvania. How do
you end up a hoops fan and end up coaching women?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Well, when we came over here, we moved in with
my uncle and my aunt, and they happened to live
right across the street from an elementary school. Dad had
a playground and I happened a good fortune of living
next door to a guy that was older than me.
He was probably twelve, I was seven eight. So he
(08:22):
took me under his wing. We would get a catch
every day, and baseball became my first love. I wanted
to play baseball every single day, winter, summer, spring fall.
I didn't care. So I grew up just doing that.
And then you know, I met some guys. You know,
they played basketball, you know, blah blah blah, and I
got cut from my freshman team in high school, and
(08:43):
then you know, I said, forget it anyway, I don't care.
I just want to play baseball anymore. And then sophomore year,
a couple guys say, hey, coach saw you playing in
this pickup league, you know whatever. He wants you to
try out for the team. So I did. I made
the team. I ended up starting my senior year.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Just like Michael Jordan.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah yeah. And so you know, I went to college
and I played, and Jim Foster, coach at Saint Joe's Vanderbilt,
Ohio State all those years, just came back from Vietnam.
So he is in school and somehow we strike up
(09:20):
a friendship and one day he comes in and he goes, hey,
I just got a job coaching girls basketball at Bishop
mcdavidd High School. I go, yeah, that's great, congratulations. He goes, can, I,
you know, can you come and help me? I said no.
And this was like ten times he kept asking me.
I kept saying no. If I wanted to coach, I
would coach boys. Why would I ever want to coach
(09:42):
girls basketball? All they did was take up court time
when we were in high school. That's how you thought
back in the early seventies, right, So no, no, no.
Finally I went went to practice. I'm twenty one, kids
are seventeen, and I'm like, yeah, okay. So we go
over a couple of things. He's run some drills and
they look at me like I know what I'm talking about,
(10:03):
and they're like so happy. I go back the next
day and the next day and the next day and
the next day. Next thing you know, I end up
helping them for the whole year. Next thing, you know,
he calls me and he goes, hey, I just got
the job at Saint Joe's. I go, what you He goes, yeah,
a Saint Joe's and they want, you know, I want
you to be my assistant. Oh Jesus Christ, I know, well,
(10:24):
they're going to pay you a thousand dollars. I'm in
for the year, right, I'm in.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
For the year.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
For the year. So I had to have a construction job.
I worked in a steel mill. I did anything I
had to do just so I could coach. And it
was And now Phil Martelli's running the Kathy Rush basketball camp,
the number one basketball camp in the country. And I
go to work at that camp. And next thing you know,
Phil goes, Listen, I'm the head coach at year Old
(10:52):
High School and I need an assistant. And I went,
of course, I'm going to coach. That's what I'm gonna do,
coach high school boys, teach English. I'm in and I
hold there and I do it, and out of nowhere,
he gets a phone call from Debbie Ryan at Virginia. Hey, Phil,
I need assistant. You interested. Phil goes, no, but I
(11:14):
got a guy who might be who used to do
that stuff. I go down there. I'm like, what this
is what colleges look like. I thought they all looked
like Saint Joseph, Penn and Temple. I go down there
and the rest here. I am so not something I
set out to do, and I'm stuck.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
When do you think, at what point do you think
it was your first choice and not. I guess I'll
do it because but eventually I'll get back to the
boys and men.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, I think when I when I was coaching high
school boys, I thought that's it, That's where I'm going
to be. Then I realized high school coaches that were
teaching English and history, I would be teaching history. We're
making like thirteen thousand dollars a year, yea, And they
had to teach just so they could coach. So when
I found it, I can have a full time job
(12:00):
doing this and that's all I have to do is coach, recruit,
blah blah blah. That's when I went down there to
the UVA spent four years there, and that's when I realized, Okay,
this is what I'm going to be doing, and I
want to make sure that I'm really, really.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Good at Yeah. I want to talk about Page Beckers.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Just an incredible talent on the court, but so special
off of it too, and you have such a fun,
quirky relationship together.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I wonder what it's like coaching Page.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Frustrating as hell, would be one way to describe it.
Another would be very much enjoyable because you get to
see on a daily basis what other people maybe just
see on game day. Right, you get to experience the
lows that people don't see. Right, You see her as
something other than you know, Page Beckers, So you get
(12:52):
a three sixty view of who she is and what
she's all about. And like anything else, there's always a
sides to what you see on the basketball court. You know,
thirty sometimes a year.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, fans sort of when she gets injured, she disappears
and then we wait till she's back. But for you,
those moments, those stretches, are you trying to keep her
spirits up, keep her motivated, keep her enthusiastic about when
she comes back.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
What it's going to look like.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
And that's a big part of the job that we
never see. I wonder how you've seen her as a
person as she's gotten older, deal with setbacks differently.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I think one of one of Page's biggest strengths is
the fact that she's delusional. Okay, yeah, that just helps
her so much and it carries her through all those
things you're talking about that when she's hurt she acts
(13:52):
like it doesn't bother me. I'm fine, everything's good. I'm
just here for my teammates. I'm here, you know, blah
blah blah blah blah. But meanwhile, that's not even close
to the truth, because when she goes home every night
back in those days, from not being able to play,
not be able to do the one thing she loves,
(14:13):
you know, in life more than almost anything. So the
fact that she, you know, doesn't allow anything ever to
get in the way of I'm great. I'm the best.
No one's ever been as good as me. I can
be better than anybody that ever lived. Every time I
miss a shot, it's an act of God, not my fault, right,
(14:35):
not my fault. So that I think more than anything,
and I think all the great ones have a you know,
a little Delulu a fair amount of that, right.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, yeah, not just the play, but the attitude, the confidence,
the on court presence she is. I believe she would
be on the Yukon All Time smart Alec team. I've
got her and Dinah Tarassi Art who's the next name?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Uh? They certainly would be one, two, three and four
with them. A lot of people give Sue Bird a
pass because she did it silently. But uh no, she
would not get a pass of being a smart ass,
not even close.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
No, she's full of it too.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
She's full of it one hundred percent. She's another one
those three people we just mentioned, and I've said this
one hundred times, the only words you will never hear
come out of their mouth. You're right, it's the best
you're going to get from Sue. I don't disagree.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Amazing, right, I love that. I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Speaking of great player Sarah Strong, so dominant already in
her freshman season, your face just lit up, like, oh God,
I get this girl for another couple of years. What's
the ceiling for Sarah Strong?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah? When you when you bring in a player that
you think watching play in high school, you go, wow,
this kid has generational type stuff, you know, And somebody
will say, well, what do you mean? Well, you know,
kids her size are not supposed to be able to
handle the ball the way for him. They're not supposed
to be able to pass the ball the way she passed.
(16:16):
They're not supposed to be able to shoot it the
way she shoots it. Be as smart as she is,
see things developed before they develop, and not at that age, right,
So then when she gets here, I'm thinking, okay, a
little bit of a learning curve, maybe none zero. You know,
we talked about recently, she had one really bad game
(16:37):
at Tennessee. She played like a freshman. She had five turnovers,
had eighteen points and nine rebounds. When that's considered a
bad game, right. So again, and her personality I think
allows her to be in the big moments. You know,
she doesn't say a lot when I talk to the team.
(16:58):
Her eyes are burning a hole in mind that like
they come out the back. She wants to know everything
about everything, and she doesn't miss a thing.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I bet she says you're right a lot.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Well, she doesn't speak, so she just goes.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
You can feel it go through the eyes.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
She actually chose Yukon despite her mom, Alison Feaster, being
roommates with Carolina coach South Carolina coach John Staley back
in their w NBA days. Does it feel a little
extra good when you land a big recruit like her
over a great coach and a great program like South Carolina.
You got done in the media being like, I don't
know what what happened there.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah, I think you get some that you're supposed to get.
You don't get some that you're supposed to get you
think you should get sometimes, you know. You know, one
of the things that I think helped us was we
saw Sarah when no one else knew who she was.
(17:56):
So I remember calling USA Basketball when she was going
to be a sophomore, and I say, hey, you know,
you guys have this thing with fifteen and unders or
sixteen under whatever. Uh, you're missing a kid on the list.
