John YoungBecause of her Tuesday class schedule, Kansas University women’s basketball point guard Lauren Aldridge — and the rest of the KU women’s team — was unable to attend the news conference introducing new coach Brandon Schneider.
But Aldridge, ever the team leader, made sure to find time later in the day to watch Schneider’s introductory news conference online. As she did, one vision jumped off the screen that she had a difficult time digesting.
“I had just finished a tutoring session,” Aldridge said Wednesday. “And, as I was watching, I thought to myself, ‘He’s got the same haircut as my dad.'”
That’s high praise coming from Aldridge, whose father and AAU coach, Steve, is largely responsible for turning her into the competitive bundle of toughness who, as a true freshman last season, led the Jayhawks in minutes played, free-throw percentage and assists while averaging 8.1 points per game.
“Everything (Schneider) talked about at the press conference was right up my alley,” Aldridge said. “I love how he talked about toughness and how he said he’ll keep everyone on the team accountable.”
Despite standing just 5-foot-7 and playing her first season of college basketball, that pretty much summed up Aldridge’s role for the Jayhawks last season. She found her leadership voice early in the season and added to it the lead-by-example type of toughness Schneider preached Tuesday. Jumping over scorer’s tables. Diving for loose balls. Being mentally strong enough to move on to the next play, whether the last one was good or bad. All of those, and so many more, are staples of Aldridge’s game. And that’s what has the Marshfield, Missouri, native so psyched for this partnership with her newest coach.
“I think he’s gonna be great,” Aldridge said.
And by great, she’s not solely talking wins and losses. Aldridge said she and her teammates loved how Schneider emphasized the relationship aspect of college basketball and made sure to make it clear that he expects to have the team over to his house often for dinners and get-togethers with his family.
“We didn’t really know what to expect,” Aldridge said of the Tuesday afternoon meeting with Schneider. “And everybody was like, ‘What are we gonna get? I can’t wait to meet him. What’s he gonna be like?’ Then he opened it up for a question-and-answer for us, which was really cool.”
Wednesday, Schneider did something more than sound impressive in a news conference or greet his women with enthusiasm at the first team meeting. He backed up all of the things he had said in the past 36 hours with one simple gesture.
“He popped his head into both the guard and the post workouts,” Aldridge said. “It was really cool to see him do that, knowing how busy he is right now.”
