Interview with Molly Tuter

Interview with Molly Tuter: April 27, 2005

LA Women's Hoops had a chance to sit down with UC Irvine head coach Molly Tuter. We talked about her expectations for UC Irvine, her playing career and people who have influenced her.

I would like to thank, Coach Tuter for taking the time out of her busy schedule to do the interview. I would also like to thank Stacey Shackleford, UCI sports information director for her help, setting up the interview.


Talk about Molly Tuter, give us some background about yourself.

I grew up in a small town in Alaska. The name of the town is Soldotna. I grew up there from the time I was four years old until I went to college. I was recruited by quite a few colleges. Then I had the opportunity to go to Arizona State, played my four years there. My senior season the WNBA popped up and I had the opportunity to play for the Phoenix team. After that season (Summer of 1997) was over, I went over to Luxembourg to play. After that season was over I got my first coaching job at UCLA, as the third assistant over there. That was seven years ago.

What was it like playing with Hall of Famer, Nancy Liberman?

It was great. It was a lot of fun. She’s the toughest competitors and toughest ballplayers I’ve ever been around. She taught me a lot. I played the position behind her and she was pushing me in practice everyday. I was doing my best to keep up with her. I learned a lot from her. Playing against somebody who is in the Hall of Fame and done what she has done and one of the pioneers of women’s basketball, it was a great experience for me.

At ASU did you play for Charlie-Turner Thorne or Jacqueline Hullah?

I played for both. I got recruited by Maura McHugh, then she resigned. Then I played for Jacqueline Hullah for three years. Then my senior year I was able to play for Charlie.

(Coach Tuter is the third leading scorer in ASU history, with 1,374 career points. She was also a two time honorable mention All Pac-10)

Do you still talk to Charlie?

I sure do. I talked to her a couple days ago. She’s an outstanding coach. She’s done a great job at ASU. Who better to take advice from than somebody who took a program that was basically nothing, when I was there, to a very strong program, not a powerhouse but it’s getting there.

When you were at UCLA, that was their Elite Eight season. Talk about that experience and working for Head Coach Kathy Oliver.

It was an amazing experience. It was a lot of fun to be able to work with a school such as UCLA. To be that successful with that coaching staff was a great experience. Being able to learn and thrown into the fire camp-wise, learning how to direct a camp right away. The second day I was over there, I was in charge of camp. So I didn’t have much of a learning curve.

I was a great experience working with Kathy Olivier. It was a lot of fun. I’m very lucky to work with Pam Walker (Current UCLA assistant coach) and Willet White (Current head coach at Northeastern University, in Boston)

How you became the interim head coach?

Right after Christmas is when I found out about Coach Adams resigning. The administration asked me if I was interested in taking over and finishing out the season. At that point I really didn’t think I had much of a shot to get the full time permanent head coach here.

As time went by the team really bought into what I was selling them. They worked their tails off and it was fun.

Why did you feel that you didn’t have much of shot at being the full time head coach?

Well I had been a part of Coach Adams staff for a long time. There were years we were successful and there were years we weren’t successful and I wasn’t sure what direction they were going to go. I just wanted to make sure the players here had a decent experience to finish out the year. Especially players like Ashley Biggins and Courtney Ferguson, who put their hearts and souls into this program for several years, and I wanted to make sure they had a good experience to finish it out.

What happened after the season? How did you get the permanent job?

Bob Chichester (UCI Athletic Director) asked me if I was interested in the job. I told him “Yes” We talked several times about the job. From those talks I got to know Bob pretty well and I believe he has a pretty good feeling for me. Competitive-wise we are on the same page. I want to win and he wants to win. I have a lot of confidence in his ability to lead the whole athletic program and I know he has a lot of confidence in me to lead the basketball program.

What did you mean when you said “Competitive-wise we are on the same page. I want to win and he (Bob Chichester) wants to win.”

