By: Thomas Crone
Earlier this week, Saint Louis head women's basketball coach Lisa Stone sat in her office with a sense of accomplishment, even though the day hadn't yet made it to noon. Already, by 11 a.m., she'd driven to campus from her home in Edwardsville. She'd taken a long run and led a 6:30 a.m. practice session. Add in a bit of work in the office, and her work day was moving efficiently towards completion.
“If I'm lucky, I can be done by 2,” she said.
Stone appreciates every day spent at SLU and appreciates that each day, month, semester and season have their own pace, their own rhythm. Right now, her team – a mix of talented newcomers and the core of last year's just-about-breakthrough 15-16 squad – is just moving into the heart of its earliest practices of the season. While Stone would love to challenge her players with some additional on-court work, she realizes the team is also moving into the heart of midterms, something that brings its own particular brand of stress.
“This is not the time,” she said, “to add in 55 new plays.”
Soon enough, non-conference games will begin and the term will wind down. Some holidays will be enjoyed and, eventually, a new semester will roll along, along with the meat of the conference season. In the middle of all that will be a magical month with no classes in session and, as Stone said, that might be “the best time of the season. The players all live in the apartments across the parking lot from the arena. They just walk over here and play basketball.”
But that time is several weeks away. We're at the beginning right now, this week. Stone's squad has just gone into the preparatory phase. And it's at that time that we've gotten a chance to sit down for a wide-ranging discussion of many of the intricacies of her job, now four years into heading the SLU program.
For starters, let's talk about how you really want your players involved in the community. What kind of experiences do you want for them while here at SLU?
The philosophy of Saint Louis University is to lead, learn and serve. As a female who coaches women, my job is to foster female leadership. In order to do that, my players need to understand service, on and off the court. Anytime we're involved in a team activity, it's a fun way to give back. We're serving and we're learning, together, how to be successful. The learning aspect comes from every experience you have. You win a game, you lose a game, you learn. Learning is something that happens every day. I'm 53 years old and I learn every day. I'm blessed to coach a team that finished sixth in the country academically last year. They're more than basketball players to me. I'm proud of them, I really am.
Let's talk about the work done this off-season.
I'm so excited by this team. On the top of the white board, I always have a theme. Last year I'd write, “This is the biggest game of the year.” This year, they asked me to put “no dumb losses.” Seriously, they are so determined to not lose games that they should win. You put yourself in a position to win, you give yourself a chance to win. We have our entire starting lineup back. They're in the best of physical shape. They're determined to get to the postseason. They're practicing at a higher effort level and are very united. We don't have to waste time coaching attitude or effort.
Remind me of the cycle you're in right now, how many of these players were here before you arrived.
There are two seniors who were here when I arrived. One was a true freshman and the other a redshirt freshman. The junior class, I recruited.
Tell us about blending “your own” players alongside those who were already here.
Now, the ones I inherited, I've adored. They did everything I asked them to do, and I've appreciated their acceptance of me when I got here. They wrapped their arms around me and did everything asked. As for the players I've recruited, it's all about relationships. A family has to sit in this office and feel comfortable with me, my assistants and the other players. They have to feel like it's a family. I hope they feel that we want to make their daughter as successful as possible on and off the court. You'll be in their living room, with the dog, the cat, the little sister. There are all kinds of different storylines we could talk about. But it's about the relationship and everyone knowing that I care about them. And that if they ever need anything, I'm here, that there's no intimidation factor.
There's been such a trend of transfers in recent years. It's really discussed on the men's side. Can you address that from your side of the ledger?
It's much higher on the men's side. I think it boils down to the fact that you're now allowed to visit with juniors in high school. You're offering them a full-ride scholarship, and they don't have a driver's license yet. They're so young. And the “wow factor” happens. A big-time program comes in and recruits you. There might be five of you who are all as good, and some won't play. We try to be as honest as possible about where we see you on the depth chart. Parents respect that. Kids want to play, and you won't go 100 percent on your recruiting. But you try to make the right fits. And if they come and are unhappy, I'll do everything I can do to be helpful, so that they can be happy.
