Gold medalist Joni Taylor recaps historic trip to Paris with USA Basketball

Texas A&M women's basketball head coach Joni Taylor served as an assistant coach on Cheryl Reeve's staff that helped USA Basketball go 6-0 and capture the gold medal in Paris. Back from the Olympics, Taylor joined TexAgs Radio to look back on the run to gold.

Key notes from Joni Taylor interview

• Things are great. It’s busy and hectic, but that’s how I like it. We did some recruiting in July and then went to Paris for the Olympics to win the gold medal for the eighth consecutive time.
   
• Coming back home makes everything a little bit easier. When you’re out of the country, you still have things to do back home. I literally would set an alarm at midnight to make a recruiting call. If I look at the entire month or even the entire week, it’s too much. I go day by day. I have a calendar to make sure I am prepared for everything. There’s also an app that my assistants set up for me that helps me prioritize what I need to do.
   
• It was actually the first time we did a foreign tour in June. August wasn’t going to happen this year because I was going to be in Paris. When we got back, I told our team that they were the best team we had ever taken overseas. Their approach and mindset were excellent. We also got to do a kid’s clinic, so immersing ourselves in a new community was really cool.
   
• We try not to take the tour too seriously. We don’t practice while we are there, and we literally play two games. We got to get a little sneak peek into the identity of our team, so it was really good for culture and team bonding.
   
• The world is catching up. We know the trajectory that women’s basketball is on right now. When it is an Olympic year, a lot of foreign players in the WNBA stay in their countries and practice for months leading up to the games. We still are trying to figure things out, and it speaks to the organizational structure through USA Basketball. It was a great opportunity and experience, but it was an absolute whirlwind.
   
• We followed the men’s team on an app. It was not as easy to go see other sports because very few things, especially at the beginning, were actually in Paris. It wasn’t as easy to get to other events, but we definitely followed them.
   
• I think every time I get an opportunity to get with USA Basketball, you get challenged, but it is really great. I was with them in 2022 in Australia, but the things I took away from this team was how the players were able to juggle doing incredible things, like taking care of their families, to still going out and performing at a high level. It was inspiring. It is a reason why they are the best of the best.
   
• We're looking forward to this season. I love our roster, and I was keeping up with the team while I was in Paris. When everyone comes back, we have a team meeting on Sunday. I’m excited to see them and to get started.