MAAC Coaching Spotlight – Rider’s Lynn Milligan
Edison, N.J. (June 3, 2020) – Rider University Women’s Basketball Head Coach Lynn Milligan sat down with the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) to provide insights on the Rider program, the canceled 2020 season, and some of the best moments throughout the year that fans may not know of. Milligan led the Broncs to the program’s first-ever share of the MAAC regular season title. The Broncs were also awarded the MAAC’s automatic qualifier after the shortened 2020 Hercules Tires MAAC Basketball Championships as the league’s top seed.
Q: This historic season for Rider, what does it mean to you as a coach?
A: That’s a good question. I think it was satisfying in a way, only because the vision and goal was set so early with our senior group. To watch them really follow through in everything we asked them to do, what they asked of each other, they did on a daily basis. Very satisfying for them, and very proud of what everybody in the program did. I think the expectations we had going into the season were high, they are always high for ourselves, but they were even higher from the outside world. Higher than they have ever been. For them not only to meet those expectations, but exceed them, made us proud all around.
Q: What are some of the top moments from this year that stick out to you that fans may not know of?
A: I think that one of the first things, were I sat back and thought that we could get done what we wanted to this year, weirdly enough came last April when I sat in my office with our six seniors and told them what our plan was. I heard their acceptance and saw their determination that came from that meeting. We probably had our best July ever in terms of building our team. I think July was so critical for our success this year, such a big piece. When we were able to go to Puerto Rico with this group, and for them to really get to know each other on a deeper level, was another critical point for our success. As the season started, we had some big wins. We tend to start out slow, but we had some big wins this year beating Penn State, beating Georgetown, beating Xavier, beating some teams going into Florida for the MAAC/ASUN Challenge. It gave this group some confidence. I think the game against Lipscomb in Florida where Stella [Johnson] scored over 40 points; I think that’s the game that put her on the national map. Watching her refuse to lose, I know everybody says that, but watching her literally refuse to lose set the tone for a lot of stuff that went beyond that throughout the season. Our very first MAAC game, Niagara at home. That was a very close game and Stella scored 17 in the fourth quarter because she refused to allow us to lose. There are games like that all year long where this group came together. There were probably a couple games we shouldn’t have won, but because of who we were and how we were built, there wasn’t a doubt that we wouldn’t find a way. Those moments were really special with this group.
Q: Stella Johnson, Lexi Stover, Aubrey Johnson, Amari Johnson, Lea Favre, and Tracey Goodman are all seniors leaving the program. What have those players meant to you, and what steps do you take next year without them?
A: Every year is a new team, every year is a new identity, every year has new players. So this group, like years before them, is going to find their own identity. The outside world may compare them to this year’s team and things like that, but we won’t. We won’t live in the past, we will be all for the future, and we are extremely excited about that future. This group in particular, they meant so much because they all had different paths. Stella [Johnson] and Tracey [Goodman] were the only two that had four-year paths at Rider. Lexi Stover was a fifth year, so she had been with us the longest. Amari [Johnson], Lea [Favre], Aubrey [Johnson] were all transfers. So, their paths to Rider were all very different. But their paths all merged in the end at the perfect place. Where they were physically, where they were mentally, and what they wanted to get out of this season. They were all on the same page from day one. Their desire to hold each other accountable, to make sure they got where they wanted to go, was impressive to watch. It’s not something I took for granted, it’s not something that I think happens all the time. On top of that, you have the rest of the team that buys into whatever this group is saying or doing. They not only talk the talk, but they walk the walk every day. The kids on our roster were sponges, they did whatever they had to do to not let the group down. I think the uniqueness of what the group of seniors did as a unit was special. I don’t think it happens every time, not with that many seniors. It didn’t matter to them who was starting, who was scoring, anything. I think that’s unusual when you get that deep into a career.
Q: What made Stella Johnson stick out to you as a recruit? What is it like to find someone like her, have her play for you for four years the way she did, and to be drafted into the WNBA?
A: Her whole story from beginning to end is special. Its unique, it’s not the usual. A lot of her story has been told. Recruiting her, she played on a very good AAU team in the New Jersey Panthers, and quite frankly she was just overlooked. It was one of those things that we noticed the more and more we watched her. Her versatility, the way she played with balance on the court, she kept that throughout all four years. With her playing it was hard to tell if we were up 10 or down 10. She’s not a showboat, she’s not pounding her chest, that’s just not who she has ever been. It was her defensive game though that attracted us originally. We were fortunate enough for her to slip through the cracks, we were her only Division I offer at the time. Being in New Jersey and being close to home, it was a perfect fit for her. The rest is history. To watch her develop her game and have a passion for her craft every single day was really special to watch. I think that kicked into a really high gear probably about three quarters of the way though her sophomore year. She was on the All-Rookie Team and stuff like that so you knew she was good, but that last bit of her sophomore year something just kind of clicked. I don’t know if it was a stronger confidence in herself, or a deeper belief in what she was doing, but from that point on she was pretty much unstoppable both physically and mentally.
