Speaker 1: Love chat with you. Uh.
Speaker 2: Let's uh, let's okay, we're gonna get right into the Uh.
We're not gonna go to break ladies and gentlemen. We're
gonna continue to talk b YU women's basketball in this segment,
So please don't go anywhere they are in Fuego right now,
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VIP service, VIP discounts. All right, let's get out to
the hotline. Welcome in, head coach of the BA women's
basketball team. We've got former bucket getter of Brigham himself,
Lee Kamard, head coach of the women's basketball team.
Speaker 3: What's up, Lee, not a whole lot.
Speaker 2: How are you doing, I'm doing great, man, appreciate you
hopping on and talking some basketball right now. Man, this
team great basketball team. You guys are trending in the
right direction. How would you summarize the season from your purview?
From your perch thus far?
Speaker 3: You know, we've had some really great things happen. We've
had some tough, tough nights, but overall, I think as
a group we're improving. And I mean right now, we
got some momentum going and it's really fun. It's a
great group. And just please with how they've progressed you
to this point.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, there's always ups and downs in every season.
Twenty and nine though, that's a solid record. In the
last six, you guys are three and three. I know
you're on a two game skid right now. UCF and
West Virginia competitive, but just fell short.
Speaker 1: What happened in.
Speaker 2: Those two specific games that you want to get remedied
going into these final two regular season games versus Sincia
and Texas Tech.
Speaker 3: Ben, you should be asking, kay, why there are some
of the men's coaches. I'm in Kansas City getting ready
for the Big twelve tournament.
Speaker 1: Oh man, that's oh my gosh, that's my bad, dude.
I'm sitting there.
Speaker 2: I just pulled up the roster or the schedule there
and it was the wrong shit. I'm like, wait, can
you give me a breakdown right now of how you
feel about your squad though heading into the Big Twelve tournament.
Speaker 3: Like where they're at. We got some momentum going, like
I said, and I feel like we have some things
to do that we haven't done in this league yet,
and have done some things that we haven't done yet.
So it's really exciting time. This is kind of I mean,
the Big Twelve is just so much fun because on
a given night, you could be playing a top ten
team and you know, or winning.
Speaker 4: On the road at a place that you haven't won
it yet.
Speaker 3: And one of the things that we haven't done since
join the league is winning a conference tournament game, and
so that's kind of where our focus has been since
the regular season ended.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so that the three game winning streak though heading
into the Big Twelve tournament, Youtah, Arizona State, Colorado. As
I mentioned, you guys are on a steady trajectory right
now and playing with confidence. What has been kind of
the difference in these last three games versus the two
prior where you fell short to Colorado and Cincinnati.
Speaker 3: You know, each of those games kind of had a
different I don't know what you want to call it,
but a turning point or whatever that were so good
for our group and.
Speaker 4: The growth of the group. You know, we were down.
Speaker 3: Significantly at Arizona State at halftime and came out and
I just had a great second half. And then we
had a loll against Colorado in the third quarter where
we gave up percent from the field and then just
turn it on and flipped it in the fourth quarter
and guarded like crazy and scored a bunch of points.
And then, of course you always want to beat your rival,
but it's been there's been points into these last three
games where you know, maybe in the regular season we
would have kind of just folded or turned it in
for the day, but we stuck with it and found
our stride and we're able to just stay with it
and show some great and toughness, and I think that's
huge for our group as we entered the Big Twelve tournament.
Speaker 2: I know, Gab who's been really a great score down
the stretch, taking on maybe a large role more volume.
I know, we all know she's been talented. What growth
have you seen from Gibb down the stretch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean she's a tremendous player. And for every
other team that we play, she's the bulls eye player.
She gets all the time and attention.
Speaker 4: She's the focal point. And we have some.
Speaker 3: Really talented other players. But she's been tremendous as she's
come back from injury and kind of got her rhythm
back and the timing and the conditioning back. She just
is progressing more and more each day as far as
just you know, what we thought she was gonna be
all season, and it's really fun to see and I
think it's a true testament to who she is. She's
in the gym every day at eight am and getting
extra work in except for on game days, and never
satisfied and you always.
Speaker 4: Love to see hard work get rewarded.
Speaker 3: And she's just been tremendous at distributing scoring, closing out games.
Speaker 4: I think she's really kind of stride of just.
Speaker 3: Closing out games against big twelve teams, and that's something
that she didn't have to do a whole lot last
year and she's We've asked her to do it, and
she's done a great job.
Speaker 4: She's obviously had help, but just.
Speaker 3: A tremendous player. And I know, talking with a lot
of the coaches in the league, they just have so
much respect for her and the impact she has on winning.
Speaker 2: You know, there's ebbs and flows in like recruiting and
development within like the traditional byu LDS pipeline, but it
seems like, you know, consecutive years of elite guards that
can come in and score and distribute and make your
team better at Livy Hamlin is your second leading scorer
and just a phenomenal freshman in the Santa Clara, Utah
not too far down, not too far away from from Provo.
You need to have, you know, complimentary pieces to primary
ball header's primary scores, and Olivey has been there for
you as a freshman.
