by Jeff Munn, Voice of Sun Devil Women's Basketball
Arizona State Women's Basketball Head Coach Natasha Adair is a positive thinker.
Don't tell Coach A what can't be done. She'll tell you immediately what can, and often, what can be done becomes what has been done.
For that reason, you won't hear Coach A make excuses, complain or grow frustrated over the fact that she has gone through the first two months of her first season without a totally healthy roster. Yet, the Devils have gone 6-4 through a non-conference slate that has been anything but a soft landing for the first-year Head Coach and her staff.
In fact, Adair hasn't had a totally healthy roster YET as Sun Devil Head Coach. Even in preseason practices, the ritual before the whistle would blow would be to check to see who was available. The lack of full participation has hampered Adair's ability to teach her philosophies to a roster that has only one student-athlete with any experience playing in the Adair system prior to this season.
In her pregame interviews on the Sun Devil Radio Network, the Adair philosophy is explained in detail.
"Our players can look to their left, look to their right, and say 'You know what? This is a unit that has already proven they can fight to the finish'", Adair said prior to the November 11 home game with Grambling State. "We talk often about grit, toughness and fight. Our team is growing, and I'm learning about them as much as they're learning about each other."
And the schedule? The Devils needed grit and toughness to survive a stretch in which they played eight consecutive games against teams that participated in postseason play last year, most of them on the road, and most of them condensed into a time frame in which Adair and her team were living out of their suitcases.
After a homecourt win over Grambling State November 11, Adair and the Devils...get ready for this...
--Traveled to Bozeman, Montana, on November 15 for a game against defending Big Sky Champion Montana State. The game started with the Devils going on a 20-0 scoring run, then holding off the Bobcats the remainder of the contest for a 79-64 victory.
--Five days later (November 20) in Albuquerque's famous "Pit" the Sun Devils trailed WNIT participant New Mexico by five throughout the fourth quarter. Clutch free throw shooting, Isadora Sousa's defense and Ty Skinner's clutch shooting tied the game at the end of regulation, and a 6-0 run in overtime closed out an 83-77 ASU win.
--Three days (and a full day of travel) later, the Devils defeated Patriot League Champion American University, 70-61, at the Goombay Splash in Bimini, The Bahamas. The following afternoon, November 26, ASU led seveth-ranked Notre Dame by three at the half before the Irish railed to win.
The game that truly sums up the Adair approach occurred November 30, in the program's first visit to Grand Canyon University. With a women's basketball record crowd of 6,000 looking on, the Lopes brought a spirited fight to the Devils. However, fatigue from constant travel, Sousa and forward Treasure Hunt out with injuries, and a raucous crowd trying to rattle them, the Devils found themselves down nine with one quarter to go.
"We got the team in the huddle and said 'Okay, we're going to win this game," Adair told Sun Devil Radio afterwards. "We just needed to focus on what we needed to do."
Message received. The Devils posted a record 35-point fourth quarter, and zoomed past the Lopes 80-72. The story was as much defense as it was offense. ASU held GCU to four three-point attempts, while guard Ty Skinner – the one player in the program with experience in Coach A's system, scored a career-high 29 points. The performance took "digging deep" to a much deeper level.
In the games that have followed, ASU has been without two of its post players, junior Imogen Greenslade and freshman Journey Thompson, guard Jaddan Simmons missed a game due to illness and Sousa has yet to return. In addition, sophomore guard Morasha Wiggins (a transfer from North Carolina) and returning junior forward Maggie Besselink have yet to practice with the team, much less play.
For a new coaching staff, that is a major problem.
"The problem is in the preparation," Adair said prior to ASU's game at Stephen F. Austin (another postseason team from last year). "When you're walking through in practice, when you don't have the numbers, when you can't simulate to prepare for your opponent, it gets difficult...but the spirit of the players is high."
That, too, is part of the foundation of any Natasha Adair-coached program. In the midst of the struggles, the camaraderie remains intact. Impressive when you consider Simmons and Greenslade were the only returning players with significant playing time coming into the season. Forward Meg Newman missed all of last year with injuries. Nearly every member of the roster is new to the Coach A philosophy of aggressive defense leading to offensive opportunities. Yet, they've fashioned a winning record against one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country.
The numbers back it up. Heading into their final non-conference game, Arizona State's strength of schedule ranked 47th out of 356 programs. Their RPI is 57, and four of their upcoming opponents in the Pac-12, including 8-3 Washington State and 8-2 Oregon State, are ranked behind them.
Not bad for a coach and staff that just got here in April, and not bad for a team that has had 10 players maximum available for its first 10 games, and less than that in its recent contests.
"We've had to build a roster, we've had to build chemistry, and we've had to move across the country," Adair said on Opening Night.
As far as chemistry goes….
"When I take over a program, it's not the players we brought in versus the players who were here. We are a blended family, and I wanted to make sure they knew that. They're the ones who have laid the foundation. It's not 'my way or the highway'. It's we're going to do this together."