Q: What was the draft process like? What did you and your team do during the draft?
A: Yeah, I mean, the draft was awesome. That was something that Stella and I talked about probably two years ago or so, it was something that she really felt like was a big goal of hers, was to go to the WNBA. I felt like she could. So, we just devised a plan. You know, her part of the plan was to just work your butt off and make sure that your individual development is at its highest peak and that our team development program is at its highest peak. She came through and did that. Then my part was trying to get her as much visibility within the WNBA world as I could, knowing that they're not like college, they're not looking at sophomores and juniors, they're really keying in on senior year. But, probably every three months I emailed every GM for the last two years, just for awareness. You know, nothing pushy, just awareness to let them know that this was somebody to keep an eye on. That was kind of the plan we went with. Originally, we thought about, hey, let's get you to camp. Then it became let's get drafted, let's take that next step. She did everything that she had to do. It wasn't a goal of ours for her to be the leading scorer in the nation, that was something we never shot for. We never talked about that, to be honest with you. I told her, let's get as many triple doubles as we can. I wasn't even thinking about that. That obviously was a big piece to her recognition this year, was being the leading scorer in the nation and being able to maintain that all year long, which was not an easy thing for her to do. I think that was a big piece to the recognition for the WNBA teams out there. A lot of teams spent the time and money to come see us play, whether it was in practice or whether it was game. I think that helped a lot as well.
Q: Take us through the “Hail Amari” play at Monmouth that secured a share of the regular season title. Was that a play you had practiced before?
A: You know, it was really a back and forth game. It was a very defensive game. Neither team was putting tons of points on the board and it was obviously a huge game for us. Being a road game and, if you win, you win the championship, which goes back to one of the goals that our seniors had. It's a pretty big game. I think we were a little tight, a little tense. The game came down to the wire and Monmouth scored, and our immediate reaction was that there has to be time left. To the official's credit, which obviously they have to do now, they have to go back and look at everything, particularly game winners. When it was all said and done, it came down to half a second remaining. As they were at the monitor, we were very confident that there was going to be time, we started working on our plan. The first 10 seconds was making sure the kids knew, hey, there's going be time on the clock, lock in. It was funny, back in July when we were working on things for our Puerto Rico trip, we were working on special situations and came up with a play that was very similar. Not quite the exact same play, but very similar. We ran it and it ended with Amari leaping up, and she got it. It was July and we were all going crazy. We kind of ran something like it, but not something that I would say we practiced every week. We drew it up and Monmouth called another timeout. We made one little adjustment during that time out, which I think helped. Everybody in the gym thought the ball was going to go to Stella, and Lexi Stover, who made the inbound pass, is one of the smartest players that I've ever coached. Her and I are always on the same page. If you watch us enough, every single time there was a sideline out of bounds play for the past two years, no matter what the situation was, Lexi took the ball out. Stover looked at me right before the play, she was right in front of me. She said, Coach, do I throw it to Stella? I said, she's not going to be there, so make a read. It was one of those plays where everybody did their part. Lexi was patient on the inbound, Stella came up through the middle, the timing for Amari was really critical because we told her, you don't leave, don't go to the basket until Daija sets the back screen. Everybody did exactly what they needed to do and Stover threw just the absolute perfect pass. The timing was absolutely perfect. So, yeah, it was like the perfect storm. It was one of those games where we weren't doing a lot right. When we needed to lock in and execute, we did. We're always under the philosophy that the game's not over until it's over, if there's time on the clock, then we have a chance to win. Was it a fluke? Was it lucky? I don't think so.
Q: What were your thoughts on the MAAC’s first year in Atlantic City?
A: Yeah, I loved it. Loved everything about it, but I'm biased. I'm a Jersey girl, I grew up 20 minutes from Atlantic City. I still live 40 minutes from Atlantic City. I thought that the whole town and the MAAC just embraced each other so well that I thought it was set up for success, I really thought it was. I thought Boardwalk Hall looked amazing. I thought the time that we were there was run extremely well. I think we were down there twice during the year. With Rich [Ensor] and the Board of Education at one time, and then we had brought our team to Atlantic City High School over break and spent a whole day there. That was amazing with two big assemblies. The buy in from the whole city I thought was awesome. I'm so glad we'll be able to do it all again, because I think everybody got a taste and liked what they saw. I anticipate it being even bigger than it was this year, or could have been this year. I thought it was awesome. I was really impressed with all of the hard work that everybody did. It was great.
Q: What was your personal reaction when the Championships were canceled? How was this news broken to student-athletes, and what was their reaction?
