2019 Women's Basketball Tab

Ames Tribune

Sunday, November 3

IOWA STATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

BIG shoes to fill

Cyclones face first season post-Carleton

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IOWA STATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

TABLE OF CONTENTS  Page 2: Iowa State has big shoes to fill, and the Cyclones’ three returning starters are focusing on expanded roles.  Page 8: Much has changed in the last 25 years but ISU’s coach, Bill Fennelly, has not.  Page 6: Iowa State’s 2019-20 Schedule  Page 8: Freshman Maggie EspenmillerMcGraw could be the answer at point guard for the Cyclones.

ON THE COVER: From left, Ashley Joens, Kristin Scott and Maddie Wise are Iowa State’s three returning starters from last season’s NCAA Tournament team. PHOTO BY NIRMALENDU MAJUMDAR/AMES TRIBUNE

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Sunday, November 3, 2019

Big shoes to fi ll — Cyclones’ three returning starters eye expanded roles Scott, Joens and Wise take reins as Iowa State’s team leaders

By Hayes Gardner

Staff Writer hgardner@amestrib.com

Bridget Carleton always seemed to have an answer.

The former Iowa State star’s do-it-all ability was almost a cheat code for the Cyclones last season.

Carlton played all 40 minutes seven times and was arguably the nation’s most versatile player.

It didn’t matter if ISU needed a tough inside bucket late, a charge taken, or a 27-point half — as she did in a comefrom-behind victory at Texas Tech — Carleton always seemed to have an answer.

Superman, however, has left the building.

Iowa State’s Kristin Scott was a second-team all-Big 12 Conference selection last season.

PHOTO BY NIRMALENDU MAJUMDAR/AMES TRIBUNE

IOWA STATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

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Sunday, November 3, 2019

Carleton has graduated to the pro basketball ranks, and the Cyclones will play this season without the player a WNBA coach called a “Swiss Army Knife.” She won’t be there to save the day as needed.

“We don’t have that safety,” junior Kristin Scott told the Tribune. “If a play breaks down, we can’t just throw the ball to Bridget and let her go at it.”

Instead, ISU will rely on three returning starters — Scott, Maddie Wise and Ashley Joens — to take over the reins. None of them is Bridget Carleton, but the year each of them has will be essential to how successful the Cyclones begin the post-Carleton era.

• • • When Cyclone junior Rae Johnson was asked about her roommate Kristin Scott’s performance at Oklahoma State last season, her eyes lit up.

The game had happened nearly nine months previous, one of many wins for the Cyclones during the 2018-19 season, but Johnson — who is now in her third year living with Scott and Wise — immediately recalled her friend’s outing with pride.

“Seven-for-seven,” she told the Tribune. “Oh, I

Iowa State’s Madison Wise is a two-year starter who was second on the team in minutes played last season.

PHOTO BY

NIRMALENDU MAJUMDAR/AMES TRIBUNE

remember.”

It was hard to forget.

Scott, starting her third game of the season, opened the contest with one of her worst misfires of the year: a 3-point attempt that was so off that it actually hit the backboard and dropped

through the net for a no-nono-yes-type of make.

Then, she started really making. It didn’t matter where the 6-foot-3 center shot from, she couldn’t miss. She finished sevenfor-seven from distance and 11-for-11 from the field in

one of the most impressive singular performances by an ISU player for the entire season.

“It’s something that, first of all, I’d never seen it before, that was the first time I’ve ever seen that,” Johnson said. “And that

was incredible just to see her go out there and do that. She works hard. She deserved it.”

Her hot shooting continued all season, and she attributed confidence as a key reason for her shooting 38.1 percent from deep and

56.1 percent from the field.

Scott’s seven made treys in Stillwater equaled her freshman year total, when she shot 7-of-48 (14.6 percent) from 3-point range. She shot just 11.5 percent from distance in Big 12 play.

Was she confident during her freshman season? She paused for a moment.

“I wouldn’t say so,” she told the Tribune.

ISU coach Bill Fennelly explained Scott’s confidence in a similar way.

“Everyone thinks Kristin is good except for Kristin,” he said.

That began to switch last year. She not only earned a starting role, but she became the Cyclones’ second-leading scorer and earned second-team all-Big 12 honors as one of the best inside-outside threats in the conference.

