The Amy Eagan Podcast

Gary D Stocker (00:00.918)
Welcome back to the Amy Egan show where Linda Wood University head women's basketball coach Amy Egan joins us each week to talk about women's basketball, the Ohio Valley Conference, academics, the NCAA tournaments and lots, lots more. Egan, always a pleasure to get back on the show with you. A good week last week.

Amy Eagan (00:18.476)
Yeah, thank you. Always glad to be here. You know that and spend some time with you. It's a little cold today sitting in my office a little cold with my heater on, but glad to be here and excited for what's to come for us.

Gary D Stocker (00:32.086)
So this weekend concluded the first half of the OVC season, OVC conference season. 7-3, you probably wish there a couple games better than that. I know you're looking for that double bye in the OVC tournament that's a little more than a month out from now. And you've got a really, really big weekend coming up this weekend that will help determine that.

Amy Eagan (00:40.472)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (00:51.49)
Yeah, you know, I think we could very well be sitting here nine and one. You know, Moorhead losing Warnley and then making a last second foul in a game that we were up one. And then Tennessee Martin played pretty well. And then at the end, just missed a couple free throws. Had a play that the ref called wrong.

go the other way for them. And so just some unfortunate circumstances. So could I think I don't know about the Western game, but could very well be sitting here in nine and one if just a couple of plays go the other way. So

Gary D Stocker (01:28.758)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (01:31.79)
I'm happy with the first part, I think going forward, I think there's some things we gotta keep getting better at and keep making changes to. Obviously when you play people a second time around, it's a whole different story with stuff and what they adjust to. So gotta be ready to go out and win some games on the road this week especially.

Gary D Stocker (01:52.47)
So let's go back to last week's game. Tennessee Tech was in St. Charles on Thursday before all the snow and cold. And really a close game until late and your young women's hit 10 consecutive free throws to kind of close that one out. Talk about free throw shooting.

Amy Eagan (02:06.792)
Yeah, so I mean the two games before Tennessee Tech we did not shoot it well. I think we're in the 60s. And so, you know, that Sunday when we came together and we talk about the previous week and the week going forward, you know, one of things I communicated to them was that we had to get in and spend some time shooting free throws if we wanted to win games. And so hopefully they did some of that this past week, but I thought we really stepped up.

and focused a lot more on our free throws this week and shot them very well both games this week starting with Tennessee Tech.

Gary D Stocker (02:41.668)
And then Saturday game, we just beat the snowstorm. I presume that the kids from Tennessee State got back okay.

Amy Eagan (02:47.458)
They stayed, I know for sure, Saturday night.

their bus driver wasn't going to take them. So she told me pregame that they were going to stay for sure that night. I don't know if they got home last night. I doubt it. I bet they were leaving this morning. They actually have a game on Tuesday at home. So they have a Tuesday match. So they got a lot of prep, I'm sure, and a lot of practice they got to get to. And so hopefully they're number one safe and safe with their travels. But hopefully they have an opportunity to do that and get ready for Tuesday.

Gary D Stocker (03:01.232)
my.

Gary D Stocker (03:19.5)
I always feel for teams, I know what happens to your teams as well. You get to bad luck with weather and it just makes for awful scheduling. And we talked free throws and in the Tennessee State game on Saturday, the first seven free throws went in for Lyndon Wood. That's 17 straight, I'm guessing that's because of coaching.

Amy Eagan (03:23.896)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Eagan (03:35.534)
I wish. Maybe I just got to yell at him a little bit more and get mad at him a little bit more. I don't know. don't know. No, we, I thought our focus was a lot better.

Gary D Stocker (03:45.036)
And then again,

Gary D Stocker (03:49.1)
Yeah, yeah. And 17 straight, that's a big number over the course of two games. That tells you something, whether it's coaches or players, that's discussion for another day,

Amy Eagan (03:58.543)
you

Gary D Stocker (03:59.808)
So let's talk a little bit about some players who have continued to be strong. Alicia Jones stepping it up in so many ways.

Amy Eagan (04:06.572)
Yeah, absolutely. mean, had another great week for us. You know, setting, I think that the which she scored 31 or 32.

Gary D Stocker (04:16.428)
32, I think,

Amy Eagan (04:17.198)
32 in that first game. I think that was the most scored by a player since 2022 in Highland Arena for the women's on the women's side. So and took really good shots. It wasn't like she was forcing anything. It wasn't like she was taking shots that weren't in her game. Just took really good shots within our offense and how we do things. Also, I thought shared the ball when she needed to share the ball, and I think that's a sign of a great player and everything that is happening for her.

because she's a team first kid. She always makes the extra pass when she needs to, finds her teammates. She's in the gym all the time. If she's not in the gym, she's in our offices asking to watch film. When you do those kind of things, you put yourself in a position to be successful. Not that it always happens, but you give yourself an opportunity. That's really, I think, what's happening for her. Happy for her and excited for her. I know she's just going to keep getting more comfortable and keep getting better and better in our system.

