Stephanie White is in the midst of one of many distinctive careers in skilled sports activities. An achieved WNBA coach — her profession document is 92-56 — she was given the on-court keys three months in the past to the Indiana Fever, the place she is going to coach the All-Star quartet of DeWanna Bonner, Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell, in addition to three-time WNBA champ Natasha Howard.
Away from the Fever, she is a basketball analyst for ESPN, calling males’s and ladies’s school basketball and the NBA. She not too long ago sat down for an prolonged dialog with me on the Sports activities Media Podcast, the place she addressed the twin roles of broadcasting and training the Fever.
It goes with out saying that Caitlin Clark isn’t simply an All-Star participant. She’s probably the most well-known girls’s basketball participant in America and some of the well-known basketball gamers within the nation, no matter gender. How do you handle, and I don’t imply this pejoratively, the circus that shall be round her?
I believe at first, she does an excellent job of managing all of it. Like, she’s extremely humble. She understands the massive image. So she views it understanding her movie star, No. 1. However No. 2, she’s a Midwest child, a Midwest particular person and he or she is who she is. She tries to dwell her life in an genuine manner. However she’s very a lot Taylor Swift 2.0.
So I believe from my perspective, and from our employees and franchise, it’s how will we assist her navigate all of this? How will we assist her shield her peace? As a result of it may be lots. How can we be a useful resource for her? It’s a unique stage now with social media and fan engagement. We need to be a useful resource and assist shield her.
She’s an unbelievable child. I name her a child, however she’s clearly a younger girl. An unbelievable expertise. She’s an unbelievable human being. She works her tail off. There’s a purpose she is who she is when it comes to a participant. She’s dealt with all of this with such grace and poise that the majority 23-year-olds wouldn’t have the ability to.
all within the work 🧬 pic.twitter.com/V0mWzgtXyg
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) February 14, 2025
What about from a training perspective?
From a training perspective, preserve the principle factor the principle factor. Assist her shield her peace after which assist her proceed to develop on the basketball courtroom. We let our gamers know typically you gotta decrease the noise round you and deal with what our job is. Our job is to place the very best workforce and the very best product on the ground that we’re able to doing.
I give our entrance workplace and administration with (COO) Amber (Cox) and (normal supervisor) Kelly (Krauskopf) a ton of credit score. They’ve accomplished an excellent job in free company. As coaches, we’ll proceed to be very clear in our communication. We are going to deal with elephants within the room. Communication is gonna be of the utmost significance.
You’re teaching on the highest ranges of your sport, however you’ve additionally reached a vacation spot job for sports activities broadcasters as an ESPN on-air particular person. How do every of the roles assist one another?
I hope they assist the viewer and I hope they assist my groups. As coaches, oftentimes we get very tunnel-visioned in loads of the minutia that goes on day-after-day in our world. As a broadcaster, you get a really macro view. As coaches, we’re usually targeted a lot on what our gamers can’t do. As a broadcaster, we’re all the time targeted on what gamers can do. I really feel like that helps me be a greater coach and hopefully helps me be a greater broadcaster.
How did you get into broadcasting?
I acquired fortunate. I didn’t research broadcast journalism in school. I studied aviation for 2 years. That’s a part of the rationale that I went to Purdue. Then I modified to normal communications. I used to be residing in Chicago on the time (as an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky), and a broadcaster who was calling video games for the Sky, Eric Collins, gave me the title of (executives) Tim Sutton and Leon Schweir on the Massive Ten Community, which was beginning in Chicago. I acquired to speak to them and had a little bit audition. They stated we’ll provide you with 5 – 6 video games and see the way you do. 5 – 6 video games became 50 occasions that first 12 months. I’ve been doing it ever since.
The Fever at the moment are thought of one of many high 4 groups, no less than primarily based on the oddsmakers, to win the WNBA title. Is it reasonable to say that this workforce is a title contender in 2025?
I believe on paper, definitely. Our purpose was to herald gamers that may complement our huge three. I didn’t know that we might have the ability to construct the depth that we had been in a position to construct in 12 months 1.
I believe every participant that we introduced in enhances what we’ve got in an amazing manner. They perceive what it takes to place a championship-caliber workforce collectively. It’s our job as coaches to construct chemistry shortly. We’ve acquired to search out out which teams can play finest collectively. We’ve acquired to learn how to make our workforce and every particular person participant as environment friendly as doable all through 4 quarters and all through 44 video games.
