The Amy Eagan Podcast

Gary (00:03.374)
Welcome to the Amy Egan podcast where each Saturday, 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, the NCAA academics, careers, and many other interesting topics. This week.

We're going to talk to coach about the CMO and Tennessee State Games. Junior Mary McGrath will join us. I'll ask coach Egan about finally getting some home games for crying out loud. I have a Caitlin Clark question, who doesn't, and I'm going to make coach jealous about my trip to watch the Yukon women's basketball team at Marquette later this month. So Mary, thanks for joining us. It's a cold day outside here across the country, I think. How was your trip back from Tennessee last night?

Mary McGrath (00:51.724)
Yeah, it is really cold, kind of a shock coming back, especially from Tennessee. Obviously it was cold there, but here's just kind of different level of cold. Um, trip back was a little bit eventful, you know, we got stuck in traffic for a bit, so it took a little bit longer than we were expecting, but you know, glad to be back. So.

Gary (01:01.495)
Thank you.

Gary (01:11.886)
And I presume you had a good holiday with your family. Okay, and I asked Coach Egan this question last week and Mary shouldn't have a response, but what's your big new year's resolution, Mary, as you start the spring semester of your junior year in college?

Mary McGrath (01:14.596)
Yes, it's very good.

Mary McGrath (01:27.424)
Yeah, that's a very good question. I think one of the biggest things I've been trying to work on is just, I guess this is also in terms of basketball, but just like my, mental game and my mental state, just trying to really put a focus on the things that are most important and kind of try to stop myself from worrying about the little things that really don't have an effect on anything or matter in the long run.

Gary (01:58.082)
I think from my experience that will help you not only in basketball but in your career as you move forward too. That's a great approach to have. And I'd like to tell you to tell our listeners about your basketball journey. Really from high school because when you came to Linda Wood it was D2 and then shock of shocks it became D1. So kind of give us a the overview of the Mary McGrath basketball story.

Mary McGrath (02:01.75)
Yeah.

Mary McGrath (02:12.526)
Yeah.

Mary McGrath (02:18.156)
Yeah, so I went to and played at Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois, which is my hometown. And I did that while also playing a basketball in the springs and summer, obviously for college recruitment purposes. You know, I was fortunate enough to have a really an amazing high school basketball experience. I love my coaches, my teammates. It was just a really fun and competitive environment, which I think for high school basketball is super important because

Obviously it's really fun to win and get to like the state tournament and things like that. But I think when I look back at high school basketball, I really think about the memories I had with my teammates and just all the fun experiences we had together. Unfortunately, my senior season was cut a little bit short due to the pandemic, but you know, that's one of those uncontrollable things. But I'm just still really proud of everything we accomplished that year.

Then obviously after high school, I was recruited to come play here at Lindenwood and I've been here since. And last year, my sophomore year was our first year in division one, which obviously was a big jump from the GLDC and division two basketball, but I've just been super grateful for that process and the experiences we've been going through because not a lot of people get to say that they are division one basketball players, so I just think that's a really cool thing.

Gary (03:44.386)
And then again, as you and I have talked previously off of the microphone, that would be a big deal when you start looking for that first for that first career job. And how about the best experiences? You've had lots of experiences, Lindenwood, I'm assuming in the classroom and on the basketball court. Tell us about a couple of the good experiences you had while at Lindenwood.

Mary McGrath (03:50.811)
Yeah.

Mary McGrath (04:02.328)
Yeah, so, um, just some quick examples. Some of my best experiences obviously have been being able to travel places that I probably wouldn't have been able to before, um, without basketball or Lindenwood, some examples being we went to Arizona last year and got to see the Grand Canyon, which was just super, super cool, you know, that is one of those bucket list places that a lot of people just kind of wish they could go to. Um, and we also got to go to Las Vegas and walk around the strip and have those experiences, which was.

really cool and I'm so grateful that we got to do those things. But I think more important than that, the people you surround yourself with can have a really big impact on your overall college experience. And I've been lucky enough to be surrounded by some amazing people for my entire time here at Lindwood. So yeah, I think they have really made the experience so positive for me.

Gary (04:53.814)
Well, that's cool. That's very cool. And your major, let's kind of look ahead a little bit. Talk about your major, what you're planning to do after graduation. Go ahead, Mary.