And they're like, oh, yeah, she's one of those on
the list of keep an eye on. I go, good,
you just keep an eye on her, okay, because the
(18:17):
less people know about her, the better call them.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
You really called them to tell them that they were
missing one.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I said, you know, I obviously I have a soft
spot for USA basketball because and I thought, this kid's
better than the kids you have out there. Well, yeah,
we're going to keep an eye on her see if
she develops.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Okay, who was the head coach at the time there, I.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Don't think it wasn't about the head coach. It was
about just whoever was running.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
The committee right committee at the time. Yeah, good, good
Dodge there.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Speaking of Don Staley, she and Lindsay Gottlieb were miffed
about their team's bracket seedings. When did you turn into
the peaceful zen coach of the bunch that just says, oh,
you play who they put in front of you.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
That's how it's always been.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
You know. First things first, there's a lot of there's
a lot of problems with the way the NCAA Women's
Basketball Committee does things all right, a lot of times
there is there's not enough basketball people on that committee
that actually know this is how we do it. Okay,
(19:23):
So you're gonna get screw ups all the time. And
I've had my thing to say in the past, and
people with bitch and moan all the time whenever go, well,
you play in Albany a lot or you playing Bridgeport
a lot? Yeah, And we also played in Lincoln, Nebraska,
and we played in Dayton, Ohio. And we played in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
and we played in Trenton, New Jersey, and we you know, so, yeah,
(19:46):
we've played a lot of places. The reason we play
close to home is because we're the number one, number
one seed yea ninety percent of the time. Yeah, back then,
So if you're that, you deserve to go a certain
place that's been taken away now because there's only two regionals,
So that's stupid. They need to get away from that. Second.
(20:09):
This is one of those few years when everybody in
those top four they all beat each other, right, So
is there really a big gap between number one and
number two in the seeds versus number three and number
four number one seeds? So if you're the number one,
(20:29):
number one, is there really a big gap between you
and number two in the seeding or number three or
number four because you all beat each other, right, I
think what screw what screws it up is for the
two seeds because now maybe you're getting the wrong matchup, right,
you know.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Well, and that's that's part of it. I think.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I think it was clear that Don was a little mad,
but then looked at her path and was like it's okay,
though Lise was like Lindsay was like, well, we're kind
of mad because.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
We got Yukon in our region. I mean, it's we
even get to the final four.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Yeah, yeah. And I've always said that it's be careful
what you wish for, because you just might, you might,
you might you might exactly you know, through the day
that you said.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
That you haven't liked that super regional format in the past,
and this time again you will go three time zones.
If you make the Sweet sixteen, you would like to
go back to the previous format.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
That's what you think worked at best.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Well, I think it works best for a lot of reasons,
one being the fans. Okay, you're a fan of women's
basketball and you live anywhere near Connecticut. Are you going
to get on a plane and fly to Seattle to
or put Spokane to watch US flight? No? Right now,
we have sold no tickets to go to Spokane. Now,
if that was somewhere east of of Mississippi, if there
(21:50):
was an option to do that, then obviously more people
will be able to go. So you picked two places
that are so far away from each other that you're
you're you're doing this for the benefit of TV. You're
not doing it for the benefit of the fans.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Right, So so Chicago put them both in. Put everyone
in Chicago's what you're saying. My thing would be, that's
what I would like, coach.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
I agree with. If you're only going to do two,
put them both in the middle of the country. Yeah,
that way, no one has to go three time zones
and there's going to be a three time zones every year. Yeah,
it seems like until they do away with this. Plus,
not to mention, there's eight teams going to be in Spokane,
no disrespect because I've been there a bunch of times
(22:36):
and I really love that city. Are there really eight
comparable hotels to host all eight teams? M Chances are
probably not.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
And the NCAAs signs those right.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
The NCAA signs those correct. If you're in the one seed,
you get this hotel. If you're the two seed, get
that hotel. Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
There's a lot of pressure every year, especially for you.
It's kind of almost always win or bust year. You've
got asy Fudd potentially making a decision on her draft
status based on the team's success in the tournament. You've
got Pagebeckers, who many would argue would be the best
Yukon player ever to graduate without a title. If you
don't win, do the stakes feel even somehow a little
(23:16):
bit higher this year?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Well, not for me necessarily, but certainly you can make
a case step for them, it may mean more. You know,
I've seen freshmen play at Yukon that think that every
single year they're going to be in the National Championship
game because they were in the National CHAMPIONSI Game their
(23:43):
freshman year. And then they realize, no, you're not. And
as you get older and you see it start to
slip away. Now you can go one of two ways.
And it's the same for you know you're going to graduate.
You can either tang because you're scared to death what's
next for me and I'm not ready? Or you just
(24:08):
you know, blow up because this this is the moment
I've been waiting for my whole life to go out
with a bang, win the National Championship my senior year,
right off into the sunset, which is what I should
have done with Stewie. When Stewie left, I got on
that train that she was on.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
A pretty long time ago.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Coach Happy trails to everybody.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yes, four in a row, and I'm out, I'm out,
I'm out. We'll get back to that. We'll get back
to that decision. I want to ask if you have
a specific practice or.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Habit for trying to get your players centered and grounded
as you head into this stressful, most important part of
the season.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
What I have found works the best at this time
of the year is less, less practice, less angst, less
harping on things less because and I'm guilty of that
this year a little bit up to this point, because
(25:14):
we're such a young team. We have Page who's played
here for four years, asy hardly played it. All the
rest are freshmen and South Forest, so we're like a
goofy team. We got this, and then most of our
guys are down here and you come to realize whatever
is wrong with our team, whatever our issues are, are
(25:37):
not getting fixed, not at this point in the season.
So all you can do is keep harping or accentuating
what our strengths are. This is what we're good at,
this is what we have to keep doing. Boom ba
boom ba, boom ba boom And if we keep doing this,
we're gonna win. If we keep doing this, we're gonna win.
Instead of what you do during the regular season is
we suck because we do these things wrong all the
time and if we don't fix these we're not gonna win. Well,
(25:59):
that's what get you through five months. But this time
of the year can't be like that. And be like
that now with Diana and Sue and Swim and Asia
Stewie and those guys, it didn't matter what I did.
They were so good and so talented. Just point them
in the right direction. But today's world that we live in,
(26:20):
you gotta be it's okay, sweetheart, everything's fine, You're great, right,
You're perfect? And then you got to text them when
they get home. Did I tell you you're perfect? Did
I tell you how great you are?
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Just to remind everybody, Hey, it's all about my self esteem,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I can compliment sandwiches coach.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
It's a different style now.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Different style, different style. I can say back in the day,
I can say that's the worst goddamn past I've ever
seen in my life, and they would look at me
and go, no, it's not yeah, and then it was
just play on these guys. They would go, Coach thinks
I'm the worst pastor in the history of the world.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I guess I should quit.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I didn't say that. I said that's the worst past
I've ever seen. I didn't say you're the worst past
I've ever seen in my life. But that's how things
get interpreted sometimes today.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, it's a very tough thing for coaches to adjust to,
that's for sure. And the whole game is there's been
a lot of adjustments. And you know, even just a
couple of years ago, Sodona Prince and a couple others
were posting about the inequities and the march madness treatment
of the.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Men and the women.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And I wonder, even in natural time, if you've seen
specific improvements to the infrastructure and everything else. Obviously the
players are changing, but what about what they're playing in
and what's still lacking ever since those changes started taking place.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
You know, the most interesting thing ever, when I saw
that post about what the weight room looked like, I thought,
there's a weight room at the Final four. I didn't
know that been the Final four twenty three times. Now
one of my kids is lifted a weight, Like, how
(28:00):
would you even know that there's not a weight room
or there is a weight room, or that the weight
sucked or whatever? And who cares? Now? If you want
to say, listen the time between Monday when you finish
in the regionals and now you got to play Friday night.
That needs to be fixed. So if you're going to
look at what needs to be fixed, look at the
(28:21):
big picture and fix the big things that really matter.
That go into winning and losing. What kind of weight
room you have doesn't go into winning and losing. That's
just a but as.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
You know, the tangible nature of that and the fact
that it was visibly so different is ultimately what inspired
and independent review, a massive new TV contract, all of
the things, even getting to use the name March Madness.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
It all stemmed from for a lot.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Of people needing to see visually just how disparate the
resources are, whether or not they really matter to your success. Right.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
But you know what's funny, Sarah, The people who decided
they didn't want to use March Madness were the women's
basketball committee when it was first offered to them twenty
years ago.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I don't know this.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Tell me this, coach, Well, listen, we want to use
my No, we don't want to be associated with the men,
so we're going to do it different. And then all
of a sudden, when it benefits you to be associated
with the men, now you want it and you pretend
like you never had an opportunity to get it, And
that's not true.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
So I imagine you were not part of that committee.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
No, I wasn't on that committee. No, okay, I mean
I think the things that we should be talking about
are competition wise, Yes, we all want to stay in
the best hotels. Well there isn't enough for them to
go around for everybody, so great, so just suck it up.
And you think every every men's team stays in the
four seasons, No they don't. So you're the top seeds,
(29:42):
you're going to stay in certain places you're not. Okay, great,
I get that. Then why are we having Why are
we having these things where there's eight eight teams and
one location. So we say what we want, but then
we do things that don't give us an opportunity to
have those things. So for me, it's why are we
playing Friday night? So the team that plays Monday is
(30:05):
at a huge disadvantage. The guys finished playing on Sunday
and they don't play it on Saturday. So they have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Monday Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We finished Monday, you
have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday to get ready to and one
of those days of the travel day to get ready
for the biggest game of the year and biggest game
(30:26):
of these kids' lives. That's the stuff they should be
looking at. To me the other stuff. You know, it's
like you're going down the shore, right, You're going down
the shore to visit your friends. They don't have a bed.
