[BillBradley]

And I've said it before and I'll say it again: the players really do seem to like her. They chased her down the street at Pitt in a snowball fight, and they actually do seem really happy interacting with her. Again, maybe that's all for the cameras, but if so, our team has a bunch of first class actors, because it definitely stands in contrast to other programs where players had unexpectedly bad seasons and it showed on team morale (like Notre Dame last season, or Tennessee and Iowa State this season).

This is a good topic, and here's my take on "player happiness". I think generally our Stanford womens basketball teams are made up of high quality coaches and people. Deep friendships develop each year between players and even their coaches whether the team is winning or not. On this past year's team, mutual admiration and respect were apparent, by how the players and coaches talk at press conferences, on social media, or how they act on camera. As an example from the past, I really don't think Betts despised anyone personally at Stanford, even Tara. If I remember correctly, she travelled on spring break to some tropical location with her Stanford teammates. However, even though the personal relationships with teammates and coaches can be strong, players can still be miserable. That's because of an overriding factor, which is the environment that they have to go to every single day. No one can convince me that our team as a whole was "happy" this year. You could see it on the players faces, but moreso you could see it in how they played. It's not fun to lose as a team, especially if you feel that the team should be playing differently together (e.g. a different style of offense). It really stinks to not play well in your role and to not improve (or perhaps worse, if you think you are in the wrong role or your role is too limited). At some point you start to lose faith in the coaches and the organization, and it's downhill from there. IMO, a lot of that was going on this year. Pretty similar to the working world. You can get along great with your boss and love who you work with, but if the company is not doing well, or you aren't in a great role and you aren't advancing your career, then you just don't enjoy coming to work every day. Day, after day, after day. At some point you conclude it's time to move on, and all the while you really enjoy the people around you. This likely has happened to many on this board.

[BillBradley]

And I've said it before and I'll say it again: the players really do seem to like her. They chased her down the street at Pitt in a snowball fight, and they actually do seem really happy interacting with her. Again, maybe that's all for the cameras, but if so, our team has a bunch of first class actors, because it definitely stands in contrast to other programs where players had unexpectedly bad seasons and it showed on team morale (like Notre Dame last season, or Tennessee and Iowa State this season).

This is a good topic, and here's my take on "player happiness". I think generally our Stanford womens basketball teams are made up of high quality coaches and people. Deep friendships develop each year between players and even their coaches whether the team is winning or not. On this past year's team, mutual admiration and respect were apparent, by how the players and coaches talk at press conferences, on social media, or how they act on camera. As an example from the past, I really don't think Betts despised anyone personally at Stanford, even Tara. If I remember correctly, she travelled on spring break to some tropical location with her Stanford teammates. However, even though the personal relationships with teammates and coaches can be strong, players can still be miserable. That's because of an overriding factor, which is the environment that they have to go to every single day. No one can convince me that our team as a whole was "happy" this year. You could see it on the players faces, but moreso you could see it in how they played. It's not fun to lose as a team, especially if you feel that the team should be playing differently together (e.g. a different style of offense). It really stinks to not play well in your role and to not improve (or perhaps worse, if you think you are in the wrong role or your role is too limited). At some point you start to lose faith in the coaches and the organization, and it's downhill from there. IMO, a lot of that was going on this year. Pretty similar to the working world. You can get along great with your boss and love who you work with, but if the company is not doing well, or you aren't in a great role and you aren't advancing your career, then you just don't enjoy coming to work every day. Day, after day, after day. At some point you conclude it's time to move on, and all the while you really enjoy the people around you. This likely has happened to many on this board.