What are your overall thoughts on the season?
I was disappointed with the record, but encouraged by the way we finished and how we played the second half of the season. I think overall we started to play better basketball the second half. We were still trying to find ourselves during the first half. A lot of things were happening the first half of the season with injuries. But you don’t make any excuses. You expect for whomever you put out there to get the job done. But people weren’t healthy enough, and we weren’t playing together as a team. Once we started to understand and trust one another, we got on the same page and the results started to show. We weren’t closing the games in the first half of the season. We made a lot of mental mistakes, turned the basketball over, didn’t rebound and gave up second opportunities; all that was stuff that we emphasized every day in practice. In the second half we started doing those things, and the results showed.
How has the team improved since the beginning of the year?
We improved tremendously from day one to the end of the season. Turnovers became minimal, and we gave up fewer points to our opponents. We were giving up 80 points at one point, and then we ended up giving up 76 by season’s end. It was a big drop. The results showed; we were scoring more and we started defending better. I think that was the result of us playing better. Individually people started to take their game to another level. Sheri Sam played better; Tangela (Smith) played better, although she was playing well all year. Kelly (Mazzante) was always consistent; Monique (Currie) picked her game up another level, and so did Tammy (Sutton-Brown) and Helen (Darling). Janel (McCarville) started to get healthier and felt confident about her game. Ayana Walker gave us a big contribution toward the end of the season as well, and I think we have to start getting a balance from the starters to the bench players. The bench players started complimenting the starters, and the starters were out there doing their job. Early on we had the bench that was more reliable than our starters. It became a balance the second half of the season when we got a lot of contribution from our starters.
How did the rookies perform this season?
LaToya (Bond) was a big part of that second unit that really contributed and took her game to another level. I think she was really able to give us another dimension from the point guard position. I think the rookies really played well for me. They all had their own season. I think they got the experience early on in preseason that they can play in this league, along with Yelena Leuchanka, who was out most of the season. She still believes, and she knows that she can play in this league. Monique had a decent year. She will tell you herself that she did not have the year that she would like to have had. She’s had an opportunity to see the talent level the league possesses, and how good the players that she goes up against are. She’s learned where she needs to continue to take her game. She knows that she can play in this league, and she can be a star in this league. She had some really brilliant nights, and some nights that she wasn’t as aggressive as I would have liked her to be. I think she understood that. Next year I believe that she will come in with a lot of fire and swagger and realize what she is truly capable of doing. She’s going to be the player that everyone anticipated her being. Tye’sha Fluker was great, too. I think she had a decent year backing up Tammy. It was unfortunate for her that she couldn’t find much playing time, but when she played she learned. I asked her to focus on certain things when she goes overseas to play, like more rebounding, and finishing when the opportunity presents itself. I think she’s going to come back strong; she has a lot of good post moves and I was pleased with her this season.
Was Monique’s performance because she didn’t have a break between the college and WNBA seasons to rest her body?
That could have been the case. She literally came straight from playing in college into training camp. She never had a break. Some games you have to contribute to her fatigue, and she just literally hit the wall. She was in a tough situation. She was around a lot of veterans who had strong personalities. She has a strong personality too, but rookies have a tendency to take second stage because you don’t want to step on anybody’s toes. In the second half she decided that her voice is just as strong and opinionated as anyone else’s. She was going to go out and play, and that’s what she did. She came out and started playing. That’s what I loved about her character.
How did injuries affect the team?
It affected everyone in the league, but it affected us as well. We didn’t have everybody healthy. Allison Feaster came back from having her baby, and she wasn’t the healthy Allison that everybody is used to seeing. I still gave her the opportunity. I still believed in her, and I wanted to treat her like the professional that she was and the leader that she is. I wanted to give her the opportunity to keep her confidence up and let her know that she was still a part of our team. She had good days, and she had bad days. That’s just with everybody. But I love Allison’s leadership and her competitiveness. Her work ethic is unbelievable. I have no doubt that she is going to come back in rare form next season.
Read Part Two of Muggsy's interview here
