The Amy Eagan Podcast

Gary (00:02.41)
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. My name is Gary Stocker. And this week we look at the past week's games against the University of Dayton and the University of Cincinnati. And we'll talk about early season scheduling.

the big picture of women's NCAA basketball, a lot of stories about that the past week, and how Coach Egan and her staff prepare their players for their post-college jobs and careers. And finally, we'll look ahead on the road trip that Coach Egan and her team will take to the University of Northern Illinois later this week. Amy, welcome back to a cold Saturday morning here in St. Louis. You spent much of your past week in Ohio.

amy (00:55.351)
Absolutely. It is a little chilly. I'll tell you what.

the dogs this morning and I was in full bundle so it's getting to that point of the year.

Gary (01:04.254)
Well, I'm sure it gets cold in Ohio too. And, but I keep looking at this at the earliest yet schedule and you and I have talked about this before. And I know you walked in to a previously performed schedule. It's been a tough opening month schedule that was already made when you got to Lindenwood. In future years, how do you kind of look at that early season schedule as you grow the program at Lindenwood?

amy (01:07.29)
Yeah.

amy (01:26.457)
Yeah, you know, it's tough and you know part of being a successful program and Having success is scheduling the right way. And so it's a really big part of Of what you're trying to do and what you're trying to achieve. So we know how important it is and for us You know looking at next year We definitely don't want to play and look at teams where we can just play and get wins, you know That's not what it's about for us. That's not who we want to be

You know, we want to be challenged. We want to play teams that are going to challenge us. And I think we've already worked to put together a schedule that is going to be challenging and beneficial to us to help us take that next step in our program for next year. So it's definitely a very, very important part. You know, we do play a couple of games that we feel are, you know, against a big 12 or big 10 team again. I think those are always fun games to see again how far you are.

from that point and what maybe that next step is for you in your program and so I Think again our schedule for next year is challenging, but it's going to benefit us

Gary (02:32.21)
And I want to talk about the freshmen. And I've been impressed with the minutes that they have earned and you have given them in the first two weeks of the season. But do you think this really tough opening schedule has impacted their development as basketball players?

amy (02:46.541)
Absolutely. You know, I think the best experience for any kid is game experience. No doubt. No matter what. Game experience is the best experience. I think for us, you know, playing these two teams, I mean, we were forced to be physical. We were forced to play tough. And I think that's something that we've kind of struggled with this group at the beginning. Getting them to understand how physical it is, how hard you got to play, the focus you got to play with.

you know, all those things. And I think these two and three games really starting out have really forced them to do that, which is a really, really good thing to help their growth and to help our growth as a program. So I think there's definitely some benefits of it. I mean, they were a lot bigger, faster, stronger than us. And so in some ways it maybe didn't benefit us, but overall I think it was a good situation.

Gary (03:39.078)
And so you've got three games in now. What has gone as you expected and what has gone as you really didn't expect?

amy (03:47.725)
You know, I think people ask me that a lot and it's hard to tell when you play a Dayton team and a Sensi team really where you're at. And so I still feel like I'm kind of like, are we where we need to be? How much further do we need to go? What do we got to continue to get better at? I think the Tulsa game was a much better feel for us of where we're at. In all honesty, I mean, after that game, I was like, okay, well, we're probably...

a little bit further ahead than I thought we should be or would be at this point. But I think the Tulsa game also gave us a lot better feel for what we need to continue to get better at. So I'm excited, you know, we've really pushed them in areas that we feel like, hey, you know, whether it's transition D is probably one of the biggest things. You know, we've got to get better at that being more physical rebounding. Those three areas, I think, are the areas that we've really focused on even yesterday and practice a lot.

that we can help take our program to that next step.

Gary (04:48.374)
And so let's step back, excuse me, let's step back and take a big picture look at women's NCAA basketball. And the Athletic had a big story this week about how far it's come and it referenced the LSU and Iowa games and the upsets. I mean, in women's college basketball at the upper level of D1 have been stunning. Compare the overall skill level. You've been a women's basketball coach for a long time. Compare the skill level 10, 15 years ago across the board with what you see now.

amy (05:16.593)
You know, it's amazing. And I don't, you know, I'm assuming a lot of that is because kids are starting at an earlier age. You know, there's more resources for women and kids these days, whether it's, you know, individual trainers, whether it's strength and conditioning and how important that's become in the process, whether it's nutrition, how important that's become. You know, I mean, I reference back even to when I played and like strength and conditioning, yeah, we lifted, but it wasn't a focus.

