The Amy Eagan Podcast

Gary (00:02.49)
Welcome to the Amy Egan podcast where each week, Lindenwood University head women's basketball coach Amy Egan talks women's basketball and much, much more. We'll talk about past games, future games, players, the Ohio Valley Conference, NCAA, academic careers, and many other interesting topics. And this week, assistant head coach Jordan Mellott joins us. Jordan, thanks for making time on this Saturday morning.

Jordan Mellott (00:29.377)
Yeah, no problem. Happy to be here.

Gary (00:31.906)
You know, along with Coach Egan, this is your first D1 coaching gig. Tell us about the experience and maybe the biggest surprise you've experienced so far in D1 basketball.

Jordan Mellott (00:43.489)
Yeah, you know, Amy and I, when talking about coming here, and obviously it was ultimately her decision, but just talking about coming to the Division I level, the one thing that we really discussed was maintaining that kind of relationship first mentality as far as how we did things at Drury and what was important to us. And, you know, I think we've done a pretty good.

job at that and are continuing to build on that every day, every week. It's an ever growing thing. But I think one of the biggest surprises and it's something that I don't mind as much, but Amy didn't really like to do that much was recruiting so young. You know, we, your timetable kind of goes up a lot.

Gary (01:28.905)
Ha ha

Jordan Mellott (01:34.265)
quicker with kids and you have to get in there and make sure that they know who you are and what you're about at an early age, especially with kids that could be going to another conference school or a little bit closer to another conference school or a little bit further away and just kind of explaining who we are to them so that they have us on their radar for sure.

Gary (01:58.094)
Interesting. And you mentioned Drury, and you and Amy were ridiculously successful at Drury. Talk about things that you did at Drury that will transfer to Lindenwood to that same level of success here in the next year, two or three.

Jordan Mellott (02:13.533)
Right. I think that kind of what I hit on there about the relationship and how we strive to be better people every day with who we have on campus and the people that we surround our program with. I think the other big thing that instilling the confidence and winning tradition and that mindset of

of you can win and not try to win, but you can, and really, really honing in on that. I think the other thing too is, you know, it's always like kind of a saying that people say, you know, success breeds success. And you know, we really truly believe that the more and more success these young kids have, the better and better they're getting. And I think you're seeing that week in and week out with these kids. And that's what it's all about. It's...

not about all the things that they're doing wrong, even though we talk about those things and try and fix those things, but just filling their heads with what they can do and what they've been doing really well and continuing to build on that. And you talk about how successful we were at Drury, even then it was always that fight with it of how much do you grind on them and how much do you fill their heads with the success and what they are.

and how good they are. And I think that the more you win, the more you believe that you can do something. And that's just kind of how success happens for us. You know, we did have very talented kids at Drury, don't get me wrong, but there also were kids that went, this isn't a knock on some of them, but they exceeded expectations, if that makes sense, just because of that mentality.

Gary (04:09.558)
And you mentioned the confidence piece and you guys watch these young ladies every day. I just watch them at the games, of course. And I thought this past Tuesday's game against CMO, from my perspective, I saw confidence across the floor and I know it's a subjective kind of determination, but I thought I saw that and it's in the looks, it's in their emotions, it's in the way they go places. So I think I see that. So for what that's worth, I wanted to share that. And Jordan, your two young sons are...

Jordan Mellott (04:14.629)
Mm-hmm.

Jordan Mellott (04:30.03)
Yes.

Jordan Mellott (04:33.251)
Yeah, no.

Gary (04:36.622)
at almost every home game along with their mother Sally. What's it like to have young guys at home for those games?

Jordan Mellott (04:40.517)
Mm-hmm.

Jordan Mellott (04:44.813)
You know, it's a special thing. Griffin really has grown very attached to our girls, and he has a couple that he's very attached to. And one of the things about coaching and that is, and we say it all the time, it is a family business. And having them there just reiterates that. And

The fact that they enjoy it makes it even better. They don't dread coming, they love coming. And I think Griffin really enjoys the fact that the girls kind of take him everywhere that they go. He just eats it up and they do such a great job with him. And I think it also just truly helps him see, and this goes back to kinda, I don't wanna bring up Drury, but.

Gary (05:28.823)
Ha ha.