Arizona State Women's Basketball Head Coach Natasha Adair is a positive thinker.
Don't tell Coach A what can't be done. She'll tell you immediately what can, and often, what can be done becomes what has been done.
For that reason, you won't hear Coach A make excuses, complain or grow frustrated over the fact that she has gone through the first two months of her first season without a totally healthy roster. Yet, the Devils have gone 6-4 through a non-conference slate that has been anything but a soft landing for the first-year Head Coach and her staff.
In fact, Adair hasn't had a totally healthy roster YET as Sun Devil Head Coach. Even in preseason practices, the ritual before the whistle would blow would be to check to see who was available. The lack of full participation has hampered Adair's ability to teach her philosophies to a roster that has only one student-athlete with any experience playing in the Adair system prior to this season.
In her pregame interviews on the Sun Devil Radio Network, the Adair philosophy is explained in detail.
"Our players can look to their left, look to their right, and say 'You know what? This is a unit that has already proven they can fight to the finish'", Adair said prior to the November 11 home game with Grambling State. "We talk often about grit, toughness and fight. Our team is growing, and I'm learning about them as much as they're learning about each other."
And the schedule? The Devils needed grit and toughness to survive a stretch in which they played eight consecutive games against teams that participated in postseason play last year, most of them on the road, and most of them condensed into a time frame in which Adair and her team were living out of their suitcases.
After a homecourt win over Grambling State November 11, Adair and the Devils...get ready for this...
--Traveled to Bozeman, Montana, on November 15 for a game against defending Big Sky Champion Montana State. The game started with the Devils going on a 20-0 scoring run, then holding off the Bobcats the remainder of the contest for a 79-64 victory.
--Five days later (November 20) in Albuquerque's famous "Pit" the Sun Devils trailed WNIT participant New Mexico by five throughout the fourth quarter. Clutch free throw shooting, Isadora Sousa's defense and Ty Skinner's clutch shooting tied the game at the end of regulation, and a 6-0 run in overtime closed out an 83-77 ASU win.
--Three days (and a full day of travel) later, the Devils defeated Patriot League Champion American University, 70-61, at the Goombay Splash in Bimini, The Bahamas. The following afternoon, November 26, ASU led seveth-ranked Notre Dame by three at the half before the Irish railed to win.
The game that truly sums up the Adair approach occurred November 30, in the program's first visit to Grand Canyon University. With a women's basketball record crowd of 6,000 looking on, the Lopes brought a spirited fight to the Devils. However, fatigue from constant travel, Sousa and forward Treasure Hunt out with injuries, and a raucous crowd trying to rattle them, the Devils found themselves down nine with one quarter to go.
"We got the team in the huddle and said 'Okay, we're going to win this game," Adair told Sun Devil Radio afterwards. "We just needed to focus on what we needed to do."
Message received. The Devils posted a record 35-point fourth quarter, and zoomed past the Lopes 80-72. The story was as much defense as it was offense. ASU held GCU to four three-point attempts, while guard Ty Skinner – the one player in the program with experience in Coach A's system, scored a career-high 29 points. The performance took "digging deep" to a much deeper level.
In the games that have followed, ASU has been without two of its post players, junior Imogen Greenslade and freshman Journey Thompson, guard Jaddan Simmons missed a game due to illness and Sousa has yet to return. In addition, sophomore guard Morasha Wiggins (a transfer from North Carolina) and returning junior forward Maggie Besselink have yet to practice with the team, much less play.
For a new coaching staff, that is a major problem.
"The problem is in the preparation," Adair said prior to ASU's game at Stephen F. Austin (another postseason team from last year). "When you're walking through in practice, when you don't have the numbers, when you can't simulate to prepare for your opponent, it gets difficult...but the spirit of the players is high."
That, too, is part of the foundation of any Natasha Adair-coached program. In the midst of the struggles, the camaraderie remains intact. Impressive when you consider Simmons and Greenslade were the only returning players with significant playing time coming into the season. Forward Meg Newman missed all of last year with injuries. Nearly every member of the roster is new to the Coach A philosophy of aggressive defense leading to offensive opportunities. Yet, they've fashioned a winning record against one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country.
The numbers back it up. Heading into their final non-conference game, Arizona State's strength of schedule ranked 47th out of 356 programs. Their RPI is 57, and four of their upcoming opponents in the Pac-12, including 8-3 Washington State and 8-2 Oregon State, are ranked behind them.
Not bad for a coach and staff that just got here in April, and not bad for a team that has had 10 players maximum available for its first 10 games, and less than that in its recent contests.
"We've had to build a roster, we've had to build chemistry, and we've had to move across the country," Adair said on Opening Night.
As far as chemistry goes….
"When I take over a program, it's not the players we brought in versus the players who were here. We are a blended family, and I wanted to make sure they knew that. They're the ones who have laid the foundation. It's not 'my way or the highway'. It's we're going to do this together."