More on Darcie being Darcie!
Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2013 3:55 am
ASU's Vincent says her nice team needs to play mean
Story by Tommy Bowman, WSJ
Nice gals finish last.
Well, maybe not last. But Appalachian State’s women’s basketball team – a mostly-veteran team expected by many to repeat last season’s Southern Conference title run – trails Chattanooga, Davidson and Elon heading into this year’s league tournament.
The Mountaineers were in fourth place earlier this week and coach Darcie Vincent said her team needs to get meaner.
“Generally, these kids are sweet kids – they’re actually too sweet,” said Vincent, frustrated with what she said is a talented team not playing aggressively enough.
“I want the nastiness, I want the basketball player in them. Not the friend, not the girl, not the whatever. And right now we have not evolved into that. We’ve lost that toughness with our graduation last year…
“I don’t know if you can play this game at this level and play in this conference as good as it is and not want to throw an elbow when you need to throw one, or set a screen when you need to set one, or knock somebody to the ground when you need to or D it up or just talk a little trash sometimes. Those things to me, when you label those things, I think of the word fun…”
Losing isn’t fun for Vincent, whose ASU teams have won 90 games in four seasons.
“Actually, after the Chattanooga and Samford swing, we came back for practice and we had lost two games in a row – we don’t lose two games in a row, that’s not who we are and not what we do – and I brought a whiteboard out, a big chalkboard, and I said, ‘This is day one of your understanding of how to hate to lose.’”
Story by Tommy Bowman, WSJ
Nice gals finish last.
Well, maybe not last. But Appalachian State’s women’s basketball team – a mostly-veteran team expected by many to repeat last season’s Southern Conference title run – trails Chattanooga, Davidson and Elon heading into this year’s league tournament.
The Mountaineers were in fourth place earlier this week and coach Darcie Vincent said her team needs to get meaner.
“Generally, these kids are sweet kids – they’re actually too sweet,” said Vincent, frustrated with what she said is a talented team not playing aggressively enough.
“I want the nastiness, I want the basketball player in them. Not the friend, not the girl, not the whatever. And right now we have not evolved into that. We’ve lost that toughness with our graduation last year…
“I don’t know if you can play this game at this level and play in this conference as good as it is and not want to throw an elbow when you need to throw one, or set a screen when you need to set one, or knock somebody to the ground when you need to or D it up or just talk a little trash sometimes. Those things to me, when you label those things, I think of the word fun…”
Losing isn’t fun for Vincent, whose ASU teams have won 90 games in four seasons.
“Actually, after the Chattanooga and Samford swing, we came back for practice and we had lost two games in a row – we don’t lose two games in a row, that’s not who we are and not what we do – and I brought a whiteboard out, a big chalkboard, and I said, ‘This is day one of your understanding of how to hate to lose.’”