ChrisP

I just listened to the WNBA's preseason teleconference with Western Conference coaches and here's a little of what Van Chancellor had to say:

In general, he's pleased with the progress the team has made in training camp. He feels they're a little behind where they'd like to be offensively due to the absence of players (Arcain and Tzekova specifically) but farther along defensively than he expected. Meanwhile, the "big three are still the big three, they're playing remarkably well" (in his words). Also he made mention to two pleasant surprises but didn't elaborate (he later mentioned that Tiffani Johnson was a big surprise so that's probably one of them).

On the point guard situation... he expects Janeth to join the club Friday and he'll plug her into the point right away. He's going to give her "all she can handle in the next three practices" at the point to see if she can pick it up. He says if she can "remember what we're doing at the point, if she can learn what to do, she's got a shot to start on Monday." If not, he says it's an even battle between Rizzotti and Washington.

On center... no question, he's wants Polina back but he didn't sound too confident that she'd be back. Something about being really tired and problems of some sort (maybe the work Visa). On that subject, he does expect Chakirova to make it by next Mon/Tue (pending her work Visa) - she's very eager to get here and calls or faxes the Comets every day. Van's eager for her to get here as well.

Back to the center situation... Van is really high on Tiffani Johnson (called her a "real shocker" - probably because he found her at the Fondren Gym). He's starting Monica tonight but says he'll decide the starter for Monday's opener over the course of the next 4 practices. He sounded comfortable going to war with Tiffani, Tammy Jackson, and Lamb - says they're all looking good, especially Tiffani.

Finally, someone asked him about how he's motivating a team that's just won three championships and he got really worked up about this subject. He said this was "the most motivated team [he's] ever seen." He said he had to end shoot-arounds early today because they were being too competitive. He felt that the Western Conference was going to be tough this year (he spent some time going over each team - how they'd improved and how good he thought they were going to be) but that many are not even considering the Comets favorites to win the championship (which, btw, was obviously a huge burr in his backside). He was astonished that his team was getting so little respect after three-peating. But, reading everywhere that they have no chance to win (he cited ESPN Magazine specifically) is helping to motivate his team.

That's the highlights from my perspective. You can listen to the whole teleconference at the WNBA site (Van's the first coach interviewed so you don't have to listen to the whole thing to get his take). www.wnba.com

peace

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fan is short for fanatic - logic has little to do with it.

[This message has been edited by ChrisP (edited May 24, 2000).]