Nutrition wasn't a focus, sleep wasn't really a focus. And so I feel like the resources that are available for kids and young women to grow their game are just unbelievable now compared to what they used to be. I mean, you know, I look at Caitlin Clark and I watch her and I'm like, wow, like she is the best women's basketball player I've ever watched and I really believe that.

And again, maybe that's because she was able to start earlier in her career and has better resources available to her at the college level. But I think it's so neat to see just how much the women's game has grown. The number of viewers that are watching women's basketball right now, I think it's really exciting. And a lot of it is because the skill level and the growth of women's skill has really taken off.

Gary (06:35.598)
Yeah, clearly. And I watched some of the Iowa-Kansas State game a couple of nights ago. And as good as Caitlin Clark was, Kansas State clearly was the better team that night for a lot of reasons. And you all can see that in the men's, you don't expect any men's teams to go 32-0. But you kind of expected a small handful of women's teams. I'm not sure that's going to happen.

amy (06:55.821)
Yeah, I think the parody, you know, from top to bottom is becoming less. You know, it used to always be Yukon, Tennessee. Like you used to see the same teams over and over. And I think now you're starting to see some different teams, you know, whether it's Iowa the last couple of years or, you know, I look at Virginia Tech. Wow, what a game, you know, they play like it's neat to see that some of that, you know, is changing a little bit and that maybe, you know, possibly on any given night, anybody can upset anybody.

And you know, it's interesting to see how much the transfer portal is going to play into that or is playing into that right now You know even on the men's side some of the top teams like FAU last year, you know They had four-year kids and so it's interesting to see how everything is kind of Affecting everything and the game is growing and you know new teams are developing and surfacing and it makes it fun I really believe that

Gary (07:49.846)
So let's take our listeners back to the games this past week and get your perspective on both. And you were at the University of Dayton, although I wanted to call it Akron, University of Dayton earlier this weekend. And the flow that your players seemed to show got better as the game went on, but I'm guessing there were still many butterflies. And it appeared to me maybe there was less thinking and more use of the skills that I know this group has.

amy (07:56.605)
We.

amy (08:07.585)
Yeah.

amy (08:12.697)
Yeah, you know, I think in Dayton, we were really nervous. And I think a lot of it had to do, if you looked at the other end of the floor, you saw the size of Dayton versus the athleticism of Dayton versus us. So I think we were a little timid, a little scared where I thought in Cincinnati, we weren't. We just really went out and tried to take it at them and really...

looked a lot more relaxed. So I'm hoping we continue with game experience, continue to settle in with some of that a little bit, with some of our nerves. You know, I've told them a million times that, you know, it doesn't matter how big you are, it doesn't matter how fast you are, you know, you can still go out and compete and win games. And I think for us, you know, sometimes I look out there and I'm like, oh my gosh, we have four freshmen on the floor at once. You know, it's just so much growth we still have in our kids that we need to get out of them.

that we need to continue to develop them. But I will always say, and I've said it, I think a million times, like the great thing about our freshmen in our group is that they want it. Like, you know, we came home, we got home Wednesday at like seven o'clock at night. And of course we had like a five day road trip, you know? And Thursday, we practiced Thursday morning and just did some film and just did some, you know, half court stuff, pretty basic. And I think we had kids in the gym from.

the time we got done with practice to three or four in the afternoon just in the gym getting shots up doing wanting to do skill work and I think you know when you have that you're going to see you're going to see some stuff and some culture and some and some development happen in your in your program.

Gary (09:50.334)
And you mentioned big bodies a couple of times and I'm going to kind of look ahead to the OVC conference schedule coming up. Do you anticipate seeing that frequency of big bodies in OVC teams?

amy (10:02.737)
No, I think we will probably be one of the longer teams from top to bottom in the OVC. I mean, we're pretty, you know, besides two of our guards, we're pretty long, we're 5'10", or we're taller with it. I think some of it, you know, when you look at the last two games that we played, their bigs were big. You know, their bigs were 6'3", 6'4", and that was probably the biggest difference where our bigs are 6'1", 6'2", you know, type-ish.

And so I think that was probably the biggest situation for us is that we had a couple of guards five four five six You know that we the way we play right now this year We were having that you know they were caught on six four at sometimes and so You know I told Jordan and you know my staff to you know There's a lot of adjustments down the road that you know we would have probably made With sensei and Dayton that we would have probably tried to change some of how we were guarding in that but right now

Gary (10:45.594)
I saw that.

amy (11:00.161)
I feel like we're still trying to learn our basic principles and who we are and how we wanna be and how we wanna play and our basic rules of how to defend screens and how to get through screens. And that I just didn't feel comfortable changing a complete game plan and having them change their mentality and their minds with how we do things. So it's stuff down the road that when we get deeper maybe in the season or even maybe next year, who knows with it, depending on how I feel that.

we would have probably made some adjustments with how we would have guarded and not had our smaller guards on bigger posts and those kind of things. So again, it's just a process and it's a process that as a staff we evaluate on a day-to-day basis with what we feel is best for our program overall as we're trying to lay the groundwork.

