Scott Agness, Fieldhouse Files Fever Reporter

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Minimum $10 per order, additional term supply. Scott, thank you for taking the time to join us. Yeah, my pleasure. You're right, though. This is all everybody's talking about right now. And so it's been a lot of fun, although some of the some of the conversation obviously is steered towards a dark place in some points. It has. It has. It is.

It is kind of crazy. Well, listen, Scott, you're on the scene. You've seen the integration from the minute that she was drafted. We knew it was going to happen. It's taken place. She's played 11 games. She's had her up. She's had her downs. And of course, we had the ugly incident on on Saturday, which is now we've received almost, I guess, a semi apology from Teresa Weatherspoon. Comments from Angel Reese about 40 minutes ago about how the spotlight is here. People are tuning in because of her, too. Where do things stand currently in Indy when it comes down to Kaitlyn Clark and the fever?

How do they block this out? What's the latest? Yes. So the main thing right now is finally the team is getting a break. They've played 11 games in 20 days, just an outrageous schedule by the WNBA and its league partners, though you can somewhat understand it, too, because all these networks want to showcase Kaitlyn and this fever team. But make no mistake, it is because of Kaitlyn.

This team was so bad the last couple of years. That's the reason they were able to draft a Leah Boston in a draft Kaitlyn. And then she brings in her audience and a whole new audience of viewers just liking women's basketball and what she did at Iowa and what that rookie class did as well. And so in part of that, now the fever have been featured in all these games.

It's been fascinating. Rebecca Lobo of ESPN a couple of days ago previewing that game with the sky was asked about the league and she was like, yeah, I've only been on broadcast of fever games this season because of the front loaded TV network stuff and the fact how much they want to spotlight Kaitlyn. So for the team right now, hopefully they've tuned everything out and are at the pool right now and doing whatever they want. Players last night in New York were talking to just ready to sleep in.

On the other side of that, I think we're probably all ready to get back to basketball because the conversation has steered far wide right of anything but basketball. Scott Agnes covers the fever. The fever are back in action this Friday in Washington, D.C. Kaitlyn Clark, you know, she has every right in the world to kind of complain at every press conference. And I know she got a bunch of texts. She has every right to complain, but she hasn't.

What is she saying? What is the team saying internally about the treatment? Yeah, internally, the team's been very frustrated, not just this week, but the last several weeks about the way in which she is not getting calls.

And it goes beyond that cheap shot by Kennedy Carter. We, I think, all can agree that was not a basketball move and should have been a flagrant foul in the moment. But it goes beyond that, just the physicality in which opponents are playing. Fans that maybe haven't watched would be surprised that opponents, every opponent, are picking up her full court, like 94 feet, as if this is a playoff game.

Instead, it's game six of the season right now. So the intensity level is ramped up. I think every single game, she's getting the best shot from opponents and the individual players. They don't want to be the team that she lights up for 40. And so she's getting the attention to detail. And more than that, and a quality note, is she's selling out arenas. The Fever have already had more fans come through and watch home games and five home games than they did all last season. And several teams she's played against at L.A., at Vegas, have set franchise records for their largest attended games.

Connecticut had their first or their largest sellout going back 20 years since their first game in Connecticut since moving there. And so that truly is the Caitlinomics or the Caitlin Clark effect, whatever you'd like to describe it as. Well, Scott, when you talk about more of the basketball. Yeah.

Aliyah Boston last year, Caitlin Clark this year. When you talk about what's going on on the court and I see the games and I look at the box scores, I see the turnovers. What's going on on the basketball side? Is it are they getting used to her or are they kind of hanging back?

Like, what's wrong? The biggest thing is lack of practice time. They just haven't had much time to bold and shape together. I think they've probably had one real practice since training camp several weeks ago.

So that, in addition to getting some break and sleeping in, is what they're looking forward to this week and having a real schedule now, because now things lighten up and they have two and three days between games, whereas they're coming off a week right here where they just played two sets of back to back games in a week. And so, yeah, you're seeing the turnovers are probably high, mostly due to her making those throw ahead passes or quick, quick whips of the ball. And teammates just unfamiliar, not used to having a teammate that is able to deliver those passes. And also, to be fair, she's gambled a little bit more than she probably should here in the early onset. And the defenders have done a nice job of applying pressure and blitzing her on the wings.

