Coaches show on Channel 9 beginning January 2, 2019

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fanfromthevalley

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Fox 9 KMSP has been advertising a coaches show that will be aired beginning January 2, 2019 from 6:30 PM - 7:00 PM. Will be featuring Whalen and Pitino.
 

Will it be a cooking show, Eating with Whey? (see what I did there?)
 


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Would appear that the format of the show is an even split between Whalen and Pitino. As pictures were posted prior to the TV show hitting the air, clear it wasn't live (I missed that!! Thanks for noting, Shades.) As the men already on the way to Madison tonight, the Pitino portion was taped. Next week, we're playing away on Wednesday night, so the Whalen portion will need to be taped in advance.
 
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Obviously wasn’t live since Iggy posted a picture from the show over 3 hours before the show.
 





Ignatius L Hoops said:
Lindsay said they are working on spacing and pace this week.
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Team is a work in progress, I guess, even more so than a Stollings team trying to figure it out late in the season. We should have all expected that.
 
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The entire show was with Coach Whalen. We are on a 4 game losing streak and she gets 30 minutes instead of 15. Poor timing. Her most repeated comments are that they need to continue to work and she sure is glad that Gustafson is a senior. The other item I didn't realize as I am only a casual fan of the Lynx, is that zone defenses aren't permitted in the pro game, so it had quite some time since she had seen one.
 

EaganGopher22 said:
.... The other item I didn't realize as I am only a casual fan of the Lynx, is that zone defenses aren't permitted in the pro game, so it had quite some time since she had seen one.
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Clarification....

You are actually permitted to play zone defense in the WNBA, it's just that for all intents and purposes, it's nearly impossible to do so due to the defensive 3-second rule.

For a while, quite some time ago, zones were illegal in the NBA. Then they switched to the defensive 3-second rule instead, with the same rule adopted by the WNBA later on.

The rule is both obscure and somewhat obtuse, and when they call it, fans often don't understand the call.

Basically, you can't park a defender in the lane, who's not explicitly defending somebody, for 3 seconds. Any would-be defender of the paint, at a time when no offensive player is in the paint to defend against, must get out of the paint and guard someone there - or if an offensive player then goes into the paint, you can go back in and guard them.

It's hard to explain and hard to officiate. See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defensive_three-second_violation

So it's a complicated dance if you want to play a 2-3 zone, for instance. You end up playing a 2-2+1 or 2-1+2 zone, alternating, where the + represents the paint hole in the zone. And what's a zone for, if you can't use it to clog up the paint? So most teams give up and just go man-D. But some might do some kind of semi-zone like an alternating 2-2+1/2-1+2 constantly swinging the middle defender across the paint to the strong side if nobody in the paint to defend. It's gotta be tough to train the players to do that.
 

Wednesday's show

EaganGopher22 said:
The entire show was with Coach Whalen. We are on a 4 game losing streak and she gets 30 minutes instead of 15. Poor timing. Her most repeated comments are that they need to continue to work and she sure is glad that Gustafson is a senior. The other item I didn't realize as I am only a casual fan of the Lynx, is that zone defenses aren't permitted in the pro game, so it had quite some time since she had seen one.
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Well, the men played at Illinois on Wednesday night, so they would have left on Tuesday afternoon. If Pitino didn't want to tape a segment before they left, that meant the show would have to focus on the women's program. As it turned out, the men had a terrible game against Illinois so maybe it was a good thing he wasn't on?
 



On the coaches show tonight (no Pitino section tonight), Whalen indicated it is "unlikely" that Hubbard will be able to play this season. I think it is the first time she has gone this far in terms of Gadiva's availability. Prior to this, it has been "we'll see"....
 

Is she a Medical Red Shirt then? If she can return healthy and to her old form, she will have an extra year of eligibility and veteran presence.

What was the nature of her injury? I can't recall if she had surgery.
 

hungan1 said:
Is she a Medical Red Shirt then? If she can return healthy and to her old form, she will have an extra year of eligibility and veteran presence.

What was the nature of her injury? I can't recall if she had surgery.
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She had surgery on her right foot in late October. There wasn't any specific injury noted, but soreness led to further testing and found a need for surgery (at least according to news stories at the time). She's been out of a boot for some time, but only in sweats at game time. It has also been stated she is doing conditioning work at this time.
 

http://www.fox9.com/sports/roysland-joining-whalen-gophers-a-no-brainer-

From the article:

Whalen has plenty of mentors to lean on in her first season as a Division I head coach. Her former WNBA coach Cheryl Reeve and Olympic coach Geno Auriemma top that list. Now she has a former teammate to make practice plans, game plan and just be around the game of basketball.
“People I had talked to just said get people you can trust and rely on. She was one of the first people I thought of,” Whalen said. “We were teammates and she’s coached here before, and been in the game a long time. I hoped it would work out for us to be here on the staff together.”
Now, the former teammates and current fellow coaches are trying to navigate Minnesota through the grind of a Big Ten schedule. It’s been a learning experience since a 12-0 start. The Gophers are 2-7 in the Big Ten and have lost three straight.

