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00:02welcome back to another edition of liberty lately your boy dexter henry alongside madeline kenny
00:08we are coming to you with the liberty of one five straight games so good vibes to talk about
00:13and then another great thing to talk about with maddie is the fact that it's her birthday this
00:18week happy birthday maddie thank you thank you so much come on you knew i was gonna bring it up
00:22i actually like didn't because it looked like a few days ago i thought we moved on but thank you
00:26listen other people didn't know i feel like you have to share the birthday love with the people
00:31so everybody in the comments wish maddie a happy birthday if you haven't already but maddie is in
00:37the atl because the liberty are going to be playing the atl dream on thursday but we got some things
00:43to get into before we talk about that maddie let's talk about this because i just mentioned
00:46the liberty have won five straight games despite not looking dominant every night right they haven't
00:52been looking dominant every night but do you think we're seeing signs of a team that knows how to win
00:56ugly and get wins done when they have to despite not being whole or do you still look at this
01:02team
01:02and say there's warning signs hidden beneath this winning streak no i think it's it's it's the former
01:08uh in terms of like winning ugly learning to win ugly they don't have a full roster and they're still
01:13finding ways to to be successful um you know i do think that there are certain trends that they
01:20have going for them that maybe aren't like the best you know like i look at that connecticut game and
01:24i
01:24i think that maybe it had the makings to be a trap game and even chris demarco said he was
01:29worried
01:29heading into that game because of you know you have a young son team at home looking to prove
01:35you know have player individual players that are looking to prove stuff like they have staying power
01:40in the league um they only have two wins they're looking for a third so like it just felt like
01:46maybe
01:46this had the makings to be a team that somebody as talented as the liberty might overlook and then end
01:51up
01:51being in the third quarter looking at the score and being like what happened um luckily that didn't
01:56happen but i do think that you know the liberty have to be better about you know starting games
02:01as the aggressors not having to flip a switch like midway through or in the second half um they need
02:07to set that tone from the beginning and i think you know we're going to talk later about the atlanta
02:11dream game that's tomorrow but um that is a prime example of a game that you cannot be caught sleeping
02:16to start yeah so yeah yeah don't want to get caught slipping uh there gets a dream at all
02:22whatsoever you're right they got to get off to some better starts here we'll see if they're able to do
02:25that going forward starting thursday uh in atlanta now maddie when we did our pre-season our season
02:33preview i should say you picked i think when we did these bowl takes you predict predicted that
02:38brianna stewart would win league mvp this season she's been she's been pretty dope so far she's been
02:43carrying the team she had a 30 piece against indiana followed up with 28 9 against connecticut
02:49and he needed all of that is this the best basketball that we've seen from stewie since
02:54the title run back in 2024 it's great basketball but it's also something that you just like it's
03:01brianna stewart and so you kind of expect her to be playing at this right you know like when some
03:05when the team is in the face of adversity there's nobody better to be on the court you know grabbing
03:10her cape and putting it on and being superwoman than brianna stewart because of what she does for
03:15this team like she is the the team goes where she goes and so like i'm not at all surprised
03:19at the
03:20start of the season that she's had is it her best stretch of basketball i wouldn't go there yet um
03:25you
03:26know there's still a few different the only the only thing if you really wanted to nitpick brianna
03:31stewart's game um and it almost feels like a low blow to be like nitpicking this but just a three
03:38-point
03:38clip um she has not been shooting the three ball very well to start the season um that's obviously
03:44a trend that's carried over from like the previous seasons um it's kind of been on like a little bit
03:49of a decline but you know she impacts the game in so many ways she's manufacturing off manufacturing
03:55offense by getting to the free throw line um you know she's she's converting at the rim she's grabbing
04:01rebounds she's defending really well like brianna stewart just does everything that team needs she's the
04:07hub for the offense and the anchor for the defense and so again i'm not at all surprised that she's
04:11having this rep this this run or can't be can't be surprised just don't want to fans please do not
04:18take this for granted right like how how level she's playing at and how much she's been like you said
04:24this
04:24two-way force that we've seen her be in a liberty uniform can't take it for granted at all we
04:29got to
04:29talk about another liberty star sabrina nescue and her health so she's still dealing with the back
04:35injury right maddie what's the latest that you could tell fans about her injury is this more than
04:40an early season inconvenience and where do you think fans might start to worry about long-term
04:45implications for sab if she doesn't come back sooner rather than later yeah i mean talk about
04:50a bummer right like she's only played one game this team liberty we're all about like wanting to be
04:55healthy you know after everything that they went through in 2025 um she unfortunately like injures her