Gary (11:48.01)
And then Cincinnati was Wednesday morning, early Wednesday morning. I had the TV on at 10 o'clock Wednesday morning to watch the 11 o'clock Star Trek Cincinnati. And then their big 12 team, new big 12 team, looking for their first win, they had a new coach. What was your biggest takeaway from that game?

amy (12:04.569)
Man, it was a cool atmosphere. It was their kids' day too. You know, it's always fun, I think, to put your kids in those situations. And, you know, I told them before the game, I said, you know, we're gonna be challenged today and we're gonna have an opportunity to show, you know, I think they had like 7,000 kids there, 7,000 young children, what, you know, how you handle yourself when it's good, how you handle yourself when it's hard, how you handle stuff if it doesn't go your way, how you handle stuff.

on the bench, the teammates that you are. And I think that was the biggest thing and the neatest thing for our kids to just remember that throughout the game. And I thought we did a tremendous job at that and we're just great role models for the youth in the stands, excuse me. But I think our biggest takeaway from that was, we're definitely not ready to compete with big 12 teams. We have a long ways to go before we're ready for that. But I thought our kids...

And I thought, you know, at one point in the fourth quarter, we got it down to 10. And then I probably messed up as I told Jordan. I should have probably called the timeout when we were down to 10. And then, of course, they came firing back at us. But I thought we just continued to fight from a tip to the last horn. We just fought really hard, and I loved seeing that.

Gary (13:24.746)
And as I watched the game again early in the morning, the freshmen continued to look more comfortable and in particular, Michaela Cunningham, I thought in the Cincinnati game and Ellie Brueggemann, really the first three games of the year. What do you expect to see from all the freshmen in the next month or so?

amy (13:31.517)
Mm-hmm.

amy (13:40.581)
Absolutely, I think, I do think they're getting a lot more comfortable. I think the hardest position to play in any program is a point guard position. And Michaela being a freshman, we're asking her to do a lot in that position when she comes in the game. And she's just getting better and better with understanding what we want, when to do things, how to do things. And it just takes time. That's all there is to it when you have freshmen, it just takes time.

You know, I think we have a lot of freshmen that can play it at our level. But everyone gets it at a different time. You know, everyone grows at different times. Everyone develops at different times. Everyone's ready at different times. And it doesn't mean that the kids that aren't, that are freshmen now that aren't getting as many minutes aren't going to be unbelievable players in our program. It just takes time. But, you know, I think for our freshmen, the

The thing that I want to challenge them with that I want them to continue to do is just be consistent as much as they can. I think that's hard as a freshman, but we just want as much consistency out of them every day in practice and games as we can get out of them. Because that helps us, I think as coaches, to know what we're gonna get, where we can continue to add things and take things out and so forth with it. So again, I think our freshmen, I think they're just gonna continue to get better.

I don't think Gary, we haven't even done, we haven't even really been able to do a lot of skill work with him because we've been so busy just doing team stuff. And so I'm really excited when we get to postseason, we get to summer, we really can like add to their game, break down their game. And we're really using this year to really evaluate all of them as individuals and what in the postseason the summer is going to look like for each of them as individuals.

Gary (15:23.354)
And the ESPN, I don't know if you had a chance to listen to the audio from the game, but I thought the ESPN Plus announcers were particularly good for this game. In large part because clearly you had talked with them and they shared your history throughout the telecast, but they also commented on many of the players. And my question is, does this kind of coverage help you build the LU brand, the Lindenwood University brand in the coming months and years?

amy (15:32.614)
Mm-hmm.

amy (15:52.253)
Absolutely, 100%. I mean, I think it was great that I got to spend some time with them, the day before on a Zoom. And I think that's the way to do it. You should want to know as announcers about the players on the other team and try to get as much insight. Cuz I think the more insight you can share, the more it does grow a brand. And I think, I didn't have the chance to listen to it, but I heard that they said a lot of good things about our program. And I think when you play Sensei and

Whether it's dating anyone, you have the opportunity to showcase some of your style of play and some of your expectations even with how your kids work and handle themselves. I'm just really proud of our kids for that. I think they represent us and our brand really, really well. I think it gives players an idea if they see that and hear those things, if they can see themselves in our program. So definitely any of that exposure I think helps, Linda Wooden helps our program.