Mary McGrath (05:01.88)
Yeah, I'm currently a double major in marketing and finance here at Lindenwood. And I'm hoping I can get a start on my master's degree, my senior year, which will be next year, in the fall semester, and get some of that done while I'm also here. After graduation, I'll most likely move back to the Chicago land area, which is where I'm from. I hope to get a job in the marketing field, specifically marketing research.

is one of the areas I've been looking at as of now.

Gary (05:33.802)
And you know it gets cold in Chicago too, right?

Mary McGrath (05:36.108)
Yes, I think right now in Chicago it's actually negative seven, which is three degrees colder. But I guess when you get in the negatives, you don't really feel the difference anymore.

Gary (05:47.414)
So when you get on the basketball court, and you've done this for many years of your young life, what is Mary McGrath good at on the basketball court?

Mary McGrath (05:54.848)
Yeah, so I think for most of my life playing basketball, I've always kind of been that flexible player, you know, depending on who else is in or the team I'm on. Sometimes I'll play post, sometimes I'll play on the perimeter. So I think that that's just a cool thing I've been able to do kind of play both, like both positions like that. I can shoot it well, most of the time. And I

Like to think that I just, one of the things I've been focusing on is I try to be a really positive person on the team and I try to lift up my teammates as well as I can.

Gary (06:35.85)
And then the final question I have for you is about crowds. And Coach and I were doing, talking about this last week on the podcast and the crowd when Southern Indiana was here a couple of weeks ago, was in my mind, the biggest and best I've seen in the last four or five years at Lynyrd Sky. Compare and contrast the crowds you've seen at Lynyrd recently with what you see on the road.

Mary McGrath (06:56.536)
Yeah, so I think that crowd at Lindenwood, I think that was the New Year's game, I'm pretty sure. That was so amazing. And a lot of families came too, and everyone brought their kids and everything, which was just super fun. And a lot of our team's family came as well, which was super cool. And I think at Lindenwood, we've been really fortunate to have really great crowds, especially when we go on the road, like you said, and you kind of look around. And obviously, there's people's families there and things like that. But

It's not really the same environment, I feel like. Linwood usually does have some decent crowds, and I can't say the same about some other schools, so I'm really fortunate for that.

Gary (07:36.646)
It's fun for a spectator, fun for a fan as well to watch that. And I think that will continue. I think that will only get better in the coming months and years. Mary, I wish you the very best as you wrap up here to the last half of your basketball career at Lindenwood. And as you move forward with your post-graduation careers, it was interesting to hear you talking about your masters. We should probably talk about that sometime down the road.

Mary McGrath (07:39.622)
Okay.

Mary McGrath (07:58.872)
Yeah, thank you for having me.

Gary (08:00.442)
My pleasure. Coach, you've been on the road. Coach Hagen, you've been on the road since Wednesday, right? Any weather issues with your team?

amy (08:03.286)
Bye.

amy (08:11.085)
Yeah, well, we actually with CMO left on Thursday and just left a little bit earlier with it being such a short drive. We were able to leave early and still get a shoot around in there. So we were able to escape a little bit of Wednesday's weather. And, you know, I think we got really lucky because, you know, my parents live an hour and a half from here and they had over 15 inches. And they, you know, they kept texting me. I'm like, we don't have anything. We have rain and a few flurries. But.

We don't have anything. So I think we got pretty lucky with that. So we didn't really hit too much weather wise, you know on the way back we drove through a little bit of snow flurries yesterday. The roads were fairly clear and then kind of like Mary said, you know about 15 minutes from campus there was a wreck on the interstate and so we had to sit still for about 45 minutes, but other than that our travels were pretty easy. It was definitely cold out.

but we were able to weather some of that and stay warm on the bus.

Gary (09:14.222)
That's always good. So let's talk about that CMO game. So I noticed that CMO hit 61% from the field. Then it was around 48%. In your mind, is that kind of hot shooting a function of home court advantage? Was it a function of freshmen on the road? How would you characterize that big disparity?

amy (09:33.178)
Yeah, that was not one of our better games defensively. And there's a lot of things we're still working through as a staff to figure out with this group and how to handle some situations in that. And one of the things we knew about CMO was that they just weren't great three-point shooting, we're not a great three-point shooting team. They were more to the rim, pull-ups, those kinds of things, 15 feet and in. And so I think

you know, not trying to give our kids an out, but we kind of emphasized a lot of that they weren't three point shooters. And I think it took away from a lot of our pressure. And, you know, we kind of talked a little bit about that the next day in practice, like if you, you know, if you don't stand and you don't guard with an active hands, you know, with active hands, because they're not three point shooters, you know, they can still hit shots. And I feel like.

