Before the start of the 2024-25 season, Stanford women’s basketball head coach Kate Paye shared her thoughts on the upcoming season with members of the media.
VIDEO: Stanford WBB head coach Kate Paye looks ahead to 2024-25 season
Starting off with the identity of this year’s team, Paye feels like they’re still building their identity. She feels like they got a great head start with their trip to Italy and the extra work that they put in with additional practices. Their theme this year is sisterhood and that’s the foundation of their program. She thinks that playing unselfish team basketball is what they’re going to be about. A team that could have a different scorer every night.
On Tara VanDerveer stepping down, Paye said she had no idea when VanDerveer would retire. It was first talked about in 2011, but obviously VanDerveer kept going for a while after that. Paye said it wasn’t an easy decision for VanDerveer and she wanted VanDerveer to walk away on her own terms and she was able to do that.
I asked Paye about putting her own stamp on this Stanford program now that she’s the head coach and she said she doesn’t think of it in that way. It’s more about building on what she helped Tara build and continue that same culture of success that they had. The values and goals are the same. None of that changes. A big thing she learned from Tara is the importance of being yourself and that’s her biggest goal. To be herself. She’s just focused on getting the team to be the best they can be and finding ways to help them achieve maximum success.
On the Italy trip, Paye said it was an incredible trip. They called it their “summer season” as they got ten additional practices in and played some games. They had a much more robust training schedule than they normally did and it was fantastic to build chemistry, connection, and identity as a team and a staff. It was also just neat to experience a new culture and see a new country. They saw all the highlights in Italy and soaked up the culture. So that part was neat as well.
On the freshmen, Paye said they’re doing terrific. She likes how the upper classmen are helping them out. All about that sisterhood:
On Shay Ijiwoye, Paye said she is extremely fast. She calls her a “water bug point guard.” Very quick with the ball in her hands and can go by people. She can get to the basket and then defensively she can really get up into people and be very physical and disruptive. She feels like Ijiwoye will give them a different look at the guard position.
On Kennedy Umeh, Paye said she is the biggest player on their team. She’s the tallest and strongest body. Paye really emphasized her strength and physicality. A player who wants the ball. Umeh will push everyone in practice to be better because of her physicality, size, and strength.
As for Harper Peterson, Paye said she is a stretch forward. She’s been injured a bit, but once she gets back to full strength, she’ll be somebody who brings length and terrific passing.
On the travel that comes with the ACC, Paye said it is what it is and their players love to compete. They’re all in on that and adapting to all the new challenges that come with this era.
When asked about Brooke Demetre, Paye said she’s going to be a big part of what they do. A very consistent and reliable player who knows how to make big shots in big moments. Her experience and leadership will be very valuable. Paye loves how Demetre gets everybody involved and makes everyone around her better.
As of now, Paye doesn’t have a starting lineup picked out. They have a lot of different weapons and players who have an opportunity to be major contributors. They’re having competitive practices and between now and the opening game, they’ll just see how things shake out on that front. It sounds like that’s something that will likely be sorted out through the season.
Paye reiterated that their goals remain the same. To win conference championships, go to the Final Four, win a national title, etc. None of those goals have changed. She loves the staff and players that they have. She loves the way they are working together and that the main goal they came up with is to “uphold the sisterhood.” That seems to be a theme for this season. She feels like that’s a noble and good goal to have.
On not being ranked in the AP Top 25, Paye said it’s not something they worry about. She said rankings don’t matter and that they are just other people’s opinions. They’ve had so many seasons where they’ve seen it all in terms of having a strong ranking at the beginning of the season and then tailing off at the end and the opposite. So at this point, she isn’t concerned about it at all. She said rankings don’t make a difference. It’s just all about getting better. Not about the start of the race, but the finish.
When this team is playing at their best, Paye feels like they’ll be playing up tempo and fast. She likes the guard depth that they have and feels like they’ll move the ball well. Great team defense is a big part of it, too. Being the hardest working team is a big thing she wants to see from her team.
When asked about playing a five out offense, Paye said they’re doing a lot of things similar to what they’ve done before. A few tweaks, but she feels like schematically it’ll be recognizable for those that have watched their team in the past. She feels like they’ll do a good job of lending their personnel to their roster. Versatility is a big strength they have in terms of having players who can play multiple positions. Spreading the floor out she thinks will be a major strength of their team.
Touching more on Tess Heal and her versatility, Paye said she’s a player who can play anywhere on the floor. The same with Nunu Agara and Courtney Ogden. She loves the versatility that they have. She feels like their offense lends itself to anybody being capable of being anywhere on the floor, bringing the ball up the court, etc. She added that Heal is doing very well.
Paye said she’ll be really excited to walk through the tunnel as head coach for the first time. She’s excited for the team. That’s what this is all about for her. She’s all about her team and being focused on them.
On the transfer portal process, Paye said Tess Heal and Mary Ashley Stevenson were only their second and third undergraduate transfers in their program’s history. They had never had the need before, but the need was there this past cycle. She stressed that Heal and Stevenson were good fits with Stanford academically and were players who they looked at out of high school. So that was a big part of it.
Takeaways: There’s a lot that Paye said, but the biggest thing that stood out to me is that they are embracing the fact that there is no central star on their team. It’ll be fun to see how they look with different leading scorers each night and how the team comes together over the course of the season.
The second thing that stood out to me is Paye’s comments on versatility. They’re going to be playing different people at different spots, which will be cool. Kinda building on my first takeaway, it’s going to be interesting to see how these pieces fit and just how versatile they really are.
Finally, even though Paye is the head coach, this really is a continuation of the VanDerveer era in terms of having the same values, goals, and expectations. Obviously Paye is going to be herself and coach the team in some ways that are different than VanDerveer, but in terms of the big picture, it all remains the same, which I think on the whole is good. Don’t mess with success.
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