05:02left foot in the final preseason game at connecticut and then she comes back she doesn't play the second
05:07night of a back-to-back and then she's been out with what the team is calling back soreness now
05:12dex you
05:13and me know that back soreness is not an injury it is a symptom of an injury um liberty has
05:18not said what
05:19that injury is i did talk to a doctor who is a specialist in like a back and spine specialist
05:25about
05:26um sabrina's injury and you know obviously he was not privy to all the details he's not her doctor
05:32um but you know he said it could either be muscle muscle strain or muscle fatigue which is like not
05:39a
05:39not unusual for an athlete especially with all the jumping cutting twisting that they do
05:44um worst case scenario it's a herniated disc but at this point we would know by now i would like
05:51to
05:52think if it was something as severe as that because that would be that would be mean missing
05:56significant time um the team still is calling her day to day she did not travel with the team on
06:02this
06:02road trip to connecticut or atlanta she is back in new york doing five on five which i think is
06:07a promising sign um marco i asked him if this was the light of at the end of the tunnel
06:12her doing five
06:13on five and progressing to that he said yes for the most part of course they're going to continue to
06:19like listen to her body and see how her body responds to doing five on five and and all the
06:24other things that she's doing to try to ramp up and get ready so she can play for the liberty
06:29again
06:30um but but yeah it's just unfortunate the doctor did say that you know for back soreness it's usually
06:36two to four weeks you're not that that's pretty normal um if it gets into like the five you know
06:44five to six week at that point you might have to consider doing something like uh or more diagnostic
06:49testing like mri x-ray ct you know all those high imaging scans to kind of see if there is
06:56if you can
06:57figure out what the root of the problem so so my thing with that is i'm glad you pointed out
07:02for me
07:02back soreness is not an injury but i will say this anything around the back is concerning for a lot
07:10of
07:10a lot of fans i think and players too right i was talking about the most central part of your
07:15body
07:15yeah right yeah anything listen to two parts your back and your lower extremities right legs uh feet
07:24um i'm somebody who's we having an achilles injury um right now and i know how much that affects your
07:30life right so i could see where fans have some of the long-term concern for sad but i did
07:34think
07:35from your piece good note good note from demarco for one that he feels like this could be the light
07:41at the end of the tunnel and if it's in that two to four week range from the time she'd
07:44come back
07:45from the foot injury and then now the back soreness if she's within that range i think that could be
07:50good news for for liberty fans but the fact she's doing five on five activities yeah that's that's
07:56usually as we know we've been doing this for a long time that's when you're usually pretty close
07:59yeah i mean she was a full participant in practice last friday okay there was hope for her to play
08:05on
08:05in saturday's game i think if i have my days correct um and she was rolled out with back
08:11soreness again for that saturday game um so again that's just you know she tested it out and it
08:18wasn't it wasn't work it wasn't ready and it also makes sense for the team and sab to be cautious
08:24with
08:24this at this point of where we are in the season um obviously important for us to talk about it
08:28but
08:28team wants to be cautious she wants to be cautious she wants to be healthy for the long term so
08:33hopefully sab sab can be okay now hey we got to talk about your girl this was one of your
08:39fun uh
08:39players you loved watching in the preseason that's han ju started against connecticut was a bright spot
08:45first start of her career 14.6 boards what did you make of her performance and do you think it
08:52can
08:52give the team confidence that they've had have another legitimate front court option developing behind
08:58their stars in john quill jones and brianna stewart do you think this helps the liberty team going
09:02forward yeah i think han has like shown more and more confidence as the season has gone on and you
09:09you are seeing the team trust her more and more um obviously they have a lot of confidence in her
09:13they have a lot of confidence in raquel carrera too um but han has been playing so well and they
09:18have jj and brianna that they haven't been leaning on raquel carrera early she obviously played
09:24pretty like 14 or so minutes i think in that sun win um and played and looked good for the
09:29most part
09:29still a little bit lost certain things but you know you see the you see the wheels turning you see
09:34that
09:34she's starting to get more comfortable with the speed and the physicality that's raquel i'm talking
09:38about but when it comes to my girl han i one she's just like such a light she has such
09:44a great personality
09:45and just super positive and everything and um so really happy to see somebody like her succeed
09:52i do think you know she she's learning her spots a little bit more she has good feel good touch
09:58um
09:58her ability to like knock down the three ball uh i feel like that can be like demoralizing for a
10:04certain
10:04for like the opposing team right when a big like that is facing the floor and then knocking down that
10:09three um she's she's rebounding better i think you know again we're gonna talk more about this
10:14atlanta matchup later in the show but this this could be an important game for like a han when
10:20they really need to be aggressive on crap you know winning the battle of boards um atlanta's one of
