The Amy Eagan Podcast

Gary (00:02.786)
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 look at the past games at Northern Illinois University and four freshmen started at Northern Illinois.

We're going to take an early look at the OVC teams and we'll hear the Amy Egan basketball story. And we'll also look ahead to the home game against Central Arkansas this week. And finally, we have our first podcast guest of the season. Freshman Alyssa Nielsen is joining us. Coach Egan, welcome back to Thanksgiving weekend here in St. Louis. I trust you spent the holiday well.

amy (00:50.951)
Happy Thanksgiving yeah you know of course we spend usually Thanksgiving with the team and we did get an extra couple days this year so we were pretty fortunate about that but most of the time we don't have much of a break it's right back to business.

Gary (01:06.898)
And Alessa, did you get a chance to get home for Thanksgiving?

Alyssa Nielsen (01:09.719)
I got to go down to Texas to see my grandparents, which is really awesome.

Gary (01:13.078)
Oh, very, very cool. Well, Alyssa, let me just stay with you with a couple of questions. And this time last year, you were finishing up a very successful high school career in Bixby, Oklahoma. Don't tell us where that is, but it's in Oklahoma somewhere. And just what's been the best part of being a Lindenwood student so far?

Alyssa Nielsen (01:33.579)
Probably the best part is just being a student athlete here. Like there's just so many student athletes on campus, so the support you get like from each other at our games and stuff and the teachers like knowing how to deal with you, it's been, it's been really awesome.

Gary (01:46.03)
Of course, every time I ask the best part, I have to ask the worst part. So what's the worst part of the first two or three months been on campus for you?

Alyssa Nielsen (01:53.595)
For me personally, it's been like learning how to manage my time. You know what I mean? Like learning when to eat, when to go lift, when to go get extra shots up. But I think I'm getting a little better at it. But that's definitely been the hardest part.

Gary (02:03.69)
Okay. That's good to hear. So I'm guessing you had a lot of college options and share with us, Alyssa, what were the factors that led you to join Coach Egan at Lindenwood?

Alyssa Nielsen (02:16.079)
So Coach Egan is just really a very inspiring coach. She's the kind of coach and woman that you want to play for and want to be like. So when I was previously committed to her at Drury, and so when I got the call that she was coming up here, it was kind of a no brainer to come with her.

Gary (02:29.73)
Well, cool. And the early takeaways for you from the season, I have to start the first game at Tulsa. I was there as I always do providing guidance to the referees. And I have been to a lot of the Lindenwood Women's Basketball Games over the years. And I have never seen such an involved and excited crowd in the first game there. So trust me, it's impressive from my end. What are some of the takeaways, early takeaways for you from the season?

Alyssa Nielsen (02:58.703)
I think it's pretty obvious that we're very young and everybody is brand new to this system, but I think we have great chemistry both on and off the court and things are starting to click. And so once they do, I really think we're going to be a force in our conference.

Gary (03:12.078)
Well, that's excellent to hear. And of course, you're gonna be with Coach Egan and Linda Wood for four years. And then after that, your college basketball career will end. What's your major right now? And what are you looking to do after your college basketball career ends?

Alyssa Nielsen (03:25.435)
So I'm majoring in cellular and molecular biology, and I hope to continue on to medical school after I graduate from here, and then eventually be some kind of orthopedic doctor, come back, work with athletes is really the goal.

Gary (03:38.982)
We're going to talk cellular microbiology here in a couple of minutes. All right. And if, the last question I have for you, and I know you're young and early in your D1 basketball career, but if there's one piece of advice you would give to other young women looking maybe to play D1 basketball in the coming years, what would that one piece of advice be?

Alyssa Nielsen (03:42.647)
Yes, sir.

Alyssa Nielsen (04:01.475)
Honestly, just keep your head down and work. Everybody's recruiting process is very different, but if you just keep working, you're gonna end up where you're supposed to be.

Gary (04:10.25)
Well, Alyssa, I appreciate you taking a couple of minutes with us this afternoon, and you're welcome to stay on the podcast and listen in. Coach Egan, you know, I had to watch the replay of Northern Illinois, and I counted four freshmen on the floor at the start of that game. How'd they do?

amy (04:26.725)
It would be great.

I mean, we got out to a pretty quick lead with them. You know, I could tell when we sat down right before tip off that we were a little bit nervous, but you know, I told them just to focus in on defense and rebounding and that would take away some of those nerves and I thought they did an excellent job at it. And you know, I think Lou hit on it, you know, we're young and we got a lot of things to learn. And so it kind of comes in waves right now with the good and sometimes the bad with it. But you know, I thought our freshmen really showed up and played really well.

