Last Saturday Southern Utah beat Cal Baptist 82-73 in the WAC tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Thunderbirds were making their 1st appearance in the WAC tourney after spending the past decade in the Big Sky and clinched the 1st NCAA tourney bid in school history. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Southern Utah Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator Katie Gruys about helping to recruit a little basketball player you might have heard of named Sabrina Ionescu.
You are from Minnesota: what made you choose Oregon for college? I was born in a town of 2000 people called Annandale. I grew up playing 5 sports but basketball was my favorite. My older brother Nick was my track coach and I chose Oregon because it is Tracktown USA! When I went there I was missing basketball and Paul Westhead was the basketball coach. He had a lot of injuries that year and some of his players ended up putting me through a tryout that I was unaware of. After that 1st season I knew that I had to do both sports.
You spent your 1st 2 years playing for Paul, who won an NBA title with the Lakers in 1980 and a WNBA title with the Mercury in 2007: what was it like to play for him, and what was the most important thing that you ever learned from him? It was just FAST because he wanted us to get out and go. I learned that it is a business and he has been everywhere. Basketball is all the same regardless of the league/style of play. Your shooting efficiency goes up when you reverse the ball, which is something we use at Southern Utah.
You were a walk-on but were eventually awarded a scholarship during spring practice on May 18, 2015: where does that day rank among the highlights of your career so far? I cried like a baby: it was my birthday week and it came completely out of left field. They had me host a lot of recruiting visits, including kids like Sabrina Ionescu, and they appreciated how much I bought into what they did. I even kept a journal of what was going on in practice. It is definitely in the top-3 but I think that going to the big dance this week is now #1. I have a jersey in my office signed by Sabrina saying, “Thanks for helping me commit and be a Duck”, but I cannot take all of the credit!
Before coming to Southern Utah you spent 2 years as an assistant at Willamette University: what is the biggest difference between D-3 vs. D-1? The biggest difference is the size of the staff. I was a grad assistant at Clemson but got a lot of advice from people to go to D-3 and become an assistant. It was just me and the head coach at Willamette so I got to do a little of everything and get a lot of experience in my early 20s. Now we have 3 assistants so it is much less work.
In your 1st season on the SUU staff as Academic Advisor you helped your team finish in the top-5 in the nation in GPA: how much importance do you place on academics? It is huge. We had such smart girls that 1st year so they made it extremely easy on me. We even had 1 girl who was valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA.
You are the associate head coach/recruiting coordinator: what is the key to being a good recruiter? Relationships. I know that it sounds like a cliche but you never know when it will pay off for you with a big-time recruit. I have been fortunate to have recruited most of the players on our roster: we have a bunch of kids from the Northwest due to my relationships with AAU/high school coaches/parents. I also like to talk to opposing coaches to see what they have to say about a kid. I am big on talking to people via Facetime and I think a lot of kids just want to know that we believe in them.
Last Saturday in the WAC tourney title game your team had a 9-PT win over Cal Baptist: what did it mean to you to win a title, and what was the feeling like in your locker room afterward? I was just so happy for the team and so proud of them because they have worked so hard. To see it come to fruition is amazing and Coach Tracy Sanders has been the best boss that I could hope for. Our kids always had a chip on their shoulder and underdog mentality. The locker room involved everything from crying to dancing.
You have 6 players this year averaging 8-16 PPG: how crucial has that offensive balance been to your team’s success? It has been huge because we have different people stepping up every night. Some of our mismatches are in the post and some of them are in the backcourt. It has made us a better team, which is why we won a championship.
What kind of seed were you expecting, and how do you feel about being a 14 seed? I was expecting anything from a 12-16 so I feel good about a 14. I was hoping for a 14/15 so I feel good about it.
I know it has been a while since you were a grad student in the ACC at Clemson but do you remember anything about Notre Dame? We are excited to go somewhere different with strong traditions and our girls will be prepared/ready to go. We only played Notre Dame once when I was at Clemson and I think we only lost by 4 PTS. Muffet McGraw was the head coach back then (now it is Niele Ivey) so it was a great experience for me. They have always had really good bigs who could rebound the ball. I actually visited their campus for track and field. I grew up Catholic so you always have to take a picture with Touchdown Jesus…but does it get any better than playing the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day this Friday?!