With new additions, Sky trying to build winning culture
Tyler Marsh has been around winning for most of his basketball career.
The first-year Chicago Sky coach won a championship with the NBA’s Toronto Raptors in 2019 as the assistant video coordinator. After arriving in the WNBA, Marsh won back to back titles with the Las Vegas Aces as an assistant coach.
Having veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot on this season’s roster, however, might be the biggest win of his career.
“A veteran championship leadership and presence on the staff and on the team, in the locker room, it’s huge,” Marsh said. “Courtney is an extension of myself and my staff on the bench … her experience, her maturity, her wisdom, it’s something you can’t really put a price on.”
Marsh wasn’t the only person at the Sky’s media day on Monday to gush over Vandersloot’s veteran presence. Kamilla Cardoso won two national championships at South Carolina, but even she’s been impressed with the winning ways Vandersloot has already shared with the team.
“I think it’s amazing when you have a really good point guard with championship experience,” Cardoso said. “She has that championship mentality, so she wants to win, and she’s rubbed that off on us.”
For Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca, the synergy has been exactly what he’s hoped for. The Sky is building a young nucleus, with Cardoso and Angel Reese back for their second seasons. Hailey Van Lith and Maddy Westbeld are set to begin their rookie seasons.
Pagliocca wanted to make sure the team’s youth movement had plenty of veteran support.
“You can’t survive long term without vets and strong voices that players look up to. We have young players, and they need somebody to lean into that is not the coach or the general manager,” Pagliocca said. “So far, the balance and communication has been everything we hoped it would be.”
The veterans haven’t just brought communication to the Sky. They’ve also helped reset the culture.
“I think that overall, the buy-in to who we want to be and what our team is going to represent has been very convincing,” Van Lith said. “I take comfort in seeing the older girls have a complete buy-in to the mindset that our team wants to adopt.”
For Marsh, that mindset is all about competing with high levels of intensity. He wants to make sure opponents will be miserable for all 40 minutes of action.
“We’re tough and we’re physical, and we don’t ever want that to fade,” Marsh said. “We want teams to know that when they come play the Sky, that they’re in for a fight. They’re in for a fight that we don’t run from.”
That toughness will be especially evident on the defensive end. Angel Reese grabbed 446 rebounds a season ago, more than any player in league history except reigning MVP A’Ja Wilson of the Aces. But Reese isn’t satisfied with last season’s output, and says she wants to go up another level defensively.
“I think some of the best players play both sides of the ball,” Reese said. “Defense is something I can do right away, I can always impact the game and give something to the team. I want to be on the all-defensive team this year.”