While they game plan and try to keep their team positive despite losses piling, they also keep in perspective what it means to them to be coaching at Minnesota, in Williams Arena.
They wore the Gophers uniforms and know what it means to be associated with the only Division I program in the state. Their goal is to translate that message to current players and prospective recruits, whether they’re from Minnesota or not.
“We talk about representing the state of Minnesota, what that means being the only Division I institution in the state. We were both born and raised here, loved our experience here, we both follow Minnesota sports,” Roysland said. “We both want to recruit people that have that same passion and pride in the state.”


The bolding above is mine. Somewhat in response to other threads beginning to complain about the assistant coaches.
 

EaganGopher22 said:
http://www.fox9.com/sports/roysland-joining-whalen-gophers-a-no-brainer-

From the article:

Whalen has plenty of mentors to lean on in her first season as a Division I head coach. Her former WNBA coach Cheryl Reeve and Olympic coach Geno Auriemma top that list. Now she has a former teammate to make practice plans, game plan and just be around the game of basketball.
“People I had talked to just said get people you can trust and rely on. She was one of the first people I thought of,” Whalen said. “We were teammates and she’s coached here before, and been in the game a long time. I hoped it would work out for us to be here on the staff together.”
Now, the former teammates and current fellow coaches are trying to navigate Minnesota through the grind of a Big Ten schedule. It’s been a learning experience since a 12-0 start. The Gophers are 2-7 in the Big Ten and have lost three straight.

While they game plan and try to keep their team positive despite losses piling, they also keep in perspective what it means to them to be coaching at Minnesota, in Williams Arena.
They wore the Gophers uniforms and know what it means to be associated with the only Division I program in the state. Their goal is to translate that message to current players and prospective recruits, whether they’re from Minnesota or not.
“We talk about representing the state of Minnesota, what that means being the only Division I institution in the state. We were both born and raised here, loved our experience here, we both follow Minnesota sports,” Roysland said. “We both want to recruit people that have that same passion and pride in the state.”


The bolding above is mine. Somewhat in response to other threads beginning to complain about the assistant coaches.
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Trust and reliability are pretty easy when you're friends. Honesty? Accountability? A lot tougher...
 

The wins will come. The recruits will come. Patience is virtue.

This is her rookie year. Establishing a winning career/tradition takes time. What better group of people to do it than Whalen and company.

It is certainly not fair to ask her to be perfect instantaneously. She will have a few nicks along the Whay.

Muffet McGraw, the head women's basketball coach at Notre Dame has compiled an 905–272 record over 32 seasons. She started her coaching career at Lehigh in 1982. She moved on to Notre Dame in 1987 where she has led her team to 8 Final Fours, and won the National Championship in 2001 and 2018.

On a faster track, Brenda Frese of Maryland had been coaching at Ball State in 1999, then at Minnesota in 2001, then on to Maryland where she won the 2006 National Championship.

Contemporary Dawn Staley had similar trajectory to Whalen in college, the WNBA, and the Olympics. She started her coaching career at Temple in 1999 while still playing in the WNBA. She moved on to South Carolina in 2008 and let the Lady Gamecocks to their 1st National Championship in 2017.

If Whalen can get the talent like Brenda Frese did early in her career, she has a much better chance of winning at great heights faster.

Landing a local player like Paige Beuckers will be a historic moment in Minnesota sports. It means more to a lot of people here than if she goes to Notre Dame or Connecticut or elsewhere.
 
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http://www.fox9.com/sports/whalen-gophers-riding-4-game-win-streak

Lindsay Whalen remembers the moment that helped spark the Gophers’ women’s basketball team’s most recent win streak.

Minnesota had already beaten Northwestern to snap a three-game win streak. But the Gophers were facing Rutgers, one of the top teams in the Big Ten and a top-25 squad. They were trailing the Scarlet Knights late in the first half, and at least two Gopher players got on the floor for a loose ball.

Rutgers got the possession and even had a 23-17 lead at the half, but the message had been sent. The Gophers weren’t going to be out-hustled. The Gophers went onto out-score Rutgers 22-10 in the third quarter and pulled away for a big 60-46 victory.

...

“It all started on that loose ball. Getting on the floor, it’s your home court, we wanted it more,” Whalen said. “Ever since that point in that game, we kind of took over and ended up getting the win. It just took a little bit of everybody in that game to play great and come back in the second half.”

...

Whalen admitted she needed to make adjustments during the Gophers’ Big Ten skid. They had lost three straight and seven of eight before beating Northwestern to start their current four-game win streak.

Opposing teams were playing zone defense against the Gophers, so she opted for a smaller lineup to put more shooters on the court and space the floor. They’ve also shortened their bench.

...

“The run we’ve been on, I think it just shows our character as a team and just how close we came when we were going through those losses,” Pitts said. “How close we came together, and it’s just really exciting to see all the hard work we’ve put in is really paying off.”

Over her last six games, Pitts is averaging 18.1 points per game and shooting 43.4 percent from the perimeter. She’s also being asked to carry a defensive load at multiple positions for the Gophers.

“We’ve asked her to play about 17 different positions on the court, she’s been great,” Whalen said.
 

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