On the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Howard Megdal was joined by the new Los Angeles Sparks head coach, Lynne Roberts. The former Utah coach discussed her decision to abruptly leave Salt Lake City, how she plans to implement her offensive strategy in the WNBA and what it means for women’s basketball broadly that coaches’ salaries are finally on the rise.
First, she provided insight into her decision to leave Utah and how she plans to apply her offensive philosophy in the WNBA.
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“I had every intention of winning a national championship at Utah as well, but sometimes opportunities come and life takes a turn, and I’m excited about the turn,” Roberts said. “My intention is to increase efficiency. And efficiency is a big word, but it means all the things in terms of quality shot selection, points per shot attempt, points per possession, your offensive rating, your defensive rating, all the numbers. Basketball is basketball, whether it’s college men, college women, pro men, pro women. It’s the same across the board. You see it in the NBA, the heavy dose of the points per shot attempt, where they’re taking the shots, who’s taking the shots. It all kind of goes into shot quality. And I intend to attack that with the Sparks.”
Later, Roberts discussed what it was like to have to break the news to her Utah team that she was leaving.
“That was really hard, one of the hardest locker rooms I’ve ever been in,” she said. “They’re young, and they’re all invested, and they came to play for me, and so I don’t negate how they felt, and I felt the same way, but I also feel really good about how I left that program. I always say success is leaving something better than you found it. I think we did that. And my associate head coach of 12 years (Gavin Petersen), got the job, and he got a long contract. It was not interim. The staff is all staying. The players are all staying, the recruits all recommitted. We signed a phenomenal recruiting class, and so I feel like, okay, they’re in a good spot.”
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