A: Selfishly, I was devastated, to be really honest with you. I immediately thought of, okay, what am I telling these kids, how am I explaining this? At the time it was hard to understand. Obviously, in hindsight, you look back now and all the decisions that were made were the right ones. But when it happened, it was hard to explain. There's no doubt about it. We were practicing, it was our off day when it happened. We were at the JCC and our phones were buzzing about other conferences getting canceled. I think the Big Ten and the Big East happened while we were practicing. So about halfway through practice I was like, okay, this might be the last practice these kids have together. We toned it down a little bit and had some fun with different contests, messed around, had a good time, because they had no idea what was going on. When we circled up at the end, I just told them. I said, hey, we're prepared for tomorrow no matter what. If we're fortunate enough to play, we know that we are prepared, we've done the work. But reality might step in and we might not get that opportunity. If we do, we'll be ready. We just kept it at that and by the time we got back to the hotel we got the official word. That morning, if you remember, all the hubbub was we're playing and no fans. The conversations with the kids was, okay, who can come, who can't come, all that kind of stuff. We were all still in total play mode. But then we got back to the hotel and they had to cancel it. It was a tough conversation with our kids, trying to explain that to them. We were up in my room having lunch and just talking about it. But at the time, there was a little bit of help only because the NCAA hadn't canceled yet. We knew as the number one seed that we would be able to represent the MAAC if the NCAA went through with it. I was hoping that the NCAA would hold on for a day or two, just so my kids could enjoy that. Then probably about an hour or so later the NCAA came across the ticker and announced they were going to cancel. I actually had my six seniors and myself in my hotel room, and we just kind of let it out, just the seven of us. Some of them were very silent, some were very angry, some were very emotional. I just kind of gave them their time. Like I said, the seven of us, we started last April, and we didn't get much closure or processing time. I think it was just very emotional, reactionary at that time. They've obviously processed a lot since, but I want them to remember the season for what it is and the history that they made. For the whole season, not the ending, you know? Everybody will always go back to the ending, but there was so much before that. I really want them to remember.
Q: How do you and your team communicate during the pandemic?
A: Yeah, it's been fun. We try to do a team Zoom together every Tuesday and individual face times and all that. Everybody's whole lives are different, everybody’s doing different things, everyone has access to different stuff. Just giving them the outlet with me individually to be like, hey, I'm struggling with this coach, or this awesome. But just to be available to each of them as much as I possibly can. We have a plan set up for the summer. Like everybody else, we're working on all of our contingency plans. If we can go back in July, here's what it's going to look like. If we're going to come back at this point, this is what it’s going to look like. What can we get better at? Like you said, we are going to be a very different team, losing six players and bringing in six new players. Really just trying to be creative throughout the summer with what we want to do on our Zoom calls. How can we be productive as far as when we do have our time together to grow? Maybe it’s our team read in the summer, we read a book every summer. I give them homework, like this week you have to cook dinner for your family and take a picture. Some of our kids have never cooked before, which is crazy, but they all did this week. They did a great job. But little things like that to try to just engage them and have them learn about each other. Our returners were phenomenal. They know what's next. They know what the expectations are, that we're not lowering them and they're bringing in the new players, as far as trying to get everybody acclimated. You can't really do anything with our new players yet, so we've got to wait a little bit. It’s just trying to keep everybody together and learn about each other. Hopefully this summer our growth continues. Those two summer months, I mean, are big for us. But I'm happy with where we are right now. I'm really happy with the way our team is handling this, very mature. They're good at that.
Q: What are some things you have personally been doing during the pandemic?
A: I’ve been taking a lot of long walks, there's no doubt about that. Just to get out of the house. It's funny because I try to go for a walk every day and listen to a podcast. Get out of the house and get some fresh air, that type of stuff. I've certainly done more organizing and cleaning in my house than I've probably done in the last 10 years, so that's been a big thing. I’m trying to read more and, like the rest of the world, going through my Netflix list of shows that I have to watch. But a lot of time is really good, to be honest with you. It's every day trying to think about new ways to make sure that we can still grow as a program and as a team. Like I said, it's been challenging, but it's been fun to come up with new ways and new things to do and new ideas. Zoom meetings every day, whether it’s with my staff or with my team or with our department, or we had a couple with the MAAC coaches already, whatever it is to keep in contact with people. I mean, everybody's having virtual happy hours. I've had my share of those! But it's fun to keep in touch with everybody. It's just in a different way, it's been good.
Q: What is the first thing you are going to do when allowed back on campus?
A: I want to physically hug everyone, my players and everybody on my staff and just thank them for being flexible and being able to adjust and grow. Be thankful that we're all together and hopefully take lessons of not taking things for granted. Appreciation, gratitude, all that. Then we can all get in our huddle and have our group hugs and everybody can be happy. I hope everybody comes back healthy and we're able to move forward together.
About the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference:
With 11 institutions strongly bound by the sound principles of quality and integrity in academics and excellence in athletics, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) is in its 39
th year of competition during the 2019-20 academic year. Current conference members include: Canisius College, Fairfield University, Iona College, Manhattan College, Marist College, Monmouth University, Niagara University, Quinnipiac University, Rider University, Saint Peter’s University, and Siena College.