The whole point of Division One athletics is, outside of making successful student-athletes, is winning basketball games. I’m not here so we can be mediocre. I’m not here so we can be happy that we finish 500. I’m not here so we can just win a couple game and one game in the Big West tournament and everybody gets excited. I want to win the Big West Championship. If I’m not aiming for that, I’m not sure why people do this.

I know Bob shares that same feeling in regards to this program and he’s going to provide for me and this program way to be able to compete in the conference year in and year out.

What are you going to need from Bob, facilities wise, to compete in the Big West?

Right now, I don’t think we need anything. I need to do my job and do a good job recruiting these guys and build a work ethic and become more disciplined. I need to teach my team to further, how to win basketball games. They were catching on toward the end of the season on how to finish out basketball games.

As far as administration goes, they have showed me a ton of support and I really don’t believe we need anything but to sign any a couple talented kids.

And for those kids to stay injury free too right?

STAY INJURY FREE. Right. We have had a little bit of bad luck. The team right now is down in the weight room, lifting. Mike Nagler, our strength coach is doing an excellent job with injury prevention type stuff. Shayla Penn our trainer is doing all she can to help out. So we all communicate well to figuring out ways to prevent the injuries we’ve had in the past.

Have you hired any new assistant coaches?

I’m hiring three new assistant coaches. Within the next couple of days, a week at most, I should have my whole staff in place.

What are you looking for in an assistant coach?

People who share my same work ethic and they put an importance on this program that is very similar to mine. I think I need people here that, a lot of their strengths are my weaknesses. I had to sit down and be pretty real with myself to know what my weaknesses were. I also need assistant who are going to be able to relate well with my players. They need to be good mentors to them.

Talk about last year and how the team came together.

Being around the many people I’ve been around while playing and coaching, I think success has a lot to do with confidence and work ethic. So the thing our team needed was some confidence and to feel good about themselves. They need to have fun doing what they were doing. So we set up some drills in practice. We cut back on the time we were spending in the gym. Our practices were about an hour and a half. The first couple games all our focus was to have fun and to improve on a couple thing and relax. We set goals for ourselves in practice. As we achieved those goals as a team and individually, we build our confidence and we felt better about ourselves. And it just snowballed from there and at the end of the season, we won four out of our last six games.

What are you expectations for your team next year?

I expect them to work out people, out rebound people, play a very pressure defense. We aren’t going to make a lot of mistakes. We are going to make all our lay-ups. Make our free throws. Limit our turnovers.

We are going to have higher expectations. These guys now know they can do it. I can be harder on them than I was last year. I think if I am not harder on them, they will be disappointed.

Is everybody from last year’s team coming back?

Everybody but Kristee Davidson, she will be going to Abilene Christian in Texas.

Are you going to be able to sign anybody during the late signing period?

A kid that was with us a couple years ago will be coming back. Shayna Stanley transferred to Southwest LA JC and will be getting her AA. So she’ll be back here next year.

UCI signed three players in November. LAWH has already interviewed Lindsay Allen. Are Kirian Ishizaki and Kelly Cochran still coming to UCI?

All three of them are still coming here. I had a big part recruiting them. I’m excited to have them here, playing for me. As far as I’m concerned they are my recruits and people that I signed.

What are your expectations of Kirian and Kelly and how much of an impact do you expect them to make?

I’m really comfortable with the team we have here right now. I think Kelly and Kirian will add to us. They will give us depth at several positions. They are talented enough to battle for starting spots but they are going to have to earn it. I’m excited for them to come here. They will be good players by the time they are done at UCI.

Do you think the UC admissions requirements hinder your recruiting?

Maybe a little bit. But I don’t think so. It helps us because we find kids who want to go to a high academic institution.

How is the academic support for the team?

It’s outstanding. We have a wonderful support services group. They do everything they can to make sure our kids are successful. We haven’t had anybody fail out since I’ve been here and it’s not going to start now.

