This week on The IX Sports Podcast College Basketball Edition, host Michael Waterloo conducts an interview with University of Oregon Women’s Basketball Head Coach Kelly Graves.
Graves, who coached Courtney Vandersloot and Sabrina Ionescu, said current guard Katie Fiso, shares “a lot of the same intangibles that it takes” with those two players. Last season, Fiso had to step in when her teammate tore her ACL.
“I thought she was just fantastic. Continued to get better throughout the season was playing her best basketball during the NCAA tournament and and in our Big 10 tournament run, and you know and her name became … kind of a popular player nationwide,” Graves said.
He said Fiso needs to continue developing, especially with regard to “seeing the whole floor.”
Fiso is also, Graves said, “a gym rat.”
“I think for for any player who wants to be a leader, never go to the gym by yourself. Take a teammate with you. You know, she’s got that work ethic, but not all of her teammates do, and so you know I think she can start to impact the others, you know a little bit more this year,” Graves said.
Waterloo asked Graves about two players who transferred to other schools after playing at Oregon: Chance Gray (to the Ohio State University) and Te-Hina Paopao (to University of South Carolina). Waterloo asked how Graves handled conversations with players who expressed concerns about being prepared to play in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) after college.
“I love those two players, and they they gave you know Chance gave us two great years, and and Te-Hina three years, and I’m happy for them and their success,” Graves said, adding that he thought he would have been able to prepare those players for the WNBA.
“I’ve coached 24 WNBA players, including several All Stars and a couple future Hall of Famers. So — but I get it, you know. I don’t always — I don’t take the transfers personal, you know. Everybody’s looking maybe for a little something different,” Graves said.
Tune in to the episode to hear what music Graves likes to sing along to in his car, and his expectations for his team next season.
Make sure to subscribe to The IX Sports Podcast for in-depth coverage of women’s soccer, hockey and basketball; and tune in each weekday morning for a quick overview of the biggest headlines on Women’s Sports Daily, like WNBA news and PWHL expansion updates.
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