University of Minnesota Athletics
Summer Wrap-Up with Coach Stollings
8/23/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
With just a few weeks left before school starts again, the Golden Gophers are enjoying some time off from practice and classes. Head coach Marlene Stollings reflected on the team's summer.
GopherSports: What was it like to watch Gophers alum Lindsay Whalen win her second Olympic gold medal?
Marlene Stollings: What I sense is all the pride that even our current players feel because they're part of the program now. She was here in a different era but she was able to perform at the highest level possible for basketball in the world. She's an inspiration to them. Not that they'll necessarily play in the Olympics, but they're part of a program that produced someone of her caliber. She's such a good person. She's so giving to our program. When I texted her one of the first things she said back was, "Can't wait to see you this fall." She comes around to our practices and different things and is engaging with our kids. She's someone they can relate to, and she's also someone who is extraordinarily famous in women's basketball. It speaks to her character and the type of person she is that everyone gravitates toward her.
GS: For the current Gophers, summer practices have wrapped up. What were some of the highlights for you, especially with the newcomers who were practicing with the team for the first time?
MS: One of the big highlights for me is how well they performed in the classroom, as we just got grades back. I'm really impressed with their adaptation to everything that's being thrown at them. It's such an adjustment to come to this level, for anybody, no matter how talented they are in the classroom or on the court. This particular group has adapted quickly and they've done it with a smile on their face. They're very engaging kids. Everyone's giving us great feedback about them and how they handle their business in other areas across campus. In terms of on the court, it's early and they're freshmen. I think every coach would say the same thing at this point. They have a long way to go on the court, just adapting to this level and the demands of it, and the information that's being thrown at them is at a level and pace that they're not used to. All of that's very normal. They've really connected with their teammates and the returners have been awesome with helping them. How much they have blended with our team is a big deal.
GS: How are they adjusting to the strength and conditioning program, going through a whole summer of it?
MS: Very well. They come from high-caliber AAU programs and high-caliber high schools where some of them have won championships. They're used to being challenged and they don't back down from that. While it's new and it's at a different pace and level, they're used to responding to that environment, and they're fast. We talked about changing our finish line in practice to the free throw line instead of the baseline when they do a down-and-back because they're just so fast. We don't want them running off the court. They compete in the weight room. If someone has more weight on a bar, they're going to try to add weight. They're competitors, and that's just been really fun to see. They've even raised the level of some of our returners, which is a great situation to be in. It's all in good competition and the returners have adapted nicely to it as well.
GS: Is there anything you saw in practice that was not necessarily surprising, but that you didn't know you were going to see coming into the summer?
MS: I think one of the things that stands out for us is Whitney Tinjum. We expected her to come in as a mature leader, but having been able to be around her now and see how much of a team player she is and how sharp she is because she's been around the block, and how willing she is to help the young kids, that's just been really nice to see all-in-all from a leadership standpoint on the court as well as off the court. And just as a whole, they're excited about our schedule. Our schedule's exciting. We have competitions at the end of practice and in the strength and conditioning room, and how much they want to compete has been fun for us to see. The competition by position, we have a little bit of that going on right now. We've not necessarily had that in our first couple years of building the program. We're certainly still building the program, but I think we're starting to have the pieces fall in place to where we can have competition at positions that we maybe haven't had in the first couple of years.
GS: The WNBA will be starting up again soon. Did you have a chance to talk with Rachel Banham and Amanda Zahui B. when they were in town?
MS: It was nice because they both stopped by. Amanda stopped by during camp, which the campers loved. They happened to be playing (against the Lynx) the same time camp was going on. That was really nice to see her. She's played here again since then and we've been able to go and chitchat with her. Rachel has been back in town during break here. We've exchanged several text messages. She swung by the office as soon as she got back in town. She has told me repeatedly she's going to be back here a lot right after the season and doing a lot of her rehab and training and at some point practicing with us, which she's allowed to do. Her hope is that she can still play at some point overseas this winter. She's rehabbing at a very good pace and she's looking forward to being around here for a lot of that.
GS: What has it been like being reunited with assistant coach Tamisha Augustin, who has been on your staff in the past?
MS: The fun part about Misha is that, it's always nice bringing back someone you've already worked with. You have familiarity and you don't have to spend as much time on all the little detail things. I know what I'm getting. She knows what I expect of her. So the transition's been smooth, and we've had a lot of laughs because of some reminiscing as well as just knowing each other-storytelling and things like that. She's added a fun piece to the office. She's very good on the recruiting trail as well. She'll be good with our players. They don't know her very well yet because we've been gone a lot with recruiting since she got here, but when she has the time to connect with our players I think that'll come through as well.
