The Amy Eagan Podcast

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (00:01.595)
Welcome to the Amy Egan podcast where each week, Lindenwood University head women's basketball coach Amy Egan talks, of course, about basketball, the Ohio Valley Conference, the NCAA, academics, careers, and much, much more. We start off today's podcast bringing a special guest, sophomore Gracie Wernley joins us to talk about her basketball and her academics. Gracie, thanks for making time to join us.

Amy Eagan (00:24.834)
Yes, thank you Dr. Starker for having me.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (00:27.427)
Always a pleasure both to talk to you and to watch you play basketball on the court, Gracie. Just a joy to watch you play. You came to Lindenwood this year as your first year as a sophomore. You came from another program. Gracie, what was it that attracted you to Lindenwood University?

Amy Eagan (00:43.82)
I think what attracted me was just how the team is more like a family, honestly, and just the coaches genuinely care about their players as more than just players. They see us as people as well. And just having a culture where everyone wants to come together and win, but also build relationships off of the court and have fun with each other off the court.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (01:04.783)
And you kind of described the culture, and this being your first year, was it different than what you saw at your previous college?

Amy Eagan (01:11.288)
For sure, I think that the culture here is more, definitely more positive. And like I said, like we come together as a family and more than just a team. there's a lot of relationships that are built on and off the court. And again, we're seen more as people and not just as players.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (01:27.865)
Interesting, fascinating. So let's stick with basketball before we start talking about academics in your career. A couple of big games coming to St. Charles this week. Morehead stayed on Thursday and the University of Southern Indiana on Saturday with a big television audience expected. How are you and your teammates preparing for maybe the two biggest women's basketball games in Linwood history?

Amy Eagan (01:50.038)
I think we're just doing what we always do. We just have to be consistent throughout the entire season and that doesn't change towards the end. we're coming in, we're getting in exactly what we need to do. We're watching film, we're going hard every day at practice and we never overlook anyone. Our position right now doesn't matter. We're just, here to win basketball games.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (02:09.763)
Excellent. Let's talk a little more about academics and about your career. So Gracie, what is the major you have chosen?

Amy Eagan (02:17.138)
I'm bio with concentration in pre-med.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (02:20.325)
biology and pre-med. So let's think ahead a couple of years. You finished your eligibility at Lindenwood and you're thinking about that either next academic piece or post, first post college job. what ideally what would be in your mind for that post college event?

Amy Eagan (02:35.862)
Ideally after my four years here I'll go to medical school and dermatology is the plan right now but that could also change while I'm there and if there's something else I like but medical school after this is the next step.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (02:49.733)
Beautiful.

Good things, not quite a year at Lindemut. What's the best academic experience you have had at Lindemut so far?

Amy Eagan (03:01.25)
I really liked my professor last semester, my chemistry professor especially. I feel like everything is really personable and it's easy to talk to them and kind of get the extra help. It also helps that class sizes are a little bit smaller here because you feel like you're really getting kind of one-on-one attention in the classroom.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (03:18.791)
We asked the question about the good experience. And of course, it would only be natural for a podcast interviewer to ask the other end. Share with the listeners one less than positive academic experience at Linwood.

Amy Eagan (03:32.366)
think this is probably all across the board. The 8 a.m.'s, they're horrible. Nobody wants to get up and do anything at 8 a.m., especially sit in organic chemistry lecture. So that's probably the negative is that 8 a.m. lecture twice a week.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (03:48.409)
You're kidding me, you don't like to get up to go in an 8 o'clock class?

Amy Eagan (03:51.104)
Right, isn't it just the best?

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (03:54.107)
Then the final question, Gracie, is just even at your age of 19 or 20, whatever that is, there are young women who will listen to this podcast and they'll want to grow up to be like Gracie Winley someday. They want to have the opportunity to play D1 basketball or D1 sports in general. Just based on your experience, both through the high school experience, the recruiting experience, playing for a couple of years, what's the best piece of advice you would give to a young 15, 16, 17, 18 year old woman?

who wants to grow up to be someone like Gracie Winway.

Amy Eagan (04:25.698)
I would say genuinely enjoy the process because it goes by fast. Your days might feel like they're going slow, but...

you look back and I think, oh my gosh, I'm almost halfway done with college. I have two years of basketball left. That's crazy. I mean, you're sitting there in middle school or as a freshman and all you can think of is, my gosh, I want to play college basketball. I want to play college basketball. And like here I am in the middle of it. It's just crazy how fast it goes. So just really, really enjoy the process and meet some people along the way because you're really going to make your best friends in life through all of this. I mean, you're at the gym every single day, all day. Might as well have some friends out

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (04:41.008)
Ha

Amy Eagan (05:03.396)
of it.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (05:04.495)
Well, beautiful. Well, our special guest today has been sophomore guard, Gracie Wernly. Gracie, again, always a joy to watch you on the court, a pleasure to talk with you. I wish you continued success and we'll look forward to seeing you on the court for many, many more games in the next few years. And before you leave, well, the recording is going, but don't worry, I'll edit that out. So the organic chemistry, I did that. I'm a medical laboratory scientist by training, right? So I took organic long, long time ago. And I'll swear, Gracie, of all the college courses that I took, that was the most informative and constructive.

