Stephanie White couldn’t hide her enthusiasm at her introductory press conference for the Indiana Fever. Beyond her extensive ties to the organization and the region, White is stepping into a particularly exciting role as the head coach of a talented young team, led by the last two rookies of the year, Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark.

It was Clark’s historic rookie season that vaulted the Fever into the next phase of team building and prompted the franchise to seek out a coach of White’s pedigree — one who could make Indiana a championship contender. White has already been effusive in her praise of the Fever guard, suggesting that Clark could be the greatest point guard of all time and that her No. 22 (which was also White’s number as an Indiana player from 2000-2004) won’t ever be worn by another Fever player. Clark was already one of the best players in the league before White arrived in Indianapolis, but a primary role will be further developing Clark.

Here’s how she’ll try to do it:

• White’s desire to reduce Clark’s ball dominance has emerged as a theme. Although Clark was prolific as a passer and scorer, carrying both duties was a heavy weight. A 2025 goal will be to reduce that burden. That means playing Clark for fewer minutes but also experimenting with her role.

“Helping her anticipate what’s going to be coming her way, trying to move her around a little bit more on the floor so she’s not quite as easily predictable in what action’s happening,” White said.

• Looking back at White’s previous two seasons in Connecticut, much of the facilitating came from Alyssa Thomas in the frontcourt, which allowed the Sun to spring their shooters off the ball in a variety of ways. No other forward in the league can match Thomas’ playmaking, but Boston and NaLyssa Smith have enough passing ability to replicate one of Connecticut’s favorite sets.

The Sun often started possessions with Thomas at the top of the key, and a guard or wing running off of a stagger from the corner to then setting a screen for Thomas in the middle of the court. The staggered screens already put the defense in a bind to start the play, and if Clark were the backcourt player coming, that would put additional pressure on defenders to navigate the screens to stay attached. Even if the defense managed that, the result would be the ballhandler able to rumble her way through the paint. Smith seems ideally suited for that role.

That play is one of many examples of Connecticut stacking actions on top of actions. Look at this possession from opening night of 2024 when three separate screens led to a pick-and-roll for Ty Harris and Thomas. Presumably, the defense wouldn’t go under if Clark acts as the ballhandler, but with all the space cleared on that side of the floor, the screen-setter would at least have an easy roll to the basket.

More @ConnecticutSun stacking actions

Drag by ONO.
AT swings and then they set a stagger for Dijonai.
AT sets a wide pin for Ty Harris.
Empty corner PnR with Thomas & Ty.
The Indiana defense goes under and that’s too much airspace to give Ty Harris = Ty 3. pic.twitter.com/g8tq4llrHX

— Evin Gualberto (@evin_gual) May 15, 2024

• White has expressed how impressed she is by Boston’s passing in the half court. Several of the Sun’s layered sets were intended to result in a big catching the ball at the elbow, where Boston (mimicking Brionna Jones) could then direct the action from the post. Indiana has great cutters, specifically Kelsey Mitchell and Lexie Hull, for Boston to find from that setup in the elbow. Again, the idea is Clark factoring into the play by drawing her defender beyond the 3-point line but not required to create the scoring chance.

Of course, the combination of drag screens, pin-downs, and flares could all be decoys to eventually get Clark the ball anyway, albeit with the opportunity to attack a shifted defense rather than a set one.

“We can get to the same action on the second or third side,” White said. “We can get to it after a first or second action, being able to move her around a little bit more.”

White noted that Clark needs to add strength, which would aid in all of the goals she has laid out for the star guard. Strength should help Clark’s consistency on her jumper and her durability down the stretch of games — she shot 31.3 percent on 3s in clutch situations compared to 34.4 percent overall. It could also make her a better screener if she can generate more contact, and shooters already make the deadliest screeners because defenders don’t want to leave them.

• Clark’s main area of improvement, one that White has coached to great effect in Connecticut the last two years, will be focused on defense. Clark has been a non-factor on that end, and a player that the Sun even tried to hunt. In their first-round playoff series, Connecticut regularly ran the offense through the perimeter player Clark was defending and found a series of wide-open 3-pointers on the wing when Clark was unable to close out.

During the 2024 season, five of the top 20 players in defensive win shares came from the Sun, with Marina Mabrey, who arrived midseason, just missing the cut. A White-coached team will demand more defensive accountability, even from Clark. Success will require being “a little more tough-minded team on the defensive end of the floor.”

White has proven to be among the more adaptable coaches in the WNBA during her recent tenure. After Jones was lost for the 2023 season, she pivoted to a small-ball lineup, using Thomas essentially as a point center. The next year, Connecticut went back to the double-big look but still had the flexibility to downsize when necessary.

In Indiana, White’s creativity won’t be necessary to keep the Fever afloat. Her No. 1 priority will be to maximize a deeper roster with more talent and get the most out of Clark.

(Photos of Caitlin Clark and Stephanie White: Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images, Chris Coduto / Getty Images)

With the Southern Section football playoffs set to begin on Friday and a fast-moving wildfire destroying numerous homes in Ventura County, officials in the Oxnard Unified School District continue to work with families in need of help.

Camarillo principal Matt La Belle, whose school was closed Thursday, said staff and students have been directly affected by the fires. He said he hasn’t had power since Wednesday where he lives in Moorpark because power was shut off by his utility service amid strong wind gusts.

