We are still a couple of months away from the tip-off of the college basketball season this fall, which means that we have plenty of time to start preparing for the action ahead. We will do so via a series of season previews featuring the best players/coaches in the country. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel continues our coverage with Columbia women’s coach Megan Griffith, who talked about breaking the school record for most wins in a season last year and her expectations for this season.
You were a 3-time captain/2-time All-Ivy player at Columbia: what is the key to being a good leader? I believe in consistency and an unwavering confidence in yourself. I learned it from experience but have also been around some great leaders. You need to be even-keel without getting too high or too low.
You graduated with a degree in economics and then played pro basketball for 3 years in Europe: what is the biggest difference between basketball in the US vs. basketball overseas? The 1 thing I learned is that the game is much faster overseas, due mostly to using a 24-second shot clock. Europeans also move differently, such as the patented “Euro-step” that goes east-to-west rather than north-to-south. There is also less isolation/high ball-screens overseas: they are tactically sound.
In 2015 as an assistant to Coach Courtney Banghart at Princeton you finished the regular season 30-0 before eventually losing to Maryland in the NCAA tourney: how was your team able to stay focused for the entire season, and what was it like to have President Obama in the stands during the tourney to support his niece (Tigers forward Leslie Robinson)? That was a special season. When we beat Wake Forest in Cancun over Thanksgiving in a convincing fashion the assistants looked at each other and felt it was going to be a good season. We had mature players who had been in our system for a while and a strong leader in Blake Dietrick. We had a special group that followed our leader and trusted the system. Leslie is such an amazing human being. We had a chance to meet Barack/Michelle Obama when we played at American before heading to Cancun: I think they sold out the arena that day! He is just another person looking to support his family…but it was amazing.
You were hired as head coach at your alma mater in 2016: why did you take the job? It was a chance to come back home and be a head coach. I like to defy the odds and be the 1st to do things so I had a lot of motivation. I also like building things: I was talented but was not the very best player so I learned the importance of everyone rowing the boat in the same direction.
In January of 2017 you got your 1st Ivy League win by 3 PTS in quadruple-OT at Dartmouth (tied for the longest game in Ivy women’s history): I am sure that the players were exhausted, but how was your own blood pressure doing by the end of the night?! That was a very long night…but we sure earned it! What made it even more special was turning around the next day and taking Harvard to the wire. It was neat to see us come together and try to accomplish a hard task. Even though we lost it showed the potential of what can happen if you have the right people around you.
After getting the 1st WNIT bid in school history last March you overcame a 17-PT deficit to beat BC and set a record for the largest comeback win in school history: how on earth did you do it?! A lot of people would say it was great coaching but all of the credit goes to the players for handling the adversity. That is when they really learned how to adjust during a game. We were a great 3-PT shooting team…but went 0-21 that night, so we totally flipped and made it about defense. We had total buy-in to our game plan and also some nice heroics by some of our returning players.
You finished the season with 25 wins (shattering the school record for most wins in a season, which had been 21): can you keep the momentum rolling this year or is every season so unique that you have already moved on? I think it is a little bit of both: you have to remember in order to progress. We want to build on that but we have a lot of seniors so we can take it on as a new opportunity. We were right there and could have qualified for the NCAA tourney, but now we know what it takes. To have the target on your back is valuable: you need to take those lessons when trying to win a title.
At the Women’s Final 4 in Minneapolis you were named the Asian Coaches Association Women’s Basketball COY (presented by CBB Analytics): how crucial are analytics to your success, and do you have a favorite metric? Analytics have been a huge part of our success. We have found a way to drill down: our Director of Video & Analytics (Kyle Hutson) has been phenomenal. We have invested in software and looked at various websites. It helps our shot-selection by rating shot-quality but the 1 thing we hone in on is net rating: as long as we are in the green for efficiency that is a good thing. We have become more efficient on offense and our defense is finally getting out of the red. There are always better ways to do things if you are more sound. It has really helped us shave off some of the time needed to get to this point.
You have had 3 straight players be named All-Met Women’s D-1 ROY (Sienna Durr in 2019/Abbey Hsu in 2020/Ivy season canceled in 2021/Kitty Henderson in 2022): how were they all able to come in and contribute right from the start? I want to credit my staff here: recruiting is so important and we are always thinking about the future. Just having the same message and being able to go out and find the right people for our program is important. When they arrive they start to get game experience, which is what helps make you a great player. They are all coachable and have a great work ethic.
What are your goals for this season, and what are your expectations for this season? Our largest goal is to continue on this championship mission. The by-product is winning championships/going to the NCAA tourney, but I strongly believe in being a response-driven team. We will not take shortcuts because every day matters. It is critical to hold ourselves accountable to our high standard so we just need to take care of the little things along the way.