Mike Thibault
Mike Thibault
Mike Francis Thibaultis an American basketball head coach, formerly of the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA, and now of that league's Washington Mystics...
against basketball constant court everybody hated measures minute onto opponent pressure progress rock star step time
When we went down there that, as a U.S. basketball player, you're kind of like a rock star off the court, but the minute you step on the court you are the most hated opponent that there is. Everybody measures their progress in international basketball by how they do against the U.S. That's a constant pressure every time you step onto the court.
clear content court found game home knew locker meant ok room seattle sitting
We were sitting in the Seattle locker room after we lost, ... and we knew that with two more wins, we would have had the game on our court. I think it was an eye-opener. They had been content just to be OK but it was clear to them how important the home court was. They found out what it meant during the finals.
bearing court home team trying
It has no bearing on this game. They're a team trying to get into the playoffs; we're a team trying to get home court in the playoffs.
fans fun player playoffs season wait
The playoffs are fun. That's what you play for as a player and as a coach, and what the fans wait all season for. So the fun begins.
bad combine good hard katie lindsay looks normally offensive open shooting shots strength three
We had a bad offensive game. We had a lot of good open looks and we didn't make them. We had really good open shots and it's normally the strength of our team, but when you combine Katie Douglas, Nykesha Sales, and Lindsay Whalen shooting 5-for-30 between the three of them, it's hard to win. When you get that many open shots and don't make them, you are probably not going to win.
attempts basketball becomes black field goal lost needed sacramento shooting shot target turning white
We were on target to do what we needed to do. It's just when you end up with Sacramento shooting 67 field goal attempts and we shot 56. ... Basketball becomes very black and white to me sometimes. ... Turning the ball over was the way we lost the game.
conference couple deal eastern great toast weeks winning
We just had a toast to doing what we did, ... When we made the playoffs, we didn't make a big deal about it, but winning the Eastern Conference with a couple weeks to go is a great accomplishment.
advantage advantages difference emotional mad played refused
We had some advantages we refused to take advantage of. I just don't think we played very smart. The emotional difference was just being mad at how we were playing.
best disruptive game guess handle played point series
I guess I'm not much of a prognosticator, because I thought we would play our best game of the series today, and we played our worst. They're disruptive (defensively), but by this point in the series, we should be able to better handle it.
best game good guess played series
I guess I'm not a very good prognosticator, because I thought we would play our best game of the series (Sunday) and we played our worst,
commitment huge upside
She still has a huge upside to her game, and we have made a commitment to that potential.
coached couple final four knows league played proven worthy
She had already played in the league a couple years before I coached her, so she had already proven that she was worthy of being in the league. And she's been to the Final Four twice. She knows how to win.
aggressive bit defensive foot good maybe post shoot smart speed
She can post up and shoot the three, she's a good passer, maybe a little bit more aggressive offensively than Brooke was sometimes, defensively. She's a smart defensive player, but I don't think she has the foot speed that Brooke did.
everybody goes playoffs season wait
Now we're 0-0 and everybody goes and plays. The playoffs are what you wait all season for.