What are you going to do? There's twelve people staying here.
Throw a blanket on the floor and sleep on the floor.
(30:46):
Why Because you went down there for the ocean. The
party is the fun. So now you're going to the
final four? Do you really care about anything other than
we're here to play, man, So let's give everybody a
chance to play their best. Yeah, it would be my.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Argument focus on that.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
You know, as these changes happen, we've seen a lot
of coaches, particularly on the men's side, sort of walk away.
They're like, I don't want to deal with nil and transfer,
portal and other elements of this changing landscape. How have
those changes affected you and why do you think it's
less of a big name departure on the women's side
as results of the changes.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Well, most of the older coaches in women's bast I've
already left, so you're left with a bunch of young
coaches who don't know any better. So that's number one. NIL.
I'm big proponent of in IL. I love it. Transfer
portal that's ruined the game. Okay, not that they can
transfer and not sit out, but they can't do it
(31:42):
every year. How were we supposed to put together a team
when every year you have to put together a new
team potentially, how are you supposed to operate when every
kid is a free agent at the end of every year.
So in the NBA, the NFL, you know who the
free agents are. Here, every kid on every roster is
a potential free agent who can operate in that kind
(32:04):
of circumstance. And then you have they all have agents
and they'll say to you, this is what this kid's worth.
I'm like says who says, who, Well, this is the
market that this kid's worth. Okay, show me where that
kid has an offer that's worth that. So you've got
the agents that now are running these families and these kids,
(32:26):
and what are you going to have. You're going to
have tremendous inequity where only a certain number of schools.
It's going to become like football, it's going to become
like college fobal that if you're not one of those
ten schools, you will have no chance to ever play
in the National Championship Game.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
And I feel like there's a lot of benefits to
player mobility. You only have four years to play, so yes,
go somewhere where you get to play and where you're happy.
And also the ability to leave and do it so
quickly and keep doing it means that every time you
come up against adversity or challenge, you might just decide
I'll be happier somewhere else, and then you never learn
how to work through the thing that's holding you back
(33:06):
where you are.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
And it starts in high school. I don't like my
high school team, I just go to a different high school.
I don't like my AAU travel team. I just go
start a new team. So when you go watch high
school kids play, now, it's horrendous why there's only one
good player on every team, right because all the other
good players left because they weren't the best player.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Right, So inconsistency and every rhythm and everything. Yeah, I
understand coaches argument on that side. I do think it's
right that players don't get stuck somewhere for their whole
career and sit out. But I do think, yeah, there's
there's probably some limits on movement that would make the
game better.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
Yeah, because that imagine if you were an NBA owner
and you didn't have any contracts.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah, it's like James Harden. Every year, am I supposed
to build a team? You're on a seven year contract
and every year you're like, no, I'm out.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yes, yeah, imagine if we had to do that, I mean,
if they had to.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Do Yeah, it's not fair in terms of building.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
You're also going to have players going I'm not playing
because they see it in the pros. Hey trade me
or I'm out. I'm not playing, So now what are
you gonna do it? Hey, I'm not playing in that
Bowl game?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (34:13):
What's going to happen in basketball when somebody goes, listen,
I'm not playing in a conference tournament because I don't
want to get hurt and jump down my future.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
There are so many benefits to the influx of investment, attention,
everything in the women's game, and then it also means
that we will be plagued by some of the issues
that are plagues in the men's side. No question, I
want to talk about Diana Trossi's retirement.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
How did you find out?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Did she offer you at least a text or a
phone call or was it the way we all found out.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
I did get a heads up, and you know when
I went out there last year for her last regular
season home game, you kind of knew that. I mean,
she's at an age where and this is this happened
with her, it happened with a lot of the other players.
Sue mentioned this a lot, staying in shape the entire
(35:07):
year when you're forty forty one, forty two.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Not.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
I don't mean just stay in great shape because you
want to live long to get ready to play high
level basketball. They can't do it anymore now. If you
could just say, hey, d you just have to come
for the playoffs, she wouldn't have retired.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I heard Candace Parker too, tell Sue and Megan on
their show that one moment she had was playing against
younger players and thinking, man, I don't want them to
be like, oh that's Kandace Parker.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
That's it, right, because you're.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
You know, when you're older and playing, you're not peak.
You the idea of like, oh that's Diana Tarassi. I
don't know, she's not all that.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
No, but you're forty No, that's what I'm saying. I
used to play one on. I used to play one
on one with my son who ended up playing in college.
He's six to two, and we would play and all
of a sudden when he was like sixteen fifteen fourteen,
and he beat me and I never played him again.
(36:13):
I said, I'm retiring, and my record against you was
one thousand, six hundred and one. Because you're right, you
don't want to keep putting yourself in that situation. But
at the same time, it was bittersweet. It was sad,
you know it's coming, but at the same time, like
I'm never going to have a chance to hear play anymore.
Like the game is not going to be the same
(36:34):
without her out there. But at the same time, if
that's not the real her out there, and it's better
that she's.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Not out there, what was your relationship with her like
during her pro years.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
One of the reasons that I took the Olympic job
was I knew i'd be coaching her, yeah, And I thought,
who gets an opportunity to do that. Who gets an
opportunity to coach a kid from when they're eighteen to
twenty two and then coaching when they're thirty two. I
thought this would be the greatest thing in the world
that I get an opportunity to spend eight years with
(37:07):
arguably the greatest player I've ever coached, and to me
those eight years to go back there, I had an opportunity.
I remember one of our first meetings to sit down
with her, watch some film and go deep. Where's the fun,
loving kid who played the joy of the game, loving life?
(37:28):
I said, where did that person go? Because you are
an angry player? You play angry? And I realized, you
go to Europe for all that time, you're bounced around
from this place to that place just to make money,
and all of a sudden you become an angry basketball.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Player mercenary exactly.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
And so I tried to bring some joy back into it.
And we had a lot of great moments, a lot
of fun times, and I could say probably as one
of the highlights, if not the greatest highlight of my life,
was winning an Olympic gold medal with her.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
You have a lot of lure behind you, and for
a long time, I think back in the old days,
when you could tell players it was the worst past
you've ever seen in your life.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
You've got a reputation sometimes.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
For being tough, for being hard, for breaking people down
at times, but also you have such a sweet relationship
with so many of your players, and like you just said,
you worked to bring the joy out of her game. Again,
what do you think the most common misconception about you
is as a coach.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Well, when people come to our practices, they're shocked that
hew little I yell like they think, you know, I'm
a yeller and a screamer, and I actually I actually
do not. Now. I said this to people all the time.
I said, how many of you have kids? They raise
their hand. I said, tell me, if you said the
(38:50):
same thing to your kid three times in the last
fifteen seconds, tell me your disposition doesn't change, right, right.
So here's the thing. I make it personal, like I
want them to think that I'm doing it for them
because I am. I want them to believe that I
believe in them because I do, and that I want
(39:12):
more for them than they think they have. So I didn't.
I didn't live that life. I took shortcuts all everywhere
I went, like, you know, go to school, get great
grades in the subjects I liked, not the ones I
didn't like. You know, go do stuff until when I'm
(39:35):
pretty good at it, doing something different. So now my kids.
If they don't graduate, they don't go up on that wall.
Why because I'm not going to let them make that mistake.
If I don't get the most out of them, squeeze
every drop out of them, then I feel like the
promise that I made them when I was recruiting them,
I'm not living up to it. Because at this point
(39:58):
in my life, do I really need another national champion?
How does that change my life? Not one iota. If
Page gets one, it changes her life forever. So I
don't want to leave any coach, and I don't know
that you can do that by It's okay, sweetheart.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
No, the best coaches are the ones you don't want
to disappoint, And in order to feel that way, you
have to feel the weight of their expectations for you,
and that requires some manipulation, even if it's not always nice.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And playing at Yukon is the most rewarding place to
play in America because if you're pretty good here, the
entire country knows who you are.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
So it's hard to play here. The bar is set
very high, but it's high for a reason because we
think you can reach it. And it's my job to
help you reach it. That's to love that.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Okay, last two questions. Three players that didn't play at
Yukon or on the national team that you most wish
you could have.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Coached, ooh, that didn't play on the national team.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Because you got to coach well, or just someone you've
never gotten to coach, either collegiately.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Or in the national team that you most would like to.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Wow man, And I've been so fortunate. You know how
many Hall of Famers were on those Olympic teams that
I can't think of anybody right off the bat that
I h My goodness.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Graceous we got all of them. What about right now?
Maybe then?
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Right now? Well, obviously you know I love Juju and
I love her game, the way she plays. When we
played down in South Carolina, Joyce Edwards and Malaysia Full Wiley.
I mean, those guys are just unbelievably good. You know,
Lauren Betts with somebody that you know, we tried to
get involved with and it's hard, but you know, I've
(41:37):
coached kids like that, you know, when we had Carol Walters,
you know, and you see what they can bring. And
then when you have somebody like that, you're automatically a
different team and you're automatically a favorite to win the
national championship. You know players like that that are just wow.
