The Dallas Wings dropped their second consecutive game on Friday night in blowout fashion, falling 94-76 to the Golden State Valkyries. After a back-and-forth first quarter, the Valkyries pulled away starting in the second, and Dallas was never quite able to recover.
The loss dropped Dallas to seventh in the WNBA standings, and head coach Jose Fernandez didn’t make excuses for his unit, instead calling for accountability from the professional athletes he’s leading.
“I think confidence is great, but, you know, we also got to take individual accountability,” he said when asked about instilling confidence in his team.
“Along with that confidence, we— I mean, they got to, they got to, they got to get on each other a little bit more. You know, it can’t just be the coaching staff. So you can breed all the confidence you want, but I mean, get down and defend, keep your guy in front of you, have multiple efforts. Shot goes up, block out.”
Fernandez didn’t let his players fall back on the excuse of fatigue heading into the home stretch of the regular season either.
“I think everybody in the league this time of the year has fatigue,” he said. “Look at Vegas and Indiana yesterday and the minutes all those guys played. 32 games in. They got guys that played in the All-Star Game. They got guys going to the World Cup break. I mean, sh*t, we got to quit making excuses, man.”
At the end of the presser, Fernandez was asked about finding the “jolt” his team needs to be successful to close out the season, and he made it clear he feels it has to come from within his unit.
“Speaker 2 (00:07:36.13)
How do we find it? Well, you guys can ask that question to the players as well.”
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.