SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAYS

October 14, 2026

Tammi Reiss

Florida Gators

Women's Media Day Press Conference

TAMMI REISS: Thank you, everyone. Good morning. It's great to be here. I want to just start with opening remarks of how excited I am to be at the University of Florida and how excited I am to be in what I consider the best league in America, SEC women's basketball. There's none better.

It's the reason why I wanted the job at the University of Florida, is to get to compete against the highest level. Every time you turn around there's a G.O.A.T. on the sideline, Dawn Staley, who was my backcourt mate at Virginia, my roomate, Vic Schaefer, Kim Mulkey, Jolette. The list goes on and on.

If you are any kind of competitor, which I am, you want to be in this league. Couldn't be more excited to be here. My first Media Day.

My intro was a little different because I want you to know I'm not just a basketball coach. I've done a lot of different things throughout my career. I think balance is important in anything you do.

I love basketball, but there's other passions, as well. Again, I'm a jokester. I like to have a good time. It's not that serious. We coach basketball, all right? So without any further ado, any questions, I'd love to take 'em.

Q. With this roster being almost completely new, what are some things you've seen in your practices that makes you eager for this season?

TAMMI REISS: I think the first thing I'm most proud of is when you're developing a new team, you have all new faces, your standard and the culture is the buy-in from your players. How quickly can I get complete buy-in. They're all in. Then how quickly can they come together as a team.

By the time we hit the SEC, our culture is set, our standard is set, our chemistry is set.

The thing I'm most proud of is every one of those players right now are all in, they show up every day, they give me everything they got, and they do it the right way. We can build on that. That's how championships are won.

Lose yourself in the process of winning. That's what I'm most proud of, is right now they're all in, they know the standard, and they give me everything they got.

Q. Did you talk to your old roommate and teammate before you accepted the Florida job? What advice did she give you?

TAMMI REISS: I did. I called Dawn Staley first thing when the opportunity presented itself. Really talked to Dawn. She showed you the blueprint on how to rebuild a program brick by brick, from the fan base to recruiting. Every aspect. Marketing, whatever it was.

I really picked her brain about this job, the SEC, the University of Florida. There's never been a time -- that's what besties are for, that's what best friends are for. Anytime I've ever called, Dawn picks up: Whatever you need, sister.

Really, really helped me, number one, in acquiring the job, then, number two, just the blueprint. Really, really great knowledge, great advice.

So, yes, I lean on her heavily in a lot of different areas of my life. This was one big decision. It's a life decision. She really was there for me.

Q. I believe you were an assistant in '93, didn't get your first head coaching job till 2019. How did working on other staffs help prepare you to be a head coach?

TAMMI REISS: I never truly wanted to be a head coach. There's some people that are born and they go right away. They want to climb the ladder as quick as possible and attain that status.

I loved being an assistant coach. Loved it. For relationships, recruiting. I love player development. Being on the court.

So Syracuse, Virginia, Cal State Fullerton, San Diego State. All those stops, all the different head coaches, I was able to evaluate, I was able to take the things I loved, discard the things I didn't love, and start to build who I was, if I ever wanted to be a head coach.

Then suddenly came the time that I thought I'm ready. Number one, you never want to be unprepared when an opportunity presents itself. Every year I'd go, Oh, I'm not ready in late game; Oh, I'm not ready in game management; Oh, I'm not...

And then finally I gained the experience and the knowledge. It's like having a baby: sometimes you just got to do it. You never truly will be ready.

Fortunately, I was at a place in Rhode Island where you could make a couple mistakes, get your feet wet without being on a national stage right away. Rhode Island really, that last stop, gave me my experience, gave me my confidence of all the little weaknesses I had, I fine-tuned. Again, when the job presented itself, I was ready for Florida when the opportunity came.

Q. Have your philosophies as a player back in the day changed from how you have a philosophy now as a coach?

TAMMI REISS: It's funny. Everyone says my player was -- as a player was about 40 years ago, and it was old school. Your coach told you to do something, you did it. Coach said go out and run 10 miles, I said, Yes, Coach, and I'd run go 10 miles. Old-school mentality.

