The Amy Eagan Podcast

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (00:01.687)
Welcome back to the Amy Egan podcast where each week, Lyndenwood University head women's basketball coach Amy Egan talks women's basketball. In the Ohio Valley Conference, the NCAA, we talk academics, we have players on on occasion, and this week we're talking to a head women's basketball coach of a D1 program that's 8-0 at home in their conference. Coach, gotta be a good feeling.

Amy Eagan (00:23.726)
Yeah, it is. mean, you know, we've got a lot of buzz going on about our program right now and I love it for our kids, but there's still a lot of season left. You know, and when you talk about a lot of season six of eight on the road, so just got to make sure that they understand that, you know, it is something to celebrate. It's really good. And I'm very proud of what we've done, especially protecting our home court. But, you know, the season's not over and we haven't.

accomplished anything yet or won anything yet.

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (00:56.383)
And let's talk about the Eastern Illinois game. They came in, they had lost their first game of the conference season last Thursday. They came into St. Charles on Saturday. Lindwood jumped off quickly and then Eastern dominated the last part of that first quarter. Then it was a fabulous basketball game after that.

Amy Eagan (01:12.942)
Yeah, I mean, I thought it was a really good basketball game. thought, you know, I thought we had we didn't play very well the first quarter. I mean, I think we gave up 22 points the first quarter and just defensively weren't as locked in as we needed to be. And we just weren't very active overall on on Saturday. And then I thought on, you know, you talk about second quarter, third quarter and fourth quarter. I think all of those we held them to 15 or under.

And so I think that was a big part of it. I mean, it helped, we got her in a little bit of foul trouble, so they had to sit her some, which is huge. I mean, she's such a big part of them. And then, you in the last 30 seconds, she fouled out, which I think it was probably over with by then anyways. But yeah, think, you know, we defensively, we've got to still put four quarters together. We haven't been able to do that. And it's something I think.

I wouldn't be happy, I guess, if we were putting four quarters right now and peaking because we want to peak at the end of this month. But it's something we're striving for.

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (02:15.683)
a couple observations from the rookie amateur hour end of the microphone. And the first one is I've watched Justice Odom play for the better part of two years now and coach, she's got to be one of the best true post players in the OVC.

Amy Eagan (02:28.078)
Yeah, definitely. mean, you know, if we can get her going, I think she presents a mismatch problems for her opponents because she is one of the bigger post players in the league and the more skilled post players in the league. You know, she can go right shoulder, she can go left shoulder. She can do a little bit of everything face up. She can shoot it from the outside. She's really worked on her game a lot while she's here and really grown.

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (02:50.275)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (02:55.244)
her game I think while she's here. And she definitely, I mean, I've said it even last year, at end of last year, I think she's one of the best post players in the league.

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (03:03.415)
And then another observation, I've been impressed with the defense. And in my mind, again, amateur hour on this end of the mic, the defense is just impressive. Hands all over the place, helping each other out, switches are good. But I noticed that Maya Skoff and Gracie Wernhery, their help defense may be some of the best also that I've seen in the OVC.

Amy Eagan (03:08.876)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (03:23.628)
Yeah, I think for, you know, Maya in particular, think, you know, she being now a sophomore and played a ton of minutes, she's starting to really kind of see the game and see help situations and see situations where she can go take some chances and make some plays. I think that's pretty natural to Wernley and everything she does. And Wernley is just so physical. I mean, she's a physical guard. She's an active guard.

I mean, she's hard to play against, you know, because she's so good defensively in those areas. So I think both of them, I mean, are really growing into understanding kind of how we do things and what we want. And like I said, just going and making plays, which is so big with everything that we talk

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (04:05.985)
And we've talked and teased a couple of times in this podcast that we have amateur hour for basketball on this side, but you also know coach that I'm a data nerd. And I've been fascinated, you know, coming toward the end of the second year of your D1 experience at Lindenwood. And you had the chance to have take a substantial set of players as freshmen through, through their senior year, providing they all stay and stay healthy. And just that first two year improvement, what might that mean to this program and even to this

Amy Eagan (04:13.581)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (04:30.062)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (04:35.137)
the standard of having four, having players for four years in your program.

Amy Eagan (04:39.564)
Yeah, mean, knock on wood. Let's hope we retain everyone and keep everyone intact and keep everyone healthy, as you said. But I just think that's huge, you know, and for a few reasons. You know, first, I think I love seeing freshmen grow to be sophomores, to be juniors, to be seniors and just seeing where they can take their game and how much they grow, not just on the floor, but off the floor as people off the floor as teammates, you know, with their academics, all those kind of things with it. So I think that's really, really cool.

