Wake Forest Athletics
Deacon Sports Xtra: Women’s Basketball Staff Building on Each Others Strengths
11/22/2022 12:12:00 PM | Women's Basketball
Added staff to the Wake Forest women’s basketball staff helps players grow their games throughout the offseason.
Sophomore guard Elise Williams sat down with Wake Forest Women's Basketball director of analytics and player personnel Joey White, who brought along detailed charts and graphs detailing all 277 shots she attempted last season — showing hot and cold zones, and informing both successes and failures.
The revelations were amazing, showing areas for growth that Williams simply didn't realize existed. White had similar meetings with all returning players.
"It was an eye opener," she said. "It showed me every shot I took last year, and the ones I made and the ones I missed. The majority of them were in the paint. It's good to know I have the ability to get in the paint, but also make 3-pointers. My game isn't stuck in one spot, and I'm able to create from a variety of spots on the court. That was eye opening for me.
"Getting to the rim was a strength of mine. Threes in the corner were not great. From the wings I was lights-out, but in the corner and at the top of the key were the points where I was off."
The position on the Wake Forest Women's Basketball staff is a new one, and White is just one of many staff members hired by Megan Gebbia in the weeks following her May 26 hire by athletic director John Currie to lead the program.
"The transition at Wake has been easy in the sense of like all the help that you're provided," Gebbia said. "We have everyone hired, so we're really learning about each other, where our strengths lie and who's good at what.
"There's a lot of little things that you don't normally have to think about that you have to think about your first year, because they did things in the past differently. So now we have to kind of figure out how we want to do things. And I like to change things up based on the team and what they want. How much energy they put into warm ups versus being ready for the game."
For Gebbia, some hires came quickly while others took some extra vetting.
"A couple of the things I thought about were people that are going to put the time in and not worry about the time off right now," she said. "Because that's just not happening. But also people that either speak the same language, because basketball has many languages with your philosophy and things like that. And that's hard when you have multiple people trying to learn how you speak, what your terms are when you're talking basketball. So I tried to surround myself with my immediate coaches that understood that."
The connection with White was immediate, Gebbia said, because they spoke the same basketball language.
"He understood what we needed from him," Gebbis said. "So I was just trying to go through resumes and figure that out. But for the most part, it's us gelling. It's fun trying to find a way to get everyone to gel. And I'm sure we'll have some hiccups here and there but for the most part, we all get along really well.
"We all kind of give each other space and I can allow them to go and do their job and not have to micromanage and and that's been really nice for me because there's so many other things I'm doing that I can't watch every person and what they're doing and I trust that they're doing their job. So for me, it's like that self starter type person that you're looking for.
The hire of Nikki Flores was likely the easiest for Gebbia, as the new Assistant coach and recruiting director followed her from American University, where she served nine years alongside the new Wake Forest head coach. Fellow assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Millette Green comes from Augusta University in Georgia where she was the head coach for five seasons.
"She's learning a lot about terms just in how we address things, because she doesn't want to say it a different way," Gebbia said. "And now half the players are saying one way, and the other are saying a different way. So that takes time. And she's done a great job of listening, but also interjecting the things that she needs to say, as well as she was a head coach.
"I've given her a lot of responsibility and practice to teach some things as well, which is helpful for me that I can stand back and watch and not be the one talking all the time. Because when you're talking all the time, you miss little things, but when you're not talking, and you can just observe you pick up on little idiosyncrasies or things that are happening that you would have never noticed otherwise."
In addition to Flores, Gebbia also brought assistant coach Emily Stallings with her from American. Like Flores, Stallings spent all nine years at American on Gebbia's staff. She has helped tutor Demeara Hinds to her best season as a collegiate. The junior currently ranks as one of the top players in the country in rebounding and is the second-highest Power-5 player in offensive rebounding.
In addition to working with the posts, Stallings also oversees scheduling and is heavily involved in game strategy and organizing team activities on a day-to-day basis.
Video coordinator and assistant director of basketball operations Paris Kea is a Page High School (Greensboro, N.C.) prospect who played collegiate basketball at both Vanderbilt and UNC. She was the 25th pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft for the New York Liberty.
"She was a great hire in my mind, because she automatically walks through the door with credentials, playing in the WNBA," Gebbia said. "Being local also helps us out that way. Like she's really good at reaching out to the alumni, getting in the community and that is something that I've heard we needed."
Katie Dunn, the new director of basketball operations and recruiting, is coming off a three year stint with Texas Exes, an association of former students of the University of Texas at Austin. Before that she served as a compliance officer in the Kansas State athletic department.
"We lucked into her," Gebbia said. "For her to come here and know exactly what it looked like, what charters look like and trips, and she's on top of everything and very organized. I don't have to worry about her. I know she's doing what she needs to do. So there's a lot of really good pieces."
Samantha Rinkus joined the women's basketball staff as the digital media & recruiting content manager, also coming over from American University, where she served in athletic communications. In her newly created role, Rinkus will produce digital and social content to assist with recruiting efforts.
"She has just done a tremendous job with social media, helping us out with recruiting visits, doing all the graphics and things like that for recruits has been huge," Gebbia said. "You can't win without players. We all know that. So her being able to give us creative ideas and that realm and going out investigating other programs, seeing what they're doing and adding to our playbook, as you would say, when it comes to graphics."
It was the director of women's basketball sports performance position that Gebbia knew would have the utmost importance.
"That was the first position I wanted to hire because I felt like they had the biggest impact on the girls," Gebbia said. "So that was the hardest one for me to hire, to be honest. Because I went through a couple different people. And I came across Dustin and he was part of an old regime that I had worked with at American and his philosophy and my philosophy on all those things aligned. And that's what I was looking for.
