Everything Miami Women's Basketball Head Coach Tricia Cullop Said at ACC Tipoff
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Last season was a down year for both basketball program. For Miami's women's basketball, It was Tricia Cullop first season after spending year at Toledo.
He did not have a lot of transfers in but she dealt with the fallout of the Cavinder Twin era and is now building the program how she sees fit.
With a top ten high school recruiting class and a top 15 transfer portal class, Cullop is on pace to improve the program and return it to its consistent former self as an ACC Championship contender and NCAA tournament resident.
Q: Tricia, you brought in the 15th ranked portal class consisting of seven players and combined that with the No. 10 ranked freshman class by ESPN-W. A lot of excitement in Miami right now. What should we expect from this team?
Number one, we're bigger, faster, and stronger, which is music to my ears because this league is that.Secondly, we can play fast offensively, and we can play aggressive defensively. We have the depth to sustain the level of play that we want to. That will be exciting for our fans.
Q: You've had a lot of success in your coaching career, 26th season now you're going into it. You look like you're 26 too, just so we're clear. As you went into the first year in the ACC what surprised you the most about this league?
I don't think I was surprised by the talent, because when I was at Toledo, we had played Louisville, we had played Notre Dame, we had played multiple teams of that caliber. But I think going through the league, just the depth we needed to play the way we wanted to play was a little deeper than I imagined, but it was good because that really set the tone and the slate for recruiting of what we needed.
Q: I raved about both portal class and freshman class. Was there a certain emphasis? I mean, obviously recruiting is year-round, and you had already started. Was it more about this fits Tricia Cullop's coaching style or was it a little bit some of the lessons in year one of the ACC?
Well, we wanted to get bigger, faster, stronger, without sacrificing what matters. So when we found players that were that, the next thing was, are they a good person? Are they a great teammate? Are they a great leader?
I'm a big culture person, and the winning that I've experienced in my career was all built on did we have kids who sacrificed for everyone and not just about themselves. We found that in all the players that we signed.
That's why I'm so excited about what we're building and what we have for this year, because all of them really work hard for each other, and our chemistry, even though we have 12 out of 14 new, is already in a really, really good place.
Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University and is the site lead for the Miami Hurricanes on SI. He can be reached at Twitter @Justice_News5.
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Justice Sandle is a graduate of Mississippi State University earning a Bachelor of Arts and Science in Communications with a concentration in Print and Digital Journalism. During his time in Starkville, he spent a year as an intern working for Mississippi State On SI primarily covering basketball, football, baseball, and soccer while writing, recording, and creating multimedia stories during his tenor. Since graduating, he has assumed the role of lead staff writer for Miami Hurricanes On SI covering football, basketball, baseball, and all things Hurricanes related.