Scott cited encouragement from the likes of Fennelly and Carleton as one of the reasons for her improved accuracy. For a shooter, confidence might not be everything, but it’s close.

“I mean, if you don’t (have confidence), everything’s going to feel uncertain when the ball is in your hands,” she said.

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Sunday, November 3, 2019

Continued from page 3

“If you feel like you can’t shoot it, you’re going to pass up shots, you’re letting your team down, you’re letting yourself down.”

Scott, who averaged 4.8 points per game as a freshman, is now in line to be one of the Cyclones’ top scorers. The bulk of her points last year came on spot-up 3s and offensive putbacks, but this year, she’ll face more defensive attention, so she knows her game will similarly have to develop.

She’s worked on scoring off the bounce and knocking down mid-range jumpers as ways to increase her arsenal.

However, the key lies in the same thing that held her back as a freshman.

“Just be more confident with the ball in my hands,” she told the Tribune.

• • • Maddie Wise had a terrific freshman season, earning Big 12 Freshman of the Week honors three times, but was left offof the 2017-18 all-Big 12 freshman team.

She was even better last year, primarily as ISU’s top defensive player, but was again left off of the all-conference lists.

This season, though, could be her chance to step into the limelight. She’ll continue to be an effective perimeter defender, and she’s hoping to elevate her offense, as well.

“Last year, I scored a little bit, but (I was) mostly a defensive stopper. So, this year, being more versatile, being able to score but also get defensive stops, and in the scoring sense, being able to score in all different ways,” she told the Tribune.

“Creating shots, making shots, being able to take the ball to the basket, being able to post up on smaller guards.”

She shot 41.4 percent

Iowa State’s Ashley Joens sank 72 3-pointers last season, which tied for the team high.

PHOTO BY NIRMALENDU MAJUMDAR/AMES

TRIBUNE

from 3 as a freshman, but that number dipped to 28.7 percent as a sophomore. It could have been a product of fatigue from guarding the opposing team’s best player most nights, but regardless, she’s anticipating a rise in her percentages and a big offensive year.

She’s also eyeing an increased leadership role.

Wise is probably the most natural leader of the returning starters, and she’s begun to embrace that role.

She’s made an effort to try and help freshman Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw as she adjusts to college ball.

“It’s crazy. It feels like just yesterday I was coming in as a freshman,” Wise told the Tribune. “So just knowing that I’m an upperclassman, and I do have

experience, I just feel like I know that I have to be a leader. On the court, off the court, especially more vocal.

“I think that’s a goal for me this year, is to definitely be more vocal.”

Wise was essential last year for ISU. She played more minutes than anyone not named Carleton and had big moments — she was named to the Preseason WNIT All-Tournament team and posted a doubledouble in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament.

Given a larger role in the offense, Wise has the chance to be a playmaker that she hasn’t yet been at ISU, but that the Cyclones need her to be now. She’s a versatile player and will play stretch-four and both wing positions.

“Maddie has the capability. We need her to score more, we need her to be more consistent, and she had some games where she did some good things, but she’s got to be more consistent offensively,” Fennelly said. “And I think she’s worked really hard on it.”

• • • The bulk of conversation surrounding ISU’s 2019-20 season has been about people not in Ames or even North America. It’s been about Carleton, who is currently playing in Australia’s WNBL, Alexa Middleton, who is competing in Sweden, and Meredith Burkhall, who is playing in Ireland.

Those three graduated

players will be sorely missed, and Fennelly and several players cited strangeness at practice to begin the season.

There was an absence without their leadership.

However, to sophomore Ashley Joens, she’s just playing basketball.

It doesn’t matter if she’s a freshman on a team with Carleton, or playing on Team USA — as she’s done twice — or now, as a sophomore picked as an All-Big 12 preseason honorable mention.

“I haven’t really noticed it a whole lot,” Joens told the Tribune of playing without the graduated trio.

“I just go out and play.”

That’s Joens’s mode of operation. Going out and playing. She’s as stoic of an

athlete as you’ll see, and the results reflect that.

When ISU visited Iowa City — Joens’s hometown — to play the Hawkeyes last year, she had a poor shooting performance, finishing 1-of-10 from the field.