10:27the best rebounding teams in the league and liberty have been really good rebounding in general but i
10:32think han again she's just showing more and more confidence and comfortability within the system
10:37yeah i love it for i love what she did with the opportunity getting that start putting up
10:41some good numbers i know connecticut not the best team much more of a test for her against atlanta
10:46to be able to use her size with how they rebound but we'll see how that goes thursday night since
10:51we're 12 games into the season um let's take a bit of a look at the head coach what do
10:57you think is
10:57the biggest lesson that we've learned about chris demarco so far what do you think about the way
11:02because he's had a lot to deal with navigating injuries the lineup changes and knowing that we talked
11:09about this for the season this team has high expectations so how do you think chris demarco's
11:14handled everything so far through 12 games i think for the most part he's done a good job the biggest
11:20thing that he probably had to learn is just the patience you know and that sounds like kind of a
11:24cop-out but like at the same time like you just have to be patient like he doesn't know what
11:29his
11:29lineup is going to be or his rotation on any given night because of so many things that have like
11:33popped
11:33up last second you know sabrina with this back issue it's been something that has is she going
11:39to be back is she not she's questionable what does that mean and um you know maybe she's going through
11:44a shoot around but then she's ruled out jj was a late scratch against connecticut because she got
11:49sick late you know like there's players that were late to coming um with leo and raquel so i think
11:56that
11:56you know he's had to be doing a lot of hodgepodge mix and match lineups it's given maybe him and
12:03the
12:03coaching staff flexibility to deploy various like kind of interesting lineups just to see what it
12:09looks like they're kind of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks um they're winning at
12:15that too um and so i think that that's another critical piece in this is yeah when they hit that
12:19three game losing skid at the start of this homestand it was a little concerning right um you are at
12:25home
12:25you want to like set it set the tone like obviously they lost to some really good teams um but
12:31there
12:32were also things within those games that you thought that the liberty just fell short of what
12:37they could do and so i think in general like he's done a he's done a good job you know
12:42given the
12:42circumstance and everything he's also a first-time wnba head coach there's growing pains with that they're
12:47figuring out even like you know i think some people don't know some of the things that happen
12:53behind the scenes that like coaches have to deal with you know like you gotta figure out like are
12:58you gonna have shoot around and and when are you gonna have shoot around and are what days are you
13:03gonna practice like it's about crafting out like the whole schedule right like are you gonna travel
13:08you know for the the connecticut game for example like i went to connecticut came back to new york and
13:12then i went to atlanta today the liberty could have done that or they could have done what they did
13:16which was go straight from connecticut to atlanta so you know like there's some of the logistics
13:21things too that go on behind the scenes that you know you're trying to figure out like what works
13:25for you what works for the team so you know i think overall he seems seems to be like in
13:30a good
13:31headspace and like enjoying it and excited and i even asked him about you know um the first quarter
13:40of the season how it's gone and he just said that he loves this team he's proud of them he
13:44really believes
13:44in them and he thinks that you know they have the potential to be really great so he seems like
13:49he's
13:50enjoying it i think he's done a pretty good job and you're right there's a lot of things i don't
13:53think fans think about behind the scenes and managing a team managing the players managing
13:57your whole staff right and getting everybody on the same page with travel and all that other stuff
14:02practice where the liberty do not have yet their own dedicated practice facility right there's
14:07a lot of things that go into this in the timing and so yeah that that stuff matters that's a
14:12great
14:12point by you now maddie we learned this in the last episode we know how much you love
14:16the commissioner's cup you love the commission i'm still working on that t-shirt for you
14:20i love it um speaking of commissioners cup they are the liberty of three you know they are atop
14:26the commissioners cup standing in the east has new york's undefeated start to the commissioners
14:31cup intrigued you any more to uh any more excitement it makes me so excited it makes me so excited
14:39um
14:39um no you know i i think that this atlanta the atlanta dream game tomorrow uh thursday is going
14:47to have a couple of implications like that could determine you know who's gonna who's gonna win
14:52um or who's gonna advance in in this in season tournament i think what i really like about the
14:57cup is obviously the charitable aspect um you know the teams even win or lose the charity that you
15:04pick to represent is still winning in the end right um and i think again that that that's like the
15:11mate
15:11the biggest part like i mean like i'm not i know i'm like kind of just naturally like a hater
15:17uh but
15:18i didn't say that but but i think with the in-season tournament like it just for me it just
15:26feels like
15:27just another game you know what i mean like i don't feel the anticipation of like oh this is
15:32this is heightened urgency it's do you think the w needs to do something more here to make it feel
