The moment Chloe Lamb knew she wanted to be a coach sprung from a situation she had “no idea what we were doing.” The former South Dakota women’s basketball star was entering her third year with the Coyotes and helping coach scrimmages with former USD forward Taylor Frederick at the Coyotes’ Elite Camp in the Summer of 2019. And their team was losing. Badly.
“We were doing really poorly,” Lamb said with a chuckle.
Lamb nor former USD women’s basketball coach Dawn Plitzuweit remember the score, other than that Lamb and Frederick’s team was down “quite a bit.” The setup of the Elite Camps don’t often present the best opportunities for team basketball, Lamb said. The players attending the camp likely don’t know each other, and even if they do, they’ve likely never played together.
So, the first half brought a lot of “individuality.” And it wasn’t working.
“Well,” Lamb remembered she and Frederick said to each other, “there's no way from here but up.”
More:South Dakota cruises to 62-point win over Bellevue in last game at SCSC in 21 days
At halftime, Lamb and Frederick proposed to use some of the concepts and plays that they’d run themselves with the high school players. From afar, Plitzuweit immediately saw a “tactician.” A good play, a good set, a few well-timed timeouts. Lamb and Frederick’s teams got a few stops, then a few baskets. They were making a comeback.
Lamb said she could feel the momentum shift. It was one of the first moments she saw how much impact a good coach can impact an individual game. And Plitzuweit saw a competitor that “wasn’t going to let her team lose in camp.” And they came back to win.
“She had something unique and special about her,” Plitzuweit said. “You can tell she loves it.”
More:Inside the rise of South Dakota's 'Big 3' and their quest for an NCAA Tournament win
Lamb laughed at the idea that the comeback is why she’s in coaching at all. Yet she noted it’s likely true. She had entered college with coaching “last on her list.” But after a season in which she averaged 15.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and was named the Summit League’s Player of the Year, coaching was all she wanted to do. She briefly entered the 2022 WNBA Draft as a feeler, but that, she said, that didn’t make things any more confusing.
Assistant-coaching jobs, especially at a high level of basketball, aren't common for recent college graduates. When the opportunity came to become an assistant coach for University of Mary women’s basketball, it felt perfect.
“The stars aligned a little bit,” said Lamb, now in her first year with the Marauders (0-1). “It was kind of just the perfect timing, the perfect pairing, the perfect situation. It just kind of felt like everything fell into place just as it was supposed to.”
‘Man, are we going to be able to get this done?'
Plitzuweit said, going into Lamb’s senior year, Lamb started to talk about coaching a little bit. Plitzuweit remembered in Lamb’s second year the Coyotes had been working together on a drill for some time. “We got to move on,” Plitzuweit said to the team.
“No,” Lamb interjected. “We're staying here and we're finishing this. We're getting it right.”“I was like, ‘Okay,’” Plitzuweit said, laughing.
Lamb always had an ability to lead on the court, and continued to do so throughout a five-year playing career that landed her third on South Dakota’s career scoring list (1,884), second in career 3-pointers made (253) and seventh in career steals (196).
She attended the Women's Basketball Coaches Association’s “So you want to be a coach” program at the Final Four, immersing himself in all aspects of a potential coaching career — relationships with administrators, recruiting and culture seminars — that, to some, might be overwhelming. But to Lamb, it was reassuring. But after leading the Coyotes to the Sweet 16 in her final year last season, she had to, at least, think about what it would mean to keep playing.
She wasn’t in any rush to make a decision after her playing career ended, but when she did, Rick Neumann was interested. Neumann, the University of Mary women’s basketball head coach, first knew Lamb as a “fan,” and “put two and two together” when he saw via Twitter that Lamb had attended the WBCA coaching program.
More:South Dakota women's basketball goes cold, drops 1st game of the season, 74-51, to No. 21 Creighton
Neumann got connected to Lamb through Patti Jordre (née Mercer), a Marauders Hall of Famer who lives in Onida and is friends with the Lamb family. Neumann and Lamb were both honest: Neumann didn’t know, quite, what job would be open (even though he knew, for sure, there’d be one). Lamb was entering her name in the Draft.
“We built a good relationship right away just being open with each other,” Lamb said. “Not really knowing, for sure, what was gonna happen.”
Mary’s former assistant coach left to get closer to family, and when it became clear that was the position Neumann would have to prioritize getting filled, there were a lot of things that were immediately attractive about that potential role. Lamb never thought that she’d be able to get anything more than a graduate assistant role. On top, this was one of the better paying assistant jobs, Neumann said, as well as an opportunity to coach in a high-level Division-II basketball environment in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.
But this was Chloe Lamb. Neumann thought she could do better than NSIC grad assistant, so assistant coach became one of the first pitches in what turned into a process in which Neuman “felt like I was recruiting her.” People around the NSIC would ask Neumann about the open positions and he said he tried to be coy with them. One talk with Lamb, he knew she could do the job. Talking with Plitzuweit only reinforced it. So, there were some “scary times” in May and June.
“I was like, ‘Man, are we going to be able to get this done before someone realizes,’” Neumann said.
More:South Dakota football's commitment to head coach Bob Nielson vows change and stability
As a final test, Neumann invited Lamb to the University of Mary’s campus to meet with as many players as could gather in a “conversational” locker room setting. Neumann stayed out of the way, wanting his players to control the room without being confined by a “script” — talk about their goals, where they were at as a program, anything.
Usually it takes about 20 minutes. But Lamb had been in the room for over an hour. “Geez,” Neumann thought. “Do I have to go in and save her?”Lamb exited the room and Neumann stepped in. What do you think? He asked.
His team didn’t hold back: “You need to hire that girl tomorrow.”
'I've got a lot to prove'
In July, Lamb picked Neumann up at the airport for her first recruiting trip. Lamb had driven out the day prior on her own, but Neumann wanted to accompany her for her first trip, introducing her to people when needed. But, beyond that, Neumann didn’t want to give Lamb much else.
He did the same with his players as he did with University of Mary’s list of recruits: he wanted Lamb to do it with as little information as possible, so she can make evaluations without any preconceived notions. Lamb said it’s not important that players are familiar with her playing career. She’s just the “new kid.”
“I've got a lot to prove,” Lamb said. “I think the success that I've had previously and the accomplishments that I've been lucky enough to receive, it matters but it doesn't really.”
More:South Dakota stuns NCAA Tournament with dominant win over No. 2 Baylor to advance to Sweet 16
But Neumann sees it differently: Again, this is Chloe Lamb. On the recruiting trail with Neumann, Summit League coaches greeted her, jokingly thanking her for graduating. Division-II coaches introduced themselves, acknowledging her strong playing career. Neumann joked that he thought he was a “minor celebrity,” but Lamb blew him away in terms of popularity on that trip. And each time she hears that praise, Neumann said her humility makes it seem as if she’s hearing it for the first time.
Lamb will miss playing, and hopes that practices provide opportunities to jump in with players. But this is a “fresh start.” Lamb made her evaluations, watching game after game with Neumann, which led to conversations about offensive and defensive concepts (they barely had a chance to talk about that before Lamb was working around the clock).
Lamb has been around the game for a while now, and after five strong years at South Dakota — even in a new field — she was a known entity. Basketball wasn’t the issue. She just needed to trust herself.
“I know what good basketball is,” Lamb said. “Hopefully I'll be able to pick that up.”
Follow Sioux Falls Argus Leader reporter Michael McCleary on Twitter @mikejmccleary.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Former USD basketball star begins her assistant coach career
