Q: It feels like you’ve been building to this point.

A: Well, you know, I think the last couple of years, even three years, we’ve been good, but we’ve continued to get better players. We’ve continued to have people progress in the program from freshman to sophomore to junior. And now some of those better players that we started recruiting a few years ago are growing up in our program. They’re becoming veterans, becoming leaders, taking more responsibility in our culture—all those things coaches talk about. And I think all those little things together are kind of putting our program in the position you envision and want to happen.

Q: What was the message to the team after starting 2–2, and then going on that run?

A: There wasn’t a big meeting. We’d lost to two teams who are both very good teams. Nebraska is great. Gonzaga’s still having a great year. And we knew that going in. After the Nebraska game, where we felt like we competed with them for the vast majority of the game and really played well, I said, “Look at our schedule. We’ve got a chance here to reel off some in a row before Christmas.” I didn’t think it was going to be 20, but I thought we had a chance to win four or five of our next games. Montana State was a home game a little after that—we knew it was going to be super tough with their style of play—and we handled it as well as we could. I think that game gave us a lot of confidence that we could go play with anybody.

Q: What do you think you learned this year as a coach?

A: I don’t know if I learned so much as this year has driven home something I already believe. And that’s that the quality of the person on your team is just as critical as the quality of the player. We’re fortunate that most of them have both. This is as good a group, as good to each other, and as supportive as we’ve had here, and they’re talented too. So for me, and for our staff, what works is recruiting high-quality young ladies.

Q: How do you figure that out when you still have limited exposure?

A: That’s a great question because in this day and age, the people helping kids always paint them in the best light. So you don’t always get the truth. Part of it is when you go recruit and watch, you’re watching everything. When you go to AAU, how do they come off the bench? How do they interact with teammates? With parents? With coaches? How do they receive criticism or praise? Eventually you talk to them and bring them on campus. Do they look you in the eye? How do they respond to certain questions? And then some of it is intuition. You’re not going to be right every time. But you do this long enough, and you get a feel for players and personalities, whether it’s a good fit. We’ve had a couple of good players the last couple of years where we knew they were good players, but we said, “That’s probably not the best fit for us or our locker room.” Maybe they’d be a great fit somewhere else. Sticking to those values has been important for us.

Q: How have you seen your players grow as leaders?

A: When your best players are also your best teammates—if there’s one thing you could ask for as a coach, that’s probably it. Because if you get that, you’ve probably got a chance. They came in as freshmen and were a close group. They hit it off in the dorms and were always together. The upperclassmen that year, I don’t know that they helped them out a whole bunch. And they told me, “We’re going to be there for the next freshman group,” and they have been. They’ve taken more responsibility. They know this year, “Hey, this is kind of our team.” And I’ve told them, this needs to be your baby.

Q: How did the team improve over the year?

A: If you look at our numbers, there’s not a lot to complain about. There wasn’t an area where we were super deficient. We’ve been consistently good in just about every area you have to be to win 20 in a row. Basketball-wise, our three-point shooting has gotten way better. That was a big part of those Nebraska and Gonzaga losses—we shot it extremely poorly and were inconsistent in the first semester. Now, I think we ended up the number one three-point shooting team in conference play percentage-wise.

But where we got better was in situations. As good as Jocylen Schiller and Marisa Frost were, it was only their second year of college basketball, and they were handling the ball primarily.