Link is playback dot TV backslash wind cider. That's playback TV. Backslash wins cider. Welcome back to the wind insider show. I'm very excited for this one. It's always in honor of privilege. And honestly, a big deal, anytime we get to talk with elite basketball minds and that's what you are when you are a WNBA head coach, Steph white's joining the show today. And all of our WNBA listeners, longtime fans know you from your playing career, your coaching career, you clearly grew up in a basketball Mecca of Indiana. Can you just share with us, how did you get into the game? When did you start playing? Yeah, it's always an interesting story because I have a picture when I was first born. My dad was holding me in one hand and a basketball in the other. So it's literally been in my DNA since I was born. But you know, growing up in Indiana, like every family get together, every sporting event, every holiday, winds up in a pickup basketball game. And so it's kind of a birthright when you grow up in the country, especially in the state of Indiana. So true. So true. And so, I mean, we could talk about your accolades. We could talk about everything you accomplished. 1995, Indiana miss basketball, Gatorade national player of the year, USA Today, national player of the year, wade trophy winner. You go on to lead Purdue to a national championship. I think what was it 99, correct me if I'm wrong. Then you went and played I'm right on that. Okay, good. Played 5 years in the league for with the fever. I mean, I just kind of want to say, I mean, I'm glossing over a lot of time here. But, you know, what is some of the most memorable moments from even just high school to your professional career? I mean, clearly, I would imagine you'll talk about that national championship, of course. Yeah, for sure. You know, certainly in winning Indiana miss basketball. You know, when you grow up in the state and you see that Jersey worn by so many amazing players, men and women that played basketball in the state. It's what your goal individual goal is. So winning a nano smash ball was huge. You know, we never won a state championship, but I played in the single class system in Indiana basketball. And I wouldn't change that for the world. I don't remember how many games we won. I think we lost 9 total games in my whole high school career. And four of those were to schools that eventually went on to the final four. And competing for state championships. So I really enjoyed that high school experience of playing in a one class system. I know often folks don't agree with that, but I certainly loved it. You know, and then being able to go to college and be in a situation to win Big Ten championships and the national championship obviously is just the highlight of my career. Not just because we won a national championship, but because of how it happened, I played for three coaches in four years. We had complete roster turnover after my freshman year, you know, yukari figs, my teammate and great friend. We didn't really know what was going to happen with our career after that happened. And for us to be playing for and winning a national championship three years later, it was just really special. And it was special how it happened. It was special with the group that we were able to do it with. It was special because when we came to Purdue, that was our goal to win a national championship. And so that will always be a highlight of my life because of the life experience that it taught me in a highlight of my career from a basketball standpoint. And then certainly being able to wear the Indiana fever uniform to be able to culminate all three levels for me of basketball in my home state. And to be a part of the first WNBA championship for the Indiana fever. You know, I was missing that state championship, but getting an WNBA championship and getting a collegiate championship in my home state was really special. Well, we didn't even plan this, but just hearing you talk through this, it made me think coming up in such a basketball centric place. But not necessarily that had, I mean, the W wasn't always around. What was that like growing up, you know, and then watching the W kind of, I wouldn't say a peer out of nowhere, but I would assume when you were a little kid, you weren't dreaming of the W because it wasn't around. Right. And we didn't have social media at the time, right? The Internet wasn't even available then, so it kind of did appear out of nowhere for us. It was, it was just one of those things where you think you're going to go, you're going to play college basketball and then life is going to be over unless you decide to go overseas. And at the time, that wasn't something that I had really wanted to do. So playing in college was the ultimate goal. And then when I got to college, the ABL was around and for the young listeners who don't remember the ABO that was one of the professional leagues that was in my lifetime before the WNBA. Of course, there were multiple other leagues that tried to start up that just didn't pan out. And the ABO was another one of those leagues. I mean, some of the best players to ever play the game played in the ABL. And I think it was, I don't know, year two, three, something like that of the ABL, then the WNBA, was coming to fruition. I may have been a sophomore in college, I think when it first started. And so I think the option to potentially play after college was finally there. And that was an exciting time. No, there were a lot of question marks. How was it going to last? Could it really get off the ground? What was it going to look like? There were some exciting cities. And it was just a really exciting time for me. And then when I graduated college, that was the year that the ABO folded, so both of the leagues came together. I mean, for me, I was in the same draft. And drafted to the same team, as dawn staley, and I played my first year, my rookie year in Charlotte. Dawn was the first pick for Charlotte in that draft. I was the second pick for Charlotte in that draft. And, you know, you walk into training camp and your teammates with dawn staley and Tracy Reed and Vicki bullet and Ronda mapp and Andre stenson. I mean, some of the greatest college players that I grew up watching was really pretty incredible. Okay, I gotta, oh my gosh, there's so many things I want to talk about right now. Okay, I'm gonna bring it back to Indiana miss basketball. Because it's interesting. I grew up in Illinois, and it