And she's just an ultimate, ultimate player.

Gary D Stocker (05:20.352)
And then we've talked about Valerie Norwood before, but coach, she just glides. You put the ball in her hands, she just glides like you rarely see other players at D1 glide at any level.

Amy Eagan (05:30.871)
Yeah, yeah, she does.

I mean, she can she's got some stuff in her. If you want to say her bag, you know, and how she plays, she definitely does. And she she sometimes does some finishes and that. we're like, how in the heck did that happen? But she's she's a kid for us that can really get to the rim, you know, and where we have a lot of kids that shoot it well and a lot of kids that maybe can't get as smoothly as she can to the rim. She's actually one of those kids. And I think she's been doing a good job of taking advantage of those situations and getting us some things.

closer to the rim. And so that's been good to see. I think she's getting more more comfortable with being aggressive.

and taking shots when she's open. Her pull up is beautiful, so getting to her pull up if she's not comfortable taking the shot. I think she's getting more comfortable too. think she played, she didn't feel too well on Thursday, but I think played 30 minutes on Saturday and is seeing a lot more minutes. Man, I just love watching her defend. She's just locked in and she plays our rules so well. I just love watching her defend. I think that's her number one.

asset that right now that you know I want her to bring every single night and she does.

Gary D Stocker (06:45.804)
And then the last question, coach, we talked about a big road trip coming up, but just take us through, you these are college students that are 18 to 20 years old, or take, and we take them, you take them on the road many times during the course of a five month season. Take us through what this, for example, this upcoming road trip will look like for the players, for games, meals, travel, all that kind of stuff.

Amy Eagan (06:49.612)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (07:05.307)
Yeah.

Yeah, so typically we try to keep things pretty consistent in everything that we do. I think it helps keep them on pattern and comfortable. We'll practice here Wednesday during our normal practice time and then we'll leave Wednesday afternoon. we're going to head to southern Indiana. We'll get there that evening. We'll have dinner together. We're big with eating dinner together on the road and spending some time together. So we make sure and do those things.

and they'll typically do whatever mobility, rehab, whatever they need that night and then go to bed. The next day, we'll get up, we'll have breakfast together, we'll watch some film together, and then we'll go to shoot around. And then after shoot around, we usually get a snack and then some pregame and they kind of do their thing with getting ready for the game. We typically leave about two hours before the game to get there so they can get all dressed and taped and ready and all that kind of stuff before.

We'll tip off at five. know, game typically ends around seven-ish.

Gary D Stocker (08:12.331)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (08:13.238)
We usually try to stay for at least half of the men's game. Some of that depends if we have to travel to the next destination or not. We usually try to stay if we can, but we'll stay till least halftime and then they'll go back and, you know, again get all their mobility and rehab and all that that they need before they go to bed that evening. And then Fridays are usually film in the morning with breakfast and then we typically hit the road to our next destination. When we get to our next destination, we're usually doing some study tables.

Fitting that in and then hitting again if we need any more film before we hit practice usually around six o'clock at night. So typically it's an hour and a half practice and then that evening we just you know relax maybe get away from basketball a little bit eat dinner together again and then Saturday mornings are film or shoot around depending on what we feel like we need in regards to prepping and then we hit hit the road for the game and you know we get there again about

Leave about two hours ahead of time get there about an hour and a half hour 45 before And then after the game we hit the road immediately to come home with stuff So this will be one of our longer trips home because we'll be all the way up more in Moorhead so

You know, it's kind of nice that we, I think we have three, maybe three long trips, two to three long trips, depending on the scheduling a year. But that's it. I mean, our travel is really, really easy and really, really good. And so we're able to keep them in kind of the same rhythm with stuff. And I think our kids enjoy that.

Gary D Stocker (09:45.996)
And you know, again, going back to the fact that these are 18 to 22 year old young women outside of their families, I'm guessing very few really recognize the challenges associated with doing high level basketball, academics and travel.

Amy Eagan (10:00.556)
Yeah, it's always a challenge. Yesterday, and I typically tell our kids on Sundays, you need to use Sundays, especially when we're on the road, to email all your professors, let them know when we're leaving, make up all your assignments, get ahead for the week. And our kids are pretty good at that. So I think we're very fortunate at Lindowood that we have some great professors that work with our kids and understand as athletes what that looks like for them.

But I always tell our kids they got to play their part as well and our kids do a good job at that. And so it's worked out really well for us. But there is some planning in that and some thing doing some things ahead of time. And hopefully our kids again establish the habits because I think that's a good habit that they can carry over into life, right? Into their job and so forth is looking ahead, getting ahead and planning ahead.

Gary D Stocker (10:47.68)
Yeah.

Gary D Stocker (10:54.102)
Coach, safe travels for this weekend. Best wishes for success on the road, and we'll get together again next Monday. Take care.

Amy Eagan (10:59.96)
Thanks, Gary.