While Dawn Staley has been known for her fiery persona throughout her coaching career, Bree Hall said that her head coach has assumed a calm demeanor when adversity has struck this season. Staley seemed to agree.
“It’s changed over the years. I think it probably changed more because we’ve got better players, that’s one,” Staley said. “I mean, they’re better listeners. They really understand and just want to win basketball games. It’s not to say that when I was 20 years younger or 25 years younger, I had the energy to do it every game. It didn’t work, really. I thought it was working, but it really didn’t work.”
She added that an important part of this process is learning her players and their tendencies.
“You have to take the pulse of your team and how they take in information. I find that whatever moves our team, I’ll do. If it takes a fire and brimstone, I’ll give it to them. If it takes just me just saying these are three things that we need to adjust in the second half, they take it.”
