January excited about double duty
WNBA star can’t wait to get started in Ariz. State role
Briann January grew up, as she likes to put it, in a house full of ninjas.
Her father teaches karate and owns a martial arts studio in Spokane, Wash. Her mother is a second-degree black belt. Her younger sister has a black belt — and got hers before January did, which spurred January to finally earn hers in taekwondo at the end of her freshman year of high school.
Martial arts was just one of a handful of hobbies that dotted January’s childhood; She played soccer and softball, ran track and played the trumpet in the marching band. Of course, she also played basketball — and played it well.
January, 30, now realizes that what her father told her about martial arts and basketball — it will help you when you fall, for example — has been true. And perhaps it has helped her — over the course of her exceptional collegiate career at Arizona State, her nine-year WNBA career and her foray into coaching — more than she ever could have imagined.
“There are so many things that you learn within martial arts that carries over into not only just basketball but life,” January says. “One of the major things for me is just to be able to recenter myself. There’s so much going on. When you’re on the court, and you have a few bad possessions. Or somebody’s not shooting well. You’ve got to get somebody locked in. There are a lot of moving parts, and you just sometimes just got to take a second and be able to regroup, center yourself real quick, and then focus, really lock in at the task at hand, which probably is the next possession. That is the biggest thing for me, as well as just being able to move my body. To avoid body contact and just roll off of people. Whether it’s a post player trying to post you up and pulling the chair, swimming over. Keeping your balance. Those type of things.”
These lessons translate into every area of life. They’ve worked well on the basketball court for January as a player. Now, we’ll see how well they work as she begins her coaching career in earnest as an Arizona State assistant — at the same time.
January isn’t the first WNBA player to pull double duty, playing the full season and coaching in college in the offseason, but she will do so in her prime. January is the face of the Indiana Fever and in the middle of her ninth season with them. Neither she nor Arizona State head coach Charli Turner Thorne knows how many years she has left in the tank, but neither one is concerned.
CORE VALUES
January never cared if she started, her coach said. And she probably could have started as a freshman, though the team’s rotation worked better if she came off the bench — which didn’t really bother January. She led the Sun Devils in assists and steals anyway.
“I’m sure in her mind she wanted to start, but she played because she loved the game,” Tur- ner Thorne said. “She never cared. … That’s why I like her selflessness, who she is. It’s what our program stands for, and it’s probably what every coach would want one of their assistants to represent and emulate.
“I use her as an example all the time with my own team and in clinics. She was incredibly refreshing. She exemplifies our core values. How we feel like we talk about ourselves, what we strive to be, who we are is very, ‘giving ourselves over to the greater good.’ ”
January remains Arizona State’s career leader in assists and free throw percentage. She’s second in steals and ninth in scoring. Her college career spanned 2006 to 2009 — she was the Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year twice — which included an Elite Eight run in 2009. She was drafted by the Fever sixth overall in the 2009 draft, became the team’s starting point guard in 2011 and has spent the entirety of her career with the same team. (The Fever won the WNBA title in 2012.)
Each of the last three offseasons, Turner Throne has offered January the chance to speak to her team about whatever she pleases. Each time, she knew exactly what and how to connect with the players — one of a number of signs Turner Thorne has noticed during the last few years as she has watched January unintentionally (and intentionally) prepare herself for coaching.
“I remember getting a super long text from Turkey when she was playing, too,” Turner Thorne said. “She goes, ‘Hey Charli, watched a couple games.’ … Then there’s just paragraphs of spot-on analysis of what she saw and what she liked and some things she hoped we were gonna be getting better at and whatever. I just smiled when I got them, like, ‘OK, good. This is good. She’s thinking about the next step.’ ”
PATH TO COACHING
Turner Throne has long believed January would end up in coaching. But January wasn’t convinced until three years ago. She had known she had had some incredible coaches in her life, from Turner Thorne to Lin Dunn and Stephanie White, and that they had had such a huge impact.
In 2014, through a partnership between Adelphi University and the WNBA, January joined the staff of the Division II women’s basketball program for its season.
“I was exhausted, but I loved it,” January said. “I loved every day. I showed up at the gym, and I loved it. I was just fueled up. I was like, ‘Well, I guess that’s telling.’ I thought I’d just give it a try, just to see what it was about, and ended up loving it.”
Still, at that point, it was somewhat theoretical, tied to some faroff team in the future, and perhaps she’d be lucky enough someday to end up at her alma mater. But that became a real prospect this spring, when Turner Thorne’s assistant, Amanda Levens, was hired as Nevada’s head coach.
Turner Thorne called January at the end of March to check in on her former star, who was just finishing up her season playing overseas.
“So, are you ready?” Turner Thorne asked.
“Ready for what?” January replied.
“To be a double.” January called friends who had done the playing/coaching double, such as Alysha Clark, who did it with her alma mater, Middle Tennessee State, in 2014. She realized not only was it possible, it also could work well at the right place, with the right coaching staff and the right fit.
“(Current Vanderbilt head coach) Steph White actually told me, ‘Playing made me a better coach, and coaching made me a better player,’ ” January said. “You’ve got to constantly be learning.
“For me to be able to go start where they are right now and make it to where I am now, nine years in the league with a championship — I feel like I’ve really experienced a lot, and I want to give that back to them.”
While she’s physically apart from the team, January has started to study. She watched games last season, but she’s rewatching them (plus a lot more film) as she prepares for fall practices and individual workouts to come. She’s also learning about and watching other Pac-12 teams when she has time.
“I’m good with her playing as long as she can in the WNBA,” Turner Thorne said. “I have a really strong staff. We have a lot of the complementary positions. They’re non-coaching positions, but people that can do a lot of work for us and gain a lot of experience when Bri’s not here. … We have plenty of womanpower or manpower to hold down the fort.
“There’s probably no better recruiting than your former player/assistant coach getting it done in the WNBA.”