Women's B1G Media Day

[Row6Seat10]

Yori's transcript from today's event:

 

COACH YORI:

Yeah. No matter how many years you coach and this is my 26th year of being a head coach  it's still always fun to get started. And, I think, you know, largely because, for the student  athletes, their experience is a four  year opportunity. And so I think our kids are really excited about what we have in front of us.

 

We're a very different team than we were a year ago, in that we lost I think somewhere  our SID was saying we lost about 350 starts from our four seniors that started for us last year. So that's a lot of experience. We've lost experience, but I think we've gained some really good, talented young players in our program. And so I really feel like our future is bright. I think hopefully we'll be a team that gets better as the year goes on.

 

I think, you know, the big question for us is our health. It starts with Rachel Theriot. She is back playing at full capacity. That's only happened here in the last about two weeks for us. Probably not quite in the condition we want her to be, but she's getting there. We were a really different team last year when we lost her to an injury. And once she went down, I think we were 4-7 without her. And prior to that we were ranked in the top 15 when she was on the court. So obviously a big key for us.

 

But our youth, I think, is bringing a lot of exuberance, and we're really excited about what we

have to bring down the road.

 

Q. Can you just talk about your freshmen coming in? Who most likely will make an impact right now from what you can tell?

 

COACH YORI:

 

Well, we hope they all can make an impact, you know, largely because of needs. And when you lose

four starters that played as much as they did for us last year and then in previous years, you know, somebody's got to fill that void.

 

And, you know, obviously, you know, some folks are familiar with Jess Shepard, who was the number  one ranked player at her position coming out, and we -- kid that committed to us prior to her freshman year of high school. And so it's beena long time coming for us to-- for us to finally get a chance to coach her and for her to be actually in our program. Unfortunately, she had an ACL injury last January. And she's still not quite where we woul d like her to b e. She's not 100 percent  yet, not able to go full court yet, five on five. B ut we do think that she's going to be a great player for us. And it may take a little more time than what we would have hoped, but she is somebody that is, even in the short period of time that she's in there for us, she's showing, you know, flashes of rea lly great play. And recruited a lot of kids over the years, but I think from a readiness standpoint, you know, Jess is pretty ready except for her injury, really put a little bit of a damper on things for her.

 

Really very excited about one of our other freshman post players, Rachel Blackburn from Leavenworth, Kan. She started every game for us when we played. Went to an Australia trip this summer. And whatever meaning that has, you know, she was the best one that we had out there. And so she's really playing great. I'm very excited about her. She had great coaching in high school, and she's really made the adjustment to college life -- college basketball pretty easily.

 

And then Maddie Simon is our other freshman, and we expect her to be a good player, very athletic kid, comes from an athletic family. And someone who has got some things to learn, like a lot of freshmen.

 

[Row6Seat10]

Q. Connie, with all this height in your program, have you had to dust off the playbooks of post touches and post offense and those sorts of things?

 

COACH YORI:

Yeah. Brian, you're right on track. You know, it's been a long time since we've had an interior game like we potentially could have this year. You know, it goes back to our '09-'10 season, where, you know, it was the best season in the history of women's basketball at Nebraska. We won 32 games that year. We had two really good post players that year, Kelsey Griffin and Cory Montgomery, who were both First Team All-Big 12, at that point. And Kelsey, of course, a first-team All-American.

 

So you're exactly right. We've played the last five years without a true post player. And we've had to makeshift, and we've had to be creative, and we've had to find ways to score. Without a real true post player, it really makes it--it makes it a lot easier when you have somebody that you can throw the ball into and maybe forces you to make a decision on the defensive end.

 

Q. Jessica Shepard is a Nebraska kid. And how hard is it to keep a kid of that profile home anymore with the way recruiting is? And how did you do it?

 

COACH YORI:

Well, we offered her as a first grader. I think that's where it started--or so it seemed, you know. We actually offered her--I mean, the earliest kid that we've ever offered. But she's someone who--she was a home-grown kid. You know, we knew that she was going to be a really good player, and then she developed into this outstanding player. But we offered her prior to her freshman year, August--I believe August of between her eighth and ninth grade years ofhigh school.

 

But it was just kind of a unique situation, I think. We don't typically do that, but just because she was a kid from Lincoln.And they love the Huskers, and she grew up a Husker fan. And you don't get that every day. And so we got this great player that was sitting right there in our home city. We had to take advantage of it. And then she stayed fully committed to being a Husker throughout the process. She probably tried to get lured away in some cases, and she stayed true and committed to what she--you know, what she said she was going to do. So I think that shows good character.

[dlrrk]

Great quote: "We like our players like we like our zucchini--long, lean, and underrated." - Tim Miles (4-29-14)