In advance of this season, Stanford women’s basketball sophomore forward Nunu Agara spoke to the media about how practice has been going for and what her expectations are.
VIDEO: Stanford F Nunu Agara is ready to make a sophomore jump
Agara said practice has been great for her. A whole set of new players and the freshmen are acclimating really well. So practice has been going great.
On all the changes with new players, a new head coach in Kate Paye, and a new conference in the ACC, Agara feels like having Paye been at Stanford for so long helps make the adjustment smoother. She’s going to miss Tara VanDerveer, but Paye brings a real sense of familiarity. Agara feels like the ACC will be a good fit for them in terms of style of play. The ACC being a guard oriented league she feels fits them well. She feels like they’ve adapted well to all the new changes.
Having her freshman year behind her, Agara feels like she’s grown a lot. She’s stepping into more of a leadership role. She feels like she grew a lot over the summer and that it helped to play in Italy.
On dealing with pressure, Agara said she doesn’t really feel it. She tries to keep everything in perspective and realize she’s blessed to be playing basketball at an amazing university. She doesn’t see pressure as that big of a thing. She sees it as just playing basketball, which she loves doing.
Agara knew that once Tara retired and they had a bunch of players leave that there was going to be a tremendous opportunity for her. Especially since they needed her to fill in down low. Being more intentional with what she’s doing with working out and eating habits have been major focuses for her. Conditioning has been a big part of what she’s been working on.
On freshman forward Kennedy Umeh, Agara said she’s doing great. A big force that they’re going to need. She said she’s going to do a lot of good things this season.
When asked about differences between Kate Paye and Tara VanDerveer, Agara said Paye being younger brings a different dynamic and has a better understanding of the nuances of NIL and a lot of the modern aspects that comes with this era. Paye has a lot more energy and brings a different vibe in that sense. At the same time, Paye has taken a lot from Tara and the system largely hasn’t changed. So that helps.
Agara said she’s comfortable going wherever the mismatch is on the court. She likes how the offense is catered to her kill spots and she’s able to get to those consistently. She feels like if she gets to those, she can score easily.
Agara feels like her role has changed from last year to this year. Last year everything was new to her as a freshman and just soaking up everything. She had fun learning from Cameron Brink, Kiki Iriafen, and Hannah Jump. She now has to be one who is answering questions from the freshmen and being more of a leader. She’s doing the best she can to relay what she knows onto them.
Agara loved the Italy trip. Just the traveling and site seeing. Being able to travel and see a new part of the world was really neat. It helped as a team to play three games together and some familiarity with each other. Getting some early games and take advantage of the ten extra days of practice was extremely beneficial for them. She learned a lot about her teammates and how they’ll mesh together.
Right now, Agara feels like she’s taking things up a notch in terms of school and basketball. She’s taking harder classes now and has more on her plate academically. In terms of basketball, she loves being around so many great players. So those are the things she most enjoys about Stanford. Being from Minnesota, she does miss her family and all that, but aside from that, she’s really loving California. She does not miss the winters at all.
Agara is happy that Tara will still be around a bit even though it’s now Paye’s team. She feels like Tara has done a good job of stepping back and letting Paye run the show. She gives a little bit of advice every now and then, but she’s done a good job of giving Paye the space she needs. She’s made it clear to Paye that it’s her team now and that she’s just here to support.
On being in a more up tempo offense, Agara said she feels really good about it. It’s more catered to their personnel. They’re a lot faster than last year. Being able to run she feels will be an advantage for them.
The main goal Agara has is having a breakout year. Just winning. Those two things. She wants to keep up the excellence of the program. She feels like with Tara gone, nobody expects them to do much, so they want to show that they’re still Stanford. All about proving themselves right. Academically, she wants to be on the honor roll. She has a desire to be a lawyer and so she wants to step things up academically and take things more seriously on that end.
On what a breakout season would look like for her, Agara said just being able to impact the game in a variety of ways and be a stat sheet stuffer. Having that tenacity to make an impact on both ends of the floor.
On what she most learned from playing under Cameron Brink, Agara said she misses her a lot. She thinks the number one thing she learned from Brink is her tenacity and the way she played with a lot of fire. A person who knew how to turn it on when she stepped on the court. She feels like Brink was a great leader and she hopes to lead like she did.
Agara is looking forward to playing at Notre Dame. One of their posts Liza Karlen was an AAU teammate of hers in Minnesota, so she’s excited to play against her.
Agara knows she needs has more on her plate, but she doesn’t want to rush things. All about being the best she can be and just playing her game.
As a whole, Agara likes the fact that they have the same staff as last year aside from Tara retiring. She feels like the staff is pushing them hard and getting them prepared to play fast. So, they’ve been great.
Takeaways: The biggest thing I take from this interview with Agara is she’s ready to take things up a notch this season. With Cameron Brink and Kiki Iriafen gone, she’s getting an opportunity to be the feature player in the post and she seems ready for that. She’s truly embracing the opportunity to have a breakout season.
Secondly, it feels like it’s been a smooth transition to Kate Paye being the head coach. That would be expected since Paye was an assistant coach and associate head coach for so many years. But, it really feels like Paye has seamlessly stepped into the role of head coach and that the program hasn’t skipped a beat in that sense.
Finally, Agara’s positive personality really shines through in this interview. She’s loving her time at Stanford, enjoying her teammates, and embracing the new season. It’ll be fun to see what kind of season she has.
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