Lately, I’ve been hearing a few rumblings from fans that they are unimpressed with head coach Don Zierden this season. There have even been some who have already started calling for Zierden to be fired. Although I am more inclined to allow the new coaching staff the time to develop their young team, I do wonder at what point does the evaluation end and when do results begin?
Before the Lynx faced the Washington Mystics Friday night, I spoke with Coach Zierden for a few minutes…
SL: Throughout this season, you have uttered the phrases “this is an evaluation year” and “stay the course” countless times. At this point, what is the most important evaluation that has been made for the future success of this team?
DZ: Well, the verdict is still out, but only for this reason…we’re 5-17 right now. To me, that’s adversity. It’s not where you want to be and we’ve lost our starting point guard for the year. I want to see how these ladies handle adversity. That goes along with what we’ve talked about that this is an evaluation.
What I told the players after the Houston game was that when they came back from the All-Star break for the veterans who have been here the past three years, this will now be an audition--these last 13 games--to see if we want to go ahead and renew your contract and bring you back. Likewise, for the rookies, it’s a developmental period. We’re going to play all the rookies and we’ve done that, even Navonda Moore has played five minutes a game. We’re going to play the rookies and we’re going to find out where you fit into the future.
None of us are happy with being 5-17, but if you don’t take something out of that, you don’t get something out of that, then you’re going to be 5-17 again. So, it’s important for us to evaluate who can fight through adversity. Any player can handle good times…who can fight through the bad times? Now, in the Connecticut game, I do think we really fought from start to finish. Sometimes you don’t have the talent, sometimes you come up a little bit short and sometimes calls don’t go your way…those things are going to happen, but if you stop fighting these last 12, 13 games now, that helps us evaluate for down the road.
SL: So, it’s looking for who has a winner’s mentality vs. who does not.
DZ: Yes and we’ve put that on the coaching staff as well. I told the players, “If you think we are not prepared for one game, you let us know. We’re going to coach our tails off for you.” You’ve got to find out who is going to fight through things because, I think, one of the things in the past that I’ve seen is that when we get pushed, we kind of don’t fight back and we’re looking for players that when adversity comes, will you fight back? The one thing--we’ve told our players this over and over again--you cannot control how your shot is going, you cannot control the calls, but you can control your effort and that’s all we’re looking for these last games. What players are going to give us that?
SL: Before Lindsey Harding’s season-ending injury, how did you feel she was coming along as a leader on this team?
DZ: You know, it was up and down, but what was really the most disappointing is that I thought the last couple games right before she was injured and the game she was injured in, we thought she might have been turning the corner. She had done some nice things, so for us to not have her now for the last 14 or 15 games or whatever it was when she got hurt, that’s disappointing. That being said, it is what it is. Hopefully, she’ll come back here in a week or so and spend time with us, we can talk the game and she can hang with her teammates. She’ll be ready for training camp and just pick up where she left off. I think she was heading for Rookie of the Year, in my mind. She was still here for two-thirds of the season and, based on what she did, I feel like she is the Rookie of the Year. No disrespect to the other players.
SL: How much of the disappointment of this season can and should be attributed to the fact that you are a rookie head coach, still learning yourself?
DZ: The one thing that I’ve learned about the pro game is that all 17 losses are mine and all 5 wins are the players. That’s what the pro level is all about. Our job is to get them as prepared as we can and try to evaluate that talent, so you put all 17 losses right on the coaching staff. How much of it is me being a rookie? As far as learning the women’s game and learning the players in the league, there is no doubt that has been an educational process.
It’s also been an educational process for the players, trying to learn what I’m expecting of them. I think we’ve set some pretty high expectations of them. So, I don’t know if I would want to label it as being a rookie, but it’s certainly been a learning experience. Coaching is coaching…when you lose, it’s your fault and when you win, it’s the players winning.
SL: What are you most proud of to this point in the season?
DZ: We’ve played 22 games and two times, at halftime, I would have to talk about the fact that we weren’t playing hard enough. Two out of 22. I don’t think that has been true in the past. Looking at last year’s films, there were some 30 point losses and there were some 20 point losses. Only having to talk about effort two out of 22 times, I’m very proud of that. That says a lot about the players in the locker room.
SL: From this point to the end of the season, what will constitute a successful ending to a disappointing season? Is it winning X amount of games or just continuing the evaluations?
DZ: It’s both. You’re trying to win every one of these last 12 games, but along with that is you are evaluating everybody. No matter who you are, everybody is going to go through a little funk and we want to find out how people can handle that, so it’s a little bit of both.
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