15:40like more than another game is that something it's gonna take time because you know i think it's
15:47something that like is new ish in american sports um obviously like english premier league yep that's
15:53your that's your bag but um they do that like they and it's like an actual thing like it's maybe
16:00if
16:00there was more exclusivity with the tournament like only the playoff teams are competing for this
16:07prize for you know like isn't that how champions league works or something like so yeah champions
16:11champions league is like usually the top three or four in your league and they make it into this
16:15special tournament right but yeah from other leagues from other leagues and stuff yeah so like maybe
16:21maybe that would add like a little bit of like intrigue or excitement to it because
16:27yeah i don't know um it's not it's not a bad that's not a bad suggestion about maybe only
16:33having the previous year's playoff teams because even if let's say you're a playoff team from last
16:38year like i'll throw like seattle out there that's not off to a good start well now you have something
16:43in the middle of the season to play for right and some of your young that that roster had a
16:47lot of
16:47turnover for example now some of the young players on that team can have something to play for
16:52it's not that's not a bad i see what you're saying and trying to create the intrigue and i'm like
16:57see
16:58i'm see i'm glad we talked about this because you gave me something to think about that i feel like
17:02you know like manufacturing the storylines and stuff like i think it just takes time to get fans
17:07like really behind and like to buy into like the in-season tournament um because again it just feels
17:13like it's another regular season game but we're trying to hype up that it has more importance because
17:20of the commissioner cup and you know maybe it does because like that again when you win you give
17:26more money to your charity so like maybe there is that but yeah i don't know all right we gotta
17:31make
17:31some changes so we can get maddie on board we'll keep checking in on with her but maddie did talk
17:35about what the next game is for the liberty it is a commissioner's cup game um as we're in that
17:40stretch and that is against the atlanta dream and both these teams one thing that matters in the
17:45commissioner's cup is point differential um and so the dream are plus 36 and the liberty are plus 32
17:52so four points separating two teams and point differential that could matter um although the
17:57liberty undefeated the dream have one loss in the commissioner's cup now they are ahead of the liberty
18:03in the east just overall record on percentage points you talked about rebounding maybe this is the
18:09answer to this question what specific area of the dreams game presents the biggest challenge
18:13for this liberty team on thursday definitely the rebounding um but i also think just their
18:19transition offense like the way that the atlanta dream can like score and transition is something
18:25that the liberty are going to want to like minimize at all costs because if you can get them into
18:32half court and like make them have to like run something then you're gonna probably be a little bit
18:38more successful but if they get out and transition it's they're really hard to stop um and i think
18:44that that was something that i saw during the open part of practice that the liberty were were working
18:48on and being mindful about you know getting back on defense and and stuff like that and so i think
18:54that
18:55that is really key rebounding like we said um yeah that's that those are those are my two keys
19:02of the game dexter you got it do you got a third take care of the ball take because that
19:07kind of ties
19:08into the other key that you talked about if you if you have live ball turnovers then we know how
19:14dangerous atlanta could be right and they can get out and they have some fantastic finishers um obviously
19:19know what ryan howard could do like so good yeah yeah they got to take care of the ball we've
19:25seen
19:25some games this year where liberty have been uncharacteristically sloppy with the ball
19:30now i don't know about you i think we talked about this in the last episode i chalked some of
19:34that up to there's been a lot of change in the lineup ladies getting to know each other
19:40yes yeah so some some of that is to me like okay but they are becoming healthier you know liberty
19:47is
19:47still waiting on sad and i know that's their lead guard that they're waiting on but paulie nasty has
19:52been dope and she's been amazing but if you want to win games like this we're talking about i know
19:58indiana was another one we probably looked at last saturday but you're talking about a serious
20:02forget the commissioners cup we're just talking about serious potential playoff opponent a team
20:07you're probably going to be battling with in the east you're going to have to take care of the ball
20:11and and not do what you said which is allow easy transition buckets exactly and i and i think that
20:17you bring up a good point like again this is their biggest test that they've faced this off
20:21this season um you're playing atlanta in atlanta it's a road game there's going to be that
20:26environment that you're playing up against this team is also on a roll and has some momentum
20:30heading into this game and so it's going to be like a clash of the titans type type of game
20:35and so
20:36um i'm expecting it to be a really good game probably a close game all the way through um
20:41again it's just going to come down to late game execution yeah which is you know which is what we
20:47saw on saturday against indiana right and i expected that game to be good too and liberty did not