Jordan Mellott (05:38.717)
He was used to seeing people win and like that's just what he what he thought and then and then now He's been able to see that, you know You don't always win and he's a very competitive kid and sometimes you don't win. You got to keep working at it um, and you know, he's like and some of our losses he's like, you know, they just they just got to work harder They'll be better, you know after the game and said stuff like that and then um

Gary (05:51.452)
Interesting.

Jordan Mellott (06:04.337)
when we pulled out on CMO and we were all really excited, he's like, I told you, I told you you'd win because of how hard they're working, and says things like that. So it's great for him to see that working hard does pay off too, it doesn't just always happen. Yeah.

Gary (06:11.085)
aww

Gary (06:18.29)
Oh my, that's such a good story. Such a good story. All right, second year at D1 for Lyndenwood. And with the current players, and just an impressive group, again, from my perspective, watching almost exclusively at the games, with the current players in the recruiting that are taking place, I understand you can't talk much about the specific recruits. What do you see in years three and four D1 for Lyndenwood, from your perspective?

Jordan Mellott (06:24.589)
Mm-hmm.

Jordan Mellott (06:44.325)
I think that, you know, as we continue to see where we can bring people in to help our current players continue to be successful. And I think we are not believe we are doing the job that of recruiting kids that are within the St. Louis area. And then also being able to expand our net a little bit further than that as well.

make sure that we're getting the correct pieces to make the kids around them that we already have better and to help them be more successful, not to take anybody out or anything, it's just to continue to build on what we have and put pieces around them so they find even more successful.

Gary (07:34.914)
And then last question, Jordan, before moving into college coaching, you were quite successful as a high school coach. And there are gonna be folks listening to this podcast, high school students, college students, parents, who may have aspirations to do what you and Coach Egan are doing. What's the one piece of guidance you would give to folks hoping for that, either that first high school basketball coaching job or even that first college coaching job?

Jordan Mellott (08:01.945)
Right. Well, you know, it's sometimes about the coaching, but a lot of times it's about the Jimmies and Joes that you have on your team. And I was very blessed to have a very talented group in high school. And you know, I always, and Amy can attest to this too, it's about not thinking that something is below you. And...

When I got into high school coaching, I loved coaching high school. And I've had this conversation with a lot of people, I love coaching high school kids. I think they're great. And my big thing for me was I wanted to experience what it was like to coach at the college level. I went and got my master's. And then I was probably the most persistent person that you would ever meet about trying to get into that. And I think that like, you know,

Gary (08:53.262)
I know.

Jordan Mellott (08:59.234)
you really have to understand what is important to you, and what you value in coaching. And I'm always somebody that does really like a challenge and figuring something out. And so I believe that like I wanted that next step to figure that out. And I mean, I had to go through some sacrifices, major sacrifices to get to where I am, but being persistent and you know,

Being great at where you're at, I think, is a huge thing. And that's kind of a cliche, but you really just have to love where you're at right now, and then other doors will open up for you. And it's never about where you want to get to all the time. It's about where you're at right now and trying to make the best of where you're at. And I think that, I don't even remember what podcast I was listening to, but a coach said that. I think it was actually Chris Beard.

that moved from Juco to D2 to D1. And that was kind of his saying that like, you just make the best of where you're at and never take for granted where you are right now. And that's been a big piece of what I brought.

Gary (10:11.594)
Well, Jordan Millet has been our guest today. He's the assistant head coach for Amy Egan's Lindenwood University Women's Basketball Team, Jordan. Interesting perspectives, cool stories. Thanks for taking a few minutes to join us.

Jordan Mellott (10:22.849)
Yeah, for sure. Thanks for having me.

Gary (10:26.438)
Amy Egan, Coach Egan.

