Season opening press conferences

http://www.huskers.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?db_oem_id=100&id=3471510&catid=4103

 

Yori met the media this morning and the above link is her 17 minute press conference

 

Starts off with her saying they're a long ways from being where they were last year at this same time. Because of the 7 new players.

 

Can't really say we're rebuilding with 4 starters returning. But they do have to replace Hooper.

 

2:18 mark - 2,3 or 4 freshmen will have to play hopefully they'll get at least 5 with playing time.

 

4:15 mark - The great relationship she has with Coach Miles.

 

5 minute mark - Extremely challenging non conference road schedule plus Duke and Utah at home.

 

6 minute mark - 11-12 teams will be better in the B1G. League has gotten stronger, could be a possiblity of getting 8 teams in the NCAA.

 

8 minute mark - She would be happy with only 5 losses in conference. 18 conference games no bye weeks.

 

10:25 mark - Expectations very high for Rachel this year. She's developed to be a great communicator on the court. 

 

11:40 mark hesitant to say to much on Natalie. Could be the next Zeroes. "not quite to where Lindsey was as a senior" really fast.

 

14:15 mark - Teams she thinks might be at the top of the B1G. "It's wide open." MSU, Minnesota, Maryland, Iowa all will be good.

 

15:20 mark - B1G should be once again one of the top conferences in the country.

Yes...she's got to get some playing time together & experience created not only for this year, but for next year(s) also. I think she also mentioned as many as 5 could play this year. We could see a deeper bench (than last year) getting on the court as time goes on.

Makes me think that her thoughts were with just seeing the newbies on the court together a few times....so there must be some talent that can be seen now..... not to mention they have another month or so to "meld" together.

Big Ten women's basketball media day is tomorrow here's how you can follow the process.

Beginning at 8 a.m. CT, BTN and BTN2Go will provide live coverage of the men’s coaches’ press conferences, while the women’s coaches’ press conferences will air live on BTN2Go.

Fans can also follow @B1GMBBall and @B1GWBBall on Twitter throughout the day for highlights of the event and are encouraged to use the hash tag #B1GMediaDay to join the conversation. Real-time updates will also be made on Facebook (Facebook.com/BigTenConference), through Instagram (Instagram.com/bigtenconf) and on the Big Ten’s new Snapchat account, which can be accessed by searching for “bigtenconf” on the Snapchat app.

Fans also can follow an integrated stream of social content from all 14 schools and the Big Ten at bigten.org. Transcripts of each coach’s press conference will be posted on bigten.org by Thursday afternoon.

Sounds as if the coach and Rachel are representing the Huskers

https://twitter.com/B1Gwbball/status/522764493827633153

https://twitter.com/B1Gwbball/status/522764991158845440

The preseason top three from the media:

1. Maryland

2. Michigan St

3. Nebraska

And the coaches top three picks

1. Maryland

2. Michigan St

3. Iowa

Rachel Banham of Minnesota was voted by both the coaches and media as the pre-season B1G player of the year.

The media's pre-season B1G team

Rachel Banham - Minnesota

Lexie Brown - Maryland

Rachel Theriot - Nebraska

Ameryst Alston - Ohio St

Amanda Zahui B - Minnesota

The Coaches pre-season B1G team

Rachel Banham - Minnesota

Samantha Logic - Iowa

Rachel Theriot - Nebraska

Ariel Powers - Michigan St

Nia Coffey - Northwestern

https://twitter.com/kevinsjuts/status/522775465321562112

The following is the transcript from Yori's interview this morning at the B1G women's basketball media day.

NEBRASKA

COACH CONNIE YORI

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Nebraska head coach Connie Yori.

COACH YORI: We're an hour and a half  late getting here. I didn't have time to change my clothes. So pardon me for my casualness. But we have four starters returning. Right now those four kids are playing very well. We have T, B, E and Hai. That's Tear'a Laudermill, Brandi Jeffery, Emily Cady, and Hailie Sample have been a big part of our success these past few years. They're playing really good basketball.

And they're showing great leadership and, of course, we have Rachel Theriot who is returning as a first-team All-Conference player who is playing really well right now.

From there, we have a lot of question marks, largely because we don't have a lot of experience. And we have seven new players to our program -- six freshmen and a junior college player who they're all a work in progress.

I think we'll see them progress throughout the season and I think we're going to see different kids at different times contribute for us, and we're going to have to. We'll have to have some of our new players play at least a small role and expand as they get better.

So that will be a big part of whether we have success this year is how our new kids do for us.

Coach, how have the returning players, the leaders, helped the newcomers in their transition?

COACH YORI: Well, our leadership is outstanding. We've had -- you look at our four seasons in our program as I mentioned and Rachel Theriot who I basically consider as a senior because of the experiences she's had. Those guys understand what it takes to win. They understand the expectations that we have in our program.