20:52look good for but i i expected it to be way more high scoring like you know what that's true
20:57but
20:58the first the first like five minutes it was like oh but like a tennis match like it was going
21:02so fast
21:02and then it just all of a sudden got clunky and it's very sloppy too just yeah missing shots that
21:09and layups that like normally just felt like both rims had like a lid or something on it like it
21:13was
21:14crazy um yeah but yeah i i agree with you yeah liberty executed better down the stretch in that game
21:20that was a huge reason they want to they did what they had to do in the fourth quarter and
21:23i think this game will be close too everybody should be watching that thursday night okay to wrap things
21:27up here eight and four record for liberty through the first quarter of the season they've won five
21:33straight um they remain near the top of the commissioner's cup stand they're at the top of
21:36the commissioner's cup standings because maddie cares so much i do this despite not having their full
21:42roster available trying to put everything in context here so if when sab returns everybody's fully
21:49healthy how much higher do you think this team's ceiling is than what we've seen thus far
21:57it's a good question i'm i'm not trying to like overly like don't duck it is there anything
22:04but oh no we glaze okay yeah yeah yeah but championship expectations like this team is a
22:12championship contender even with sabrina out like they've shown signs that like they can win these
22:17games you know um they can just outperform they have way more talent than a lot of other teams
22:24just on paper they do um and i think that depth has helped them with you know early on this
22:30season
22:31and imagine when like sabrina's back when pauline inevitably is probably gonna have to come off the
22:37bench um and just knowing like even what you have coming off the bench like right now it's been
22:43been nigel annie hamilton satou saboli is coming off the bench for liberty right now um it it's crazy
22:49right like when you think about it um and and there's even more depth behind that rebecca garner
22:54has been kind of an underrated contributor this season um just the defensive energy and intensity that
23:01she provides and so i think um definitely like championship contention like top top two three team in
23:09the in the league right and so again you got to put it all together you got to prove it
23:14um it's fun
23:15to talk about like how great this team is on roster or on paper and um all of that but
23:21until we actually
23:21see it all together it's just a lot of talk right now and then they got to go off and
23:26prove prove
23:27you got to prove me right please don't prove me wrong yeah yeah yeah i think we both we both
23:33in this case prove me right there you go prove maddie right and we want to see it listen we'll
23:38see if the liberty can get six in a row on thursday against the dream i think that's going to
23:42be a big
23:42one i'm very intrigued to see how they do i don't want to i know some fans are probably going
23:47to ask
23:47us eventually can this team win without sab the whole thing we're not talking about that yet you
23:53know what i mean yeah yeah yeah yeah i somebody asked me that the other day and i'm like let's
23:57let's
23:58just see a little bit more let's let's see the team get a hole and see what they are there
24:02i like
24:03the depth i think you bring up a fantastic point and the depth is shown that when they are fully
24:07healthy they should be really strong right like they should be really strong because they've been
24:12able to figure out some things i'm wondering if all these injuries and ladies coming back at
24:16different times can actually be really helpful for this team going forward that's something i think
24:21time tell will tell with that too it looks nice now eight and four start that's fine but like
24:26we'll see as they get even healthier you gotta be happy with an eight four start i think given all
24:31the like early season adversity that this team has gone through and you have a new head coach like
24:35eight and four and it's also like what they are fifth in the stand i can't remember i haven't checked
24:40yeah but they're you know they're they're up there you know they're hanging around and there was a
24:46minute when they went on that losing skit at home where it was like oof like some of these hopefully
24:51this isn't the part of the season that you point back to and be like man if they would have
24:55won that game or won that game maybe like playoff positioning would look different
24:58um but i think right now you know that's the thing of the past we'll talk about if it comes
25:04down to
25:06playoff time yeah i'll take it they're currently fourth in the league standings right now so
25:11i had to i had to check we got we got a fact check we got to be people appreciate
25:15it that's
25:16gonna do it for this edition of liberty lately we'll see as we said if the liberty can make it
25:20six
25:21or more in a row by the next time that we talk to you madeline kenny enjoy her birthday week
25:26uh with
25:27us the great women's women's sports reporter i know i can't talk today i've had a couple of
25:32messages for the new york post it's been a long week it's a there's been a lot going on it's
25:37been
25:37a long way is there some is there something else happening in the city oh nothing else is going on
25:41the city it's been calm for a week in the city nothing else is going on it's calm you know
25:45you can
25:45just walk everywhere you want to go there's no other sporting events going on it's all about the
25:49liberty this is all about the liberty uh i'm dexter henry that's going to do it for myself and the
25:54great madeline kenny we'll catch you next time another edition of liberty lately peace
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