you know, anybody in any team, if you hit one, you know, you get in a little bit of a flow, you hit a couple, you get a little bit more confident and it just kind of feeds and breeds itself. And it definitely was not one of our best games. And, you know, I thought we spent a lot of really good quality time after that game, talking and readdressing not only like our what we needed to do, but also who we were and what we're going to what our core values were in regards to, you know, what it meant to be a Lindenwood

play and our expectations and not to again to give us an out or anything. But we've been battling some different situations with Gracie going down tearing her ACL and some line up changes with that. And Selena is filling a lot of that five spot and didn't play a lot of the five before with game experience. So she's getting a lot of game experience now and we had a lot of kids that were sick that missed practice this week.

off and on and we had one of our kids in a car wreck this week and she's okay but missed a day of practice because of it. So we had some things we were also battling and fighting through and I felt like after SEMO we went to Tennessee State and we played or we practiced Friday at Tennessee State and had a really, really good practice and really again got back to focusing and got back to ourselves and I think that showed yesterday. It's such a hard balance because

amy (11:47.965)
And obviously I was mad and upset that we lost because I want to win. But I was also so proud of our kids with how they handled Friday, how they bounced back. Again, a lot of great things yesterday that we saw that we can build off of from our game yesterday. We just haven't found a way to get when we needed to get that stop score stop. And it's just something we got to continue to work on and talk about and watch film with. And I know this group will get there. We'll get there with it. I think we're really close.

We just got to keep pushing and keep pushing without seeing results and that's hard for kids to do. And we just got to keep talking about it and keep understanding that. And like I said, just keep doing our thing. It's a process. That's for sure, Gary.

Gary (12:31.422)
Yeah. And even that fourth quarter yesterday at Tennessee State was an exciting quarter of basketball. And we all play Smith's free throws all the time, but there was a two footer. There was a layup. Those are the kind of things where you look back in my humble amateur perspective and say, oh, man, if only. That's probably what you see as well.

amy (12:42.91)
Yeah.

amy (12:50.671)
Yeah.

Yeah, you know, you look back even at the Evansville game and some of this stuff, and it's like, if the ball just would have bounced a little, you know, it's just like, I don't feel like sometimes the luck is ours right now, uh, when we need to make that play and when we need to get that stop, um, we're just not able to do it, but it's also the sport of basketball. You know, I think I told him sometime, maybe it was just after the game, you know, at teams when

When certain teams like Tennessee State needed a bucket, they found a way to get a bucket. They found a way to make it happen, whether that was, hey, we've got a score here, we've got to get this O board. They found a way to get the O board and we just missed the block out. In those times when plays need to be made, right now we're just not able to make that play.

Gary (13:38.478)
And finally, it seems Amy like you're going to have some home games. It seems like you played so few this year. You got two at home this week, a quick two on the road followed by four at home. What are you looking to improve on in that upcoming home heavy stretch of games?

amy (13:55.129)
I think we still got a ton to improve on with this group, a ton of things to figure out. One of the things that we've kind of struggled with as a staff is we try to make, we're playing better defense, so we're like, okay, let's work a little bit more on the offensive side of things. We can get better at some of that and then we forget all the defensive stuff because we didn't do it every single day or didn't concentrate on it. So we're trying to again form some

some habits with these kids because right now we feel like we have to do every single thing offensively and defensively every single day in order for them to carry it over. And we don't have time to do that, especially when you get to January and February and you want to save on their bodies a little bit, not keep them at practice as long. But we're really struggling with some of that carryover right now. And some of that I'm sure is just being a new program and youth in your program.

But it's something that we've just got to get better at. We can't just be able to focus on one thing when we get in the game and think that's the only thing that matters. So just got to continue to get better at that.

Gary (15:03.618)
Okay. And of course, we always try and have a fun question. And I think last week was the New Year's resolution question. And from my list this week, I did not get any answer, I don't think, from you. And this is a fun question. And what's the most nervous game day player you've ever coached?

amy (15:10.404)
didn't get a good answer.

amy (15:23.802)
All of them? You know, I think you always have some nerves going into a game. I think that's normal, you know, when you care. And, you know, I think when you care when it's, you know, walking in there and especially this year with some of the newness and those kind of things, I think there's always some game day nerves. But I think once that ball is tipped, I think most of the kids

Gary (15:24.99)
Ha ha ha!

amy (15:53.037)
I think they forget about that and they just go play with it. I think the first game of the year, I mean, you could see it at the beginning of this year with our kids from top to bottom. I think they're a little nervous and it's expected. I think it's normal, it's expected. And again, you just hope once that ball goes up that they forget about that and just go play ball. And I think the more experience this group has gotten, the more they've played together, the closer they've become.