Gary (04:58.318)
Cool. And I know I watched those first few minutes. I watched the whole game. And it's impressive to watch what I'm seeing, at least, is the freshmen appear to be a little bit more increasingly confident taking some of those shots. Are you seeing that as well?

amy (05:10.675)
Yeah, well, I think, you know, for most of them, I think they know what a good shot and a bad shot is for them. I also think they're all really skilled and really talented. So I think that obviously benefits it. And if you look at any of those freshmen, I mean, they're in the gym a lot, as much as they can be working on their game, getting shots up, putting themselves in a position to make those shots. So I think, you know, that's really where it starts for them. I think, you know, I tell them all the time, confidence, you know, doesn't come from.

making baskets, it comes from putting in the work outside of it, you know, and being a great person, your characteristics are what create that. So hard work and being a great teammate and all those kind of things and I think our freshmen really do believe that.

Gary (05:53.334)
And I know we're still about four or five weeks out from the first OVC game, but have you had a chance to kind of see what the other women's OVC teams are doing early in the season?

amy (06:02.099)
Yeah, I mean, I watch games whenever I can and keep an eye kind of on scores with them and you know, those kind of things. You know, I think early on a lot of the OVC schools are playing a lot of power fives to get some of that experience. But I do keep an eye on them. I haven't focused on each of them individually yet and really dove into what they do offensively and defensively. But any time they are on, I try to catch a game.

Gary (06:26.978)
Cool. And you and I have done a few podcasts now, and it's probably past time. Let's go ahead and take this podcast as the opportunity to kind of tell the Amy Egan coaching history. If you wouldn't mind just kind of sharing your journey in kind of reader's digest format from where you started to where you are today.

amy (06:44.415)
How long do you have, Gary? So, you know, I started, in all honesty, when I was in college, I wasn't expecting and thinking I was gonna be a college basketball coach. I thought I'd probably be a physical education teacher. You know, I majored in physical education, minored in health, so I thought I would be a high school physical education teacher and health teacher. And then...

you know, coach maybe high school basketball on top of that. It wasn't even a thought process to me. And at one point when I was done, I went overseas, I came back and my uncle called me and said, hey, you know, Quincy University, which was literally like 50 minutes the other way from Truman needs an assistant coach. Would you be interested? And you know, at that time I was like, ah, no, probably not. And then I went on the interview and I was like, oh my God, I love it. I love this. And so I was fortunate that I didn't blow the interview.

and I ended up getting the job. So I started at Quincy and I worked for a guy named Larry Just. And if you Google him and you look him up, man, well, just an unbelievable coach. I mean, you know, when he started at Quincy, which was a few years before me, he won zero games his first year. When I got there, we won nine our first year, we won 16 the next year, and then we ended up going to the lead eight, final four type stuff, back to back conference championships. And he just really built it. He really taught me how to do things.

on and off the floor. You know, since then he's gotten out of college and did high school. He recently retired. He won a couple of state championships in high school. So I'm one of the very, very fortunate people that know and understand how important mentorship is. And I just had an unbelievable mentor. So very, very blessed with that. After Quincy, after four years there and having a lot of success, he was like, it's time for you to go try to be a head coach. And so I took the St. Ambrose job, which is an AI school up in Iowa.

And I remember sitting down, Gary, my first day on the job going, do I even know what I'm doing? But it was me and it was, I just had a GA, had 26 kids, Varsity and JV. I ended up getting out of coaching. I think we were 48 and 17 in my two years there. I ended up getting out of coaching because I was just burnt out. I mean, that's all I had done. All I was doing was working. I didn't know at a young age how to manage some of that. And so I ended up getting out of.

amy (09:08.407)
coaching and ended up getting a job with Walgreens, where I was with them for two years and making lots of money in all honesty. And I just did not enjoy it, did not like it at all. And so I had an opportunity, AD called me from a conference in St. Ambrose's conference and said, hey, we need somebody to come in here and rebuild this program, would you be interested? And I jumped on it. So I was again lucky that I was able to get back into coaching as a head coach.

And man, we were not very good my first year. We won four games and we were very lucky to win four games. And then we built it. Then next year we pretty much had a whole new team. We went to 11 wins. The next year we went to 14. And then Truman State opened up. And I mean, that was a no-brainer because that's my alma mater. So I had the ability to go back to Truman State and had some great success there. Our first year we won the conference championship. I went to the NCAA tournament a couple of times.

in my time there, three times, I think, in my time there. And then jury, the assistant job opened and the head coach called me and said, hey, you know, I'd really, I'm pregnant. I need somebody to come down here and run this. And then, you know, there's a possibility that I'm gonna look to leave after this year. So I took that opportunity and that was COVID year. And so things ended a little bit early, but I really think we're gonna win the national championship that year. And then had the ability to take over as the head coach after that. And...

