After just two days of teaching, the new University of Cincinnati women's basketball coach was already nursing strained vocal chords.
"Sorry for my voice," Jamelle Elliott said Sunday. "We've started practice, you know."
After a long apprenticeship as a player and assistant under Geno Auriemma, Elliott has her first shot as a head coach. She takes over a Bearcats program that struggled for the last two years under J. Kelley Hall, finishing 3-13 in the Big East last season.
Bearcats athletic director Mike Thomas expects things will soon be different. He hired Elliott anticipating her experience will ultimately bring energy to the program — "a snapshot of success," as he called it the day her hiring was announced.
"We're talking about someone who in her time at UConn has been part of six national championships, one as a player," Thomas said in May. "She has done some things, whether it has been on the floor or manning the sidelines, with the UConn staff that most of us would hope to experience in our career."
Thursday, Elliott will attend her first Big East media day in New York as a head coach. She will likely be surrounded the same way Auriemma always is.
It will be another part of her assimilation, as important than the various civic functions she attended to drum up community interest in her program.
"It's been different, certainly. I'm looking at things from a totally different perspective," said Elliott, 35, who was Auriemma's assistant for 12 seasons after graduating in 1996. "I'm the one making decisions now. Everything is going through me. I'm trying to establish my own environment, which is different.
" I didn't know the players at first. I hired a new staff [which includes former Toledo and Xavier head coach Mark Ehlen]. ... There are so many more things to address and tend to. And I'm not even talking about the on-the-court stuff."
Elliott said she didn't think a lot about her first talk with the team, which came moments before she met the Cincinnati press for the first time.
"It was spontaneous," Elliott said. "It was comforting for me to be around them. That's the fun part for me and they helped me feel more comfortable about going to do the press conference, which for me was the uncomfortable part."
The players know there is a new boss in town.
"My first impression of Coach Elliott was that she was the real deal," said senior guard Kahla Roudebush. "For any of the players on this team to completely trust a stranger coming in says a ton about the type of person and character that she has. It takes a special person to be able to do what she has done in the four practices that we have had."
As one would expect, Elliott has begun installing a system and philosophy patterned after UConn's.
"I have to teach them to be a team or how a team should be," Elliott said, "what the dynamics are [for] relationships and effort and everything that goes into it that doesn't even involve the basketball.
"Off the court, the job is to establish the proper cultural environment around the team. I don't know that that's a UConn thing, it's just something you need to be successful. Geno has always taught that. I've always been around it. I know it works. So of course I will try to do the same thing."
And just in case she needs to freshen up on the basics, she's already had a few conversations with her mentor, whom she'll coach against Jan. 7 in Storrs when the Bearcats meet UConn.
"You can tell she's a young coach because she likes her team," Auriemma said. "Most young coaches do. It's like parents who love their newborns. Give them seven or eight years."
"We talked about how impatient she was and [wanting] to be more patient," he said. "I encouraged her not to be. If she let's them know she's impatient, they'll pick things up quicker, better and faster. That's a fine line she's going to have to navigate."
"Sorry for my voice," Jamelle Elliott said Sunday. "We've started practice, you know."
After a long apprenticeship as a player and assistant under Geno Auriemma, Elliott has her first shot as a head coach. She takes over a Bearcats program that struggled for the last two years under J. Kelley Hall, finishing 3-13 in the Big East last season.
Bearcats athletic director Mike Thomas expects things will soon be different. He hired Elliott anticipating her experience will ultimately bring energy to the program — "a snapshot of success," as he called it the day her hiring was announced.
"We're talking about someone who in her time at UConn has been part of six national championships, one as a player," Thomas said in May. "She has done some things, whether it has been on the floor or manning the sidelines, with the UConn staff that most of us would hope to experience in our career."
Thursday, Elliott will attend her first Big East media day in New York as a head coach. She will likely be surrounded the same way Auriemma always is.
It will be another part of her assimilation, as important than the various civic functions she attended to drum up community interest in her program.
"It's been different, certainly. I'm looking at things from a totally different perspective," said Elliott, 35, who was Auriemma's assistant for 12 seasons after graduating in 1996. "I'm the one making decisions now. Everything is going through me. I'm trying to establish my own environment, which is different.
" I didn't know the players at first. I hired a new staff [which includes former Toledo and Xavier head coach Mark Ehlen]. ... There are so many more things to address and tend to. And I'm not even talking about the on-the-court stuff."
Elliott said she didn't think a lot about her first talk with the team, which came moments before she met the Cincinnati press for the first time.
"It was spontaneous," Elliott said. "It was comforting for me to be around them. That's the fun part for me and they helped me feel more comfortable about going to do the press conference, which for me was the uncomfortable part."
The players know there is a new boss in town.
"My first impression of Coach Elliott was that she was the real deal," said senior guard Kahla Roudebush. "For any of the players on this team to completely trust a stranger coming in says a ton about the type of person and character that she has. It takes a special person to be able to do what she has done in the four practices that we have had."
As one would expect, Elliott has begun installing a system and philosophy patterned after UConn's.
"I have to teach them to be a team or how a team should be," Elliott said, "what the dynamics are [for] relationships and effort and everything that goes into it that doesn't even involve the basketball.
"Off the court, the job is to establish the proper cultural environment around the team. I don't know that that's a UConn thing, it's just something you need to be successful. Geno has always taught that. I've always been around it. I know it works. So of course I will try to do the same thing."
And just in case she needs to freshen up on the basics, she's already had a few conversations with her mentor, whom she'll coach against Jan. 7 in Storrs when the Bearcats meet UConn.
"You can tell she's a young coach because she likes her team," Auriemma said. "Most young coaches do. It's like parents who love their newborns. Give them seven or eight years."
"We talked about how impatient she was and [wanting] to be more patient," he said. "I encouraged her not to be. If she let's them know she's impatient, they'll pick things up quicker, better and faster. That's a fine line she's going to have to navigate."