Caitlin Clark feeling 'good' after back-to-back; Stephanie White on rotations

How are you feeling after, how were you feeling yesterday? How are you feeling today after playing back to back? I feel good, I feel great. Good. Yep. Random question about your shoes, purple version. How much input do you have on the colorway? It's not like the design, but is the colorway also a lot of hands on? Yeah, I mean, I'm not sitting there picking every color, especially when there's gonna be a lot of different colorways. So about every color you can come up with, there's probably gonna be a shoe for it. But, I mean, we go back and forth, and obviously this has a little more of a gradient finish to it. I'm doing different things like that, but I have a good amount of say. If I really don't like the color, I'll get rid of it. But at the same time, not everybody needs to like the same colors as me, and I want people to find a color or whatever it is that they feel comfortable in and they can win. So there'll be options for everybody. What's been your favorite color so far? So far? I really like the all white, it was pretty fire, but the purple aren't bad. Do you know about how many colorways you're gonna have by the end of it? A lot, a lot. Kaitlin Kelsey obviously had a nice scoring game again after she battered in. She's just very uncomfortable with the praise and accolades and getting into the game. What do you think that is about her, that she doesn't care about that stuff? Yeah, I feel like she's just somebody that puts her head down and works. And she was in this league for a while and probably never really got a lot, and it's just kind of her nature to continue to work, put her head down, keep grinding. And now she's able to play the best basketball of her career and do it in front of a lot of people. And I feel like everybody across the league knows how talented she is. And as her teammate, it makes it really fun to get to watch it up close every single day. She makes the game of basketball look really easy a lot of the times, and she obviously makes our lives a lot easier too when she's able to perform like that and do it in such a consistent manner. So it's really fun, but she's just such a humble individual, very responsible. She's a very serious in-game player, so she cracks a smile after an end one. Yeah. Does that give you a lift in any way? Yeah, it's just cute. I don't know if she's ever maybe surprised by what she does, but even that three, I think she was almost probably a little surprised that it went in, it was just one of those plays where it's like, dang, it's one of those nights where you're really feeling it, you're really in the zone. And to finish through contact, that was pretty fun. I actually had probably the best view of it, because I was kind of trailing right behind her. So it was pretty cool, and obviously got the crowd into it too. And as we asked you, did you get an explanation for your tech? What happened? I just yelled at him to call it, and obviously it was a pretty quick technical, but whatever. Do you think that you need to change any of your approach to the game because you are so close to the situation? No. New teammates here doing the signing. What do these moments mean to you every year? They're really special. I mean, look, yes, basketball is what we do, but everything that we do is bigger than basketball. And the ability to impact community, the ability to give young people an opportunity to experience things that they might not be able to experience. And to really bring joy is important. Did you see, watching back the film, did you see defensive improvements or anything different defensively against New York versus the night before against Seattle? Yeah, the second half. Yeah. I mean, look, it's not anything that's new, or it's just building consistency in it. Activity level, attention to detail, rotations, being in the right position to start, having each other's back. I mean, it's not anything that's out of the ordinary. It's just building consistency in it and being willing to do it for 40 minutes. Is the way that the game is officiated one way or the other either really tight or really loose, does that kind of impact how physical they're able to play, or kind of the way that they defend on the floor maybe? Yeah, I mean, it can. I think any team is gonna go as far as you let them. Certainly, when you think about what that line is, it certainly will be. But I think for us, I think it starts with our mindset. Look, we can score, we know we can score. But in order to accomplish what we want to accomplish, we've got to continue to get better on the defensive end. Now, we're better today than we were earlier in the season. We're better today than we were yesterday. We were better against New York than we were against Seattle. But we got to string larger chunks of the game together. Taitlin's been lobbying to be off from his restriction, seemingly for the past three-ish, four games. Do you anticipate him to be off by one step? I have no idea. It's one day at a time. With Myesha, there's some games she plays, some games she doesn't. What does it say about her to still stay professional and give a positive impact when she is in the game? She's a pro. I mean, she's a pro, she's a veteran. She's won a championship. She understands different roles. She understands the importance of staying ready so you don't have to get ready. And she was huge for us. A couple wins over the weekend. How do you use the game on Wednesday to keep the momentum going into the All-Star Game? Yeah, we gotta be locked in. I mean, we gotta be locked in. We gotta stay locked in. It's about us, and it's about our journey. Certainly reminding our players that we're not on All-Star break until after that game, making sure that we stay locked in, and it starts with our prep today. With how Monique's looks playing the five, with how well KK's been playing, does that open the door potentially for some lineup changes or to move some pieces around, shift some pieces on the deck? Yeah, I mean, I don't know about lineup changes specifically. I think rotational adjustments based on opponent, based on who's hot at the time. I mean, I think you've seen it in minutes and longer stretches of minutes. Whichever ones are hot are the ones that we're gonna roll with. I think a prime example, KK has been playing great, great basketball. Got an opportunity to be inserted into the starting lineup, was ready, continued to build, and Mai was out of the rotation for a little while. And then we needed Mai to get back into the rotation, and she was ready. So that's part of being a pro. And I think it's part of our journey of consistency. But KK is a young player that we knew had an opportunity to develop, and she's really continuing to grow and taking advantage. And as a result, she's getting more minutes. On a similar vein, Raven's kind of been in and out of the rotation. Obviously, as a rookie, how have you just seen her take that as a pro? Yeah, she's been great. I mean, look, I think that when you come from a place like South Carolina, you've sort of been developed as a pro. And she understands that, being able to have those conversations. I mean, certainly we knew with Ty's experience, once she got healthy, it's gonna be whichever one of them is rolling at the time. And just making sure that we communicate that. And I think with Raven, though, her ability to impact the game with her energy and defense, she's gonna be ready no matter what. On KK, she's been so jumpy and eager as a player. How have you seen her kind of reel that in with discipline in this approach? Yeah, I mean, I think just having an awareness of what we need from her. I think she's become a really good off-ball cutter. I think she's become a really good screener. At times, a year ago, understanding when to do those things wasn't quite there. It's really come together. She understands her role. She doesn't try to play outside of herself. She gives us a different look from a full perspective on the defensive end, with her athleticism, with her versatility, and ability to guard multiple positions. With her fast switch movement patterns, ability to get out and get back. And so she's been huge. And she's just continuing to grow and get better. And she's also just a joy to be around. In that same vein, how valuable is it to have a player like her, because of the athleticism, to still make you right, even if you don't have the exact correct location or something like that? It's huge. We talk a lot about being able to play through mistakes. But when you got a player like her, who can make up ground, who has the ability to take cover for her teammates, I think that block in Phoenix was a prime example of that. It's huge. And we don't have a lot of players like that. So having one certainly in the back line is really important. Cool, thanks, sir.