But the rest of them, I mean, god, Lee, I
(41:59):
can't think of a single player that I didn't I
didn't coach who I ended up coaching on the national
team that I just thought.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Man, man, oh man, You've had it pretty good.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Nobody deserves this, no this much.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
So when you sit down to take a break, tournaments
over and you have a little rest, You've got your
own line of sauces and wines, you've got restaurants.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
What's a treat yourself day look like for Geno?
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Let's see, I'll give you a typical day answer. Get
up in the morning, go get a workout in, grab
some lunch, go play golf, hang out with a couple buddies,
go home, have dinner with Kathy, and repeat every single day.
And then when I'm at the shore, do all that
(42:48):
except not GoF go to the beach, read a book.
Try to knock off three or four books, you know,
in the span of a month. And that's that's a
good August for me.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
You got a book on your shelf right now, you're
looking forward to.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
I just started, uh, the Song of Achilles. Matter of fact,
the author is a Philadelphia woman, went to pen And
I've always been a Greek mythology buff, like when I
was a kid. That's kind of how I learned how
to read English. You know. I picked anything that was available.
I would read it like I'm the only person. I
(43:24):
was the only person in my town who knew where
Battle Creek, Michigan was, because that's what I make frost
the flakes, So I would be boxes of cereal anything.
And Greek mythology became where I could get lost, you know,
and you know, the whole myth of the whole thing,
the gods and warriors and just wow, I imagine if
(43:47):
I could live that lit, you know, in those times. Yeah,
so Song of Achilles. I just finished reading Gentlemen in Moscow.
I don't know if you sold the Netflix show. Uh
so it's harder doing the season. I just finished recently
reading War by Bob Bob Woodward. So yeah, I'm all
(44:10):
over the place.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
All over the place. I like.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
I like the obsession with mythology, and then you and
then you spend your career surrounding yourself with uh, with
the athenas of the world, the women heroes of the world.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Yeah, I got a lot of Helen of Troy's you
know people. That's that's right, that start Wars.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Diana was the best of them. Coach. Thank you so
much for the time. It was so great to talk
to you.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
I have long wanted to have a conversation with you,
and it didn't disappoint.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Well, obviously I'm a big fan and uh you've done
a lot of great things in your career and your
voice that everyone respects and admires. Thank you, and so
it's been a it's been a treat for me as well.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Thanks again so much to Gino for taking the We
have to take another break when we come back. A
reminder to never ever read the comments.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Welcome back, Slash says.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
We always love that you're listening, but we want you
to get in the game every day too. So here's
our good game play of the day. Fill out your bracket.
I got a stack of great women's sports merch with
your name on it. Finish first in our bracket challenge,
and it's all yours. Winter Winter Chicken Dinner.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
The link is in the.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Show notes get it in before Friday eleven thirty am Eastern,
and we always love to hear from you, so hit
us up on email, good game at wondermedianetwork dot com
or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two
four fifty seventy.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Don't forget to subscribe, Rate and review. It's easy.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Watch internet dudes be in pervs rating zero out of
five predictable but no less pestiferous posts review. In an
episode of her podcast Straight to Cam, Los Angeles, Sparks
player Hammeron Brink told her co host Sadel Curry Lee
that she's quote icked out by the male practice players
that might show up to Sparks workouts. It's common for
(46:08):
top level women's college and pro teams to have male
practice players, but when the Sparks tryouts were advertised.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
On social media, Brink looked at the.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
Comments and saw a bunch of purvy bros cracking jokes.
She said, quote all the comments are like let Cameron
Brink back me down, or something about Rakia or something
about Kelsey.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
End quote. I checked, and yeah, a lot.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Of gross stuff, some smoopy clips from love and Basketball
and the kind of creepiness you'd expect from anonymous boys
on the interwebs. Brink said the team normally practices with
male players from USC and suggested if they're soliciting new
practice players from off the street, quote, they need to
go through heavy HR training end quote.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Agreed.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Now, I've played pickup ball with guys dozens of times,
and there's sort of an unspoken rule about keeping it
about hoops and nothing else. So I hope that that's
the kind of guy showing up to the tryouts and
that they get it. But I don't blame Cam for
being grossed out, and I'm glad she called it out
because now the team knows they need to fully vet
these guys. Also shout out to at the teletube who
(47:11):
got it right, posting all you mfs that say you
could drop forty on a WNBA team. Now's your time
to prove it. Crickets right, boys, Now it's your turn
rate and review. Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good game, GINO,
Good game, ROSEBC, you boys.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Good Game.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
With Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in
partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find
us on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers
are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are
Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our
editors are Emily Rutterer, Britney Martinez and Grace Lynch. Our
(47:54):
associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah
Spain
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where for the
first time in our lives, we're actually glad that one
specific bracket challenge doesn't include a women's bracket, probably because
anyone smart enough to fill out a women's bracket knows
better than to be interested in a trip to Mars
on a piece of SpaceX debris. It's Thursday, March twentieth,
and on today's show, we'll be talking to legendary Yukon
(00:22):
hoops coach Gino Oriama about why being delusional is a
good thing at least of your pagebackers, the changes that
he wants to see in the NCAA tourney format, how
his coaching approach differs when it's NCAA tournament time, and
the moment he officially retired from playing basketball, Plus a
comedy we can't wait to watch, a warning to all
who apply, and the wait for Unrivaled begins again. That's
(00:44):
all coming up right after this welcome back slices. Here's
what you need to know today. Let's start with Unrivaled,
where the inaugural season wrapped up on Monday with Rose
BC taking the chachampionship with a sixty two to fifty
four win over Vinyl BC, one day after scoring thirty
(01:05):
nine points in the semi finals against the Laces.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Chelsea Gray recorded.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Eighteen in the final, including a half court buzzer beater
to give her Rose team a two point lead heading
into the fourth quarter. It was Britney Sykes who scored
the championship winning shot, a free throw to finish the
game with her season high twenty one points. Each Rose
player took home fifty K in prize money, and Gray
was named Finals MVP. By the Way, shout out to
(01:29):
Rose coach Nola Henry and Vinyl coach Teresa Weatherspoon, the
two teams with women at the helm ended up in
the championship coincidence, we think not.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
One last piece of unrivaled news.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
To wrap up a spectacular inaugural season, the league also
announced the remainder of its end of season award winners,
with Nafisa Collier earning MVP honors, Angel Reese, who missed
the championship game with a hand injury, taking home Defensive
Player of the Year, and DJ Sackman, whose Lunar Owls
posted a thirteen to one regular season record, named Coach
of the Year to College Oops while Tomorrow is the
(02:02):
official start of the sixty four team NCAA Women's college
basketball bracket. We've got two more first four games today,
including Niches alma mater, William and Mary taking on High
Point tonight at nine pm Eastern.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And while we're.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Talking March madness, don't forget to fill out a bracket.
To be part of our good game pool. You got
to get it in before eleven thirty am Eastern on Friday.
Link is in the show notes. More Women Soups. There's
a scripted comedy show about the WNBA in the works
called The w It'll be executive produced by Cheneo Gumackay,
who played in the WNBA till twenty twenty three and
(02:37):
is now an analyst for ESPN, and her longtime agent,
Allison Gaylor, with the show loosely based on their relationship.
The show will be developed by Peacock, with Carly Mensch
and Liz Flahive, the creators of Netflix hit Glow, serving
as showrunners.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Even More Women Soups.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
The ESPN original series Full Court Press has been renewed
for a second season. The series gives viewers unmatched access
insight into the journeys of select hoopers at schools across
the country through exclusive interviews.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Game footage, and more.
Speaker 1 (03:06):
This upcoming season will feature Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo,
USC forward Kiki Eriefen, and LSU guard Flaje Johnson. The
first season, produced by Omaha Productions and Words and Pictures
in partnership with the.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Worldwide Leader, premiered in May of last year.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
That one featured iOS Kaitlin Clark, South Carolina's Camilla Cardoso
and UCLA's Kiki Rice. It was a really good watch.
