Going into first season, Blair looking for big things from new-look Tech roster
Georgia Tech Women’s Basketball will officially enter a new era this upcoming season as Karen Blair will lead the Jackets from the sideline for the first time following the retirement of veteran Nell Fortner after six relatively successful seasons on The Flats.
Blair was named the new head coach in early April and quickly got to work on building the Jackets’ roster for the 2025-26 season as it will look very different from the collection of players last season for Georgia Tech with only three players returning from the 2024-25 roster.
On Tuesday, Blair held a preseason media conference to discuss the upcoming season with practice starting soon as well as what she expects from her new team when they get on the court. Here’s some of what she had to say:
Opening Statement…
“Good morning. Thanks for being here, and I’m happy to be here. I think as you guys know, this weekend was an exciting weekend. It reminds you of what being on a college campus is about. So congrats to Coach (Brent) Key and his staff and that team. I mean that’s probably one of the most thrilling environments that I’ve ever been a part of, and what a great win for their program. Since I’ve been here, it’s also been great to be here with Ryan Alpert, our new AD, and leadership has been fantastic, getting to know him and his vision for Georgia Tech. And then again, with Coach Cabrera or President Cabrera, You talk about having just like an all star team of people to work with, and that it’s a great time to be at Georgia Tech. So I’m thankful to be here to lead our women’s basketball program and excited for the things that we have lying ahead. Just a little bit about our team. Obviously, we’ve got 10 new players. We have three players who were returning. Both Ari (Ariadna Termis) and Inés (Noguero) come back with a lot of starting experience. Their leadership, along with D’Asia (Thomas Harris). D’Asia had an injury and had some limited minutes last year, but those three have been able to give great leadership to our 10 newcomers that we’ve been able to have on campus. Really proud of our staff. If you look at the staff I was able to put together, we have a lot of experience that has come in with our staff from coaches who have won championships…national championships. The thing I can tell you about them is they’re here for the right reasons, and it’s about developing our student-athletes and mentoring our student-athletes. So I’m really happy with the staff that I was able to assemble. As you guys know, coming in late April, we were well into the transfer portal, but I really liked the team that we were able to put together with the 10 newcomers. I think it’s built a little differently. We’ve got some great shooting that we’ll be able to stretch the floor with our forwards. Then we have some really good, strong guards that come in. So I think we’ll be able to attack the rim. We’re going to be able to play at a really fast pace. That’s what our intention is. Coming in and being able to play that up-tempo style and try to put a lot of points on the board. That’s what we want to do here at Georgia Tech.”
On having several players transferring back close to home in Atlanta…
“Yeah, absolutely. I mean that was something very intentional. You guys know Atlanta is a sports town and a sports city, and they love basketball here. So for me, one of the things that we wanted to do was to bring kids back to Atlanta, and people that were from Georgia. So we actually have six players (that fit that category). And one of the things that’s great, like you look at Brianna Turnage and Savannah Samuel, they played AAU together since like eighth grade. So what a great story is now that they are seniors, being able to come home and play in front of their families. And it’s the same thing for our other senior, Catherine Alben. Like she’s actually coming back and her family is going to be here. So yeah, that was something we were really intentional about when we were putting that together, which is to bring these hometown kids home. And now our intention is to keep them home. You know that’s part of our recruiting strategy right now is our staff has gotten out and we’re getting out into the community, and it’s really important that we want to keep these local kids home at Georgia Tech help us build it the right way.”
On what kind of culture she sees for her team…
“Yeah, in Year 1, that’s the most important thing that we’re trying to do right now…building a culture, and what culture is, are habits, right? It is how we do things every day…you know, how we go about our processes, and that’s what we’ve really tried to do. We’ve set this really high standard for ourselves. It starts with work ethic. Like, I can’t tell you guys enough, I can’t wait for you guys to get a chance to see La’Nya Foster. Regional kid that we were able to bring back home. And La’Nya has dedicated herself all summer long. It started with her running three miles a day to be the best version of herself, and she’s just lived in the gym. So that’s a perfect example of somebody who has just raised the standard and the expectation of what we get in the gym. And we have a lot of kids like that. I will tell you, our staff, we feel really fortunate right now that that is the culture that we have, the players that we brought in. They want to be developed. They want to get to the gym. They’re watching film with us. So that’s all we can ask for as a coaching staff. You get those players that are humble and hungry, you know, and have that pride in Georgia Tech. It’s a pleasure to work with them every single day.”
