Oct. 25, 2012

Bobbie Kelsey Quotes

BOBBIE KELSEY: I am very excited about what we have coming back and what we're adding to our program this year with seven newcomers, seven returners, so half and half. We have some people that can jump out and know what they're doing, unlike last year where we had 12 new people to me and new to our system.

It's a different year for us. We're looking to improve upon what we've done so far. We're not satisfied with that, so we have a lot of work to do, but we're excited about it. The kids are excited about it.

Q. What kind of goals have you set for your team this year?
BOBBIE KELSEY: We always have the goal of improvement. You'll get bored with me saying that year after year coming here. But we really want to improve upon what we've already done. Obviously we can improve upon that because we didn't do as well as we wanted to.

But the kids, we want them to improve individually, and then we improve as a group, and that will always bode well to your success, in my experience, being at a high caliber team. Kids improve year after year after year, and those that do that find themselves really achieving their personal goals as well as the team goals. I'm preaching that constantly to my group.

Q. What didn't you know about being a head coach that you now know and can utilize going into your second year?
BOBBIE KELSEY: The biggest thing coming from being an assistant at a top program to being a head coach at a BCS program that has not achieved the level of success that maybe I was used to was being patient and recruiting hard. You can't coach what you don't have. The kids now are really hard workers. They're really talented kids, but you're always looking for the most talented year after year after year.

Now that I am a head coach, it makes me appreciate my former head coaches that I worked with, not sitting there thinking, well, why doesn't she do this and that and the other. Now I know, this is why she did not do this, that and the other, especially working with Tara VanDerveer. I played for her, as well. I don't know if I would have been ready to be a head coach had I not worked for her the last previous four years and achieving the level of success that we did at Stanford. It was really helpful to me.

Q. When you first come in, you have to sort of pick up the pieces and hope they can do something that you like. System wise, what are you guys going to look like? How are you going to continue to evolve into what Bobbie Kelsey basketball is, and what will that be?
BOBBIE KELSEY: Well, I like the triangle, so that's what we run, and I had an opportunity to learn it at Stanford, so it's not something that I'm copying what they're doing. I just like it. The kids like it. They actually love it because I don't have to call plays every time down the floor and they don't have to look back at me to get a play. Triangle is just where the ball goes, you know what to do. So kids like it. Everybody gets to touch the ball. It's not one or two people hogging it and playing two on two basketball where you've got other people on the side just watching. It gets everyone involved.

We're married to it. We're not getting a divorce from triangle. We're in it for the long haul.

The more they understand it, the better they'll look running it. It takes two or three years of the same kids running for it to look fluid and look very smooth. We're going to stick with it. We're not going to abandon it, and the returners really enjoy it now because they understand what they're supposed to be doing, what they can look for, and they get really creative within the flow of the offense, which makes it fun for me because I don't have to tell them every little thing. They understand it and they flow with it.

That's kind of the direction we're going to continue to move in with the offense.

Q. You talk about improving. What players so far have really impressed you with their improvement from the off season into this preseason camp?
BOBBIE KELSEY: Well, the returners, Morgan Paige and Taylor Wurtz, are our two most potent offensive threats. Obviously Taylor Wurtz is a player that can average a double double. She almost did last year, 16 points, almost eight rebounds a game from the guard position, so that's really nice to have a guard that will not only score but that can rebound so you don't have to outlet the ball to the point guard so she can bring it down and it doesn't stop your momentum going down the floor.

Morgan is just a water bug. She just makes things happen. She's a smart player, will make a timely cut, a timely score. She just does things that you cannot teach, nor do I have time to teach. Morgan and Taylor are going to be the ones we look to really give us that offensive punch.

For the newcomers, Nicole Bauman, Gatorade Player of the Year in Wisconsin, she's probably the most college ready to play if we had to play today. Nicole has already proven that she can do some things out there that some of the other new ones aren't quite ready to do. She's a great scorer, and she's an instinctual player. She doesn't know all the plays right now, but you couldn't tell because she just goes hard.

Others can learn from her being a freshman coming in, just going hard, sometimes that makes up for the things you don't know. But when kids are really wanting to do it right and perfect things, sometimes that slows them down because now they're thinking instead of playing.

Nicole just plays, and she worries about not knowing something later. I like that she has been able to come in and really show that right away.

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