We’ve acquired 4 extra video games than we had a 12 months in the past in the identical time-frame and no Olympic break. We’ve acquired to have the ability to get a rotation. Two years in Connecticut, we couldn’t discover a rotation. Our starters needed to play heavy, heavy minutes. I believe at occasions in fourth quarters and all through the tip of the season, you possibly can inform that a little bit bit as a result of our effectivity dipped.
Right here, we’ve acquired loads of nice offensive weapons that we’ve acquired to place in positions to achieve success. However we’ve acquired to get higher on the defensive finish of the ground.
So do I believe we could be title contenders? Completely. Do I believe it’s going to all come collectively instantly in Might? No, it’s going to take time. There’s all the time that ingredient of luck to remain wholesome and be peaking on the proper time. I’m extremely excited in regards to the gamers we introduced that match our locker room. They’re good tradition gamers who perceive sacrificing for each other for the betterment of the workforce. They’ve championship-caliber pedigree.
GO DEEPER
Why DeWanna Bonner selected Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever: ‘I need to win one other championship’
One of many issues that usually occurs with nice gamers is that they make a soar from their rookie season to 12 months 2. Within the WNBA, that usually means getting stronger. What’s reasonable in phrases for Caitlin from 12 months 1 to 12 months 2?
She is stronger, at first. She’s acquired loads of self-awareness. She found out instantly that I must get stronger, I can’t get knocked round as a lot. She’s accomplished an excellent job of getting within the weight room and specializing in her power, when it comes to low middle of gravity, time underneath pressure, all of these issues. I believe the following step is effectivity. Not so many turnovers, greater subject purpose percentages.
I keep in mind sitting in a press convention halfway by final season and getting requested about Caitlin Clark and Indiana. I used to be like, guys, simply calm down, they’re gonna determine it out. They’ve gotta learn to play collectively. She’s thrown into this league instantly and he or she’s gonna determine it out. And she or he did.
She’s gonna see all types of coverages, all types of matchups. It’s engaged on easy methods to grow to be a little bit bit extra environment friendly, whether or not that’s angles of assault, not avoiding contact, how we get by folks, totally different cadences in dribbling, totally different cadences in footwork and totally different finishes across the rim. … For us as coaches, it’s shifting her off the ball a little bit bit extra so she’s not getting worn out in-game. We’re difficult her on the defensive finish of the ground, as effectively — being a greater defender. As an opponent, you need to assault a very good offensive participant by making them play on the defensive finish, placing them by the wringer. We shall be inventive as a employees in how we make the most of her and the way we make the most of her abilities.
How would you like the Fever to play this 12 months?
I believe our gamers play quick naturally. While you have a look at what Indiana did a 12 months in the past, they had been tops within the league in tempo and tops within the league in offense. We need to proceed to construct on that. We need to ensure that we’ve got extra choices to share the ball, make it harder to protect our huge three.
I believe Aliyah Boston most likely had extra space final 12 months than she’s had in her profession, and I believe she’ll have much more this 12 months. Kelsey Mitchell, the identical. Caitlin led the league in assists, set a ton of help information in addition to some scoring information, however now she’s acquired extra choices. We wanna be extra versatile. All people’s prepared for our first and second motion, so we gotta be affected person sufficient to get to the third and fourth motion.
The place we will enhance is our potential to attain off of cuts with this roster. We will use loads of off-ball screening motion with the lineup that we’ve got. I believe we will power mismatches and look to assault mismatches a little bit bit extra. We’ve acquired a high-IQ workforce.
The most important problem for this group is we’ve gotta go from eleventh or twelfth within the defensive finish of the ground to the center of the pack. As a result of there are gonna be days the place our photographs aren’t falling. There are going to be days the place we’re not nice offensively. There are actually good defensive groups and gamers in our league which are gonna make us uncomfortable. So we’ve got to get to the center of the pack on the defensive finish of the ground. However I’m enthusiastic about that. I’m excited in regards to the challenges that we’ve got with our group. We acquired loads of size and measurement and the power to stretch the ground and shoot the ball — and we’re gonna use it.
(Photograph of Stephanie White: Ron Hoskins / NBAE by way of Getty Pictures)