Just again, some great success because I just had great people surrounding me. Players, great players, great people, great staff. You know, and that's what it's all about. That's where you find this success is when you are able to do that. When you're able to surround yourself by great people and great players. So had a lot of success there. Played in the national championship. Won the conference every year. Won the conference tournament every year. Went to the national tournament every year. So it was a great time. And then

had the opportunity, Linda would call and I know Jason would tell you when he first called me I said no thank you and the next day he drove down and was like no we're going to sit down and talk about this. The more I talked to him the more I got interested and became interested in the job and then when I came up to campus and I talked to the president and had the opportunity to sit down with him.

amy (11:28.127)
I mean, he just sold me on it with their vision for the program, their vision for the university, their vision for the athletic department. So that brings us kind of to today and us building this and having the opportunity. We brought in 12 new kids and so nine of those are freshmen and really just putting our foot on the gas and really trying to get this going.

Gary (11:52.63)
I got to tell you, I think the Jason Coomer story becomes a legend at some point. He shared with me the story. I didn't even know it until a couple of weeks ago. He was telling me about the story. Just fascinating what he did. You had to be impressed with that.

amy (12:04.887)
I was, I was, I was really impressed. And, you know, I was most impressed with our conversation and, you know, we didn't talk X's nose. We talked more, you know, just about philosophy and about, you know, what it meant to run a successful program and what it looked like to run a successful program and what it took to do those things. And, you know, when you have the resources and you have those things, I think the X's nose fall in place.

Gary (12:30.07)
You know, a couple of podcasts ago, we talked about women's college basketball and how it seems to be almost exploding as we watch it. And I'm gonna kind of take a different tour on that. We talked about your career as a coach. How do you see, especially college women's basketball, the profession developing in the next five or 10 years or so?

amy (12:51.019)
I think it's only going to continue to grow in all honesty. I think the players, as I said, I think before getting more talented, more skilled. I think the love for the women's game is growing. I mean, you're seeing a lot of sellouts right now, even in non-conference wise, a lot of sellout. So I think I just think it's going to continue to grow. And the support is going to continue to be there.

Gary (13:14.986)
All right, you've been in St. Charles all of what? Seven or eight months now. Tell us about your favorite hangout.

amy (13:22.428)
My house? I am kind of a homebody. You know, I haven't had a lot of time to do a lot of things but I mean I do like going down to historic St. Charles. I think it's so beautiful down there and I like all the little shops and you know the eating's down there that you can eat and so I enjoy that but I wouldn't say I have one plus I wouldn't tell anybody because I don't want anybody to be there. I wouldn't say I have one true hangout.

Gary (13:23.575)
Yeah.

Gary (13:51.586)
All right, now, Alessa, you cannot answer this next question. But Coach Egan, if I were to ask your players, how would they describe you?

amy (14:03.091)
Well, Alyssa should answer that. You know, I think I think I'm tough. I think I'm hard on them, but I think I have a big heart. I think they know that I care about them outside of basketball. I think I try to build a lot of confidence in them and really put them in a position so that they know they're not just phenomenal basketball players, but phenomenal people and phenomenal student-athletes. And really just

I think kids are so capable of so much more than they even know they're capable of. And I know I say that a lot, but I really try to challenge them so that they achieve something that they believe that I am capable of.

Gary (14:41.374)
Excellent. And then finally, we'll wrap it up with Central Arkansas this week. Finally at home after a month, I get to watch another game live and again, provide that guidance that I know the officials appreciate. Deep down, they appreciate the guidance that I can give them. So talk about Central Arkansas this week at home. What do you expect to see?

amy (14:55.602)
I do too.

amy (15:01.587)
Yeah, so you know they just came off a loss today in overtime. They played yesterday and won. So a team that again has a first-year head coach has a lot of new pieces to who they are. So really trying to put some things together for themselves. They got I would say a little bit more guard strong. A couple kids that can shoot it really well but they also have one post that you can't lose sight of that's definitely capable with stuff.

I think it'll be a good matchup for us. You know, I think to see how they're gonna handle our pressure will be interesting, but we're really gonna have to defend them because they are talented and have court.

Gary (15:43.17)
Well, it's Nielsen. Thanks for making time to join us this afternoon. I wish you every success at Lindenwood University and beyond. Coach Egan, always a pleasure to have you. We've come to the end of this podcast with Lindenwood University head women's basketball coach, Amy Egan. I encourage you to share the podcast link with friends and families and neighbors. If you have questions or comments for coach Egan for future podcasts, email them to gstalker at lindenwood.edu. We'll talk next time.