What are some things that come into play to turn someone around? Maybe it's just that they're a freshman and adjusting, or they're going through a sophomore slump. What conversations can work?
I think the hardest adjustment is just not being in high school anymore. Everyone on this team is good. Who'll rise up to the challenge? Some kids need the freshman year to get used to it all. Others need to play right away. I don't know the exact solution, but for us, we've had fewer transfers than other programs. You have to sit them down and tell them not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear. With so many AAU coaches and other individuals around a player, there needs to be an understanding between you and that player. Transferring is rampant; it's really crazy on the men's side. The grass always seems greener on the other side, but for some, they should stay home and mow their own lawn.
What's it like when someone finds out you've never been an assistant coach? What's it like to have the conversation that you've always been the head coach?
I had a young athletic director take a chance on me at a very young age. He hired me to be a basketball and softball coach, and I didn't do it to make money, as I didn't. I had to separate myself from the players, as a coach, because I was their age. I'm blessed to have had talented assistant coaches. I know a head coach is as good as her assistants, and I've had some great staffs. Two of my assistants now have been head coaches, and they really know what they can do to support. Sometimes, in that position, you really know what you were looking for in an assistant coach, and that helps. I got lucky early and have worked hard to continue doing what I'm doing, which is coaching 18- to 22-year-olds. It's a great gig.
Let's go back to the beginning and talk about what attracted you to SLU and what you enjoy today.
I think it's the fantastic facilities. And working for an athletic director like Chris May. He's the most supportive AD I've ever worked for, checking in every day of the year and always asking what he can do. He loves women's basketball. So my boss is the best, a real fan of the game, and he does everything he can to make us successful. The city's great. It's a sports town. We had just shy of 7,200 at a game last year, and the excitement is rising for women's basketball in town, with a lot of very good young players here. This school offers everything you need to build a program and be sustainable. And my son goes to school here. My child is here. I can talk to a mom or dad about what that's like. He loves it here – the school, the students, the professors. President Pestello is very engaged. I just love working here. And I think we have a chance of having something very special.
Specifically, to this team – do you have a starting five in your mind?
Pretty close. I've got ideas. But I don't want to give you their names. If we had a game tomorrow, I'd feel pretty confident that I'd have the names. But I tell them not to worry about the starting five. They just need to get into the top-eight rotation. That's the goal of every player. Starters aren't necessarily the ones there at the end of the game.
Just eyeballing your roster, you're losing only about four points a game from last year's team.
We have the meat of our scoring, rebounding and defense back. The expectations are pretty high, as they should be.
What do you then see as the aspects of the team that will naturally improve this year?
I think we can be more efficient offensively. I think we can score more points. I believe our defense will be a foundation for us, and one that will continue to get better. We need to go from good to great on defense. Our turnovers were not bad, so our expectations, coming back, are that we'll need to take care of the ball. I think we can do even better at that. We can increase our scoring, our shooting percentage.
What's your overall philosophy about what you want to get out of your non-conference schedule? What types of experiences are you looking to have?
Your non-conference schedule is about building up the team you have now. Next year, this team will be more veteran-laden than this year. So, we're incrementally challenging each team more. This year's a mixture; next year, it'll be largely juniors and seniors. We'll ramp it up a bit more, and they'll be ready for it. You don't go play UConn right now; that's not a good idea. But last year, we played at Vanderbilt and a lot of them were recruited there. We played well in the first half and got drilled in the second, but our players were excited to play the game. We were 15-16 last year, and we're not quite ready to play that top-third schedule in the country. But I do think we're ready to be challenged more this year. We need to win. That's it. We need to win. And I like our chances of that a lot.
Thomas Crone is a St. Louis native with more than 25 years of freelance writing experience. You can follow Thomas on Twitter at @billikenextra. Check back to SLUBillikens.com throughout the season for more feature stories.
