January 3, 2023
Locked on Women’s Basketball: Tammi Reiss’ Rhode Island Rams are enjoying the ride and winning games
By The Next
Natalie and coach Tammi Reiss discuss the 10-3 start and some surprising standouts
It’s time for another episode of the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast. Rhode Island head coach Tammi Reiss joins host Natalie Heavren to discuss all things Rams and more. The team is off to a 10-3 start, behind some surprising standouts — including Mayé Touré — but behind the scenes, the team makes sure they enjoy the ride.
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Coach Tammi Reiss talks about the nonconference games and what she has learned the most:
“We have a lot of unknowns going into the season with our new team. We lost 70% of our scoring and 70% of our rebounding. So a lot of new faces came in both as freshmen and as transfers. And so, really the unknowns we knew the dancers going into conference play was number one who was going to fill what roles we had no idea, right? So summer and preseason were going to tell us that and how quickly can we find our chemistry with all these new faces. And so I wish we had a lot of returners. I wish we had that carry over into the season, but we didn’t. So the preseason showed us the nonconference schedule, who’s in what role and how they do in those roles.
And our chemistry, can we develop chemistry going into the conference play? How quickly we can find it with all those new faces. And I thought we did a nice job setting our nonconference schedule up with a balance of opponents and then towards the end; we really kicked it up a notch with who we played.”
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Tammi Reiss talks about her favorite part of building the program in the last three seasons:
“I am a planner and a builder. I’m OCD to the point that I plan everything. I have everything written down. I have short-term goals, long-term goals, and the pathway that we’re going to get there. And then I have a plan B if plan A doesn’t go right and then I have a plan C if Plan B doesn’t go right. And so I love that I love growing something from nothing. It’s very easy as a coach to jump and yeah, it would be great if I would have taken over a team. And they had everyone returning and they won a championship and they were good already. But I’m not really good at that. I’m much better at building something from nothing. And you can say this; I get my rocks off on that. I love it. I love taking a dog and building them from nothing.
And that takes a hell of a lot more than inheriting something and keeping it there, in my opinion. And I know me. So that’s what I’m most proud of here. And that’s what I’ve loved about this journey. That first year was difficult. It really was for a competitive person to lose. It’s the most difficult thing. But that first year also, I got so many learning lessons from it as a coach. It was incredible.”
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