However, she followed that up by going 18-of-22 over her next three games, and that became a norm for her throughout the season; no matter the situation or how she was perceived to be faring, she just went out and played.

Joens now seems the most likely heir apparent to Carleton. Fennelly has often compared her to the Cyclone great, and Joens has been repeatedly asked by the media about her similarities to Carleton.

Joens was a highly ranked recruit, is the same build as Carleton, and both had similarly strong first seasons.

How does she feel about being likened to the No. 2 all-time leading scorer in ISU history, and an All-American?

Joens smiles, like she’s not sure how to feel about it all.

“It’s a great honor because she is such a great player, but again, I have to keep improving and getting better myself so that I can take the same path that she took and be able to improve every year like she did,” she told the Tribune.

Carleton played a stretch-four in ISU’s offense, but also played some point guard, and wound up winning the Cheryl Miller Award, given to the nation’s top small forward.

Joens will play the stretch-four at points this year, could also play some point guard, and was named to the preseason watch list for the Cheryl Miller Award.

The comparison is natural.

Joens was primarily a spot-up shooter as a freshman, and she hit 72

IOWA STATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW | Sunday, November 3, 2019

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Maddie Wise

“You don’t lose a player, a person, a leader like Bridget and say, well, ‘You’re next,’ when she might be the only one that’s ever done it in my time here.”

Kristin Scott

3-pointers, tied with Carleton for the team’s high.

She’s one of the team’s biggest gym rats, and it’s not uncommon to find her in the Sukup practice facility on the shooting machine, getting shots up and calculating her percentages.

She jots down her totals on pieces of paper to keep track of her progress, typically shooting around 400 to 500 per session and

Bill Fennelly, Iowa State women’s basketball coach

making 55 to 60 percent.

This season, however, she’s working to become much more than a spot-up shooter. As Carleton did after her first season and throughout her career, Joens will need to develop into a multi-faceted threat and play-maker.

“Just being able to create shots for other players and then to be able to score at all three levels,” Joens said. “Attack

the basket more, not just spot-up shooting and then to be able to play that role, get more movement in the offense.”

It’s a big comparison, and it’s almost unfair, but it’s easy to view the gifted 6-foot guards in the same way.

Plus, Joens has proven that she’s a strong Big 12 player, and she seems primed for another productive year.

Fennelly said as much earlier this month after watching Joens in practice.

“I tell you, yesterday, if she was wearing Bridget’s number, you would’ve thought it was Bridget,” Fennelly told the Tribune.

• • • There is no easy antidote to replace the lost production from last year. WNBA draft picks and likely

Ashley Joens

Olympians don’t grow on trees.

“You don’t lose a player, a person, a leader like Bridget and say, well, ‘You’re next,’ when she might be the only one that’s ever done it in my time here,” Fennelly said.

For the Cyclones to have a strong season, it will take contributions from a number of players.

Adriana Camber will start on the wing, and the point guard competition

will be essential.

Backup post play from Ines Nezerwa will be important, too.

However, the largest chunk of responsibility falls to Scott, Wise and Joens.

They’ve clearly demonstrated that they can be valuable players on a good team, but they’ll now be challenged with leveling up.

It’s that committee who will be tasked with filling Carleton’s shoes.

YEARS

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Iowa State Women’s Basketball 2019-20 schedule NOV. 7: Southern, 6:30 p.m.

NOV. 10: at Drake, 2 p.m.

NOV. 19: Texas Southern, 11 a.m.

NOV. 22: at North Dakota State, 7 p.m.

NOV. 29: Arkansas-Pine Bluff, 6:30 p.m.

DEC. 1: New Orleans, 1 p.m.

DEC. 5: at Alabama, 6 p.m.

DEC. 11:Iowa, 7 p.m.

DEC. 15:Wright State, 1 p.m.

DEC. 22: Northern Iowa, 5 p.m.

DEC. 30: North Alabama, 6:30 p.m.

JAN. 3: at Texas Tech, 7 p.m.

JAN. 6: Texas, 8 p.m.

JAN. 11: at Oklahoma, 1 p.m.

JAN. 15: TCU, 6:30 p.m.