I'm super excited for this edition. First two episodes of
this Full Court Press Season two will premiere May third
at one pm Eastern on ESPN. To the NWSL, where
the owners of Expansion Side Denver announced plans this week
(03:41):
to build a fourteen thoy five hundred seat stadium. The
brand new facility will be located at Santa Fe Yards,
a spot just inside the city limits that has access
to public transportation. While the team, which doesn't yet have
an official name, will begin play in twenty twenty six,
they'll have to wait a little longer to play in
the stadium, which is expected to open into twenty eight
per ESPN. Details on a training facility and temporary stadium
(04:04):
are expected to be announced later this month.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
More NWSL news.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Racing Louisville's Bethany Balser, one of the league's most prolific
scorers and a former NWSL Rookie of the Year, announced
on social media that she's taking some time away from
soccer to focus on her mental health.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Quote.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
I've always preached that when soccer is no longer fun
and you don't find joy in doing it, something needs
to change, and it seems I haven't been listening to
myself for a while. The last year and a half,
I've found my identity slowly slipping away. Being consumed with
soccer and being a professional athlete, I've been chasing things
that are material. I've become bitter and have lost my
(04:39):
love and joy for the game. End quote, per ESPN's Jeffcasoof,
a Racing Louisville spokesperson, confirmed that Balser has not officially
decided on taking leave, and she remains on the team's
active roster as an excused absence. Last August, Balser was
traded to Louisville by the Seattle Rain. At the time,
her thirty three goals over the previous five years were
tied for third in the NWSL. She's long but a
(05:00):
strong advocate for mental health, and last year she launched
a brand called BB eight Bring Your Best. In her
Instagram post, Balser went on to say that she's excited
to explore her identity outside of the sport and that
she's confident she'll return to the field again. We're sending
Bethany our best and we're happy she's taking care of herself.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
We got to take a quick break.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
When we come back, we get d Lulu with coach
Gino Oriema stick around.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Joining us now.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
He's the head coach of the Yukon women's basketball team.
He holds the record for most wins and highest winning
percentage among college coaches men's or women's. Since becoming head
coach at nineteen eighty five, he's led Yukon to nineteen
undefeated conference seasons, including six that were part of undefeated
overall seasons. He's led the Huskies to eleven national championships,
the most in women's college basketball history, and has won
eight National Naysmith College Coach of the Year awards in
(05:54):
his time as coach to the US national basketball team.
The team won two World championships and two Olympic gold medals.
He's in the Naysmith Oral Basketball Hall of Fame and
the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. He's got his own restaurants,
wines and sauces, And contrary to popular belief, he was
not the inspiration for the Carl Fredrickson character in Up.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
It's gino Oriema. What's up? Coach?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
It's always a long bio no matter how much you
try to trim it. Coach, just an unbelievable career and
here we are again, getting ready for another NCAA tournament.
I have to say we have mostly talked about parody
in the women's game this year. In fact, just the
second time in nineteen years that there is no zero
or one loss team in the field. So I have
to start by asking you when exactly would you say
(06:35):
Yukon stopped being bad for women's basketball.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Uh, yeah, it's a good way to put it. I
think there was a drop off right after FISA Katie
Lou when that group graduated. I think there was a
drop off in the level of talent that we had
at Connecticut, and that coincided with more players going to
(07:03):
more diverse schools, and so as people were getting better,
we came down a little bit, and so that had
we been able to maintain that. But it's hard to
go to the Final four every year, you know, and
we went, well, we've gone fifteen out of the last
(07:24):
sixteen year or something.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Not bad. Not bad. Yeah, I mean in a lot
of ways, it.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Was I think, and I used to argue this on
ESPN all the time. It was good for the game
to have this team that everyone was trying to knock off.
And now it's good for the game that there are
many teams that people want to watch and get behind.
It's all about the cycles and the different times. I
want to actually go back to the very beginning. I
don't know if I really know the story of why
(07:48):
you ended up in women's basketball. You emigrated with your
family from Italy when you were seven, You taught yourself English,
Your parents were working factory jobs in Pennsylvania. How do
you end up a hoops fan and end up coaching women?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Well, when we came over here, we moved in with
my uncle and my aunt, and they happened to live
right across the street from an elementary school. Dad had
a playground and I happened a good fortune of living
next door to a guy that was older than me.
He was probably twelve, I was seven eight. So he
(08:22):
took me under his wing. We would get a catch
every day, and baseball became my first love. I wanted
to play baseball every single day, winter, summer, spring fall.
I didn't care. So I grew up just doing that.
And then you know, I met some guys. You know,
they played basketball, you know, blah blah blah, and I
got cut from my freshman team in high school, and
(08:43):
then you know, I said, forget it anyway, I don't care.
I just want to play baseball anymore. And then sophomore year,
a couple guys say, hey, coach saw you playing in
this pickup league, you know whatever. He wants you to
try out for the team. So I did. I made
the team. I ended up starting my senior year.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Just like Michael Jordan.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah yeah. And so you know, I went to college
and I played, and Jim Foster, coach at Saint Joe's Vanderbilt,
Ohio State all those years, just came back from Vietnam.
So he is in school and somehow we strike up
(09:20):
a friendship and one day he comes in and he goes, hey,
I just got a job coaching girls basketball at Bishop
mcdavidd High School. I go, yeah, that's great, congratulations. He goes, can, I,
you know, can you come and help me? I said no.
And this was like ten times he kept asking me.
I kept saying no. If I wanted to coach, I
would coach boys. Why would I ever want to coach
(09:42):
girls basketball? All they did was take up court time
when we were in high school. That's how you thought
back in the early seventies, right, So no, no, no.
Finally I went went to practice. I'm twenty one, kids
are seventeen, and I'm like, yeah, okay. So we go
over a couple of things. He's run some drills and
they look at me like I know what I'm talking about,
(10:03):
and they're like so happy. I go back the next
day and the next day and the next day and
the next day. Next thing you know, I end up
helping them for the whole year. Next thing, you know,
he calls me and he goes, hey, I just got
the job at Saint Joe's. I go, what you He goes, yeah,
a Saint Joe's and they want, you know, I want
you to be my assistant. Oh Jesus Christ, I know, well,
(10:24):
they're going to pay you a thousand dollars. I'm in
for the year, right, I'm in.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
For the year.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
For the year. So I had to have a construction job.
I worked in a steel mill. I did anything I
had to do just so I could coach. And it
was And now Phil Martelli's running the Kathy Rush basketball camp,
the number one basketball camp in the country. And I
go to work at that camp. And next thing you know,
Phil goes, Listen, I'm the head coach at year Old
(10:52):
High School and I need an assistant. And I went,
of course, I'm going to coach. That's what I'm gonna do,
coach high school boys, teach English. I'm in and I
hold there and I do it, and out of nowhere,
he gets a phone call from Debbie Ryan at Virginia. Hey, Phil,
I need assistant. You interested. Phil goes, no, but I
(11:14):
got a guy who might be who used to do
that stuff. I go down there. I'm like, what this
is what colleges look like. I thought they all looked
like Saint Joseph, Penn and Temple. I go down there
and the rest here. I am so not something I
set out to do, and I'm stuck.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
When do you think, at what point do you think
it was your first choice and not. I guess I'll
do it because but eventually I'll get back to the
boys and men.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
Yeah, I think when I when I was coaching high
school boys, I thought that's it, That's where I'm going
to be. Then I realized high school coaches that were
teaching English and history, I would be teaching history. We're
making like thirteen thousand dollars a year, yea, And they
had to teach just so they could coach. So when
I found it, I can have a full time job
(12:00):
doing this and that's all I have to do is coach, recruit,
blah blah blah. That's when I went down there to
the UVA spent four years there, and that's when I realized, Okay,
this is what I'm going to be doing, and I
want to make sure that I'm really, really.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Good at Yeah. I want to talk about Page Beckers.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Just an incredible talent on the court, but so special
off of it too, and you have such a fun,
quirky relationship together.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
I wonder what it's like coaching Page.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Frustrating as hell, would be one way to describe it.
Another would be very much enjoyable because you get to
see on a daily basis what other people maybe just
see on game day. Right, you get to experience the
lows that people don't see. Right, You see her as
something other than you know, Page Beckers, So you get
(12:52):
a three sixty view of who she is and what
she's all about. And like anything else, there's always a
sides to what you see on the basketball court. You know,
thirty sometimes a year.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yeah, fans sort of when she gets injured, she disappears
and then we wait till she's back. But for you,
those moments, those stretches, are you trying to keep her
spirits up, keep her motivated, keep her enthusiastic about when
she comes back.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
What it's going to look like.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
And that's a big part of the job that we
never see. I wonder how you've seen her as a
person as she's gotten older, deal with setbacks differently.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
I think one of one of Page's biggest strengths is
the fact that she's delusional. Okay, yeah, that just helps
her so much and it carries her through all those
things you're talking about that when she's hurt she acts
(13:52):
like it doesn't bother me. I'm fine, everything's good. I'm
just here for my teammates. I'm here, you know, blah
blah blah blah blah. But meanwhile, that's not even close
to the truth, because when she goes home every night
back in those days, from not being able to play,
not be able to do the one thing she loves,
(14:13):
you know, in life more than almost anything. So the
fact that she, you know, doesn't allow anything ever to
get in the way of I'm great. I'm the best.
No one's ever been as good as me. I can
be better than anybody that ever lived. Every time I
miss a shot, it's an act of God, not my fault, right,
(14:35):
not my fault. So that I think more than anything,
and I think all the great ones have a you know,
a little Delulu a fair amount of that, right.
Speaker 1 (14:47):
Yeah, yeah, not just the play, but the attitude, the confidence,
the on court presence she is. I believe she would
be on the Yukon All Time smart Alec team. I've
got her and Dinah Tarassi Art who's the next name?