On how the schedule was set up for her first season…
“With me coming in late, the schedule was pretty much done, kind of getting in here. Our goal is to play in March. So we’re always going to be able to play a competitive schedule. So I mean that’s very much like what you guys see. We have that stretch where we’re going to play three SEC teams in four games. You know what I mean? I want to be able to play those competitive schedules. I mean, as you guys know, the ACC is a really tough conference. One thing is ACC women’s basketball, as you guys know, is that we perform in March. So we’ve got to be prepared when we start those games in December and January. And the only way to be prepared is we’re going to have to play tough non-conference schedules to challenge ourselves, to learn about ourselves, and be able to get better. I’m very much a process-driven coach. I’m like you’ve got to learn about yourself when you get these tough matchups that’s what it’s about.”
On how things are coming together and if it will take some time with such a new roster…
“I mean I think one of the things we were really good at was being really intentional with building our chemistry off the court. That’s what the summer’s for. The summer was building that chemistry on the court. We came in from Day 1. They knew very much that the pace, a lot of coaches say they want to play fast, but players have to commit themselves to playing fast, right? There’s a fitness level that is part of that. There’s an intensity and a way that we do things in order to be successful, to be able to play that fast pace. This group has embraced it. Like from Day 1 when we came in here in the summer, they’ve embraced it. They’re learning what it really takes to be able to play 40 minutes at the pace that we want to play at. We’re not there yet, and it’s September. I don’t think anybody expects that, but I like where we’re at currently. We’re just going to continue to build it up so we can put that full 40 minutes together.”
On D’Asia Thomas-Harris looking to take a big step in her development…
“D’Asia right now is working really, really hard. This summer she’s coming back from that injury, and right now she’s healthy and we’re working on getting her in shape. D’Asia is a great talent. Like right now, I think from shooting from the 3, she’s been knocking down the 3 for us on the floor. I also love her confidence of being able to score in the low block so she brings a lot of versatility. So for me, my job is to make sure to build up her confidence. Coming back from an injury, sometimes I think as players that can kind of play with your confidence, and my job as a coach is to make sure that she comes back and is the most confident player that she can be, and that’s what we’re working on right now. She’s a special player.”
On her being a first-time head coach…
“Well as you guys can say, they say it’s like drinking from a fire hose. We have to come in and hire an entire staff and then put together a roster. Really pleased. You know what I mean? It’s like some things you just have to go through for the first time. But like I said, I feel like I was able to put together a staff, and that’s most important as a head coach is you’ve got to put people behind you that you know that you can rely on and you can count on. We’ve done that, and I think we were really intentional. I wanted the personalities of players who love the game. Like one of my core values is it’s like you have to play this game with joy and passion. It has to be everything that we do, and that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to have hard days. We’ll have hard days, but basketball is fun. You know like this game has taken me around the world, and I’ve been able to just meet so many people and do everything and so my job is to share with them to enjoy that. If we do that and get them to believe in themselves and they play confident, then we’re going to be able to handle any adversity that’s thrown our way.”
On her team’s defensive approach and returnee Inés Noguero being a leader in that area…
“Yeah, Inés is great. That’s what I said, like even from a leadership standpoint, Inés has been everything that I could ask for coming in from a transition. Like her leadership has been unbelievable from Day 1. So defensively, this is a thing I will say about this group. We do have speed, and we have length. So this is probably the one end of the floor that they’ve naturally been able to be aggressive, and that’s my job as a coach is to kind of like see what they’re doing, what they like to do, and this group likes defense which I love and that’s why that speed and that length that we put together on the roster was really important. So I think we’ll be able to be really disruptive. I think we’ll be able to pick up in the full court. As you guys know, we’ve got to be able to change tempo and do things with our defense, and with this group, we’ll be able to do that.”
On playing against her alma mater SMU in the ACC…
“Yeah, it’s definitely going to be a full circle moment. That is for sure. This is ironic enough. I was an interim head coach when I was at UTA. My very first game was against my assistant coach, who was at SMU, John Newley, at Idaho State. I did get the win just for the record, okay? It’s what you’ve got to do, right? Your mentors, you kind of get that. So for me this will actually be a full-circle moment to be able to go back to SMU. I’m still really close with my former coach, Rhonda Rampola, an SMU legend. Let’s just say a lot of our alumni have got that game circled. So I think it’ll be a really fun reunion for a lot of us to go back to. So I’m really looking forward to that opportunity to go back.”