Talk about Angie Ned. What does she need to improve upon to be a better player?

The thing that makes Angie is her work ethic, her desire to be successful. One of her goals is to play professional basketball. She’s going to be a great leader for this team. Ned’s not going to take no for an answer and she won’t settle for losing.
Ned’s always done what I’ve asked her. She’s worked endless hours on her jump shot. She needs to improve her ball handling.

I have very high expectations for her. She has very high expectations of me and we both have very high expectations of this program.

Who do you expect to improve the most next season?

Kimberly Martin. She hasn’t played in a couple years and she’s working her tail off right now to get in shape. She’s had a complete attitude change from the time she was 17 years old, as a freshmen, now she’s 20, 21. She’s a great kid. She’s an outstanding teammate. She has so much desire to win, even more so than Ned.

Kalee Davidson, Stephanie Duda, I think Miranda Forry is going to improve a lot. I think everybody is going to improve. Everybody wants to improve.

Who is your most competitive player?

Duda. There are probably three players whose button I can push, to send them over the edge. I think Stephanie will do whatever it takes to win. I just know she’s going to figure out a way to get playing time.

Duda is coming back from a knee injury right?

Yes, she’s had two knee surgeries. I’ve seen what she’s gone through with those surgeries.

How do you feel about the point guard position?

I’m comfortable with the point guard situation. Melissa Jacob is not a true point guard but can she step in and do a great job for us, like she did last year? No question. Kirian is a freshmen point guard from San Jose and I expect her to get some minutes at point. I’m sure Annie Mai will get some minutes at the point too.

The point guard position has been kind of a weaker position for us but at the same time, all it is, dribble the ball up the court and learning how to penetrate a little bit. I think it has a lot to do with me and my assistants coaching them and learning how to play as a team.

What did you learn most about yourself last year?

Last year was quite the learning curve for me, getting thrown in the fire. I knew confidence was important, but exactly how it can affect a team. I think I learned more about our team than I did about myself. They learned to pull together when they had to. The easy thing to do last year was to fold. A lot of things I’ve learned growing up, I implemented with these guys and I found myself believing it even more.

Talk about the Big West:

I think it’s getting stronger and stronger every year. Last year was a very solid year for the Big West. I thought Long Beach and Idaho would get into the NIT. Santa Barbara is still the cream of the crop. Northridge had an outstanding year. Mary Hegarty has done a great job at Long Beach State. Jeremiah at Fullerton has picked up that program up. John Margaritis at Riverside has done a great job there. I think across the board, they are taking women’s basketball more seriously, including UC Irvine.

How do you feel about UC Davis coming into the Big West?

I think they will be an excellent addition. Sandy Simpson does an excellent job. They beat us twice last year, so we have to find a way to get that stopped.

How does losing Idaho and Utah State effect the Big West?

It’s a little disappointing. I enjoyed competing against Mike. He’s a very competitive guy. He’s a lot of fun to coach against. Raegan did an excellent job at Utah St the first two year.

It’s a little disappointing but at the same time it allows us to get another non conference game in there.

Will the Big West change travel partners now that each school will play Davis?

Yes, they are going to rotate it. We had a Big West coach’s meeting and they were talking about the rotation system.

Have they finalized the rotation system?

I don’t believe so. But it will be Pacific and Davis as travel partners.

Can you talk about your schedule for next year? Was it already set when you took over as head coach?

95% of it was set. The only game I scheduled was UCLA on November 30th. Other than that, Mark had the entire schedule set.

What is your scheduling philosophy?

I want to build our confidence to start the season. Once we get our confidence built, I want to get some games that challenge us. But I’m not going to schedule the top 10 teams in the country. But schedule games that can improve out RPI and give us a measuring stick of where we are at.

I scheduled UCLA next year because mainly for us it will be a good situation. I think it’s a win, win for us. I want to go back to Pauley Pavilion.