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Uh? They certainly would be one, two, three and four
with them. A lot of people give Sue Bird a
pass because she did it silently. But uh no, she
would not get a pass of being a smart ass,
not even close.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
No, she's full of it too.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
She's full of it one hundred percent. She's another one
those three people we just mentioned, and I've said this
one hundred times, the only words you will never hear
come out of their mouth. You're right, it's the best
you're going to get from Sue. I don't disagree.
Speaker 2 (15:40):
Amazing, right, I love that. I love it.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
Speaking of great player Sarah Strong, so dominant already in
her freshman season, your face just lit up, like, oh God,
I get this girl for another couple of years. What's
the ceiling for Sarah Strong?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah? When you when you bring in a player that
you think watching play in high school, you go, wow,
this kid has generational type stuff, you know, And somebody
will say, well, what do you mean? Well, you know,
kids her size are not supposed to be able to
handle the ball the way for him. They're not supposed
to be able to pass the ball the way she passed.
(16:16):
They're not supposed to be able to shoot it the
way she shoots it. Be as smart as she is,
see things developed before they develop, and not at that age, right,
So then when she gets here, I'm thinking, okay, a
little bit of a learning curve, maybe none zero. You know,
we talked about recently, she had one really bad game
(16:37):
at Tennessee. She played like a freshman. She had five turnovers,
had eighteen points and nine rebounds. When that's considered a
bad game, right. So again, and her personality I think
allows her to be in the big moments. You know,
she doesn't say a lot when I talk to the team.
(16:58):
Her eyes are burning a hole in mind that like
they come out the back. She wants to know everything
about everything, and she doesn't miss a thing.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
I bet she says you're right a lot.
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Well, she doesn't speak, so she just goes.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
You can feel it go through the eyes.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
She actually chose Yukon despite her mom, Alison Feaster, being
roommates with Carolina coach South Carolina coach John Staley back
in their w NBA days. Does it feel a little
extra good when you land a big recruit like her
over a great coach and a great program like South Carolina.
You got done in the media being like, I don't
know what what happened there.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Yeah, I think you get some that you're supposed to get.
You don't get some that you're supposed to get you
think you should get sometimes, you know. You know, one
of the things that I think helped us was we
saw Sarah when no one else knew who she was.
(17:56):
So I remember calling USA Basketball when she was going
to be a sophomore, and I say, hey, you know,
you guys have this thing with fifteen and unders or
sixteen under whatever. Uh, you're missing a kid on the list.
And they're like, oh, yeah, she's one of those on
the list of keep an eye on. I go, good,
you just keep an eye on her, okay, because the
(18:17):
less people know about her, the better call them.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
You really called them to tell them that they were
missing one.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
I said, you know, I obviously I have a soft
spot for USA basketball because and I thought, this kid's
better than the kids you have out there. Well, yeah,
we're going to keep an eye on her see if
she develops.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Okay, who was the head coach at the time there, I.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Don't think it wasn't about the head coach. It was
about just whoever was running.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
The committee right committee at the time. Yeah, good, good
Dodge there.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Speaking of Don Staley, she and Lindsay Gottlieb were miffed
about their team's bracket seedings. When did you turn into
the peaceful zen coach of the bunch that just says, oh,
you play who they put in front of you.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
That's how it's always been.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
You know. First things first, there's a lot of there's
a lot of problems with the way the NCAA Women's
Basketball Committee does things all right, a lot of times
there is there's not enough basketball people on that committee
that actually know this is how we do it. Okay,
(19:23):
So you're gonna get screw ups all the time. And
I've had my thing to say in the past, and
people with bitch and moan all the time whenever go, well,
you play in Albany a lot or you playing Bridgeport
a lot? Yeah, And we also played in Lincoln, Nebraska,
and we played in Dayton, Ohio. And we played in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
and we played in Trenton, New Jersey, and we you know, so, yeah,
(19:46):
we've played a lot of places. The reason we play
close to home is because we're the number one, number
one seed yea ninety percent of the time. Yeah, back then,
So if you're that, you deserve to go a certain
place that's been taken away now because there's only two regionals,
So that's stupid. They need to get away from that. Second.
(20:09):
This is one of those few years when everybody in
those top four they all beat each other, right, So
is there really a big gap between number one and
number two in the seeds versus number three and number
four number one seeds? So if you're the number one,
(20:29):
number one, is there really a big gap between you
and number two in the seeding or number three or
number four because you all beat each other, right, I
think what screw what screws it up is for the
two seeds because now maybe you're getting the wrong matchup, right,
you know.
Speaker 2 (20:47):
Well, and that's that's part of it. I think.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
I think it was clear that Don was a little mad,
but then looked at her path and was like it's okay,
though Lise was like Lindsay was like, well, we're kind
of mad because.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
We got Yukon in our region. I mean, it's we
even get to the final four.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
Yeah, yeah. And I've always said that it's be careful
what you wish for, because you just might, you might,
you might you might exactly you know, through the day
that you said.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
That you haven't liked that super regional format in the past,
and this time again you will go three time zones.
If you make the Sweet sixteen, you would like to
go back to the previous format.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
That's what you think worked at best.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Well, I think it works best for a lot of reasons,
one being the fans. Okay, you're a fan of women's
basketball and you live anywhere near Connecticut. Are you going
to get on a plane and fly to Seattle to
or put Spokane to watch US flight? No? Right now,
we have sold no tickets to go to Spokane. Now,
if that was somewhere east of of Mississippi, if there
(21:50):
was an option to do that, then obviously more people
will be able to go. So you picked two places
that are so far away from each other that you're
you're you're doing this for the benefit of TV. You're
not doing it for the benefit of the fans.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Right, So so Chicago put them both in. Put everyone
in Chicago's what you're saying. My thing would be, that's
what I would like, coach.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
I agree with. If you're only going to do two,
put them both in the middle of the country. Yeah,
that way, no one has to go three time zones
and there's going to be a three time zones every year. Yeah,
it seems like until they do away with this. Plus,
not to mention, there's eight teams going to be in Spokane,
no disrespect because I've been there a bunch of times
(22:36):
and I really love that city. Are there really eight
comparable hotels to host all eight teams? M Chances are
probably not.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
And the NCAAs signs those right.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
The NCAA signs those correct. If you're in the one seed,
you get this hotel. If you're the two seed, get
that hotel. Blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
There's a lot of pressure every year, especially for you.
It's kind of almost always win or bust year. You've
got asy Fudd potentially making a decision on her draft
status based on the team's success in the tournament. You've
got Pagebeckers, who many would argue would be the best
Yukon player ever to graduate without a title. If you
don't win, do the stakes feel even somehow a little
(23:16):
bit higher this year?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Well, not for me necessarily, but certainly you can make
a case step for them, it may mean more. You know,
I've seen freshmen play at Yukon that think that every
single year they're going to be in the National Championship
game because they were in the National CHAMPIONSI Game their
(23:43):
freshman year. And then they realize, no, you're not. And
as you get older and you see it start to
slip away. Now you can go one of two ways.
And it's the same for you know you're going to graduate.
You can either tang because you're scared to death what's
next for me and I'm not ready? Or you just
(24:08):
you know, blow up because this this is the moment
I've been waiting for my whole life to go out
with a bang, win the National Championship my senior year,
right off into the sunset, which is what I should
have done with Stewie. When Stewie left, I got on
that train that she was on.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
A pretty long time ago.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Coach Happy trails to everybody.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yes, four in a row, and I'm out, I'm out,
I'm out. We'll get back to that. We'll get back
to that decision. I want to ask if you have
a specific practice or.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Habit for trying to get your players centered and grounded
as you head into this stressful, most important part of
the season.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
What I have found works the best at this time
of the year is less, less practice, less angst, less
harping on things less because and I'm guilty of that
this year a little bit up to this point, because
(25:14):
we're such a young team. We have Page who's played
here for four years, asy hardly played it. All the
rest are freshmen and South Forest, so we're like a
goofy team. We got this, and then most of our
guys are down here and you come to realize whatever
is wrong with our team, whatever our issues are, are
(25:37):
not getting fixed, not at this point in the season.
So all you can do is keep harping or accentuating
what our strengths are. This is what we're good at,
this is what we have to keep doing. Boom ba
boom ba, boom ba boom And if we keep doing this,
we're gonna win. If we keep doing this, we're gonna win.
Instead of what you do during the regular season is
we suck because we do these things wrong all the
time and if we don't fix these we're not gonna win. Well,
(25:59):
that's what get you through five months. But this time
of the year can't be like that. And be like
that now with Diana and Sue and Swim and Asia
Stewie and those guys, it didn't matter what I did.
They were so good and so talented. Just point them
in the right direction. But today's world that we live in,
(26:20):
you gotta be it's okay, sweetheart, everything's fine, You're great, right,
You're perfect? And then you got to text them when
they get home. Did I tell you you're perfect? Did
I tell you how great you are?
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Wow?
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Just to remind everybody, Hey, it's all about my self esteem,
you know.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I can compliment sandwiches coach.
Speaker 3 (26:38):
Absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
It's a different style now.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
Different style, different style. I can say back in the day,
I can say that's the worst goddamn past I've ever
seen in my life, and they would look at me
and go, no, it's not yeah, and then it was
just play on these guys. They would go, Coach thinks
I'm the worst pastor in the history of the world.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
I guess I should quit.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
I didn't say that. I said that's the worst past
I've ever seen. I didn't say you're the worst past
I've ever seen in my life. But that's how things
get interpreted sometimes today.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Yeah, it's a very tough thing for coaches to adjust to,
that's for sure. And the whole game is there's been
a lot of adjustments. And you know, even just a
couple of years ago, Sodona Prince and a couple others
were posting about the inequities and the march madness treatment
of the.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Men and the women.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
And I wonder, even in natural time, if you've seen
specific improvements to the infrastructure and everything else. Obviously the
players are changing, but what about what they're playing in
and what's still lacking ever since those changes started taking place.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
You know, the most interesting thing ever, when I saw
that post about what the weight room looked like, I thought,
there's a weight room at the Final four. I didn't
know that been the Final four twenty three times. Now
one of my kids is lifted a weight, Like, how
(28:00):
would you even know that there's not a weight room
or there is a weight room, or that the weight
sucked or whatever? And who cares? Now? If you want
to say, listen the time between Monday when you finish
in the regionals and now you got to play Friday night.
That needs to be fixed. So if you're going to
look at what needs to be fixed, look at the
(28:21):
big picture and fix the big things that really matter.
That go into winning and losing. What kind of weight
room you have doesn't go into winning and losing. That's
just a but as.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
You know, the tangible nature of that and the fact
that it was visibly so different is ultimately what inspired
and independent review, a massive new TV contract, all of
the things, even getting to use the name March Madness.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
It all stemmed from for a lot.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Of people needing to see visually just how disparate the
resources are, whether or not they really matter to your success. Right.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
But you know what's funny, Sarah, The people who decided
they didn't want to use March Madness were the women's
basketball committee when it was first offered to them twenty
years ago.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I don't know this.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Tell me this, coach, Well, listen, we want to use
my No, we don't want to be associated with the men,
so we're going to do it different. And then all
of a sudden, when it benefits you to be associated
with the men, now you want it and you pretend
like you never had an opportunity to get it, And
that's not true.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
So I imagine you were not part of that committee.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
No, I wasn't on that committee. No, okay, I mean
I think the things that we should be talking about
are competition wise, Yes, we all want to stay in
the best hotels. Well there isn't enough for them to
go around for everybody, so great, so just suck it up.
And you think every every men's team stays in the
four seasons, No they don't. So you're the top seeds,
(29:42):
you're going to stay in certain places you're not. Okay, great,
I get that. Then why are we having Why are
we having these things where there's eight eight teams and
one location. So we say what we want, but then
we do things that don't give us an opportunity to
have those things. So for me, it's why are we
playing Friday night? So the team that plays Monday is
(30:05):
at a huge disadvantage. The guys finished playing on Sunday
and they don't play it on Saturday. So they have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Monday Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We finished Monday, you
have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday to get ready to and one
of those days of the travel day to get ready
for the biggest game of the year and biggest game
(30:26):
of these kids' lives. That's the stuff they should be
looking at. To me the other stuff. You know, it's
like you're going down the shore, right, You're going down
the shore to visit your friends. They don't have a bed.
What are you going to do? There's twelve people staying here.
Throw a blanket on the floor and sleep on the floor.
(30:46):
Why Because you went down there for the ocean. The
party is the fun. So now you're going to the
final four? Do you really care about anything other than
we're here to play, man, So let's give everybody a
chance to play their best. Yeah, it would be my.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Argument focus on that.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
You know, as these changes happen, we've seen a lot
of coaches, particularly on the men's side, sort of walk away.
They're like, I don't want to deal with nil and transfer,
portal and other elements of this changing landscape. How have
those changes affected you and why do you think it's
less of a big name departure on the women's side
as results of the changes.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Well, most of the older coaches in women's bast I've
already left, so you're left with a bunch of young
coaches who don't know any better. So that's number one. NIL.
I'm big proponent of in IL. I love it. Transfer
portal that's ruined the game. Okay, not that they can
transfer and not sit out, but they can't do it
(31:42):
every year. How were we supposed to put together a team
when every year you have to put together a new
team potentially, how are you supposed to operate when every
kid is a free agent at the end of every year.
So in the NBA, the NFL, you know who the
free agents are. Here, every kid on every roster is
a potential free agent who can operate in that kind
(32:04):
of circumstance. And then you have they all have agents
and they'll say to you, this is what this kid's worth.
I'm like says who says, who, Well, this is the
market that this kid's worth. Okay, show me where that
kid has an offer that's worth that. So you've got
the agents that now are running these families and these kids,
(32:26):
and what are you going to have. You're going to
have tremendous inequity where only a certain number of schools.
It's going to become like football, it's going to become
like college fobal that if you're not one of those
ten schools, you will have no chance to ever play
in the National Championship Game.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
And I feel like there's a lot of benefits to
player mobility. You only have four years to play, so yes,
go somewhere where you get to play and where you're happy.
And also the ability to leave and do it so
quickly and keep doing it means that every time you
come up against adversity or challenge, you might just decide
I'll be happier somewhere else, and then you never learn
how to work through the thing that's holding you back
(33:06):
where you are.
Speaker 3 (33:07):
And it starts in high school. I don't like my
high school team, I just go to a different high school.
I don't like my AAU travel team. I just go
start a new team. So when you go watch high
school kids play, now, it's horrendous why there's only one
good player on every team, right because all the other
good players left because they weren't the best player.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Right, So inconsistency and every rhythm and everything. Yeah, I
understand coaches argument on that side. I do think it's
right that players don't get stuck somewhere for their whole
career and sit out. But I do think, yeah, there's
there's probably some limits on movement that would make the
game better.
Speaker 3 (33:41):
Yeah, because that imagine if you were an NBA owner
and you didn't have any contracts.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Yeah, it's like James Harden. Every year, am I supposed
to build a team? You're on a seven year contract
and every year you're like, no, I'm out.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Yes, yeah, imagine if we had to do that, I mean,
if they had to.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Do Yeah, it's not fair in terms of building.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
You're also going to have players going I'm not playing
because they see it in the pros. Hey trade me
or I'm out. I'm not playing, So now what are
you gonna do it? Hey, I'm not playing in that
Bowl game?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (34:13):
What's going to happen in basketball when somebody goes, listen,
I'm not playing in a conference tournament because I don't
want to get hurt and jump down my future.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
There are so many benefits to the influx of investment, attention,
everything in the women's game, and then it also means
that we will be plagued by some of the issues
that are plagues in the men's side. No question, I
want to talk about Diana Trossi's retirement.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
How did you find out?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Did she offer you at least a text or a
phone call or was it the way we all found out.
Speaker 3 (34:45):
I did get a heads up, and you know when
I went out there last year for her last regular
season home game, you kind of knew that. I mean,
she's at an age where and this is this happened
with her, it happened with a lot of the other players.
Sue mentioned this a lot, staying in shape the entire
(35:07):
year when you're forty forty one, forty two.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
Not.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
I don't mean just stay in great shape because you
want to live long to get ready to play high
level basketball. They can't do it anymore now. If you
could just say, hey, d you just have to come
for the playoffs, she wouldn't have retired.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I heard Candace Parker too, tell Sue and Megan on
their show that one moment she had was playing against
younger players and thinking, man, I don't want them to
be like, oh that's Kandace Parker.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
That's it, right, because you're.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
You know, when you're older and playing, you're not peak.
You the idea of like, oh that's Diana Tarassi. I
don't know, she's not all that.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
No, but you're forty No, that's what I'm saying. I
used to play one on. I used to play one
on one with my son who ended up playing in college.
He's six to two, and we would play and all
of a sudden when he was like sixteen fifteen fourteen,
and he beat me and I never played him again.
(36:13):
I said, I'm retiring, and my record against you was
one thousand, six hundred and one. Because you're right, you
don't want to keep putting yourself in that situation. But
at the same time, it was bittersweet. It was sad,
you know it's coming, but at the same time, like
I'm never going to have a chance to hear play anymore.
Like the game is not going to be the same
(36:34):
without her out there. But at the same time, if
that's not the real her out there, and it's better
that she's.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
Not out there, what was your relationship with her like
during her pro years.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
One of the reasons that I took the Olympic job
was I knew i'd be coaching her, yeah, And I thought,
who gets an opportunity to do that. Who gets an
opportunity to coach a kid from when they're eighteen to
twenty two and then coaching when they're thirty two. I
thought this would be the greatest thing in the world
that I get an opportunity to spend eight years with
(37:07):
arguably the greatest player I've ever coached, and to me
those eight years to go back there, I had an opportunity.
I remember one of our first meetings to sit down
with her, watch some film and go deep. Where's the fun,
loving kid who played the joy of the game, loving life?
(37:28):
I said, where did that person go? Because you are
an angry player? You play angry? And I realized, you
go to Europe for all that time, you're bounced around
from this place to that place just to make money,
and all of a sudden you become an angry basketball.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Player mercenary exactly.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
And so I tried to bring some joy back into it.
And we had a lot of great moments, a lot
of fun times, and I could say probably as one
of the highlights, if not the greatest highlight of my life,
was winning an Olympic gold medal with her.
Speaker 1 (38:03):
You have a lot of lure behind you, and for
a long time, I think back in the old days,
when you could tell players it was the worst past
you've ever seen in your life.
Speaker 2 (38:10):
You've got a reputation sometimes.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
For being tough, for being hard, for breaking people down
at times, but also you have such a sweet relationship
with so many of your players, and like you just said,
you worked to bring the joy out of her game. Again,
what do you think the most common misconception about you
is as a coach.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
Well, when people come to our practices, they're shocked that
hew little I yell like they think, you know, I'm
a yeller and a screamer, and I actually I actually
do not. Now. I said this to people all the time.
I said, how many of you have kids? They raise
their hand. I said, tell me, if you said the
(38:50):
same thing to your kid three times in the last
fifteen seconds, tell me your disposition doesn't change, right, right.
So here's the thing. I make it personal, like I
want them to think that I'm doing it for them
because I am. I want them to believe that I
believe in them because I do, and that I want
(39:12):
more for them than they think they have. So I didn't.
I didn't live that life. I took shortcuts all everywhere
I went, like, you know, go to school, get great
grades in the subjects I liked, not the ones I
didn't like. You know, go do stuff until when I'm
(39:35):
pretty good at it, doing something different. So now my kids.
If they don't graduate, they don't go up on that wall.
Why because I'm not going to let them make that mistake.
If I don't get the most out of them, squeeze
every drop out of them, then I feel like the
promise that I made them when I was recruiting them,
I'm not living up to it. Because at this point
(39:58):
in my life, do I really need another national champion?
How does that change my life? Not one iota. If
Page gets one, it changes her life forever. So I
don't want to leave any coach, and I don't know
that you can do that by It's okay, sweetheart.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
No, the best coaches are the ones you don't want
to disappoint, And in order to feel that way, you
have to feel the weight of their expectations for you,
and that requires some manipulation, even if it's not always nice.
Speaker 3 (40:23):
And playing at Yukon is the most rewarding place to
play in America because if you're pretty good here, the
entire country knows who you are.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (40:33):
So it's hard to play here. The bar is set
very high, but it's high for a reason because we
think you can reach it. And it's my job to
help you reach it. That's to love that.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Okay, last two questions. Three players that didn't play at
Yukon or on the national team that you most wish
you could have.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
Coached, ooh, that didn't play on the national team.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
Because you got to coach well, or just someone you've
never gotten to coach, either collegiately.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Or in the national team that you most would like to.
Speaker 3 (40:59):
Wow man, And I've been so fortunate. You know how
many Hall of Famers were on those Olympic teams that
I can't think of anybody right off the bat that
I h My goodness.
Speaker 2 (41:09):
Graceous we got all of them. What about right now?
Maybe then?
Speaker 3 (41:13):
Right now? Well, obviously you know I love Juju and
I love her game, the way she plays. When we
played down in South Carolina, Joyce Edwards and Malaysia Full Wiley.
I mean, those guys are just unbelievably good. You know,
Lauren Betts with somebody that you know, we tried to
get involved with and it's hard, but you know, I've
(41:37):
coached kids like that, you know, when we had Carol Walters,
you know, and you see what they can bring. And
then when you have somebody like that, you're automatically a
different team and you're automatically a favorite to win the
national championship. You know players like that that are just wow.
But the rest of them, I mean, god, Lee, I
(41:59):
can't think of a single player that I didn't I
didn't coach who I ended up coaching on the national
team that I just thought.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Man, man, oh man, You've had it pretty good.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Nobody deserves this, no this much.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
So when you sit down to take a break, tournaments
over and you have a little rest, You've got your
own line of sauces and wines, you've got restaurants.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
What's a treat yourself day look like for Geno?
Speaker 3 (42:27):
Let's see, I'll give you a typical day answer. Get
up in the morning, go get a workout in, grab
some lunch, go play golf, hang out with a couple buddies,
go home, have dinner with Kathy, and repeat every single day.
And then when I'm at the shore, do all that
(42:48):
except not GoF go to the beach, read a book.
Try to knock off three or four books, you know,
in the span of a month. And that's that's a
good August for me.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
You got a book on your shelf right now, you're
looking forward to.
Speaker 3 (43:03):
I just started, uh, the Song of Achilles. Matter of fact,
the author is a Philadelphia woman, went to pen And
I've always been a Greek mythology buff, like when I
was a kid. That's kind of how I learned how
to read English. You know. I picked anything that was available.
I would read it like I'm the only person. I
(43:24):
was the only person in my town who knew where
Battle Creek, Michigan was, because that's what I make frost
the flakes, So I would be boxes of cereal anything.
And Greek mythology became where I could get lost, you know,
and you know, the whole myth of the whole thing,
the gods and warriors and just wow, I imagine if
(43:47):
I could live that lit, you know, in those times. Yeah,
so Song of Achilles. I just finished reading Gentlemen in Moscow.
I don't know if you sold the Netflix show. Uh
so it's harder doing the season. I just finished recently
reading War by Bob Bob Woodward. So yeah, I'm all
(44:10):
over the place.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
All over the place. I like.
Speaker 1 (44:12):
I like the obsession with mythology, and then you and
then you spend your career surrounding yourself with uh, with
the athenas of the world, the women heroes of the world.
Speaker 3 (44:22):
Yeah, I got a lot of Helen of Troy's you
know people. That's that's right, that start Wars.
Speaker 2 (44:29):
Diana was the best of them. Coach. Thank you so
much for the time. It was so great to talk
to you.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
I have long wanted to have a conversation with you,
and it didn't disappoint.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Well, obviously I'm a big fan and uh you've done
a lot of great things in your career and your
voice that everyone respects and admires. Thank you, and so
it's been a it's been a treat for me as well.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (44:55):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (44:58):
Thanks again so much to Gino for taking the We
have to take another break when we come back. A
reminder to never ever read the comments.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Welcome back, Slash says.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
We always love that you're listening, but we want you
to get in the game every day too. So here's
our good game play of the day. Fill out your bracket.
I got a stack of great women's sports merch with
your name on it. Finish first in our bracket challenge,
and it's all yours. Winter Winter Chicken Dinner.
Speaker 2 (45:30):
The link is in the.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Show notes get it in before Friday eleven thirty am Eastern,
and we always love to hear from you, so hit
us up on email, good game at wondermedianetwork dot com
or leave us a voicemail at eight seven two two
four fifty seventy.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Don't forget to subscribe, Rate and review. It's easy.
Speaker 1 (45:47):
Watch internet dudes be in pervs rating zero out of
five predictable but no less pestiferous posts review. In an
episode of her podcast Straight to Cam, Los Angeles, Sparks
player Hammeron Brink told her co host Sadel Curry Lee
that she's quote icked out by the male practice players
that might show up to Sparks workouts. It's common for
(46:08):
top level women's college and pro teams to have male
practice players, but when the Sparks tryouts were advertised.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
On social media, Brink looked at the.
Speaker 1 (46:15):
Comments and saw a bunch of purvy bros cracking jokes.
She said, quote all the comments are like let Cameron
Brink back me down, or something about Rakia or something
about Kelsey.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
End quote. I checked, and yeah, a lot.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
Of gross stuff, some smoopy clips from love and Basketball
and the kind of creepiness you'd expect from anonymous boys
on the interwebs. Brink said the team normally practices with
male players from USC and suggested if they're soliciting new
practice players from off the street, quote, they need to
go through heavy HR training end quote.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Agreed.
Speaker 1 (46:50):
Now, I've played pickup ball with guys dozens of times,
and there's sort of an unspoken rule about keeping it
about hoops and nothing else. So I hope that that's
the kind of guy showing up to the tryouts and
that they get it. But I don't blame Cam for
being grossed out, and I'm glad she called it out
because now the team knows they need to fully vet
these guys. Also shout out to at the teletube who
(47:11):
got it right, posting all you mfs that say you
could drop forty on a WNBA team. Now's your time
to prove it. Crickets right, boys, Now it's your turn
rate and review. Thanks for listening, See you tomorrow. Good game, GINO,
Good game, ROSEBC, you boys.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
Good Game.
Speaker 1 (47:31):
With Sarah Spain is an iHeart women's sports production in
partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find
us on the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts. Production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers
are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are
Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our
editors are Emily Rutterer, Britney Martinez and Grace Lynch. Our
(47:54):
associate producer is Lucy Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah
Spain
Host
Sarah Spain
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