Assistant sports editor Andrea C. Quezada sat down to talk with Long Beach State women’s basketball head coach Jody Wynn earlier this week about the team’s preparation going into the Big West tournament. The No. 4-seeded ‘Niners play UC Santa Barbara Thursday at the Anaheim Convention Center, with tip-off set for 2:30 p.m.
Andrea C. Quezada: This team seems to believe in you as a head coach. How did you convince them to buy into your program?
Jody Wynn: It really wasn’t hard. When we’ve got great senior leadership that wants to win and everybody on board wants to win.
Everybody is willing to sell out for the team. It was very easy to do away with individual egos and just do what’s best for the team, and we got a great group of girls.
AQ: The Big West was wide open this season, and you’ve beaten almost every team in the conference. How does that help the team heading into the tournament?
JW: I think it gives us confidence. We believe that we can win on any given night. We told them it doesn’t matter who we play on Thursday. Whatever happens, the tournament is up for grabs.
AQ: How do you prepare a team that sat out the postseason last year?
JW: Hopefully, they’re just hungry. I think that’s motivation in itself and it really has been motivation throughout the year.
AQ: You swept Santa Barbara this season. Assuming they beat Pacific in the first round, you’ll play them in the quarterfinal. What have you learned about UCSB after the first two meetings?
JW: Well, they don’t go away, I’ll tell you that. Their length bothered us the last game. They are a very good team. They have an outstanding point guard and the third leading shot blocker in the country.
That’s a great combination and they have some good role players surrounding those two stars. So our work is going to be cut out for us to beat a team for the third time.
AQ: Let’s say you win on Thursday. There’s a chance you might meet UC Davis on Friday. In your last meeting with the Aggies, you lost by 24 and committed 28 turnovers. How can you prevail over them?
JW: Put a sixth player on the floor and not turn the ball over. We can’t give them 28 extra possessions. We have to get a shot, whether it’s a good shot or a bad shot. At this point, we have to get a shot every time down.
They play very, very well offensively and defensively and they took us out of what we wanted to do. But, we also did not play very well offensively or defensively, so make a couple shots and I think the game has a different feeling the first 10 minutes.
AQ: Is there any team that you are concerned about?
JW: Actually, all of them. But at this point, we have to be more concerned with ourselves than our opponent. However, I always tell the kids that’s why we schedule the way we schedule.
I feel like anybody can beat anybody at this point. Maybe not UConn, but I’m concerned about everybody because teams are playing some good basketball right now, but I’m more concerned about ourselves.
AQ: There’s a possibility you could end up playing three consecutive days. Are you worried about fatigue?
JW: There’s no time to be worried about fatigue right now. That’s like a four-letter word right now with us and our team, so we don’t talk about it.
Our training staff understands about recovery and keeping our kids fresh and ready for the next day, but we’re just taking it one game at a time. And all we’re concentrating on is Thursday afternoon at 2:30.
AQ: You’ve turned this program around in your first year. Any thoughts on not getting Coach of the Year?
JW: No, not at all. Sandy won it hands down. That’s who I voted for as well.
AQ: What results are you anticipating for the tournament?
JW: 3-0.