Gary (16:50.062)
I'm going to move away from basketball games for a second. I want to talk about these players as individuals, as college students and the two to four years, give or take, that these players will be with you, will fly by. How do you help prepare your players for the start of their post-college jobs and careers? What approach do you take in your program?

amy (17:10.837)
Oh, I mean, for us, you know, it's about developing them on and off the floor as young women, preparing them for, as we say, the real world, for what's to come and making them successful human beings and moms and wives and so forth with it. So when you talk about even the education side of things, I mean, you know, our expectations, probably our kids sometimes are probably feel like we're on them a lot and it's because we are.

You know, we're challenging them not to just be great basketball players, but to be great human beings and to be great in the classroom. And so we do so many things. I mean, you know, academics for us is really, really important. And we set so many standards with them academically, whether it's study tables, whether it's extra study tables, if they're struggling, you know, we really approach it in our program that C's don't get degrees. And so if they have a C, you know, they've got to get extra tutoring.

They've got to meet with their professors. They've got to work to be better with it. And so I think it's hard and it's difficult because we probably, you know, we get grade reports every week and then immediately if they have Cs, they're probably in our office and we're having some conversations with them and really just trying to push them. And I think it's you want young women to understand that they're capable of more than what they think and what they believe they're capable of.

And so we really want to challenge them so they understand that they are capable of more. And so, you know, we do so many things, whether it's, you know, have you come in and talk with them some and help them look at internships and look at jobs and where they want to head after their degree. A lot of them, we've challenged them, you know. You could take 12 hours each semester and get through, but some of them were making take, you know, the maximum.

17, 18, like you're gonna major, you're gonna double major, you're gonna major minor. We don't want them to settle to be average. And so we challenge them in a lot of areas academically.

Gary (19:08.586)
And then as we wind this episode of the podcast down, Amy, I've heard you say many times that the Linwood University Women's Basketball Team in February of 2024 will be a lot different from the one in November and December of 2023. How so?

amy (19:24.773)
Well, every area. You know, just us, I think first and foremost, being able to spend more time together on and off the floor, just growing together on and off the floor and growing closer. You know, when you look at any of these kids, you know, I think as a staff, we're still trying to figure out how to coach them, right? What makes them tick, what makes them go, what doesn't.

And that all takes time and they're doing the same thing. They're trying to figure out exactly like what we want out of them on a day-to-day basis. And so when you, the more time you're able to spend with them, the more opportunities you have around them, I think you're able to grow that relationship and to figure those things out. So when you look at that, I think when you talk about just understanding each other, that'll be a huge area that we grow in. You know, we have kids at work, as I've said, and I think when you look at whether...

It's putting the ball in the basket because they're in the gym a lot or being able to understand what we want defensively and offensively out of them. I mean, I think those areas, we will grow tremendously on the floor with them. You know, we've said even as a staff again, many times, like we haven't even really worked on like late game stuff. We haven't had opportunities to do that. We haven't worked on this and we haven't worked on that. And we...

kind of take notes of it. Like eventually, hopefully we can get to some of this. Right now I feel like we're picking and choosing a little bit. For example, like the Tulsa game, I knew we were gonna struggle in defensive balance or changeover type stuff. I knew it because we just didn't have enough hours in the day and enough time to work on that as much as we wanted to work on that. But it's something that we know as a staff we have to get better at. And I think you will see significant improvements in when we get into February and March.

Gary (21:11.594)
And then final question for today's podcast is you're headed up to Macomb, Illinois later this week and Northern Illinois is coming. What do you expect to see from the University of Northern Illinois, Northern Illinois University this week?

amy (21:26.465)
Yeah, so, you know, Northern is 0-3 as well. And, you know, they've had some tough, some tough injuries. Their best player, I would say, Coker, has been out all season. Their transfer from, post player from Arizona State hasn't played yet. They just lost a starter in their first game to look like a bad knee injury. So they're down technically three starters right now and struggling. But, I mean, they have a great, great culture there. Their assistant coach was

their associate head coach was my assistant, was my GA and then my assistant at Truman. So we're really close in family. And so I know him and I know their program really well and how they do things. And they just run a great, great culture program there with their kids that, you know, they're coming together and they're figuring things out. And so I think, you know, we talked about 0-3 and 0-3, it's going to be a battle. And I think the team that can go out and execute the game plan the best is going to come away with their first win.

Gary (22:26.03)
Well, Amy, as always, thank you for your time. We've come to the end of this podcast episode with Lyndenwood University head women's basketball coach, Amy Egan. I encourage each of you listening in to share the podcast link with friends, families, and neighbors. If you have questions or comments for Coach Egan for future podcasts, email them to gstalker at lyndenwood.edu and we'll talk next time.