Gary (10:31.914)
A win this week, a cool win against CMO on Tuesday night, and a competitive loss against West Western on Thursday night. Takeaways from both games.

amy (10:43.183)
Yeah, I mean, I thought we played really, really well against CMO. I thought we did so many things well, both with our guards, with our posts. I thought Justice had a great game and anytime you can start kind of inside and work your way out scoring wise, I think it frees and opens a lot of stuff up. I mean, our kids just, they just keep getting better and better. And I think you said it, with Jordan Wright in that game, they just had a ton of confidence. You could just see how.

you could just see it in them with how they carried themselves, how they reacted to hard, and how they played and how they finished that game when Simo made a run at them. And then we looked to extend it so you could just see that they were really believing in who they are and what they're capable of doing and were able to come away with a win. I thought against Western Illinois we backtracked a little bit on that. I thought winning got hard. We kind of carried ourselves in a way that we've been fighting to

to get them out of, you know, and sometimes you get that with a young group, you know, and it was our fourth game in seven days and this group hasn't been through that, you know, but the fact and the reality is, is we told them in the locker room, like, if you're talking about being a championship program and winning a championship, you know, to win a conference championship, you're playing maybe, you know, three games in four days. So you got to find ways to be tough mentally and physically.

no matter how many games you have in a single day. So I think that for us, I thought it was a good learning experience for us. I thought we had opportunities to win that game against Western. And again, at the end, we just, we kind of struggled with it. So I think that, it's again, a learning opportunity for us and hopefully we continue to get better.

Gary (12:31.694)
You mentioned Justice Odom and I've had a chance to chat with her and compliment her a couple of times in different, uh, Linda Wood's, uh, scenarios. She is so intense, uh, both on the court and a little bit off the court even as well. And I think an increasingly strong presence under the basket, what's her capacity for growth at Lundwood?

amy (12:49.079)
Yeah, yeah, you know, I think, you know, that kid, as much as she drives me crazy, I love that kid to death. And she brings so much to our program, like you said, not only on the floor, but off the floor. And, man, her personality, I just love it. She just she just makes me smile every day. But, you know, I think, you know, she struggled a little bit with a knee injury that has inhibited her a little bit with some of her growth.

I think if she didn't have that knee injury, I mean, she might not even be at her level, but I feel like she is just getting better and better. She's a kid, when you ask questions about basketball or you ask questions about situations, she gets it. She just understands the game. She understands what it takes. And now for us, it's getting her to that point on the floor where she believes in what she's doing.

And does it consistently for us and she's getting there. I mean you can see it every day and I think she's really Blessed and fortunate to have Alexis with her every day that keeps teaching her and keeps believing in her that is really helping bring her along as well, but I Think she's gonna continue to get better for us. I think she's starting to see some success in our program And you know the more success she has the more we're gonna give her the ball the more we're gonna look to her

At the beginning of the year, I think she wanted more touches and she wasn't scoring it very well. I said, well, if you want more touches, as a post player, you've got to shoot 50, 60%. You do those things, then you get a touch every time down the floor. I think she understands what she has to do to make things easier for her. I think she's starting to see some of that.

Gary (14:20.904)
Hahaha

Gary (14:33.038)
Interesting. And again, from my perspective, sitting in the seats for mostly games only, as the season has progressed, Coach Egan, you've, in my mind, you've been able to get almost all of your players some minutes. And we had Stevie Lockhart on last week and she had some critical and really good minutes against UT Martin a week or two ago. What's your thought process on balancing minutes the best you can for your players?

amy (14:56.163)
Yeah, you know, every game is so different just because of the flow of the game, the foul situations, you know, those kind of things. You know, I think our bench is a very, very important part of what we're trying to do. And, you know, I tell every freshman and whether it's Stevie or anyone, you know, you run your own race and everybody gets it at different times. Everybody develops at different times. Sometimes as freshmen, some kids are a little bit more inconsistent than other kids.

But you never know when your time may come. And like we talked about with Stevie, I think we needed her in Tennessee Martin and she made some great things happen for us. I thought the other night, we had a lot of our bench that came in. I thought Kailin Evans gave us some good offensive minutes when we needed it and we're struggling a little bit. I thought Stevie came in and gave us some good minutes besides missing three free throws, which we were shocked at because she's a 92% high school free throw shooter. But I think, you know,

A lot of those kids that maybe struggled, you know, Stevie and Kaylin and some of them, they just got to work on a little bit more consistency and practice for us. And if they continue to do those things and continue to put themselves in their situation, you know, and run their own race, their time will come. And I think you're seeing that with some of them. I think, you know, whether it's Stevie or Kalia, you know, I think they're really starting to understand what we want of them. They just got to do it more consistently.

consistently in practice.