Amy Eagan (05:17.122)
Thank you so much.

Amy Eagan (05:24.823)
Okay.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (05:34.139)
because carbon is a basis for everything that we do, And that's what organic is all about. So yeah, it was tough, but man, for what I did in hospital laboratories and what you'll do in whatever health medical career you pursue, that organic piece really serves as a baseline for all that. it's...

Amy Eagan (05:34.83)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (05:52.098)
guess that makes it a little better then.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (05:53.827)
Yeah, do you have a family history in healthcare?

Amy Eagan (05:57.294)
My mom's a PT and my dad, runs imaging companies, like he runs the places that do MRIs and CTs. He's not a doctor, but he's on the business side of it. But he, I mean, he works with medical professionals, so.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (06:08.123)
Okay. Well, that's interesting. Our son is physical therapy. He went to Marquette University and he's actually on the faculty at Marquette now teaching physical therapy to the students at Marquette University.

Amy Eagan (06:23.015)
that's cool. Nice.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (06:24.367)
Yeah. Well, great. Best of luck. Tell coach she can come in now and she now will continue the podcast. All right. My pleasure. Bye bye.

Amy Eagan (06:29.558)
Okay, thank you so much. Bye.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (06:36.069)
Where's the dog? I wanna see the dog.

Amy Eagan (06:38.06)
Oliver, can you come in and say hi? Can you say hi Ollie? Hi!

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (06:43.387)
Aww.

Amy Eagan (06:50.158)
All right, let's go get it. Come on, let's go get it, coaching. Come on.

Amy Eagan (07:09.838)
I'm here.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (07:12.313)
You know, if you don't quit bringing in exceedingly impressive young women, I'm going to quit talking. I'm going to quit talking to you. And stand the competition so calm, cool, collected, all that kind of stuff.

Amy Eagan (07:16.44)
She's unbelievable. I know, she's unbelievable, right?

Amy Eagan (07:25.442)
Did she talk a lot?

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (07:27.321)
She answered the questions in almost a perfect amount of time. Not too short, not too long, just really well. And she showed me the dog and Amy, I want a dog. I want a dog.

Amy Eagan (07:29.901)
Good.

Amy Eagan (07:35.374)
I know, Luna was in here earlier today.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (07:41.861)
I want a dog. All right. So here's what I have for you. So for the two games over the weekend, both were similar in many regards. I'm going to ask what you liked about both of them, both the Tennessee Martin and Tennessee State. And then as you watch them, coaches always look for things they can improve on. What do you still think this team needs to improve on based on what you saw this weekend?

Amy Eagan (07:46.498)
Okay.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (08:09.033)
And then, you know, whoever posts those Twitter clips of your games, give them a raise or something. They're nice clips. And I watch them over and over again, because I'm looking for mechanical things. And we've talked about this before. I'm going to bring that up. And I can't remember which game it was. But again, I see I'm not going to pick on any or note any player. You must really do a good job of focusing on the block out because they're, oh, know one Ellie shot late in the Tennessee State game from the corner. Brook fed her the pass there and both.

Amy Eagan (08:15.714)
Yeah, they are.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (08:39.003)
Maya from the far side, think, Justice underneath. The Tennessee State players were watching, and your two girls both didn't get an ideal position. I'm going to give you a chance to talk about how you focus on those mechanics, because we talked about this before. It's really impressive. The blocking out piece. And then the other one's spacing. Again, the same thing. Ellie's three there. Three's there late. You had Maya on one side and Ellie on the other. Talk about coach.

Amy Eagan (08:53.037)
Yeah.

Good.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (09:08.271)
how you set that up, how you talk about spacing, whatever you want do with that. We'll talk about Moorhead. Let's do both games together. You've got Moorhead coming in on Thursday and then USI on Saturday, big game, national TV. How are you preparing your team for what may be, if you're okay with me asking this, what may be the biggest game in University of Women's basketball history? You okay with that? Okay. And then behind the scenes question is Director...

