Noelle Quinn post-Olympic Chat
A quick interview with Seattle Storm Coach Noelle Quinn
The Seattle Storm restart their 2024 WNBA season today at 4:30 PM against the Atlanta Dream. Jewell Loyd won another Gold medal with Team USA. Both Ezi Magbegor and Sami Whitcomb won the Bronze medal with Team Australia. The rest of the current Storm roster was able to take a few weeks off.
Of course that doesn’t mean they weren’t putting in the work during the break. Just now I had an opportunity to briefly speak with Coach Noelle Quinn before their game about that very topic.
Q: For the players that did not go to the Olympics, what was the focus for them during this lengthy break?
Coach Quinn: “To work on their games individually, but also as a collective to find some comfort as well. I've talked about this all season. Our training camp was very short. And so a time like this allows players like Nneka and Sky, who are vets in this league, but new to the system, to find some comfort with each other, but also the players that stayed, that were here, Jordan, Joy (Holmes), Cedes (Russell), like those are integral pieces to what we want to do as well. So to gain some chemistry, not just on the basketball court, but in, you know, life chemistry, team chemistry. I think that was an important time for this particular group. So just worked on a lot of individual work in the weight room. But prior to that, just rejuvenating and refreshing with some time off. And I think that really amplified what they did, what we did when they got back.”
The other main question I wanted to talk to coach about was regarding her experience during the 2021 season and the lessons learned coming back from that Olympic break. As many of you know, the 2021 season for the Storm was a tale of two halves. After being arguably the league’s best team before the Olympics, which culminated with an impressive 79-57 win over the Connecticut Sun in the first-ever WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Championship, the Storm really faltered after that. They went 2-5 in their first seven games back after the Olympics. That concluded with one of the most lopsided defeats in Storm history where they lost 107-75 up in Everett against the Chicago Sky. In total, they finished their post-Olympic schedule in 2021 with a 5-6 record. That was considerably worse than their pre-Olympic schedule where they finished 16-5.
Of course, there were multiple reasons for this. Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, and Jewell Loyd played some of the most minutes during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Stewart was dealing with the birth of Ruby. And Stewart would tear her other Achilles in one of the final games of the regular season. Still, I wanted to talk to Coach Quinn about her experience and what she learned from the past.
Q: Back in 2021 was your first full season as head coach. That was the last Olympic year as well. What are maybe lessons that you learned from that experience that you may be using this year?
Quinn: “One of the biggest things was the amount of time the people on our roster played in the Olympics. And there was some reality to the fatigue. There was also the Commissioner Cup that year. There are also some personal things that happened that year that created some physical and mental fatigue. And so I am very aware of that. And I remember it like it was yesterday. And so that is important for us to have balance in what we do. We're approaching the end of this, the latter part of our season. Mindful of our athletes having not had a lot of rest, our Olympians to be more specific, so if I can point to anything I'm going to just managing low level and fatigue and making sure we're sharp in that area getting our recovery. But also this is a different year we have charter now. We have different ways in which we can recover quicker and more efficiently. We're just going to make sure we utilize that. A lot of other things, maybe I'll answer that after, but that's the one thing I'll say.”
Currently, the Seattle Storm have the fourth-best record in the WNBA at 17-8 but they will have the opportunity to move up a spot or two if they play well in their final 15 games. They are currently just 1/2 a game behind the Minnesota Lynx and 1.5 games behind the Connecticut Sun. Ideally, Seattle will stay in the Top 4 as that would guarantee them two home playoff games.
Enjoy the rest of the season Storm fans!
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