Welcome to The Amy Eagan Podcast. Every Saturday Lindenwood University's Head Women's Basketball Coach Amy Eagan talks women's basketball and much, much more. We'll talk about past games, future games, players, the OVC, the NCAA, academics, careers, and many other interesting topics.
Gary D Stocker (00:01.26)
Welcome back to the Amy Egan podcast where each week we talk with Linda Wood University Head Women's Basketball Coach Amy Egan about basketball, course, the Ohio Valley Conference, NCAA tournaments this time of year and a lot more in the coming weeks. Coach, busy, busy week last week. Thanks for making time to chat.
amy (00:19.905)
Yeah, I'm excited to be here, you know, it's it's kind of a crazy feeling when you know, you you lose that last conference game conference championship, but it also very exciting that you get to play a March Madness. So
It's been a crazy kind of couple of days, but excited to be here and to talk about all that.
Gary D Stocker (00:41.718)
And then I had the chance to go and watch the tournaments last week in Evansville and a well-run tournament. But talk in general coach about the OVC experience, the win against Western, the tough miss at the end of regulation, the championship game, and we'll take it from there.
amy (00:57.575)
Yeah, you know, I think first, man, the OVC just does it right. I think it was just an unbelievable experience for our program and for our team and our girls. think they just, they do everything from the big things to the little things and it was just a great experience. So a lot of props to them. I know that is probably just a ton of work getting all that situated. And so.
I just want to say how well they did with putting that on and we were very blessed to be there. you know, I think, you know, you always go into kind of that first game, Gary, and, you know, we had to, we got to double by. And so you kind of go into that first game thinking, okay, this is really going to help us, right? But then you hear in some press conferences, these other coaches that have been there for a day or two say, we feel like we have an advantage because we've already been playing here.
And so then it's kind of like, well, do we have an advantage? But, you know, if you look at the men's tournament and the women's tournament, both teams that had the double binded up playing in the championship game. So I think there are a ton of benefits from it, especially at that time in the area, if you have some kids that are have a few, you know, injuries or a a few things that are a little bit broken on their bodies, you know, those kind of things. And so I was really excited for our kids to have that opportunity. And we went down the day before
Gary D Stocker (01:53.806)
Thank
amy (02:22.47)
They got to watch a little bit of the of the Western Illinois Eastern Illinois game and then we practiced after that and then Came back that next day verse Western and you know Western beat us We beat him the first game at home and then Western beat us Just a couple weeks ago at their place and you know We were down by 15 and came all the way back and made a really good run to almost win it at their place Just couldn't get over that hump so I
I felt really good about going into the game versus Westner. I think our kids felt really good. And if anything, they were like, man, we got to get some revenge. They broke our win streak and they're pretty mad about that. And I thought, honestly, we played pretty well. So it was a great game to get started. Really excited. mean, first program win in the conference tournament at Division I for our program. And then we come back the next day. Our prep is short.
Gary D Stocker (02:54.222)
you
amy (03:15.557)
And again, we play Tennessee Tech who definitely handled us very, well at their place the last game. But again, who we beat very early in the year at our place. So we were again excited for a rematch. They were on, I think, a 13 or 14 game win streak. So we kind of went in with the mentality of let's break their win streak. We have nothing to lose type stuff. And man, I just think it was such a good game. Just some really
Gary D Stocker (03:41.358)
You're really welcome.
amy (03:42.565)
great level high level basketball. Just a really good game back and forth and you know at the end they were able to make a couple plays. I know in overtime I thought you know we possibly had him in regulation. The ball just didn't drop for us, but we got a good shot. We got a good follow on the rebound and sometimes that's just how it goes. You know, and so it was it was a great great experience for us. We were definitely.
Gary D Stocker (04:05.176)
there.
amy (04:10.772)
I walked into that locker room and man, it just broke my heart for how heartbroken my kids were. You could just see it on them and they didn't save anything, they gave everything they have. So I was really proud of them. But a great experience for a young group, but also an experience as I tell them, these are our expectations for our program.
So, you know, we expect us to be here every year and that's what we, you know, that's what we strive for. That's what we work towards, you know, day in and day out. So, again, I think a really good step for our program and just says a lot about this group that we had.
Gary D Stocker (04:53.102)
And coach some personal recognition last week. Amy Egan was named the OVC Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year and just your second year coach. First of all, congratulations. Two questions, I guess. What's that mean to you and what's it mean to your program?
amy (05:06.723)
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, I think for me, is everybody probably knows and as I've said, it, you know, it takes a village to make something like that happen and it goes far beyond me, you know, those things don't happen if you don't have, you know, a great staff, if you don't have a great AD, if you don't have a great president, you don't have people that invest in your program, you don't have great parents and most importantly, you don't have great kids, you know,
that make that winning happen. I think, you know, for us as a program, again, I think, you know, we probably went in thinking, you know, we're gonna be better this year, but we didn't really know what that would look like. And I don't think you ever know, you know, with it. And I think what our players did and how they did it, you know, sometimes when you look at awards and you look at
things that either coaches achieve or players achieve. It's a byproduct of winning, right? And so you have to have the right people and the right kids in your program to make that happen. But I'm really proud of my staff. I'm really proud of Linwood University. I'm really proud of my players that made all that happen.
Gary D Stocker (06:25.634)
And then I guess the next big news came out Saturday evening. Your program is an automatic qualifier for the Women's National Invitational Tournament. Talk about how that's going to shake out,
amy (06:36.96)
Yeah, mean, wow, you know, we get to play in March Madness and it's kind of like I said, it's kind of, it was kind of a weird feeling because we were all so heartbroken over losing that game in overtime. But then we find out that we get to continue to play. And I think, you know, as I've said, there's a lot of kids right now that have worked their butt off this year that,
you are not going to see the benefit of playing in a postseason tournament. So I want our kids to really understand how big that is and how special that is. And, you know, even though, as I say, you know, everybody's like, gosh, you guys are sophomores. Like you have everybody back for the next two years. You know, there's so many things that can affect winning. And so nothing is guaranteed. So I really want our kids to go into this and really just soak it in.
understand that they're given another opportunity to play and to do something special and to just take it as much advantage of it as we can because nothing after this year even though we're young is guaranteed. So I'm excited about it. hoping that we get a first round hosting. I think that would be extremely cool for Lindenwood.
So I'm hoping for that, but if not, we'll go on the road and we'll give it our best shot to win that.
Gary D Stocker (08:03.48)
Well, let's call that a wrap for this podcast episode with Linwood University head women's basketball coach Amy Egan. Coach, always a pleasure to chat with you and congratulations on all the successes with this year and let's look forward to a couple more.
amy (08:16.072)
Thanks, Gary. Look forward to talking to you next week again.