The game has morphed a little bit. The standard is still the standard. As a player, I have four expectations every day.

Number one, culture. You do things like a champion, the right way. We have something called the way of champions.

Number two is communication. You must talk as a player. Great teams talk.

Number three, you show up and you give 110% every day. Hard work.

The last one is compete. Hard work is different than compete. When it's time for you and I to go head-to-head, I'm going to kill you to beat you. That's compete. You do not lose.

The standard over the course of each decade has never really changed. Those are intangible qualities every kid really can control.

So no, my standard as a player has never changed. Now, my expectation as a player of how my coach communicates to me and relates to me may change now because we're four decades later. Times have changed. Technology has changed. Philosophies have changed.

How you coach players may have changed, but the standard of my expectation of who a player is will never change.

Q. You mentioned that you had several hobbies and passions. I'm curious to know what some of the hobbies would be and how does it translate over to coaching?

TAMMI REISS: I think coming out of college, the reason I didn't play pro overseas was I was devastated with the 0-fer club, 0-for-3 in the Final Fours. It kind of broke my heart a little bit. I have some other passions I really love, right? Exercise and fitness. I was a fitness model. I competed in the competition shows. Then acting. I took it up at Virginia.

I said, Let me go do my bucket list. Let me step away from the athlete who I was, experience and try something new, which much to the dismay of my parents and especially my father. So here I go. Go to drama school. Suddenly I'm landing my first national commercials, Arthur Andersen, Hardee's. I'm becoming a working actress, loving it.

Go back, WNBA calls, coaching calls. I start to jump, go back to the WNBA, play. I then purchased two businesses. I owned a nightclub in Salt Lake City for 10 years called the Manhattan Club. And if you think there's any job harder than coaching, try to be a club owner, a minority club owner, in Salt Lake City. It's really, really difficult. Owned a day spa and salon, ran Gold's Gym.

Here comes my business hat, right? I go back to college basketball, give up my business, give up acting. I'm coaching college basketball for 10 years. Now we roll into the NIL decade. Now my business hat comes back on and I absolutely love this space because I've dealt with budgets, I've worked for the Jazz, got to see some of the best GMs with a roster and salary cap, contract negotiations. I've owned a nightclub. I've done all my own books, my accounts receivable, marketing.

Now, when you say run a program, a head coach is so much more than X's and O's and recruiting. You've got NIL, roster construction, contract negotiations, right? That's where I think all my hobbies and all the other things that have touched me in a different way have really made me a better coach on and off the court.

So we talk balance all the time. Sometimes some of the things you experience, and I tell our players all the time, they'll improve you as a person, whether it's your leadership, whether it's knowledge. That's what my other hobbies have done for me, a great deal.

Q. Does your theater and acting side of you ever come out in practices? If it does, do your players play along with it?

TAMMI REISS: I think it does. It comes out everywhere. Could be recruiting. You got to be able to be a chameleon in whatever room you enter.

They'll see funny little side of me, they'll play around with me.

The other day someone put my Juwanna Mann jersey on. I walk into practice, they're warming up. I'm a stickler, why does she have the wrong jersey on? I can't see. I'm like this. Why does she have the wrong jersey on? As I walk up, I'm like, she has my Vicki Sanchez jersey on from Juwanna Mann. They got me. They play with me.

It is fun, it's funny. But they'll experience it, they'll see it all the time.

Q. January 21st you face Dawn Staley, South Carolina. What do you think that day will be like, the buildup, considering you turned to her so often as a friend and coach?

TAMMI REISS: Everyone has asked me what game are you most excited in the SEC. C'mon now. To get to go down in that environment in South Carolina, which I think is the best environment in college basketball, get to actually be on the court with her, it's been since 1992. Head-to-head. I'm a head coach now. She's a head coach. It was different when I was at Syracuse, I was an assistant, she was a head. We did beat them then to go to our Final Four at Syracuse.

This will be a special day, a special moment just because of our relationship, all that she's done for me, the impact she's had in my life. It will be a little nostalgic, something I'm really, really looking forward to.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. Good luck.

TAMMI REISS: Thank you so much. Go Gators.