Amy Eagan (09:09.304)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Eagan (09:29.442)
Yep. Yeah, for sure.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (09:36.847)
basketball operations, DBO. You talk about what Lindsay does? Okay. And in part, the travel piece, know, while she travels. I got the same question I had for Kyle yesterday, kind of the travel piece. So, all right, well, we're recording. So I've already done the intro. So I will just jump into the questions and that's going to be at the 10 minute mark.

Amy Eagan (09:38.7)
Yep. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (10:01.701)
So coach, always, you had Gracie Whirley joined us for a special interview, but prior to you and I jumping on the podcast, you bring such impressive young women to talk on this podcast. Coach, my compliments in so many ways.

Amy Eagan (10:13.09)
Thank you so much. mean, I think.

They're all phenomenal and phenomenal in different ways, which makes them all special. so, you know, it's a big part of our program too. We want great people in our program. And I actually told them after the Little Rock game, you know, I feel like when you're a great person, great opportunities are presented to you. And we had a great opportunity against Little Rock and took care of business. So just great people and I love being around them and they're like my kids. So it's nice to have that.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (10:45.477)
So you won two road games over the weekend and very few college teams across the country at any level can say they've won two consecutive conference road games. Tell us what you liked at both UTM and Tennessee State.

Amy Eagan (10:57.9)
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, whenever you go on the road, you always kind of hear and approach in your mind that you're 10 down, you know, when you start the game, you're 10 points down.

And, you know, I think that's a good way, good approach to it just in regards to you're playing in a different atmosphere, you know, you're in a different gym. And so just getting used to some of that. I think, you know, I thought we did a lot of things. Well, I thought Tennessee Martin and Tennessee State.

I mean, they really put together a good game plan. We beat both of them the first time. usually when you win, maybe you don't make as many adjustments. You kind of try to figure out what adjustments they could possibly make. And I thought they made some good adjustments to stuff. I think the thing that I just loved most about our kids is there was just no panic at all. And we've talked a lot about going when you go from.

Number one, we've talked about, you're in seventh, nothing has happened. We haven't won anything, we haven't done anything. You're still picked seventh in this league. so.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (12:04.633)
Yeah.

Amy Eagan (12:08.94)
I think that's really important for them to understand is that even though we have a lot of maybe, you know, hype around us and a lot of talk around us right now, we haven't done anything. And so we've got to continue to do what we do every single day. And secondly, you know, we talk about when things, you know, get hard or things get rough. You know, your character has when your character is really shown as a team, as a program and your culture is really shown, right? It's really to be, it's really easy to be a great teammate. It's really easy to be a great person when it's easy.

And so we talk a lot about what that should look like and how that looks when it's hard from individual to individual. then, know, lately we've been talking a little bit about like being number one right now and,

You know, you kind of do have an X on your back, even though you haven't won anything, we kind of do. mean, if you're number one, everybody wants to knock you off. So, you know, we have to understand as a program that we're going to get everybody's best game and we should invite that and like that. And so we've really gotten to the point like where we're, yeah, come on, bring it, let's go. Let's give us everything you got, you know? And I think when you have a team that can embrace that, I think they have opportunities to fight through some of that adversity. And I think we did that this past weekend, you know, as both teams made some really good runs.

at us. Both teams gave us some really good shots. thought, you know, our kids just staying calm, composed and and continue to stay together and believe in what we're doing.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (13:34.053)
So we've teased before that it's amateur hour on this side of the microphone. And one of things I enjoy watching is the post-game clips, whoever on your staff, posts of whatever game has happened. We've talked about mechanics before, but Coach, in particular, I was watching a clip from, I think it was the Tennessee State game this weekend, and how your girls, when a shot goes up, even if they're 15 feet from the basket, they're racing to get that proper box out. How do you focus on that, and how do you measure if that's successful or not?

Amy Eagan (14:03.862)
Yeah, you know, I think it's so important when you talk about both sides of the basketball, being able to block out.

obviously defensively and limit O boards, but also be willing to go get it back, you know, on the offensive end of things. And, you know, we work on both situations and we talk about it a lot. And, you know, last year, one of our downfalls I thought was rebounding and it was something that needed to get better in order for us to play for championships and win championships. And I still think we're spotty with it, but we've definitely taken a step in the right direction with it and getting better at it every single day.

You know, we work on the fundamentals of blocking out with an arm bar, hitting them with arm bar, stepping to them, hitting them with your butt, you all that kind of stuff. So we really work on that. And I think the more you can rep things like that, the more it becomes habits when they get to games and that. just something that we're trying to make a habit so we can get better at it.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (15:02.533)
And again, amateur question number two is spacing. And I hear spacing talked about all the time in college. And in particular, yeah, I think it was Tennessee State when Ellie hit the two late threes. I think it was the second one that she got a pass. She kind of half jogged down the floor. You could see Brooke spying where she was headed. caught the pass, immediately passed to Ellie, but that wasn't what I noticed. I noticed either was Maya or Gracie on the other side. They were in the identical same spot on the other side. Again,

Amy Eagan (15:20.856)
Yeah.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (15:30.297)
How do you teach that? How do you make sure you're consistent with that?

