PAC-12 CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY

October 25, 2022

Tina Langley

Lauren Schwartz

Haley Van Dyke

Washington Huskies

Women's Head Coach

TINA LANGLEY: Just grateful to be here today and excited to get started in our new season. Got a neat blend of returning players and newcomers, and we've been working really hard, and super proud of them.

Q. Coach, what did you learn about yourself in season one that is going to help you in season two in the Pac-12?

TINA LANGLEY: There's always so many things to learn. I think that just embracing the new was really fun last season. So new city, so many new people to meet, learning the university, our athletic department. It was just a great time.

So embracing the new probably.

Q. Can you talk to me a little bit about what Emma brings to this team? She was selected for the best center in the league pre-season award. Just what she's going to add to this team with the loss of Nancy to professional basketball?

TINA LANGLEY: Well, first of all, Emma is a tremendous young woman. What a great example for our team of selflessness and just dedication to her teammates and to our program. So we're so grateful to have her as a person.

Then talent-wise, she's an incredible talent that can play multiple positions, stretches the floor, handles the ball, plays inside. Can just do so many things for us.

Q. I noticed your uniforms are pretty cool. What do you guys think?

LAUREN SCHWARTZ: I love them. They're always good every year. Then all the different colors, I love them.

HALEY VAN DYKE: Yeah, this is our second year, so this is our second year wearing them. I love them. I think they're so cool. I love the material. It's much different than what we normally get.

Q. Is it lighter?

LAUREN SCHWARTZ: Yeah.

HALEY VAN DYKE: Definitely lighter, yeah.

Q. Haley, what did you do over the summer to improve your game?

HALEY VAN DYKE: Yeah, so I actually think my biggest thing that I worked on over the summer was just getting my mental right and like my confidence, just mentally off the court. I think that was a big thing for me, kind of taking that time to rest my mind and just kind of relax on that aspect.

But obviously also training super hard and getting in the gym. But I think my mental for sure was a big thing that I focused on this summer.

Q. What did you do in particular?

HALEY VAN DYKE: Yeah, so I got into reading this summer. I started reading a lot of books. Just kind of learning more about myself and journaling and just doing the little things kind of outside of basketball. That kind of just helped me find who I am.

Q. Coach, on the difference between year one and year two, now that you do have a better grip of the city, the community, the culture, the success, obviously, of UW basketball over the years, is it a race to get there quickly, to get UW back to where it belongs, or is it one of those deals where you have to emphasize some patience and little victories as you go, or can you quicken that up a little bit when you know results are what we're all about kind of a thing?

TINA LANGLEY: Yeah, what a great question. Our alumni and the history that's gone before us is inspiring. I think sometimes we let those things kind of take the wrong place in our mind, and I think that they should just be something that we aspire to represent in a way that our alumni and our university can be proud of, and that's success is different at different times.

And I think for us, success is learning what it means to be our very best every day. Our student-athletes have been incredible in the preseason, even in the summer when we took our trip to Italy. Just really understanding each other, the game, who we can be as a team. But I think it begins by understanding each other so that we can be the selfless team that we want to be on the floor and how we want to play the game.

I hope that we use it as inspiration, I guess, is the long-winded answer to your question. But it is quite inspiring.

Q. When you see the group of women coming in, what are you most excited about in terms of this immediate season?

TINA LANGLEY: You know, I would say this for our incoming players and our returning players both. I think the energy in the building and the way they're working, their commitment to one another, the culture that this team has is pretty special. Very selfless and hardworking. That's who we want to be as a program.

Q. Having had now a full season with Coach Langley and a full off-season heading into the next year with the new system, what are some of the things that maybe now you guys understand better and are doing at a higher level that's going to help you be a better team this season?

LAUREN SCHWARTZ: I think for me I've been with Coach Langley for four years now. I think just really understanding the team and their basketball IQ and all the stuff that they do on the basketball court.

I think just understanding the team and the offense and helping them understand the offense and the defense that Coach Langley puts in.

HALEY VAN DYKE: Yeah, I think I would kind of -- to go off that, I think I've only had one year previous with her, and I think obviously learning a whole new set of everything, it's hard.

But this year I'm a lot more confident in that, which is going to help me, like she said, just kind of be there for the rest of the team and help be that leader where I can lift them up and kind of push them in the right direction, too, and it'll just catch on quicker for everyone.

Q. Coach, a couple familiar names on your roster from northern California: Elle Ladine, Teagan Brown, very familiar to us locally. Can you talk about those two players and how soon we can expect to see them on the floor?

TINA LANGLEY: You're asking about Elle and Teagan, and they've been tremendous. I love the energy of freshmen in the room. We say they come in with such a pure love of the game, excited to be a part, and they've done that and made an impact on and off the floor. Just fit in so perfectly.

Because again, they're very team oriented and just love to compete. They bring the same energy to the gym every day, which consistency is so important as we kind of continue to establish a new culture, and just love their work ethic and who they are as people.

Q. Tina, what do you want this team to be known for this season?

TINA LANGLEY: You know, I don't know that that's going to be a normal answer for me, but I really want us to be known for the way we support one another. The way we play the game is really a fun way, I think, and I think that says a lot about the way we want to live life, is can we make each other better.

When we're on the court together, I hope you see a team that's rising up their teammates and happy for our successes individually and collectively and that we make each other better.

LAUREN SCHWARTZ: I just hope we're a team of growth and we learn every day in practice and we get better game by game, and I'm just really excited in who we are becoming.

And yeah, I just really hope that you guys can see the growth in us throughout this season.

HALEY VAN DYKE: Yeah, I have to agree with that, too. Just kind of the way we serve each other on and off the court, I think you can probably see that, just by like seeing our first game. You can see the growth we've had from last season, just being there for one another. And yeah.

Q. How will this team score a few more points, and why is that so critical? It's obvious, but in your words, and will you be as good as you were defensively? You made it tough on other folks but you've got to score a little bit more.

TINA LANGLEY: Yeah, I think one of the things we worked on this summer -- again, so grateful for the opportunity to go to Italy -- was a little bit more positionless, which allows us to play a little bit faster.

So we hope to really increase our scoring in transition. That's going to be led by our defense still, so we still want to do a great job on the defensive end of the floor, and again, the way that we are built right now is to be able to play a little differently on the defensive end of the floor and mix it up a little bit.

I think we're having fun with that as a team, trying to do some new things in practice, and you want to have fun playing the game, and I think this style is going to be really fun for us.

LAUREN SCHWARTZ: I also think just comfortability. Being in the Pac-12 and playing a year under Coach Langley with all of us, I think we're all getting a little more comfortable with the offense and the defense, and I feel like that could help us a lot this year.

HALEY VAN DYKE: Yeah, and I think we also have just everyone on our team is a scorer, everyone on our team can defend. So we have a bunch of opportunities just with the offense we run, with everything we do. Everyone has the opportunity to be a scorer, so I think us working on our finishing in the preseason and just the little details I think is going to help us a lot.

Q. I want to ask the players, what was your favorite place in Italy, and how did that help your team?

HALEY VAN DYKE: Yeah, I know she'll probably say the same thing as me. Every second of it was amazing. I know we got so much closer as a group. But I think my favorite city was definitely Florence.

But my favorite thing, we went to a villa as a team and we learned how to make pasta, and it was just a really family moment where we could just all connect, and it was just really awesome.

LAUREN SCHWARTZ: Yeah, we just really enjoyed the moment. I think the genuineness of the people with each other in Italy, like the friendships that became friendships and just all the people around us, it was just such a great memory and a great moment. I loved every second of it.