Camarillo is scheduled to host a playoff game against Oak Park on Friday, and air conditions around the high school have been good. In fact, Camarillo is serving as a site for other schools in the Oxnard District to practice in preparation for their playoff games, with Pacifica and Rio Mesa joining the Scorpions in using the field on Thursday.

Several Camarillo players might not make scheduled practice on Thursday because they were evacuated from their homes Wednesday, La Belle said.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — As long as the New York Yankees’ championship drought persists, the fifth inning of Game 5 in the 2024 World Series will be a symbol of their humiliation. In stunning fashion, the Yankees embarrassed themselves on baseball’s grandest stage.

Aaron Judge dropped a routine line drive, Anthony Volpe misfired a short throw to third base, and Gerrit Cole failed to cover first. Each of those moments contributed to the Yankees blowing a 5-0 lead and ultimately losing the World Series in five games to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

But it wasn’t just Game 5. In Game 1, a series of misplays — small yet critical — could have altered the outcome in the Yankees’ favor had they executed more efficiently. Throughout the World Series, they also committed several base-running blunders. The Yankees were roundly criticized for their lack of fundamentals, and Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly didn’t mince words, mocking the Yankees by suggesting their sloppy play was a known weakness. He even quipped that the Yankees were the eighth- or ninth-best team in the postseason and claimed Dodgers’ scouting reports indicated that putting the ball in play would force mistakes from New York’s defense.

“I acknowledge that we played poorly in the World Series,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said at MLB’s general managers’ meetings Tuesday. “We all saw that. Unfortunately, our A-game didn’t show up when it mattered most.”

Cashman said Kelly’s comments were overblown and he felt the reliever was making a personal attack against the Yankees. When he was with the Boston Red Sox, Kelly was involved in a brawl with the Yankees after plunking Tyler Austin with a pitch in 2018. Cashman said he had conversations with members of the Dodgers organization who said Kelly’s comments were more indicative of how a small segment of their club felt rather than the organization at large.

BIB on the Go: Joe Kelly Isn’t Letting Up On The Yankees
Listen here ➡️ https://t.co/CabMY3ksGx pic.twitter.com/iaXMRIXfv3

— Baseball Isn’t Boring (@BBisntBoring) November 4, 2024

Still, the Yankees’ sloppiness was a consistent issue throughout the year. Privately, as the postseason approached, several high-ranking executives expressed concerns about the team’s defensive lapses and base-running mistakes, particularly in the second half of the season.

Despite these shortcomings, the Yankees’ overall defensive metrics were still respectable. They finished 10th in outs above average, ahead of the Dodgers, who ranked 18th. The Yankees also placed 12th in defensive runs saved and 10th in FanGraphs’ defensive runs above average. Though the critical mistakes are the ones that will be remembered the most, this wasn’t a team that regularly kicked the ball around the field, as some have suggested in the aftermath of the World Series.

“The question posed is if the Dodgers are exceptionally excelling in all categories at every position. They’re the world champs and get all the credit, but I don’t think it’s a fair representation at the same time,” Cashman said. “I think it’s more fair to say that we just played poorly in that series and underperformed. I think we underperformed more so than ‘(we were) lucky to get into the World Series, and how did we even get there?’ We had a good team. Unfortunately, we just didn’t play our best when it counted the most.”

Base running, not defense, was the Yankees’ most glaring weakness throughout the season. They ranked dead last in FanGraphs’ base-running runs above average metric and in Statcast’s comprehensive base-running metric. They were also tied for last in team sprint speed. The root cause of their struggles on the basepaths is clear: Nearly every regular is slow. Aside from Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Volpe, the other seven members of their regular starting lineup posted sprint speeds below the 50th percentile. It’s difficult to excel at base running when the majority of your lineup lacks speed.

What might surprise some fans, however, is that the Yankees’ director of speed development and base running, Matt Talarico, is interviewing for three MLB coaching jobs, according to Cashman. Talarico, who works with the major-league and minor-league staff, has had success developing speed in the Yankees’ minor-league affiliates. Their Triple-A and Double-A teams finished in the top three in stolen bases this season.

“I think we’re considered one of the best in the business with our base-running program,” Cashman said. “It’s not representative, clearly, with what you saw with the major-league club. It certainly is an emphasis for us.

“If we’re so bad, then why are so many teams asking for permission to talk to our base-running expert that does our major leagues and our minor leagues?”

The Yankees could lose Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo, Anthony Rizzo and Gleyber Torres to free agency; each is considered a below-average base runner. Though the team has made it clear that re-signing Soto is a top priority, replacing the other three with more agile players could immediately improve the Yankees’ base running in 2025. Cashman mentioned Caleb Durbin as a potential internal candidate to take over second base next season if they decide not to re-sign Torres. Durbin, who is on pace to break the Arizona Fall League record for stolen bases, could bring much-needed speed to the lineup.

Despite not being the most fundamentally sound team in baseball, the Yankees still made it to the World Series. Of course, the goal is to win it all — and their fundamental mistakes certainly hurt them in their quest for a title. However, Cashman remains adamant that poor fundamentals were not the primary reason for their downfall.

“We had a struggle with our base running this year. We were a bad defensive team, without a doubt, at times this year. And when you add it all together, we were a really good baseball team that earned the right to win the American League East and make it all the way to the World Series,” Cashman said. “We’re really super proud about it.”

(Photo of Aaron Judge making an error in Game 5 of the World Series: Wendell Cruz / Imagn Images)