JAN. 19: at Oklahoma State, 2 p.m.

JAN. 22: Kansas State, 6:30 p.m.

JAN. 25: Kansas, 2 p.m.

JAN. 28: at Baylor, 7:30 p.m.

FEB. 2: at West Virginia, 1 p.m.

Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly

A Cyclone

FEB. 5: Oklahoma State, 6:30 p.m.

FEB. 8: Oklahoma, 2 p.m.

FEB. 12: at Texas, 7 p.m.

FEB. 16: at TCU, noon FEB. 23: Texas Tech, 2 p.m.

FEB. 26: at Kansas State, 6:30 p.m.

FEB. 29: West Virginia, noon MARCH 3: at Kansas, 7 p.m.

MARCH 8: Baylor, noon MARCH 12 TO 15:Big 12 Tournament, Kansas City ,Mo.

2019-20 IOWA STATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

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IOWA STATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

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Sunday, November 3, 2019

Much has changed in the last 25 years, but ISU’s head coach, Bill Fennelly, has not

By Hayes Gardner

Staff Writer hgardner@amestrib.com

It’s not easy to list the things that have stayed the same over the past 25 years in the Iowa State women’s basketball program.

The facilities have changed: rather than competing for practice time at the Forker Building, the Cyclones practice at their own state-ofthe-art practice facility in the Sukup Basketball Complex.

The attendance has changed: going from a handful of hundreds to nearly 10,000 per game.

Even the conference and its members have changed: a quarter century ago, ISU

played in the Big Eight.

“When people say what’s changed: well, that was the crowd at our first game,” ISU coach Bill Fennelly told the Tribune last month at media day, gesturing to the gathered crowd of a dozen or so media members.

There wasn’t a media day 25 years ago. There simply wasn’t enough interest in the program.

That’s obviously changed, too. However, what has remained is the school’s colors and Fennelly himself.

He became the Cyclones head coach in 1995, and is now entering his 25th year at the program’s helm.

Fennelly took over a team that had gone 1-13 in conference in the previous

Bill Fennelly is in his 25th season as the Iowa State women’s basketball coach. He has led the Cyclones to 18 NCAA Tournament appearances, including five trips to the Sweet Sixteen and two trips to the Elite Eight, as well as one Big 12 regular-season championship and two Big 12 tournament titles. His career record of 671-315 includes eight 25-win seasons. PHOTO BY NIRMALNEDU MAJUMDAR/AMES TRIBUNE

IOWA STATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

year and constantly scrambled to get practice time at any number of gyms on campus.

“You were kind of piecemealing everything together,” Fennelly told the Tribune.

Stacy Frese was on ISU’s roster during Fennelly’s second year as a sit-out transfer. She remembers low attendance (“There was nobody at any of the games,” she said) and an early-season loss at Northern Iowa.

Fennelly wasn’t happy afterwards.

“He was talking about, he was going to quit, and I’ll never forget, because I’m like, ‘I just transferred! And now you’re going to quit?’”

Frese recalled.

Of course, he didn’t. ISU started winning, and fans starting showing up. Within a couple of seasons, the Cyclones were drawing large crowds to Hilton Coliseum, and in 1999, Fennelly’s fourth season in Ames, ISU reached the Sweet Sixteen and faced Connecticut.

UConn was a goliath in the women’s basketball world and would go on to win the NCAA Tournament the following season.

ISU’s scouting reports were typically labeled by player number, but for UConn, a well-known team with future WNBA players on it,

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Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly has led his team to 18 NCAA tournaments. PHOTO BY NIRMALENDU MAJUMDAR/AMES TRIBUNE

the Cyclones simply knew their foes.

“We were just like, ‘I have Shea (Ralph), you have Sue (Bird),’” former ISU player Angie Welle told the Tribune. “You know Connecticut. We’d watched them on TV.” Defeating such an iconic team was so far-fetched that Fennelly had packed his belongings, rather than leaving them at the hotel, since he was certain it would be their final game of the season.

However, ISU pulled off an improbable upset for what may be the biggest win in Cyclone history.

“Anyone who said they

“You gotta win. He’s been able to recruit and bring in players that buy into his system, or he creates a system around the player personnel that he has.”

