In a three-part series, GopherSports.com is talking with each of the assistant coaches from the Minnesota women's basketball team.
Up first is assistant coach Danielle O'Banion, who recently completed her second season back on the sidelines with the Golden Gophers. O'Banion, who works with the post players and handles the team's game schedule, helped coach Taiye Bello to honorable mention All-Big Ten honors in 2018-19 and then consensus All-Big Ten Second Team recognition this past season. Previously, O'Banion was an assistant coach for the Golden Gophers during their best five-season run in school history from 2002-03 to 2006-07. In that span, Minnesota posted five straight winning seasons, including three 25-win campaigns, and four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances from 2003-06.
GopherSports: How would you sum up your two years being back at Minnesota? Danielle O'Banion: "I would say they've been joyful because it's felt like a big family reunion. Obviously the final scores have varied as they always do during every season, but the people have always been the best part of being back. Getting to know our players -- even those seniors we had our first year, watching them grow in one year -- and watching the returners in year two continue to take strides forward. It's just been joyful."
GS: Have these two seasons felt different than when you were previously on staff?
DOB: "It's been different because I'm a bit more seasoned. The first time here, I was really fortunate. It was an ideal situation for me professionally because I was really green, but I was working for and with some of the best veterans in our game, so I was a sponge. That's not to say I'm not continuing to be a sponge, but in many ways the first time here I was simply trying to get good enough to be helpful; that was my mindset. I just wanted to try to be as good as I could as fast as I could, because I knew that Melissa (McFerrin) and Dave (Stromme), the other two assistant coaches, had done this for a long time at many different levels. So I was just trying to get good, if that makes sense. This time around, there is a continuing to urge to continue to get good; there's no question. It has been nice, though, to have the gift of perspective to have a lot more to offer from actual professional experiences.
"And then the obvious differences are the facilities. Recruiting now versus recruiting then is much different, and it's much different in a very positive way because we no longer have to apologize for what we don't have. We don't spend as much time tactfully apologizing for Williams Arena being our sole facility. Williams Arena is a fantastic facility, but at that time you have to remember the Breslin Center at Michigan State had just opened, the Kohl Center at Wisconsin and Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State; those were the bright and shiny new toys that we couldn't necessarily always compete against from a recruiting standpoint. But now we're absolutely in the mix and certainly spending no time apologizing and instead selling the fact that we have one of the most efficient and well-designed facilities in the country."
GS: You mentioned the people at Minnesota earlier. What do you enjoy most about working with this staff?
DOB: "I think the best part about working with this staff is that there's a genuine care and respect for each other that allows us to be true to who we are as individuals and be true to the mission of the program. Even in those intense and competitive moments that always happen in a game or practice, I feel like we bring out each other's best because we have each other's best in mind."
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Assistant coach Danielle O'Banion (center) discusses strategy with fellow assistant Carly Thibault-DuDonis (L) and head coach Lindsay Whalen (R).
GS: You work with the post players. How would you assess that position group?
DOB: "I love coaching our posts. I know that I've been fortunate to coach some really good post players in these first two years. Still to this day, I say that I really have so much respect for Annalese Lamke because she had a dream senior season after not having such a dreamy three years prior. Being able to coach a traditional Big Ten low-post, back-to-the-basket post player that first year was really fun and a great gift. Certainly watching Taiye Bello's development over the two seasons was really fun because I think Taiye grew into her skill set and it was very evident to our team, obviously, but it was also evident to our opponents. We've talked to other coaches and just the way she was able to grow her game to be able to face up on the perimeter this last season, where she wasn't able to do that her junior season was really fun to see.
"As a group, I think we're still evolving how we're going to play. I think we spent a lot of time this season with one traditional post on the floor. Not many of us would've projected Taiye being our "5" player this year at 6'1. So that's the fun part of what we're doing in terms of recruiting and building a roster and player development is I think there will be more times where we'll have two traditional post players on the floor which will help with the rebounding. We don't anticipate one player coming in and replacing Taiye's double-double average, so we'll have to do that by committee. I'm excited for our post group. I've been really pleased with our development and just realize that with so many young posts coming in, and Klarke (Sconiers), Grace (Cumming) and Barbora (Tomancova) continuing to develop, I think we have a real chance to establish Minnesota post play as something formidable."
GS: You also do a lot with setting up the team's schedule each season. What's your philosophy when it comes to that?
DOB: "We realize that the Big Ten schedule, in and of itself, is stout so we try to be strategic in November and December. Minnesota resources our program extremely well so our goal is to go to some tropical destination every other year for a Thanksgiving tournament, so we're excited this Thanksgiving to be going to the Battle 4 Atlantis in The Bahamas. In those off years that we're not traveling to some place on a beach, we would be at home for Thanksgiving so that our players' families and fans can be part of hopefully a two-game homestand that weekend. So by the time you figure out what you're doing for Thanksgiving in those years you're going to a tropical destination, which typically include a field of high-caliber teams, and then you have the Big Ten/ACC Challenge game in December, you already have three or four non-conference games that are really going to help you get ready for the Big Ten.
"We've also taken a position where Coach Whalen has taken an interest in renewing some of these regional rivalries. We've started doing that and we're excited to continue that. Eventually we'll start taking some more trips to areas where our players are from; this past season we went out to Washington D.C. for two games. We obviously play at Rutgers on a regular basis and maybe that would satisfy Klarke's trip home to Queens, but we might play another school in the city so that her family doesn't have to drive very far. So we'll start seeing some of these trips for our players to play in front of their family and friends at their local universities, as well."
GS: In your time back, have there been any particular performances that stand out to you, either individually or as a team?
DOB: "I think the Super Bowl multi-overtime performance this year at home against Rutgers will always stand out because there were so many moments where it didn't look good for the Gophers late in the game. The fact that Taiye got fouled shooting a 3-point shot was the moment we realized it might end up in our favor. And really the last two years we've played Rutgers at home our team has really rallied in a way that has been memorable. I'll also say this year at Iowa I thought we were dang tough. Even though the score did not go in our favor, I just thought our players were really resilient. There were a couple of stretches where Iowa went on big runs and we reached a crossroad where we had to make a decision whether we were going to flare our nostrils and compete or not and we chose to compete every time.
"Other than that, I'm always excited to see the preparation of the few days and weeks prior to each game manifest on the court. I think that's the most nerve-wracking but most rewarding time for me as a coach, the game, because practices are for coaches and games are for players. We can make substitutions and call timeouts but everything else in a game is up to the players."
GS: Off the court, are there any particular moments that you've enjoyed?
DOB: "I think some of the most fun moments come in the film room before we get to film for two reasons. One, Coach Whay does a really good job of communicating what the goals are for each opponent. I think she's creative in how she frames that picture for our players, which is cool to see her lay that out. But I think even before that, I think it's absolutely hilarious that because she has such dry sense of humor that there are times she's standing in front of our team and they don't know if it's okay to laugh because she has this self-deprecating sense of humor. There are sometimes she's just so dry that they don't know what just happened.
"I would be remiss though if I did not mention my half-court shot at the Big Ten Tournament. There were many I attempted during the season that did not look like I was trying to make it and so when it went in that was a highlight for me."
Today we witnessed something that will go down in Gopher WBB history.
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