I think a lot of kids miss out these days on having an alma mater in regards to having just a love for that alma mater. And I think that's really cool that if we retain all these kids that they're gonna have that and they're gonna do some extra special things. I think a lot about just different things. And one of the things I've been thinking about lately is that we have a group of kids that are not rewriting history or actually writing history here.

That's pretty cool. know, kids that took a chance on a program that hadn't been very good, that was in a transition, and they're just writing history for this program. And they're just going to have so many things to say when they leave here. I think just it's going to make their experience, even when they get older, when they can talk about things, just so special for them. excited. you know, even if you talk about like some of the growth that they've had,

you know, when you talk about like with their bodies and putting on muscle and their athleticism and you know, those kinds of things just from last year to this year, it's amazing. know, Ellie putting on like 20 pounds of muscle, know, Michaela Cunningham being able to dunk a tennis ball right now. It's just, it's crazy to think about the growth they've already had in one year and where we can continue to take that. So really excited for them, but more excited for our program that we have such phenomenal kids in it.

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (06:22.551)
Yeah

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (06:35.219)
and success breeds recognition. Big event with ESPN on February 13th in St. Charles. Tell us about it.

Amy Eagan (06:43.446)
Yeah, how exciting, right? First time ESPN will be on campus. And really exciting. know, we told our kids Saturday after the game because we didn't practice on Sunday and I knew the release was going to come out Monday at 11 and I didn't want them to hear it from anyone else. And I don't think they really understood how big that was that ESPN was coming to campus for the first time. So I think, you know, we get to play Southern Indiana who's just a phenomenal team. Obviously won it last year, having another great year.

just a hard match up for us. So I'm excited that it's going to be a great game. Hopefully we can really get a great crowd here. You know, I, we've put some stuff out already, but we really need St. Chuck to show up and as many people that we can fill the stands with, fill the stands, but it's pretty cool. I think it's just another step in, you know, the building process that, you know, we want these kids to have that experience and to continue to build and continue to achieve great things. And so.

Just another thing that they can add to them, you know, writing some history here.

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (07:43.501)
And then the last question as we go behind the scenes of your program. You've got a student manager. Talk about who she is, what she does for your program, and the value she brings.

Amy Eagan (07:53.218)
Yeah, so her name is Peyton Tucson. So here's the crazy thing about Peyton and that is so when I was at jury and she sent me an email that she was looking to possibly wanting to, you know, maybe get into coaching slash do something in teaching and coach in high school when she was in college. And she was looking for an opportunity to be a student assistant for someone. And she's up from the Chicago area and I responded to it and just.

had some brief conversations, got on the phone with her dad a little bit. They came down, we sat in person and talked a little bit about some things. So she was actually gonna go to jury with me. And she was committed to jury and gonna come down there and go to school there and be like our student assistant there. And then I had to call her and tell her I was taking the job here. And so she was like, well, I mean, I'm just gonna go to Linda with her. So she changed schools and ended up coming here.

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (08:44.349)
goodness.

Amy Eagan (08:49.91)
has been with us now. is her second year with us and just she does so much behind the scenes. Like just someone for our kids as we talk about a lot, just being so thankful for everything she does for us with no money given to her and just a selfless kid. She does all their food orders on the trips. She does food when we're at home. She does all their laundry and she has a couple other managers that help her, but she really oversees a lot of that and takes on a lot of responsibility.

know, in the preseason, she was statin' every night and every day, statting stuff for us. Just adds so much value to our program, and we couldn't be more thankful for her and having a kid like her around. And I think, you know, as she grows in our program next year, you know, we'll probably sit down and talk about maybe something else that she can learn and grow into to help her with the coaching, and then the same thing her senior year. So that if she does choose to...

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (09:24.205)
Cool.

Amy Eagan (09:43.822)
You know be a high school basketball coach a junior high basketball coach a college coach wherever she chooses That she's a maybe has a little jumpstart on on some kids

Amy Eagan For Feb 4 2025 (09:53.315)
Well, that's a cool story. And the college experience can be so much for so many, not just the athletes themselves, and even for those that never watch an athletic event, let alone participate. College offers so many opportunities for these students. And Amy, that's a fabulous story. And with that, let's call it a wrap. Let's call that a wrap for this episode of the Amy Egan podcast, where each week, of course, we talk about Linwood University's women's basketball. Coach, always a pleasure. And we'll talk to you soon.

Amy Eagan (09:55.555)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (10:07.735)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (10:20.514)
Thanks, Gary.