It’s time for another episode of the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast. This episode features host Howard Megdal, who sits down with Baylor head coach Nicki Collen. The two discuss the early season tests for the Bears, the emergence of Sarah Andrews and Brittney Griner‘s legacy.
Coach Nicki Collen talks about her first year at Baylor:
“You know, I think last year was a bit of a whirlwind; you’re simply trying to keep the train on the tracks. I mean, this was an incredibly successful machine that had dominated the Big 12 for a decade and you don’t want to let people down; you don’t want to let administrators down and you don’t want to let your own team down. And certainly, you don’t want to let the fans down.
And so, I think it was simply a grind most of the year in terms of getting them to understand what we do, why we do it, how these can be successful doing it. And we came up a little short relative to what I thought that team could accomplish.”
Nicki Collen talks about Sarah Andrews‘s midrange shot selections and percentage:
“It’s like I was looking at the shot charts from all five on five. You know, this fall for us. So anytime we’re five on five against each other, five on five against our practice squad. You know, right now, she is at 1.28 points per shot. So you know, she’s shooting about 47% in practice from three. She’s almost 50% on her midrange right now. Now what we’re trying to do is get her to dial into that being a shot she takes in the right moment because I think she actually is a good midrange shooter. I think my challenge to Sarah as we exited last season, into this summer, her doing point guard college, her growth is, hey, when you’re tired, you settle for midrange jump shots.
Putting pressure on the rim creating for your teammates. And just deciding, like yeah, I don’t want to press two more dribbles and I’m going to settle for the midrange. I think there’s a time to take it. And I think she’s more than capable of making it. I’d say she’s by far our best.”
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