The Basketball Podcast: EP335 with Emilee Thiesse on Motion Defense and Offense

In this week’s basketball coaching conversation, Minnesota State University-Mankato head coach Emilee Thiesse joins the Basketball Podcast to share insight on National Championship motion defense and offense.

Emilee Thiesse has transformed the Minnesota State University’s women’s basketball program into an NCAA Division II powerhouse. Under her leadership, the Mavericks clinched their second NCAA Division II Championship during the 2023-24 season, breaking several team records along the way. Thiesse’s tenure boasts an impressive 228-116 (.662) overall record, with 5 NCAA Tournament appearances, and her teams consistently ranking among the top in scoring offense and defense. Minnesota State’s 2023-24 season saw them achieve a 20-2 conference record, their second NSIC Championship, and their first NSIC Tournament Championship.

Thiesse’s coaching prowess has been recognized with multiple accolades, including the NSIC Coach of the Year honor. The team broke several team records during their 2023-24 championship season, including games played (37), most wins (32, tied with 2008-09 season), points scored (3,069), field goal attempts (2,673), field goals made (1,146), field goal attempts (789) and free throws made (571). Along with the fourth-best scoring offense in NCAA Division II (82.9 ppg), the Mavericks also boasted a smothering defense that ranked second in steals per game (17.1), second in turnovers forced (28.05) and first in turnover margin (+13.11).

Prior to joining MSU, Thiesse spent three seasons at South Dakota State where she served as recruiting coordinator and academic coordinator for the Jackrabbits. SDSU made three consecutive NCAA Division I postseason tournament appearances and won three straight Summit League titles while compiling a 65-34 overall record.

Prior to re-joining the Jackrabbit staff where she had worked as a graduate assistant coach from 2004-06, Thiesse spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Drake, helping guide the Bulldogs to the NCAA Tournament in 2007 and a WNIT appearance in 2008. In her three seasons at Drake, the Bulldogs compiled a 56-42 overall record.

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Emilee Thiesse Quotes:

“Realize more isn’t always more. What we do is so intense and high speed. Everything about it is aggressive, so we don’t have to go for long stretches, we don’t have to go every single day. [We want to be] being more mindful of how their bodies are feeling during certain times or mentally. Are we all just a little exhausted after that last road trip? Let’s take a little extra time here.”

“There are so many different intricacies of what the defense looks like in certain moments. I think it s really helpful for us, that’s what also makes it very difficult to scout. From one possession to the next, it could look completely different. Something that worked for us in the first two possessions of the game may not happen the entire rest of the game because either that opportunity didn’t present itself or we had different lineups.”

“How can we initiate for the next action? What’s our movement coming out of this trap and what are our reads from there? We’ll try to get our players to start anticipating. That’s a word we use a ton, is the anticipation within our defense.”

“A lot of teams that have run a very successful press, and there’s so many different ways to be successful, a lot of times you’re going to run at the ball, inviting them to throw over, and then you get a rotation to the weak side. We’ll get some of that, but I would say mostly we talk a lot about we don’t want them to see you coming on a trap. So, if they see you coming, that’s probably not the time to go.”

“These teams that we’re playing in the preseason are really good teams. They are very talented. So just because we didn’t step on the floor and force 30 turnovers and win by 25 points . . they are good, they’re going to handle our defense, they are talented across the board. We’ve got to feel confident that what we’re doing is positioning us for where we want to be at the end of the year. We had to talk a lot about trust in each other. Believe that you can go for those plays because somebody’s going to have your back in the next line of the rotation . . You can’t run this defense without that.”

“We do not like the ball dribbling up the floor. We want two dribbles and get rid of it. And if we can’t get rid of it, that must mean the defense is extremely high. So now we need them cutting through . . we want to beat maybe the first two lines. If we can throw the ball over the top and get some sort of a 3-on-3 or even a 4-on4, we still feel like there’s advantage in that spacing.”

“Our dribbling rule is, if you’re going to put the ball on the floor, it better be because you’re going north south, you’re going to score, or you’re improving a passing lane, or you’re shortening it to get it reversed. And now we need our next cutter through.”

“Please be aggressive on offense. We’re putting you in a spot where we know you are talented and you have a strength in that area. So, make a play for us. It doesn’t have to be you put your head down and barrel to the rim, but be a playmaker and let’s get something aggressive out of it.”

“The three stops in a row mindset that is really big for us. We’re very momentum based . . we talk about short spurts, two and a half minutes as hard as you can go, let’s make a goal happen in that short stretch. We’re shooting for the three stops in a row, so our whole team, the whole bench will know where we’re at in terms of that on the floor . . so they’re really engaged on where we’re at with that.”

“I’ve got an outstanding staff who is really passionate about player development, and I think that’s been a huge game changer for us . . just knowing individual strengths, but playing to their strengths and growing them as players.”

“Certain players aren’t quite as comfortable putting the ball on the floor and making a decision . . and we don’t need everybody to do that. So, [we want you] knowing what your strengths are and when is a good time to add some variability to your skillset, but it’s not like everybody does everything. That’s not going to get us where we want to get either. We’ve got to grow our players.”

“We all do a leadership evaluation from the previous week where we’re evaluating ourselves in terms of our confidence and our leadership. How hard did I work? . .  a number of things there.  And then there’s also a lot of categories for where’s our team at. Is our team feeling fresh? Is our team feeling confident? Are we focused? We’re all going through that survey as an individual. Then we come together and we look through that. I think that has been very valuable as a coach and as a leader to just get a feel for that.”

“We’re going to play to a standard of Maverick basketball and we have a series of statistics that we believe are finite. This shows what our intensity level was and this shows us are we playing to our standard or not? Instead of a feeling of, ‘That was good, we played well, or we got the win or we won, but it wasn’t great’  . . we’re going to have a set of standards that help us reinforce where we want to be.”

Emilee Thiesse Breakdown:

Emilee Thiesse
Amy Sander
Joey Batt
Hanna Herzig
Destinee Bursch
Natalie Bremer
Janay Morton