Angie Welle, former Iowa State All-American

didn’t (pack) is lying,” Fennelly told the Tribune.

Added Welle: “I think we all had our bags packed.

We were ready to get on the plane after the game and

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Sunday, November 3, 2019

Iowa State women’s basketball coach Bill Fennelly gives away game tickets to Chick-Fil-A’s drive through customers. Community involvement has always been a big part of Fennelly’s program. PHOTO BY NIRMALENDU MAJUMDAR/AMES TRIBUNE

head home.”

There have been plenty of successful seasons since, including last year’s 26-win campaign, which resulted in a No. 3 seed for the Cyclones, and Fennelly now enters his 25th season at ISU. Only eight coaches in all of Division I women’s college basketball are more tenured at their school.

Welle cited the way that Fennelly has networked and connected with the Ames community as one of the reasons he’s been able to spend 2 1/2 decades as ISU’s head man.

“Now, he’s reaping the benefits of all the hard work

that he did,” Welle told the Tribune. “I know that as a player, we were always going to elementary schools and visiting nursing homes, and I think that is something that he really stands on.”

He’s also won 505 games during his time at ISU. That helps, too.

“You gotta win. He’s been able to recruit and bring in players that buy into his system, or he creates a system around the player personnel that he has,” Welle said last month at ISU’s women’s basketball alumni weekend.

That same weekend, Frese was asked by a recruit’s father about how

good the 2019-20 ISU team would be.

It’s not an easy question considering what the Cyclones graduated from a year ago, but still, Frese had an answer.

“I said, ‘You know they’re going to be — it doesn’t matter who he has — they’re going to be for sure in the middle of the pack, without even trying, just because he’s a good coach.

You know they’re at least always going to be there.

“If he gets the right players, and the right chemistry, then you have a team like last year, and they’re able to be at the top of the pack,” she told the Tribune.

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IOWA STATE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL PREVIEW

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Sunday, November 3, 2019

After an elongated wait, freshman could be the key at point guard for Cyclones

By Hayes Gardner

Staff Writer hgardner@amestrib.com

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw has been a fan of the Iowa State women’s basketball program since she was young, had birthday parties at Hilton Coliseum and always knew she wanted to play for the Cyclones. ISU realized long ago, too, that it wanted Espenmiller-McGraw to play for the Cyclones, and she committed to play for ISU as a freshman in high school. PHOTO BY NIRMALENDU MAJUMDAR/AMES TRIBUNE

There’s been a lot of waiting during Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw’s path to Iowa State.

She’s been a fan of the program since she was young, had birthday parties at Hilton Coliseum and always knew she wanted to play for the Cyclones.

ISU realized long ago, too, that it wanted Espenmiller-McGraw to play for the Cyclones, and she committed to play for ISU as a freshman in high school.

She attended Cyclones games throughout her life and was in attendance for the NCAA Tournament games ISU hosted as a No. 3 seed this past season.

That was the last time she would spectate as a future Cyclone, however, as the 5-foot-11 guard is now, at long last, on ISU’s roster.

“It’s probably one of the coolest things ever,” she told the Tribune of being a Cyclone. “I committed freshman year, so it feels like it’s been a big wait, and it’s finally here. It’s really exciting. Wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

However, her anticipated freshman season hit a snag before it even began. Just a few days into practices,

Espenmiller-McGraw had established herself as the team’s starting point guard, but then a health issue held her up. A ruptured ovarian cyst sidelined her for a week during the preseason, forcing the first year Cyclone to miss practices.

She was at the hospital during ISU’s media day, so the official team photo had to be rescheduled to include her.

“It’s all good now, but being out a week, I still missed a bunch,” she told the Tribune. “It was during a big learning part in practice, so that was kind of hard.”

It’s unknown if she’ll start ISU’s season opener — junior Rae Johnson is also contending for the point guard spot — but she’s still expected to play a big role on this team, likely as a starter by year’s end.

McGraw is a five-star prospect, according to ESPN (a four-star per Prospects Nation) and the No. 45 recruit in the country.

It’s the third-straight year ISU has brought in a top-50 five-star recruit, and each of the previous players started the bulk of their freshman season and were integral contributors.

