The shared sense in the Sky locker room, in Wintrust Arena, in the group chats of die-hard fans, is that the season should be going better. They brought in enough big names — and even discovered a hidden gem in rookie guard Sydney Taylor — that they shouldn’t be faltering against the rebuilding Mystics and the expansion Tempo.
They weren’t supposed to be 4-9.
Coach Tyler Marsh knows this. He speaks nobly about it. He keeps putting the onus on himself to be better. He keeps defending the roster, even though it’s been an odd collection from the start.
And to his credit, his players are still preaching accountability. Veteran point guard Natasha Cloud confessed that she needs to stop chirping at the officials and provide more poise. Young center Kamilla Cardoso believes the team needs to execute the little things better.
Most players are adamant that their troubles — the slow starts, the missed boxouts, the clanked 3-pointers — are fixable.
But at this point, talking about it won’t change much. The reality is that Marsh — handed a roster with lofty expectations and now reeling from eight losses in nine games — is on the hot seat.
And the only way to cool off is to get the team back in the playoff hunt.
From where the Sky sit, having dug themselves a 12th-place hole, that climb looks daunting. It would mean stepping over the Mystics, Fire, Tempo and Sparks, none of whom appear to be slowing down. It would mean actually fixing the problems they’ve been talking about for weeks.
They can start by stringing together a .500 record for the rest of the month.
Wins against the Liberty, Wings and Aces won’t come easy, but they also play the Sun (15th) once and the Fire (ninth) twice. Break even over the next six, and they could set themselves up for a hot stretch heading into the All-Star break.
Picture the Sky starting July at 7-12, with Courtney Vandersloot back in the saddle. She’s been practicing since June 5, so she could legitimately return in the next couple of weeks. If the Sky’s gnarliest issues really are execution and poise, a floor general’s return should provide some immediate relief.
If the Sky keep losing, though?
Then the pressure on Marsh keeps building. And it’s not the fun kind.
It makes no allowances for the fact that this is Marsh’s first job as a head coach — at any level. Or that he’s caught some tough breaks: he lost the most important piece of the puzzle to a torn ACL two seasons in a row — last year Vandersloot, this year leading scorer Rickea Jackson. Or that his 10-34 record in last season owed mostly to shoddy roster construction.
This is his first time getting his hands on the good clay, and he could use some time to learn from his mistakes.
In today’s WNBA, though, coaches aren’t given much time to master the wheel. The Sky’s own recent history — firing coach Teresa Weatherspoon after one losing season — looms over him.
Fair or not, the only way out is to win.