Penn State women’s basketball coach Tanisha Wright held a fall press conference where she discussed the state of her team.
Wright, who enters her first year at the helm, had to build this year’s roster from the ground up and has snagged 10 players to try to get something started.
This year’s roster is made up of two graduate students, one senior, two juniors, two sophomores and three freshmen.
Nittany Sports Now asked Wright if she was content with the depth of her squad and with the position flexibility.
“I think any coach would say they would love to have more depth, but that’s not where we are right now,” she said. “We have what we have. I’m excited about what we have and the players that have committed to our program, that have committed to being great and being a part of this as we rebuild this to what we’ve always known it to be and expect it to be, and so it’s just where we are right now and I’m excited about the young athletes, the young ladies that we have right now.”
Wright is coming to State College after various coaching stints in the WNBA. She was first an assistant coach for the Las Vegas Aces from 2020-2021, then became the head coach for the Atlanta Dream from 2021-2024 and from there was an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky last year.
Prior to her coaching, Wright played for the Seattle Storm from 2005-2014 and won the WNBA championship with them in 2010. She played for the New York Liberty from 2015-2016, then for the Minnesota Lynx in 2018 and then went back to the Liberty to finish her professional playing days in 2019.
Nittany Sports Now asked Wright if there were any advantages and disadvantages to moving from the professional ranks to the NCAA.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.“Yeah, no real disadvantages,” she said. “I think anytime you have the opportunity to coach at the highest level it gives you a certain thought process and perspective because you’re coaching the best in the world, so I would see it as all advantages being able to take things I’ve learned from a professional level with professional players and being able to instill that here with players who have the desire to be pro, and so there is a level of professional thought process that I’m able to bring here to help the players achieve some of the dreams that they want to achieve in terms of getting to that level.”
As Wright and her staff are determined to build a top-tier program in Happy Valley, she’s had some help along the way while on campus.
Nittany Sports Now asked Wright how her relationship with head men’s basketball coach Mike Rhoades is and if they communicate at all.
“Coach Rhoades and I have a good relationship, we do talk,” she said. “He’s Penn State basketball, men’s basketball. Anytime you think about Penn State, you think about the larger community. Everybody wants everybody else to win and being able to go sit with Rhoades and just have quick conversations, being able to pop into his practices, see what they’re doing, different things like that, he’s been very welcoming and open to those conversations and to those moments. It has been really good. I’m excited about him and his team and what they’re doing on that side.”
The schedule hasn’t been released yet, but some non-conference games to begin the year are with Cincinnati, Dayton, Arizona State, St. Joseph’s, Baylor, James Madison, Army and TCU.
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