Maddie Wise started 28 games as a freshman during the 2017-18 season, and Ashley Joens started all 35 last year. Both successfully made the massive jump from high school ball to the Big 12 and were among the top

freshmen in the conference.

Espenmiller-McGraw, who led Southeast Polk to the state title game last year, is aware how daunting that jump can be.

She played against the likes of Ames High a year ago, but this season, she’ll face the likes of Baylor. She tried to prepare herself for the increased level of play, but was still wowed when practice began.

“I knew it was going to be a big change. Everyone knows that it’ll be a big change,” she told the Tribune. “But I don’t think you actually realize how big of a change it is until you’re here, and you’re doing the work, and you’re here for the long hours.

“It’s been a big change, but I think I’m adjusting well.”

Espenmiller-McGraw is in a unique position for playing time. She’s played on the wing her entire career, but because ISU has no clear starter at point guard, coach Bill Fennelly encouraged Espenmiller-McGraw to build up her point guard skills during her 12th grade year in an effort to audition for the position.

The Cyclones have a pretty good idea who their point guard of the future will be, but those candidates — Emily Ryan and Lexi Donarski — will not spend their winter in Ames; they’ll be seeking state championships as seniors in high school.

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Sunday, November 3, 2019

So, point guard duties are likely to fall to Johnson, a backup each of the past two seasons, or Espenmiller-McGraw.

“We need another scorer, and Maggie can score. She can really shoot it. Her ballhandling’s better than we probably thought,” Fennelly said.

Johnson was a good backup last year; she wasn’t a playmaker, but made the right passes for ISU’s offense. EspenmillerMcGraw, however, could bring more firepower to the position, and that’s what will likely get her on the floor.

“I think if Maggie’s completely healthy and increases her level of effort that all freshmen go through, she’s probably our best option because she can give us some scoring,” Fennelly told the Tribune.

“She’s skilled, she’s long, she’s smart, so I like the combination of that.”

Espenmiller-McGraw immediately brought up defense when asked what the biggest adjustment was to the college level.

She could get away with taking a play off on defense during her high school days, but that isn’t the case anymore, when one break on that end can result in an easy bucket.

“Like most young

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw came to Iowa State as a five-star prospect. In leading Southeast Polk to a 21-4 record and a state runner-up finish last winter, she averaged 19.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game while shooting 55.9 percent from the field, 46.3 percent from 3-point range and 80.5 percent from the free-throw line. PHOTO BY NIRMALENDU MAJUMDAR/AMES TRIBUNE

“I think it’s the perfect opportunity, especially as a freshman. A lot of freshmen don’t get those opportunities, and I have it right in front of me, so it’s really exciting and motivates me to work a lot harder each day.”

Maggie Espenmiller-McGraw, Iowa State freshman guard

players, defense is a foreign language,” Fennelly said.

“She has no interest in understanding it yet, so we’ll get to that point.”

Because Wise played so much as a freshman, she understands the learning curve.

She said her eyes opened when she went through her first collegiate conditioning and first live action against a scout team.

“It’s a whole different ballgame,” Wise told the Ames Tribune. “She’ll see that. She’s recognizing that fast. Coach gets on her during practice, and we calm her down, so she’ll see that quick.

“But that’s definitely the biggest adjustment, not taking any days or any games lightly, because any given time, any given night,

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a team can come out and beat you.”

Senior and co-captain Adriana Camber is one of the Cyclones who has gone out of her way to bring Espenmiller-McGraw up to speed this season.

Camber saw some action as a freshman, and her biggest takeaway in making the jump to the Big 12 was staying confident.

“Really, it’s still basketball. They put on the shirts the same way that you put on your shirt in high school, so it’s not that different.

Obviously, it is a higher tempo, and better players, but as long as she keeps her confidence up, she’ll do great,” Camber told the Tribune.

“You just have to remember it’s basketball.”

It’s a tough task, a natural 2-guard playing point guard at the DivisionI level, but it’s also a chance for Espenmiller-McGraw to get on the court at Hilton Coliseum — a place she’s been so many times — and conclude her long wait.

“I think it’s the perfect opportunity, especially as a freshman,” she told the Tribune. “A lot of freshmen don’t get those opportunities, and I have it right in front of me, so it’s really exciting and motivates me to work a lot harder each day.”