"The players see themselves getting stronger and more explosive and verticals are increasing. And that's somebody they see every day, so that was really, really important to me. It took three months to get it all together, but it was worth it."
With a new staff in place, including new positions related to analytics and recruiting, the Wake Forest Women's Basketball program is ready to attack the 2022-23 season.
The revelations were amazing, showing areas for growth that Williams simply didn't realize existed. White had similar meetings with all returning players.
"It was an eye opener," she said. "It showed me every shot I took last year, and the ones I made and the ones I missed. The majority of them were in the paint. It's good to know I have the ability to get in the paint, but also make 3-pointers. My game isn't stuck in one spot, and I'm able to create from a variety of spots on the court. That was eye opening for me.
"Getting to the rim was a strength of mine. Threes in the corner were not great. From the wings I was lights-out, but in the corner and at the top of the key were the points where I was off."
The position on the Wake Forest Women's Basketball staff is a new one, and White is just one of many staff members hired by Megan Gebbia in the weeks following her May 26 hire by athletic director John Currie to lead the program.
"The transition at Wake has been easy in the sense of like all the help that you're provided," Gebbia said. "We have everyone hired, so we're really learning about each other, where our strengths lie and who's good at what.
"There's a lot of little things that you don't normally have to think about that you have to think about your first year, because they did things in the past differently. So now we have to kind of figure out how we want to do things. And I like to change things up based on the team and what they want. How much energy they put into warm ups versus being ready for the game."
For Gebbia, some hires came quickly while others took some extra vetting.
"A couple of the things I thought about were people that are going to put the time in and not worry about the time off right now," she said. "Because that's just not happening. But also people that either speak the same language, because basketball has many languages with your philosophy and things like that. And that's hard when you have multiple people trying to learn how you speak, what your terms are when you're talking basketball. So I tried to surround myself with my immediate coaches that understood that."
The connection with White was immediate, Gebbia said, because they spoke the same basketball language.
"He understood what we needed from him," Gebbis said. "So I was just trying to go through resumes and figure that out. But for the most part, it's us gelling. It's fun trying to find a way to get everyone to gel. And I'm sure we'll have some hiccups here and there but for the most part, we all get along really well.
"We all kind of give each other space and I can allow them to go and do their job and not have to micromanage and and that's been really nice for me because there's so many other things I'm doing that I can't watch every person and what they're doing and I trust that they're doing their job. So for me, it's like that self starter type person that you're looking for.
The hire of Nikki Flores was likely the easiest for Gebbia, as the new Assistant coach and recruiting director followed her from American University, where she served nine years alongside the new Wake Forest head coach. Fellow assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Millette Green comes from Augusta University in Georgia where she was the head coach for five seasons.
"She's learning a lot about terms just in how we address things, because she doesn't want to say it a different way," Gebbia said. "And now half the players are saying one way, and the other are saying a different way. So that takes time. And she's done a great job of listening, but also interjecting the things that she needs to say, as well as she was a head coach.
"I've given her a lot of responsibility and practice to teach some things as well, which is helpful for me that I can stand back and watch and not be the one talking all the time. Because when you're talking all the time, you miss little things, but when you're not talking, and you can just observe you pick up on little idiosyncrasies or things that are happening that you would have never noticed otherwise."
In addition to Flores, Gebbia also brought assistant coach Emily Stallings with her from American. Like Flores, Stallings spent all nine years at American on Gebbia's staff. She has helped tutor Demeara Hinds to her best season as a collegiate. The junior currently ranks as one of the top players in the country in rebounding and is the second-highest Power-5 player in offensive rebounding.
In addition to working with the posts, Stallings also oversees scheduling and is heavily involved in game strategy and organizing team activities on a day-to-day basis.
Video coordinator and assistant director of basketball operations Paris Kea is a Page High School (Greensboro, N.C.) prospect who played collegiate basketball at both Vanderbilt and UNC. She was the 25th pick in the 2019 WNBA Draft for the New York Liberty.
"She was a great hire in my mind, because she automatically walks through the door with credentials, playing in the WNBA," Gebbia said. "Being local also helps us out that way. Like she's really good at reaching out to the alumni, getting in the community and that is something that I've heard we needed."
Katie Dunn, the new director of basketball operations and recruiting, is coming off a three year stint with Texas Exes, an association of former students of the University of Texas at Austin. Before that she served as a compliance officer in the Kansas State athletic department.
"We lucked into her," Gebbia said. "For her to come here and know exactly what it looked like, what charters look like and trips, and she's on top of everything and very organized. I don't have to worry about her. I know she's doing what she needs to do. So there's a lot of really good pieces."
Samantha Rinkus joined the women's basketball staff as the digital media & recruiting content manager, also coming over from American University, where she served in athletic communications. In her newly created role, Rinkus will produce digital and social content to assist with recruiting efforts.
"She has just done a tremendous job with social media, helping us out with recruiting visits, doing all the graphics and things like that for recruits has been huge," Gebbia said. "You can't win without players. We all know that. So her being able to give us creative ideas and that realm and going out investigating other programs, seeing what they're doing and adding to our playbook, as you would say, when it comes to graphics."
It was the director of women's basketball sports performance position that Gebbia knew would have the utmost importance.
"That was the first position I wanted to hire because I felt like they had the biggest impact on the girls," Gebbia said. "So that was the hardest one for me to hire, to be honest. Because I went through a couple different people. And I came across Dustin and he was part of an old regime that I had worked with at American and his philosophy and my philosophy on all those things aligned. And that's what I was looking for.
"The players see themselves getting stronger and more explosive and verticals are increasing. And that's somebody they see every day, so that was really, really important to me. It took three months to get it all together, but it was worth it."
With a new staff in place, including new positions related to analytics and recruiting, the Wake Forest Women's Basketball program is ready to attack the 2022-23 season.
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