And they're obviously more athletic and are lengthier. And so a couple of times these games, she's having trouble throwing it over and making that pass that ordinarily would easily clear through. So I think more than anything in time, that'll clean up a little bit. And then on top of that, just the lack of being on the same wavelength, I think, with teammates, which will always come in time. They've barely been together a month now, though. Scott Agnes covers the Fever and the Pacers out in Indy. Do you think ultimately this was a mistake by the WNBA to front load their games? I mean, they played 11 games and we have some other squads. I don't think they've even really cracked six. Yeah, you talk about the Aces. Probably the most interesting team as a group, no doubt. Back-to-back chance.

They've played only six games. And I think a compromise would have been better. You can totally understand this, yeah, right? Like, you need to showcase Kaitlyn, who constantly brings ratings no matter what you do. She had the best-selling draft jersey of all time, Fanatic says.

The draft was the most-watched 5x any previous draft in year over year. So you can understand that, but I think you're right. They did set her up and the team up for failure here in the early going by the lack of practice time. And it seems like every other night you turn on the TV, there is a fever. And it's like, all right, that's detrimental to what they're trying to do here.

And the other context I should add in this conversation is the entire schedule is bumped up and more condensed within 90 days because of the Olympic break, which they lose about three weeks of the season. Scott Agnes is here with us. When you talk about the team and what they need to do moving forward, there's a lot that's been said about no one standing up for her on that play, following that play on Saturday. Do you feel that? Are her own teammates handling her with kid gloves? I mean, it's obvious a lot of the league is jealous.

Do you sense that there could be some of that inside as well? Yeah, that's the thing I'm curious about, mostly just because you need somebody to step up. Maybe everybody's too nice out there or maybe they're walking a little bit on eggshells.

And, you know, my biggest thought in all this is everybody's concerned kind of with their own well-being and trying to make it right. Like this is a group that was at the bottom of the WNBA in the last several years. Really, the fever has not been relevant since 2016 since Tamika Catchings retired. And so you've got a lot of individuals trying to prove it.

Now, some certainly have been proven right. Kelsey Mitchell, a top overall pick. She's been with the franchise the longest, I think, seven years now.

Certainly not her. But Katie Lou Samuelson trying to get back in the WNBA after being on maternity leave all last year. Aliyah Boston, as good as she is, she hasn't established herself yet in the WNBA, right? She has one year under her belt. So who's going to be that nasty player?

We're here in Indiana. I joke that the Pacers signed James Johnson to be the team security guard in addition to providing that leader. Like, I don't want to discount that.

But at the same time, there is a reason, year after year, he's voted in those polls as the guy you least want to mess with. And so when the Pacers went into Milwaukee and you had Bobby Portis and you had Gameball Gate with Giannis Andetokounmpo, after all of that, they signed James Johnson. And guess what?

Nobody messed with Tyrese or the Pacers. It feels like the fever maybe could benefit from something like that. If I was the fever, and I mean this in all seriousness, I would bring James Johnson into the team this week, if he's still in town, and talk about that leadership and teamwork and how, hey, if she's feeling uncomfortable, you all should feel uncomfortable. You're in this together. Oh, that would be cool. Either that or they signed a Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter. I mean, that's a possibility too, Scott.

Why not? There's something like that. But there's no doubt something like that needs to change. And it was good for me, I think, to finally see the GM, Lynn Dunn, and Coach Christy Sides be a little bit more outspoken. They had kind of toed the line.

And if anything, I would have liked to see it earlier and away from Twitter as well. Like, I asked Christy Sides a couple times, and she'd turn, hey, I don't want to get fined here. It's like, that's all well and good, but maybe you should.

I know it's much different money than the NBA. I totally understand that. Yet at the same time, if your job is connected to Kaitlyn Clark, you better stay with it and do all you can to make sure you protect her, or else she's not going to last with this physicality for the rest of the season, playing at this rate. So I'd like to see them as well, in addition to the players, be more outspoken and in support of what I'm already calling the franchise. Hey, well, Scott, do you think that there's a concern from Coach that, you know, she may not be long for the job?