Amy Eagan (15:32.717)
Yeah, I think.

You know, a lot of times when you talk about offense, a lot of it's about space and pace, right? The spacing that you have is so important when you're running an offense and the pace at which you play is so important. so we do a lot of drills to work on space, to work on balls dribbled at you, this is your movement, balls dribbled away from you, this is your movement, ball screen movement, you all those kinds of things so that, again, we can make things habits for them. And I think we've done such a good job at doing that, that our spacing is pretty good.

And not that we can't continue to get better at it, but it's getting better. I think our pace of playing is getting there. I don't think we're quite there yet with some of the pace that we need to play at, but I do think we're getting better at that as well offensively. But I think so much of it is drilling and teaching and you drill so much that it just becomes a habit when the ball's dribbled at you, you just know where you're going, you know, and so forth with this. So we really work on a lot of drills with those things.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (16:33.154)
And let's look ahead to this week, to the last two home games. I'm a little sad on the amateur hour end of the microphone, although I'm almost certainly going to Evansville for the OVC tournament when that happens. You've got Morehead State coming in on Thursday, University of Southern Indiana, on what may be one of the biggest women's basketball games in Linwood history on Saturday. Talk about both games.

Amy Eagan (16:51.596)
Yeah, well, I think, you know, Saturday doesn't matter right now to us. I mean, I think you're seeing a lot of stuff on social media and, know, I talked to the kids this morning about it. Like, you know, we need to blow it up so that we can get a lot of people here and, you know, we should celebrate it. It's something that they have earned and that they've achieved and something that.

We really want them to enjoy, at the same time, our focus has to be one game at a time. And so they did a really good job today focusing on Moorhead. if there's something you don't know about me, Gary, I'm pretty boring. I'm pretty methodical, as you want to say it, or whatever, every single day with how we do things.

You know, there's no ups, there's no downs, there's no whether we win, whether we lose, everything's pretty much with me the same level. So they know that every day they're gonna get the same thing out of us as a staff and we're gonna coach them the same way no matter what kind of game it is. It's a big game, a little game, whatever it is. But we gotta go get more head first and that's gonna be a tough game for us Thursday night.

And they're gonna come in here, I'm sure again. We'll have a little X on our back that we're gonna have to be ready to handle their best game. But I do think Saturday is exciting for our program. The first time a ESPN is gonna be on campus. I think that's exciting and I think-

Those things don't happen if you don't do the everyday things, you know, and do the everyday things over and over and over and be willing to do the boring. That's just how it is. And our kids and the people that we have in our program are willing to do that every single day. And so they've really earned that, earned that, and I'm excited for them. And man, I mean, I couldn't think of even a better opponent, you know, Rick over at Southern Indiana and.

Amy Eagan (18:41.39)
I mean, we go back years upon years upon years, you know, in the GLVC and we know each other like the back of our hands. So I'm really excited because I think they're really good and I just love their coaching staff and the people that they are. So it's gonna be a really good game and we'll be ready when it comes Saturday.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (18:58.235)
And our behind the scenes question this week, you have a director of basketball operations. Talk about what Lindsay does and her role, especially on the travel side.

Amy Eagan (19:05.878)
Yeah, so Lindsay Lindsay does a lot. She kind of takes care of all the office stuff and all the travel stuff and the meals and all those kind of things. I mean, I know we talked about last week we have Peyton with us, then she handles a lot of like the meals on the road and that and kind of is Lindsay's assistant with stuff. But Lindsay has to manage a lot. And, you know, we're already working on itinerary for next week that she's that she's getting set for the bus drivers and for the hotels and

you know, all that kind of stuff. So she does a ton of behind the scenes work that maybe people don't even realize that has to be done for our program. And she just does it so well. And I'm so thankful that she's here. You know, I think, you know, being able to have somebody that played here and that loves this place back on campus and in your program, I think that goes a long ways. And she definitely invests in our kids and in our program and has really been a big part of us building this.

TWICV For Feb 10 2025 (20:01.839)
Well, let's call that a wrap for this podcast episode with Linwood University head women's basketball coach Amy Egan. Coach, always a pleasure to chat. I look forward to watching some basketball games this weekend.

Amy Eagan (20:11.33)
Thanks, Gary.