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Message: [QUOTE="nwhoopfan, post: 2843674, member: 7894"] Q: What made Breanna Stewart and Natasha Howard so hard to deal with in this game? MIKE THIBAULT: They’re really good players. I mean, I don’t have any better answer than that. I think Natasha Howard is the biggest difference between their team last year and this year on the court, and I think Dan Hughes made a big difference off the court. I thought he did a terrific coaching job. Defensively they had a better identity this year. But I think Natasha is just so active. She was the perfect complement to Breanna Stewart. The two of them learned how to play off each other. They’re both active and mobile, and Natasha Howard has a will about her to get on the boards and to move and cut. I got a chance to see her kind of up close in college when my daughter was working at Florida State, and you could just see how athletic she could be, it was just how long it was going to take her to figure out her role in the pro game, and she’s figured it out really well right now. Not to take anything away from Stewie, she definitely earned regular season and finals MVP. But you have to give a lot of credit to Howard. Seattle doesn't win a Title, doesn't get to the Finals w/out Howard. She's the single biggest difference between last year and this year for the Storm. Coach Thibault definitely saw this. I think Minnesota is going to be kicking themselves for a long time for letting her go. She's clearly much better than Brunson now and probably is about as good as Brunson ever was. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach