*Robyn Fralick, Michigan State Women's Basketball Head Coach

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 1 (00:26):
Sounds like a great Christmas present for you. Stop and
see Matt and the gang and grap of okamis from
They're Making Friends. Let's welcome in. Robin Frelik, head coach
of the Michigan State women's basketball team. No true to
the rumor that the Spartans just scored again, but certainly
seem last night that it was dizzying if someone was

(00:49):
trying to keep score. They were busy.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
Robin, Yep, yep, we did. We did find our way. Yep,
found a way to put the ball in the hoop
good amount, which is good. Hopefully we can hopefully we
can keep it up.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Rob I told you she was going to be a
coach here, she's going to talk about you know, Okay,
that's good, we got that one done. Let's move on
to the next one. I thought, I can't let you
I can't let you go without talking about a sixty
six to zero EDGs and points off of turnovers. As
much as your teams have scored big points in the

(01:29):
past at all levels and have driven teams crazy with
steals sixty six to nothing, have you ever seen anything
like that.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
I think that's a first. Yeah, I think that was
the first. And you know, we pressure, you know, we
like to press, but we did only do that in
the first half, so you know, we were able to
create a lot of turnovers in the half court. And
you know, from where we were a few weeks to
go defensively, we know we're going to have your challenges ahead, obviously,

(02:01):
but even from where we were a few weeks ago,
we did see some growth and just we really challenged
them to play the game the right way for forty minutes,
and you know we did in the second half, which
two weeks ago we did it. We just kind of
went on cruise control. So you know, I think some
of those stats are reflected in the.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
Who played particularly well? In your mind looking at the stats,
you didn't play anyone more than twenty minutes, didn't have
anyone score twenty points. Didn't mean that they didn't play
exceptionally well, But who stood out to you as really
playing well?

Speaker 3 (02:41):
We had so many people play well. And you know
what was cool is we subbed and we had a
lot of kids get a lot of minutes. And I
felt like everyone just made the most of them. You know,
I could go down the line and we had a
lot of people who shot it well. I think, you know,
Kennedy having fourteen points, twelve assists, you know, yeah, see
twelve assists a lot like that really stands out to me,

(03:05):
you know. And and we know we're going to face
tougher challenges, but I will say we passed the ball
very well. And when you pass the ball better, you
get better shots. So and we made a lot of
shots right now we were open, but we still we
still made them. So so many people played well. I
think the twelve assists, that's a stat you don't see

(03:25):
a lot.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, you don't see three turnovers very often either.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
No, I tease them, we have we'll do special five
on old four. We'll do five on old full court break,
working on our break and practice. You know, we'll do
our misshot break, our made shot best break. And we
have more than three turnovers with no defense, right, Well,
we'll go it up and down and we got to
do skit to a certain amount of points. And I'm like,
we turn it over more. We've turned it over more

(03:55):
there with no defense, So you know, only turn it
over three times? Is that is very good?

Speaker 1 (04:02):
All right? Robin? Every time that Izo's team has a
game like this and I start talking about all the
things they did, right, you know, he wants me to
ask about the things that they didn't do as well
as they can. And you need coaching points based on
getting ready for the next game. Where would you start
in terms of improvement.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, there's some things defensively that we switch. We'll switch
out on some ball screens and we switch out on
some single screens. And we did it. We had segments
of doing it well, but we had segments where we casual, lazy,
kind of lost track, maybe not good communication. So that's
something we definitely need to work on. Is like, you know,

(04:46):
we can't guard for twenty seconds and then the last
six or seven seconds just have a brain fart on
a defensive action. So you know, we have some clips
of that, and some of the things that we were switching,
we'd just switched later, we wouldn't switch, or they both switch,
So we gotta that's something we can definitely clean up.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
Yeah. Yeah, you have fifteen players on the roster, is
that right? We do, and I think I saw eleven
last night. Did you have a couple of players who
didn't play because of physical issues or did you have
players who you're looking at in terms of other other factors.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
Yeah, So ins Hotello is out with an injury. She
should be back soon see week. Sarah is not eligible
until semester because she's international. It's just a little trickier
with credit, okay, transferring.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
We did see her in badness, right.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Yep, yep, and she'll be eligible after semester. Julian Woodard
is coming back from RACIL, so she started playing live
five on five in practice, so we're hoping that she
can play in games and then soon the next week
or so two weeks. Yeah, and then Jordan Odia, freshman
for US, is red shirting.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Okay, So that's fifteen all right, Yeah, plus four, yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Or else everyone Obviously everyone would have gotten it. Yep.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
So what's ahead for you now? You have more home games,
more opportunities for fans who like to watch tremendous defense
and yell boom a lot. You got to have opportunities
for them to do that. What can you tell us
about the schedule moving forward in the month of November.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yep, yep. So we got home some home games. We
played Eastern Michigan Sunday, We've got Youngstown, We've got Oakland
over Thanksgiving. We play in a tournament in Bahamas where
we'll play Temple, who beat Rutgers in Penn State and Scrimmages,
and then Clemson, who they predict being in soul a
tournament team. So definitely we got some home games in

(07:09):
front of us. We love our fans, you know, I
always shared like this group is worthy of your time,
of your resources, of your you know, we're going to
play hard at the best. We're playing hard together and
you know, when you share the ball, well you put
up a lot of points. But yeah, yeah, We've got
some good non conference games up through November, and then

(07:29):
in our Bahamas tournament, will play some some really good competition.
Beginning of December, we have our first Big ten game.
We're at Wisconsin and then yeah, we kind of it's rolling.
It's rolling, it's here, Robin.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
In terms of the philosophy of pre conference scheduling, you know,
there is those kind of way out on a limb,
and a lot of people think he's not and he's
at the head of that list a lot of times
when he's in the middle of it is the idea
to ratchet it up so your players just constantly gain confidence.

(08:11):
Do you want to be challenged? You wanted to see
their deficiencies? Can you overschedule when you make out the schedule?
What's on your mind?

Speaker 3 (08:20):
Yeah, well, there's a lot of factors. But I think
something that needs to probably hasn't talked enough about, is
that in our league, Big Ten women's basketball, last season,
we had twelve men c DOAA tournament teams. This year
they're predicting thirteen, so we you know, non conference sometimes
you need to like you know, I think last year
men's side had seven and that's still a lot, but

(08:41):
we had twelve, Yeah, which is a lot of built
in strength of schedules. So for us, it's about getting
home games some of it's about getting some confidence, kind
of getting our feet wet, learning a little bit more
about ourselves. You know, we do think with our tournaments,
have an opportunity to play some meensitably tournament teams in

(09:02):
our non conference schedule will which will be challenging. But
you know, predicting this year, ESPN's predicting thirteen teams in
our league out of eighteen, so you know our I
think we feel very confident that we're getting enough high
level games.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
There's been a lot of talk Robin about expanding NCAA
tournament fields. Is that true for women the same way
it is for men. Would you assume that if one
expands the other.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
Would I think so? I mean, it would be hard
to have. There's a lot of parallels with our tournament,
so it would seem a little strange to do one
and not the other. But you know, people outside of
my domain make those decisions, so we'll see. I know
right now that I don't think that's on the docket

(09:57):
for moving forward, But and athletics, things change every day,
so I won't be surprised if I woke up tomorrow
and they made a new decision.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
I want to go back to your personnel now and
someone who has shown so much improvement from last year.
You've told the Kennedy Blair story, and I think it's
pretty cool. It's kind of what college athletics used to
be maybe what it would be in terms of growth.

(10:28):
Can you share that with our listeners.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
Yeah, So, Kennedy Blair, she committed to us when we
were at Bowling Greens when I was the head coach
at Boyd Green State University. Kennedy committed to us really excited.
She's been a really good player at Divine Child, you know,
here in the state of Michigan, and then when we
took the Michigan State job. She's a diehard Michigan State fan,
so she was like, I want to go to Michigan State.

(10:54):
And she actually came here initially as a walk on,
and I love to teaser her. Freshman year, we couldn't
even put her in drill. She she literally would mess
them all up. So and she knows that we can
laugh about that now. And she had she ended up
having a foot injury, so she was out for the season,
came back last year. You know, she had she definitely

(11:14):
got opportunities and there were I mean she even checked
into our NCAA tournament games. You know, she definitely had
moments where she was she played, she was in rotation,
but it wasn't like a consistent part of it. And
then this summer she got really serious with her conditioning,
her fitness, her skill level because she's always had a

(11:34):
great feel for how to play the timing, rhythm, passing, creativity,
and then she's matched it now with with her fitness,
and she's matched it with skill level and being just
cleaner with the ball and was shooting, and you know,
through pre season and practice she's been she's just been
a really consistent, accountable player. She she she makes a

(11:58):
team better because she's such an a pastor and so
when you all of a sudden you add an elite
she's five eleven too, so she's got some size. When
you add an elite pastor to a team, suddenly everybody's
more open, and it's a little bit you know, there's
an energy that comes with that. Right all of a sudden,
the ball's moving, the ball's signing open people. There's an

(12:18):
excitement with that. But she's really come on strong. We're
excited to continue to challenge her and see her but
you know, every preseason game we've had when we scrimmaged
our scout guys, she has been very she's been really good,
and she's kind of stuffed the statue points, the fifths rebound, right,
So we're going to keep expecting. We're going to keep
expecting a lot out of her. But you know, last night,

(12:41):
people are like, oh, one hundred and twenty five points.
I'm like, well, when you got to pastors and they
passed the open, people make more shots, you.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
Know, so we're excited about it right there.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Yeah, Yeah, she's got work to do and she knows that.
But a cool story, right from a yes, bullying grade
comment to a I will love Michigan State. I want
to be here, to hey, we can't even put you
in our drills. You mess them all up, so dang,
we can't. You know, it's hard to take you off
the court, like, she just makes so much happen.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, and a couple other players very quickly. I saw Alexander,
you know, the injury issues she has had, and people
wondered how she progressing and what's the expectation.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
Oh how cool last night for her to play set
out two seasons, two whole seasons. That's hard. She's during
this time out, she's gotten herself, I think in the
best fitness she's ever been in. She's moving well. I mean,
there's still going to be some things with getting her
rhythm and her timing back with actual basketball, but you know,

(13:45):
a big, strong player that gives us a different look,
a lot of size at the rim, a lot of
size defensively, and you know, in her fitnesses and has
been great And I think that's been a big part
of her being able to come back being out two years.
And a huge credit to our strength and conditioning coach
Claire for because she our kids, she really helps transform

(14:07):
them and even when they're out, she keeps them serious
about their fitness.

Speaker 1 (14:13):
All right. And the last player I wanted to get
your reaction to is someone that said to me, after Madness,
you know, I forgot she was still around. But a
couple of years ago, Abby Kimball was a key player
on the team, starter and then last year not and

(14:34):
it looked like the joy was back for her. I
remember one Madness when she first got here, Robin, and
you know, we just couldn't take our eyes off of
her on the bench. She was so emotional and players
gravitating to her having so much fun. Looks like the
fun is back with her.

Speaker 3 (14:55):
Yeah, you know what a big credit to Abby to
voting captain by her teammates as she and I just
think that speaks volume. She's somebody who has experienced every
role on the team, like every possible role, starter, sub,
not playing, and has stuck with it and has learned
like the value of showing up and impact and she

(15:18):
has She's smart, so she always knows what's going on.
She has a great ability to communicate that with our team.
And Yeah, I'm what an honor you know. I mean,
from someone who didn't even get to play much last
season to her teammates feeling like, you know what, You're
a voice that we want to follow. I'm excited for

(15:39):
her this year.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
Congratulations on what happened last night. I know you're more
concerned about the games I had. This great coaches always are,
But thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it and we'll
see us soon at Breslin.

Speaker 3 (15:55):
Thanks Jack, Go Green.

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