In first year as Indiana Fever assistant, Briann January brings ‘intensity,’ Spokane connection with Lexie Hull

LAS VEGAS – As Spokane native Briann January was on the downside of her playing career, Stephanie White was blossoming as a young women’s basketball coach.

January played under White when she was an assistant with the Indiana Fever from 2011-14, and in her first stint as head coach in 2015 and 2016.

When White left to accept the head coaching position at Vanderbilt, she was certain of one thing.

“I wanted (Briann) on my staff,” said White, now in her first year back as coach of the Fever, during the team’s recent visit to Las Vegas. “And then I had to wait and wait and wait until she finally retired from playing to get her on staff.”

January joined White in Connecticut as an assistant in 2023 and the two have been a dynamic duo since.

“She’s a great teacher,” White added. “Her mindset is something that you can’t teach in the way that she approaches every day. She was always a heady player. She’s a player’s coach, has a great relationship with players.”

It’s a much-needed asset this season with the coaching tandem in its first year guiding the roster under one of the biggest WNBA microscopes we’ve seen in years, with second-year player Caitlin Clark and high expectations fueling the Fever and igniting an excited city fresh off watching its brethren advance to the NBA Finals.

Indiana, which has opened the season with an underwhelming 8-8 mark, came into the season listed as one of the favorites to win the WNBA title. Clark is the second choice to take home MVP honors.

“I think everybody knows the attention that Indiana has gotten since Caitlin’s gotten here,” January said. “And rightfully so, there’s been a lot of good basketball going on there. And for us to come here, go back home essentially, for Steph, and for me going back to Indy is like my second home being there for nine years … makes it feel good.”

The mentees

One of the biggest messages from Clark during her introductory news conference before her rookie season was a need to improve her defensive skills.

Now in her sophomore year in the league, she couldn’t ask for a better mentor than January, the 2005 graduate of Lewis and Clark High School who was named to seven WNBA All-Defensive teams, including five first teams.

White calls January the team’s “head of the snake on the defensive end.”

“I think the thing I love about her is her intensity,” Clark said. “She brings it every single day. She’s in drills, she’s guarding us, and I think for myself as a point guard, she understands what defenses are going to try to do to me.

“She understands what I need to do offensively, so she’s really helped me and just such a strong basketball mind.”

Fellow Spokane native Lexie Hull, who’s been a member of the Fever since they drafted her in the first round with the sixth overall pick in 2022, couldn’t be happier with someone who brings many mental similarities because of where they both grew up.

January and Hull are defensive specialists, and both played for the Spokane Stars AAU club under Ron Adams. Speaking the same basketball language has been a blessing.

“She’s incredible,” Hull said. “To be able to have someone with that common knowledge is really cool. But then to have someone who’s just an incredible basketball mind, huge basketball IQ, being able to learn from her, she’s just really smart when it comes to the game. She sees the game at a very high level. So trying to soak up as much as I can from her.”

On the flip side, if there is anyone who misses January, it’s former Sun and current member of the Las Vegas Aces, Tiffany Mitchell.

The two played together when Mitchell was a rookie with the Fever in 2016, and January coached her in Connecticut last season.

“She’s like an extension of my family to me, I love her,” Mitchell said. “Her IQ of the game, the way she approaches the game and the knowledge that she has and wants to give to people, especially on the defensive side, I was really excited to be back reunited with her when I went to Connecticut.

“I have a lot of love for Briann; she’s an amazing person. You can tell she just loved the game, wants to be around the game and just wants to help the next generation.”

The mentor

Aside from the obvious, White needing January to handle the defensive duties, she also knew how important it was to bring her along as a mentor.

There was much more than experience and knowledge, it was having someone who appreciated the women as human beings and off the court as much as she does on it.

That’s something January said comes naturally.

“I just think back to myself being a player, and what helped me the most,” said January, who won a WNBA title with the Fever in 2012. “One, is just knowing you have somebody that actually cares about you and genuinely wants you to succeed. It’s not just on the court, it’s off the court. Making sure you’re good in life. And I think when that’s taken care of, then you can go out there and have fun, play this game like it’s supposed to be played.

“But also just being authentic and truthful to them. I’m one that’s not gonna beat around the bush. I’m gonna shoot it to you straight. And I think my players appreciate it, and I meet them where they’re at and we just kind of grow together. And I’ve really enjoyed my journey as a coach so far, because I’ve had some phenomenal players.”

That includes the stacked rosters in Connecticut where the Sun contended in the Eastern Conference the past two seasons, to this year’s Fever team that is loaded with talent and is capable of making run into the postseason.

January said despite two entirely different rosters in Connecticut and Indianapolis, she’s proud of the brand of basketball her and White have implemented with the Fever.

With the rabid talk of increased physical play in the WNBA, and Clark seemingly having a target on her back, January has taken it upon herself to make sure all her players are prepared.

“I do feel like our girls have embraced that physicality that we want to see,” January said. “I’m not going to shy away from it, and I don’t want them to back down, because in this league if you do back down, teams are just going to take it to you. And so we’re going to hold our ground. We’re going to continue to work within the rules, whatever those are, per game, because they change.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed every day stepping on the court with them, because they just work their butts off, and they want to learn. They want to get better. So you can’t ask for more.”