I think that has helped. I don't think we've seen as many nerves and as much nervousness going into it because they're feeling a lot more consistent, a lot more comfortable. But I think it's a normal part of the game. I mean, I get nervous too. It's a good excitement. It's like, let's go. And so I think it's part of the game. And I think when you care and when you work hard, that happens a lot.

Gary (16:47.246)
And Caitlin Clark, and I think, and you probably agree with this, that we're seeing a special time in women's basketball. And she is the epitome of that special time. And Amy, I don't know how often you get to watch her. In your mind, what does it take to be that consistent, not just that good, but that consistently good at such a high level?

amy (16:56.477)
Absolutely.

amy (17:11.841)
Yeah, I mean, you know, I still think I was telling somebody this, I can't even remember who might've been Jordan this morning when we were doing a zoom, but, um, I think she's the best player I've ever seen. And I've been in coaching a long time. Um, and you know, some of that is, I think some of that she's born with, some of it's inherent. I mean, she just naturally has some of that basketball feel, some of the basketball skill.

I think it comes natural to her, but I think what everybody doesn't see is that she is, she puts that work in. I mean, if you follow, you know, her trainers and you follow her, you know, you see a lot of glimpses of what her summers look like, which is not normal. It was not a normal summer, you know, what her, her individual skill work looks like. It's not something that she hasn't continued to work on and continue to build.

You know, she is such a different situation with the pressure she has every day, you know, that she faces, the amount of eyes that she has on herself every day. I mean, she's famous, plain and simple. And there's a lot of things good and bad that go along with that, that she has to manage. But one of the things she manages so, so well is continuously working to get better. And I think you, anybody can see that with how she plays.

Gary (18:40.37)
And yet those who watch her play can tell you when she's at the top of the key, we all know which direction she's going, right? She's going left.

amy (18:47.653)
I'll tell you what, I still don't know if you can stop it.

Gary (18:51.47)
I know, clearly not, clearly not. And then it's time for the last question. And of course, I'm going to make you jealous. And you know, I'm headed out to Milwaukee here in a week to watch the Yukon women play. And I think I've got a court side seat or really close to that. So coach, give me some guidance. What do you want me to watch for in that game at Marquette when Yukon women are there that I can bring back to you, your team and your staff?

amy (18:53.621)
Yeah

amy (19:03.15)
always.

amy (19:15.086)
you

amy (19:20.601)
Wow. You know, I love, you know, one of the things I love about like the final four, I love about if I, when I go to high school games, you know, watching college games, I always try to sit across from the benches, you know, because for me, I enjoy not only watching the game, but watching the reactions, watching how they interact with each other, you know, watching the teammates that they are, you know.

all those kind of things. So for me, it's like, I would tell you to try to sit across the bench and just take in as much as you can of it. I mean, you're seeing one of the best women's basketball coaches to ever do it coach. And there's not a lot of people that get that opportunity. And so I would take in as much as you can about how he interacts with his kids, how he coaches his kids.

You'll be able to tell a lot about his expectations and how they do things. So I would really tell you that to watch that and take that in and bring that back to us because I think that's always neat to see and watch. I mean, you know, when you watch on TV, you can see a lot of the X's nose, but you miss a lot of the behind the scenes things that can really tell you a lot about a program. So I would love to know and see what you see in regards to that.

Gary (20:46.242)
Well, Amy, as luck would have it, our seats are right across the court from the Yukon bench.

amy (20:50.597)
Man, how do I get in your family? Ha ha ha.

Gary (20:57.746)
So Amy, as always, thanks for making time. Mary, always good to have you and give a chance to chat with you again. We've come to the end of this podcast episode with Lyndon Wood, University Head Women's Basketball Coach, Amy Egan and Junior Mary McGrath. I encourage each of you listening to the podcast to share the link with friends and families and neighbors. And if you have questions or comments.

for Coach Egan for future podcasts, email them to G. Stalker, that's G-S-T-O-C-K-E-R at lindenwood.edu. My name is Gary Stalker. We'll be back with you next week on Amy Egan podcast.