They're not only great really good leaders by example but several of them have taken on even a greater vocal leadership role. We've always gotten that with Emily Cady. She's been a vocal leader for the last couple of years. Rachel, even though she's a quiet leader, she's really good behind the scenes as a vocal leader. And I think some of our other seniors have taken on a greater role in that area.

But in terms of leadership by example, those five don't have a lot of questions from that standpoint. So our young players have great role models on an everyday basis in our practice setting.

How excited are you to have Rutgers and Maryland in this league?

COACH YORI: You asked the question excited?

You can phrase it however you like.

COACH YORI: It's just made our league stronger. That's a good thing for fans. It's a good thing for the media. Doesn't make it easier for the coaches and players. I know our players love to play against great competition. But it makes it harder to win basketball games.

And the expansion to an 18-game schedule I think makes the Big Ten even more challenging. It's been such a great league for a number of years. And one of the best in the country. And I think now with the addition of those two programs, I mean, we have a chance to I think consistently be the best league in the country.

You were in the situation that Vivian Stringer and Brenda Frese were just a couple of years ago, I guess, but what are the biggest challenges when you're coming into a new league?

COACH YORI: You have to just learn -- in  these guys' case, they have to learn 13 new teams. At that point we had to learn 11, about 11 new teams. They only have to learn -- we only have to learn about two new teams, and at the point we were coming in, everybody else only had to learn coming about Nebraska.

So there's just a lot of depth to that, and I think now as you get into a league, you have a better understanding of what coaches are going to do in certain circumstances. You don't always know that when you have new coaches in the league or new programs or new institutions coming to the league.

So for those guys -- I'm not feeling sorry for them. I'm going to tell you right now. Because I think they'll take care of what they need to take care of. They're two really well-coached programs with great experience at the head coaching position, and I think they'll do fine.

You talked about the four kids coming back, but the one loss, Jordan, was possibly the most nightmarish matchup maybe in the league over the last couple of three years. Did you have somebody --

COACH YORI: I was trying to stay positive and then you go right down that road (chuckling). Of course losing a player of Jordan's caliber changes who we are. And there was such a focus from our opponents on her and she was essentially face guarded in every game.

What this does for us is it changes our spacing on the offensive end. It makes some other players going to have to expand their games that have played a lot for us. And Jordan leaves the Nebraska program as one of the best scorers and best rebounders of all time. We've had a history of pretty good women's basketball. So you lose the First Team All-American and at least in one poll the Big Ten Player of the Year, that's a big loss.

We're trading seven for one. Right now, you know, we could take those seven kids and put them together and maybe we could make Jordan, but we're not quite there yet.

There's been a lot of emphasis and talk about this league, particularly over the years how much more athletic, how fast, how much faster it's gotten and a lot of emphasis particularly obviously with Maryland coming in and Rutgers on the run. How much of your strategy will be on the running game as opposed to the strengths that you have in the half court?

COACH YORI: Well, we always have been a team that pushes the ball. We push on makes and we push on misses. And there's not a lot of teams that do that. We were a really good half court execution team last year, too. But we were a team that focused on transition, and we got a lot of stuff in transition.

So we'll continue to do what we do. But we better get back, get back in defense and transition. There's some things there that sometimes you have to send two back when you're playing against transition teams but we've been a team that hasn't given up a lot of easy baskets over the years.

Hopefully we continue to do what we do and keep playing our version of basketball.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

Nebraska senior Sample's tall task: playing the post

Now Yori has a taller task for Sample: occasionally dropping down to the post and playing the four position. That would mean guarding more post players after spending much of her career guarding perimeter athletes.

 

 

Nebraska senior Sample's tall task: playing the post

 

Now Yori has a taller task for Sample: occasionally dropping down to the post and playing the four position. That would mean guarding more post players after spending much of her career guarding perimeter athletes.

 

 

Great article by Sam.  Whatever sport he covers, his analysis is at a higher level than most.  He brings the x and o perspective to the reader better than any of his peers, IMO. 

This article is illustrative of why you don't just plug the next one up into the lineup when a great player graduates and not have there be a big effect.  One can sense with this article that they are thinking of going small rather than play a lot of 2 big lineups. 

I picked it 1) maryland

                2) iowa

                3) nebraska

                4) michigan state

I think Maryland is the best team.  Picked iowa over Nebraska based on schedule.

You can watch the Coach Yori video here 

http://btn.com/2014/10/16/video-watch-big-ten-womens-basketball-coaches-press-conferences-2

More pre-season honors coming in for Rachel. This time she's made the College Madness pre-season All American 4th team.

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9977

More pre-season honors coming in for Rachel. This time she's made the College Madness pre-season All American 4th team.

 

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/9977

Other Big 10:  Rachel Banham 2nd team

                        Samantha Logic 3rd team

Others:  Marisssa Janning, Creighton, 3rd team