Locked On Women’s Basketball: Tammi Reiss talks 3-on-3 ahead of Olympics and Rhode Island’s 2024-25 season

Reiss has coached 3-on-3 teams for Team USA since 2022, competing in both the Women’s Series tour and national team competitions. Notably, she was the head coach of the 2023 gold medalist U21 Nations League Final team. Heavren and Reiss first spoke about the upcoming Olympics and what the opportunity means to Reiss.

“This has been a lifelong dream,” Reiss said. “Ever since I was in the sixth grade, I had a goal list of 150 hopes and dreams, and being able to represent Team USA and go for the gold was top three on my list. And so it’s taken 54 years, but it’s finally here. As an athlete, as a coach, this is the ultimate dream.”

They also discussed Reiss’ path to coaching 3-on-3, and how she came to be involved with the national team and head coach Jen Rizzotti.

“I had always wanted to be a part of USA basketball, and it’s hard to get involved because … you needed to be a head coach for five on five,” Reiss, who earned her first head coaching position at Rhode Island in 2019, explained. “But Jen Rizzotti had given me a call, we have mutual people we know, and two years ago in Springfield was the training camp they had and she said, ‘Hey, Tammy, you want to come up and assist me in running this 3×3, I’m going to be the head coach.’ And I said, ‘I’d love to.’ And that’s how I got involved. And then every summer since I’ve dedicated my summer to, whether it’s the Women’s Series, whether it’s U23 Nations League or U21, just coaching and gaining as much experience in the sport and getting in the pipeline.”

“And then I got the call from USA Basketball [3×3 national team director] Jay Demings and [Rizzotti], and they asked me to be the assistant coach for the Olympics. And so it’s two long years of paying your dues, but that’s what it takes and really learning the sport. It is very different than five-on-five. So that I was just blessed that USA Basketball trusted me enough and that Jen Rozzotti liked working with me and thought I did a good job,” she continued.

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They wrapped up the discussion with a review of last year’s Atlantic 10 season for Rhode Island, and where Reiss hopes the team will go in the upcoming 2024-25 season.

“I think last year was not the year we wanted. We had 22 wins, we had a great season, lost in the conference finals to Richmond. But it was a season of adversity, it really was. A lot of injuries, a lot of different things,” Reiss said. ” … So what I learned was to really start preparing the team, not just grind every game throughout the season, but where we want to go at the end of the year … I think I’ve always put such a premium on regular season, that I lose sight of that sometimes … So coming into this year … we have a lot of new faces, we lost a lot. But I have the team on campus now in summer school, and I love the way they compete. I love the way they work hard. I don’t have to beg any of them to get after it. They just show up and they work hard and so they’re very fun group to coach. I love that about them. … I’m really going to focus on getting us better each segment, preseason, nonconference, conference and growing us and being patient with that, especially with our younger kids. And so last year, I think prepared me for this year.”

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