I can understand why that could be a thought, and certainly a lot of people online, that's what they're talking about. But I think we have to give her a fair share and fair opportunity. And right now, just because of the schedule, I don't think it's fair to judge what we've seen out there. But I can understand where she's feeling that, and certainly all the fans of Kaitlyn Clark directly correlating to, hey, bring in Lisa Blut or her Iowa coach doesn't have a job, she retired. But it's like, yeah, she hasn't coached in the pros either, but she would have that familiarity. So I could understand that sentiment, but I think you've got to give this head coach, at least through the season, to see what they can do with this group. Hey, Scott, you know, having seen Kaitlyn Clark here, we've seen her with a 30-point game, we saw her, unfortunately, with the injury yesterday to her year, 3 points. Where do you think she stacks up-wise?

Basketball. I mean, we don't know what the end of the season is going to look like with 3 years, but there are massive expectations. What are your thoughts on what she's been able to do so far and where she could go?

Yeah, so far I think they're just trying to figure it out, and I think it has mostly been encouraging. Obviously, Sunday at New York, several different things went wrong, and mostly they were just saying, hey, their legs are tired, they were exhausted, and the entire team played that way, but Kaitlyn individually had her worst individual performance going back to her freshman year in college. It was just a trying one that, sadly for the Fever, because of the physicality, left both No. 1 picks, Kaitlyn and Aaliyah Boston, in the locker room basically to finish games with injury.

So, if that doesn't speak to this Fever season, to the start of the season, I don't know what does. But with Kaitlyn, I think the game will slow down for her a little bit. I think she's done a great job adapting to the physicality, not calling it out, not being whiny, not saying where are the calls, even though I think she has deserved more calls than she has gotten to this point. And I think she's handled it very nicely in terms of when asked about the Kennedy-Carter incident.

She goes, hey, look, it wasn't a basketball play, but I tried to move on, and guess what, I went down, I made the free throw, and remember they won by one point, so that mattered. But I think the growing pains have showed for everybody on this roster. It's not a great team yet, but I think it's something that if they have a good, productive practice time here over the next couple of weeks, then they can settle in, and I think we'll have a much better idea of what this team actually looks like for the season. Hey, Scott, one more question for you. I know you cover the Fever, you also cover the Pacers.

How's Halliburton doing? We saw him at the game. Is he going to be ready for Paris? Are those hamstrings going to be okay? Yeah, that's the plan, but I don't think fans truly understood how much of a different player he was since that hamstring in January, where he was truly playing at a first-team, all-MBA level. And then after that, one thing led to the next, and that triggered the sore back, then he rolled the ankle, and so now it's all about just laying low, getting rest here over the next month. He's about to go on a vacation, I believe, and that's exactly what he needs. Remember, he's been playing since Team USA World Cup in late July, early August last year. And if you want to go back to the Kaitlyn Clark thing, there was no break for those women that are coming off the college basketball season, all the way from September going right into the WNBA season. So that's got to be exhausting, not only for Kaitlyn, but that entire roster. Yeah, listen man, fresh legs!

You've got to have them. We'll see what happens. We'll see what Halliburton does in Paris, and we'll certainly much sooner see what Kaitlyn Clark does as they get back into action.

The Fever do against Washington this Friday. Hey Scott, I appreciate you taking the time. Where can people follow you and your great work with the Pacers and the Fever? Yeah, so I'm at fieldhousefiles.com, and because of Kaitlyn, a lot of action on my Fieldhouse Files YouTube page, if you just search Scott Agnes, basically all those press conferences.

The comments, as the kids would say, are lit with hundreds of people describing every which decision and move by the coaches, by the officials. It's a wild place right now, but I appreciate having me on. No doubt about it.

We'll catch you soon, Scott. Hopefully it's a better conversation than some of this hate that she's received, you know? Yeah, for sure. I've got to feel for her, being a rookie and not only having to figure out the league, but being thrusted into this, you know, I don't know.

This conversation, this discourse that she has no control over whatsoever has got to make things even more difficult. Most definitely. Well, Scott, we'll catch you on down the line, and safe travels.

Enjoy the basketball, okay? Okay. Appreciate it.

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