Speaker 4: Yeah, lived doing great.
Speaker 3: She continues to get more and more comfortable at this level.
I think over the course of the last six games,
she's averaging seventeen or almost seventeen a game, which is
huge because this league is so tough, and she's a scorer.
I mean, every time I come on here, you call
me a bucket getter. I'm not nearly the bucket getter
that she is. She's a flat out bucket getter, and
she just getting more and more comfortable at this speed,
at this athleticism and size, and look for more of
that from her going forward.
Speaker 2: In your first year lead, how would you evaluate and
grade yourself self scout for me your coaching ability thus far?
Like what have you learned about yourself?
Speaker 1: You know what I mean?
Speaker 2: Like, if you can kind of introspectively, you're twenty and
ten right now.
Speaker 1: It's a good first year.
Speaker 2: Big twelve basketball is no joke, and give me a
little self scout right now.
Speaker 3: I mean if you would ask me in September, hey,
you go twenty and ten and nine and nine, I
probably would have taken that. And now that we're here,
there's a couple of games that I would love to
have back, or decisions that I would love to have back,
as it pertains a winning a basketball game.
Speaker 4: But but I.
Speaker 3: Also think that on the normal year, nine to nine
probably finishes better than ninth in the league. And for
our first year for our program, I think it's I
think it's a good place. We've got some momentum, Like
I said, a solid foundation. That's still I mean, we'll
see what comes over to the end of this year,
but but really please with the group that we have
and what we've we've done with this group. And for me,
people ask me all the time like, hey, what's what's
the biggest difference, And for me, it's just constantly my
brain is just on something that has to do with basketball,
with the program, so that that that's probably been the
most alarming or not alarming, but just the most biggest change,
biggest a difference, and just trying to help players, the
staff and just want to be as successful as possible.
Speaker 1: As a player.
Speaker 2: I know from personal experience, you were a gym rat
as a coach, you know, you.
Speaker 1: A film rat? Is that is that what you watch most? Though?
Speaker 2: Is that where you and kind of like a preparation
mindset you you talk about, you know, like your mind
is always going, so like where do you spend most
of your time?
Speaker 1: Then? Is whatever?
Speaker 3: There's film for sure, and sometimes you got more a
couple extra days, you know, you play Saturday and then
Wednesday you got to you got it Sunday to kind
of fill with. But but but just the amount of
time just sitting around thinking about things, you know, whether
it's on the court off.
Speaker 4: The court, how you do this, how you do that?
Speaker 3: You know. I'll just give you an example. So we
played tomorrow one point thirty. We have a shoot around
time that's early tomorrow morning, and I have yet to
decide are we going to take the shoot around in
the gym or not? Are we going to err on
the side of letting our players sleep? And how important
is that to the group and do a walk through?
So I spend a lot of time, probably more than
I probably should. But as I go through this the
first time, and as we go through it, as the
staff just deciding on certain things like that, it was
more important, you know, Uh is it? Is it walking
through stuff? Is it getting up and getting our bodies moving?
Is it more sleep? And and and you're just racking
your brain over what is going to help you the most.
Speaker 4: So that's a small example.
Speaker 3: But I spend an inordant amount of time on dumb
stuff like that.
Speaker 2: That's not tough stuff, man, Those are competitive. Like we
all know, there's there's a correlation between like sleep and
like like energy and mental acuity and all those things. So,
uh no, I think it's Uh, it's bandwidth that's well allocated.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: From a strategy standpoint, to get the most out of
your your squad, your team. We got Leakmart head coach
b who wins basketball and prep for the twenty twenty
six Philips sixty six Big twelve Women's Basketball Tournament.
Speaker 1: You're gonna be facing Houston.
Speaker 2: It's a one thirty pm Mountain time tip off tomorrow
in Kansas City. ESPN Plus is where you can stream
at Cougarnations, so stay tuned, make sure you got to
that game tuned in and support the Lady Kogs and
Lee Kamart. Give me a scouting report on the Houston
Coogs right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we played them once already, but they have three
of their top players suspended from the previous game there
was an altercation, so we're really playing a completely new
team and kind of the message to the group the
whole time has been, hey, people are gonna want to
talk to you about the path to the Big twelve
championship or hey, where you guys ad with the NCAA tournament.
Speaker 4: But I just give him a.
Speaker 3: Charge today completely focused on the Houston Cougars.
Speaker 4: We'll worry about.
Speaker 3: After them, after them, you know, and they do a
great job and it's something that we're not really it's
not our strength.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: They just try to beat you off the ounce and
cross you up and get to the paint. And we
got to do a good job of keeping our chest
in front of the person that re guarding and make them.
Speaker 4: Score over us there.
Speaker 3: They they're really really good. I get into the foul
line to score as well, and that's going to be
a factor.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 4: And and just their athleticism and length is.
Speaker 3: You know, been troublesome for us against you know, length
and athleticism this season.
Speaker 4: So we got to work cut out for us.
Speaker 3: And for them, they kind of get kind of a
whole new uh breath of life.
Speaker 4: You know starting the postseason. Uh.