Gary (16:25.902)
Interesting. And let's talk about the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. It's getting closer. And just for those of us that watch this kind of stuff, what kind of conference win numbers do you think it will take your team to get into that tournament?

amy (16:40.035)
Yeah, I think we're in a three-way tie for eighth right now. You know, and for us, you know, it's, I mean, I believe we can play. I think we've shown besides our first game against Western and first game against CMO, where we were probably bouncing back a little bit from losing Gracie Kelsey to an ACL and a little bit of sickness. I think we've shown that we could probably play in every game, you know, and I think we got to continue to find ways to win those games and to flip those games.

like we did at Tennessee Martin, like we did with Seymour and finish him. But I think for us, our mentality is let's go win every game. As a staff, I think we're trying to put our kids in that position. And I think our kids are starting to see it and believe it. So I don't know what it's gonna take. It's gonna depend on everybody else that's.

kind of right there with us as well what their schedule is and I haven't dove too much into that just because I want us every day just to go out and play to win.

Gary (17:43.598)
And then a question about fun, and in particular, the Tuesday night game this past week, you and I exchanged a text message this week, and I observed kind of a lot of smiles and lightheartedness on that Tuesday night game. It was a competitive game. How do you balance, from your perspective as a head coach, how do you balance the fun and serious work during what really is becoming a long basketball season? You're in and you're out.

amy (18:08.491)
Yeah, well, it's hard. It really is. You know, college basketball is a it's a year round sport. And, you know, our season is so long. And when you talk about a season with a young group, I'm sure for them, this is, you know, a lot of them in high school played sports, played multiple sports that took their mind off of sometimes giving them a break from, you know, the grind of the season.

You know, I think you got to find the fun in the hard. And, you know, for us with this group, we're really lucky. Like they come to practice and they want to get better. They come to practice and they laugh. They laugh in the locker room. We try to do some team stuff with them to help relieve some of that. But I think we're really lucky with the kids that we have because they do just find the fun in the hard. And that's what you have to do. You have to understand that it's going to be a grind. You have to understand the winning.

Winning is really, really hard. It's not normal, right? And so how can you find the fun in that? And we're trying to do that with this group, but there are also hard days. And we just continue to work with them and continue to pump them up and try to build confidence in them, as Jordan said. And I think that makes it a little easier.

Gary (19:22.562)
And then finally, and you got this in the No Size Sensor, we're going to do something we haven't done before. We're going to flip this interview scenario. And I asked you to ask me any question that you wanted to ask me, Amy. So go for it.

amy (19:36.999)
that you went and watched you know a Marquette Yukon game right okay yeah you tell me what the difference is between watching a Lindenwood women's basketball game right now and watching one of the games from a you know a team at that level

Gary (19:44.139)
I did four rows from this floor, mind you.

Gary (20:02.518)
I wish you'd ask me a harder question because I think the answer is easy. And I think you have to be there physically to see both those levels, and it's the physical stature difference. Even someone like the Yukon star, whose name is now escaping me because I'm old and senile.

amy (20:05.039)
Ha ha ha!

Gary (20:25.762)
What's her name? Yeah, Paige Becker, yeah, Paige Becker. She looks frail on TV, but up close, she has a body structure that is just impressive. And then even across all of their players, they just, they may look thin, but when you look at them up close, did I say four rows from the floor? Four rows from the floor? I think it's the physical component. They're bigger, faster, stronger. We've talked about that before.

amy (20:27.152)
Becker's?

Gary (20:53.846)
And I think a big part of that comes just from the physical stature. I really do. And that's that you can't teach physical structure. We are who we are in terms of that kind of stuff. Well, Jordan Mellott and Coach Egan, thanks again for making time on this Saturday morning. We look forward to seeing you a couple of times at home this coming week. I haven't looked at who we're playing this week. Amy, who's up on the schedule this week?

amy (20:56.723)
Yeah, yeah, I can see that.

amy (21:16.733)
Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech.

Gary (21:19.738)
So we'll look forward to watching both of those games. Enjoy the rest of the weekend and we'll be back next week with the Lindenwood University head women's basketball coach Amy Egan. We'll talk to you then.

amy (21:29.435)
Thanks, Gary.