Speaker 3: And they they didn't have a great regular season, but
for them, they they're coming in guns blazing and they
know that they can reinvigorate kind of their season, uh
with with a couple of wins. So that that's kind
of been the focus. And then just trying to keep
them mentally fresh and physically fresh.
Speaker 5: Question for you, Uh, I'm a big social media guy.
Saw the b A women's basketball team yesterday was all
talking about their pre you know game hype song. I
need to know what is coach kamares pre game.
Speaker 1: I need to know.
Speaker 3: You want you want to know it as a player, as.
Speaker 1: A coach, both boff, both coach.
Speaker 3: I mean, of course there's some jay Z as a player,
but I shouldn't say that I liked everybody back in
the day, little Wayne jay Z, Rick Ross. Uh, you
can throw some country in there, a lot lot slower
and more relaxing now with probably some country, some Luke Combs,
some Cody Johnson, some some Lee Brice occasional show tunes
in there, and I feel like I need a little
little little bump maybe uh baby Keeam and Kendrick Lamar
family ties or something.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: There you go, get the playlist, Uh share it publicly.
I want I want that Lee Kamar playlist prior to
tip off so we can get in the right mindset
prior to this Houston game.
Speaker 1: A couple less things before we let you go.
Speaker 2: We appreciate you hopping on to give us an update
on your on your squad and obviously what they've accomplished
as far and what what you have planned for this
team in the in the Big Twelfth Tournament, do you
feel like this women's team can go deep in this.
Speaker 1: Big twelfth tournament? Okay? And if so, what will it
look like? You know, how, how will you guys get there?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I think we have the capability of it.
Speaker 3: And I'm gonna been you know, I'm not gonna go there.
I'm going to give you the cliche answer.
Speaker 6: We gotta we gotta focus on the Houstons, I know,
but but but but truly, uh, we we have yet
to win a game in this tournament, you know, and
that that's a data point.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: Twenty games was something that we didn't like set out
to do, but it's something that we have yet to.
Speaker 4: Do in a while.
Speaker 3: And going five hundred in league, and you know, we
wanted to finish in the top eight.
Speaker 4: We're just outside of it.
Speaker 3: And win a game in a big twelve tournament, and
obviously we want to get to the NCAA tournament. So
a win tomorrow would be huge because it's just something
we have yet to do or just kind of and
not that that's good enough or but it's just you know,
we want to continue to climb and achieve some of
those points along the way that.
Speaker 4: Have yet to be done.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, I want to celebrate that real quick.
Speaker 2: You know that that twenty win threshold and look, we're
not you know, there's still work to be done, and
I understand that, but it's pretty impressive. I remember during
the Dave Rose era, right, we were talking about all
the consecutive twenty plus win seasons and it was like
a benchmark, right.
Speaker 1: It was it was quota, man, it was quota. It
was the xecation.
Speaker 2: So I know, You've got high expectations for your squad
and I'm looking at everything within BA Athletics. I'm looking
at the recruiting, I'm looking at the resources, and like,
when you envision the future of BA women's basketball, can
we do you believe that that can be the quota?
Speaker 1: Right? It was something that you were well familiarly familiar.
Speaker 2: With in your era going forward and to the fans
and listeners and the donors and the corporate sponsors, et cetera. Like,
it's one of the reasons why I believe, Hey, you
guys should buy into this is my pitch. Do you
buy into Lee coom mardin this BA wmen's basketball team
because of the expectation, the vision, the standard.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I believe it will become kind of
the norm for a program.
Speaker 4: H And.
Speaker 3: It is about winning for sure, Like it's about winning,
But I love that we've continued to get better as
a season's gone. We've had some setbacks and we've got
shown great resilience of getting up after you know, we
got pounded at Colorado and then came home and lost
a close one to one of the lower end teams
of the league as far as the standings are concerned,
and had staring at our arrival on the road and
there was Little State on the road and that team again,
and we could have been like great, great year, you know,
and they just they just continue to fight, and I'm glad.
Speaker 4: To see them rewarded.
Speaker 3: I do think it will become more of the norm,
and it has been. You know, the Jetty era was
filled with twenty plus win season and it's just the thing.
Speaker 4: Where end this league.
Speaker 3: If you can finish five hundred or above, you're staring
NCAA tournament straight in the face. And you know, we
just want to continue to climb, you know whatever that
looks like, hey, we finished ninth this year, can we
improve that next year? And we finished twenty wins can
we improve that?
Speaker 4: And you know, however many games we win.
Speaker 3: In the twelve tournament, can we improve on that? And
I think if we stay there, we got got some
good things happening.
Speaker 4: I think will it'll it will be great.
Speaker 2: Lee, good luck versus Houston and I can't wait to
watch the mall on ESPN Plus on the stream.
Speaker 1: Take down them Devis Houston Cougar tomorrow.
Speaker 4: Thank you, appreciate it. They go.
Speaker 2: That's Lee Kamard, head coach BAU women's basketball. They're twenty
and ten heading into the Big twelve Tournament. We wish
them luck. They got a good squad. I think they
can go deep in the Big twelve Tournament. But one
at a time. As Eve reminded us, that's our segment.
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