THE MODERATOR: Welcome to the 2025 ACC Tipoff Q&A. I am happy to have the Miami women's basketball team on the stage with me represented by head coach Tricia Cullop going into her second season at the helm of Miami, as well as Gal Raviv and then veteran Ra Shaya Kyle. Ladies, thank you for joining me.
Tricia, you brought in the 15th ranked portal class consisting of seven players and combined that with the No. 10 ranked freshman class by ESPN-W. A lot of excitement in Miami right now. What should we expect from this team?
TRICIA CULLOP: Number one, we're bigger, faster, and stronger, which is music to my ears because this league is that.
Secondly, we can play fast offensively, and we can play aggressive defensively. We have the depth to sustain the level of play that we want to. That will be exciting for our fans.
THE MODERATOR: You've had a lot of success in your coaching career, 26th season now you're going into it. You look like you're 26 too, just so we're clear. As you went into the first year in the ACC what surprised you the most about this league?
TRICIA CULLOP: I don't think I was surprised by the talent, because when I was at Toledo, we had played Louisville, we had played Notre Dame, we had played multiple teams of that caliber.
But I think going through the league just the depth we needed to play the way we wanted to play was a little deeper than I imagined, but it was good because that really set the tone and the slate for recruiting of what we needed.
THE MODERATOR: I raved about both portal class and freshman class. Was there a certain emphasis? I mean, obviously recruiting is year-round, and you had already started. Was it more about this fits Tricia Cullop's coaching style or was it a little bit some of the lessons in year one of the ACC?
TRICIA CULLOP: Well, we wanted to get bigger, faster, stronger, without sacrificing what matters. So when we found players that were that, the next thing was, are they a good person? Are they a great teammate? Are they a great leader?
I'm a big culture person, and the winning that I've experienced in my career was all built on did we have kids who sacrificed for everyone and not just about themselves. We found that in all the players that we signed.
That's why I'm so excited about what we're building and what we have for this year, because all of them really work hard for each other, and our chemistry, even though we have 12 out of 14 new, is already in a really, really good place.
Q. For the players, is there a certain team or certain player that you look forward to playing this year other than, of course, Florida State, which is your rival? Then, Coach, is there a certain team that you look for on nonconference scheduling?
RA SHAYA KYLE: I'm looking forward to playing everybody in the ACC. I mean, this is my first year in this conference. I played a couple of these teams in the SEC, but I'm looking forward to playing everybody. I think everybody is going to be some competition. I think we're going to be competition for other people, but I'm excited for everyone.
GAL RAVIV: Same. I'm excited to play everyone, and I think this conference is a great competition, so I'm excited to play everyone.
TRICIA CULLOP: I think for me I'm excited about it, but I'm also excited that we are able to find some key matchups that I think will prepare us for league play.
So having the opportunity to go up to Orlando and play Iowa and play a Davidson team who has knocked off some power fours and then go down to Grand Caymen and have an opportunity to play Oklahoma State, who was top 25 last year, and then come back home and that stretch is pretty tight.
And play our SEC Challenge, which is Kentucky. But we're not going to take anybody lightly. We're going to start our regular season and get better every day.
THE MODERATOR: You mentioned first year in the ACC. You played in the Big Ten, you have played in the SEC, and now you're coming into the ACC. How do you portray your role this season, and what should we expect from you?
RA SHAYA KYLE: You should expect me to be a really good leader, be a good teammate, have fun out there. And I'm really competitive, so you are going to see me compete and play hard every possession on the floor. Every possession.
THE MODERATOR: Gal, 2025 MAC Player of the Year and rookie of the year. Why Miami?
GAL RAVIV: I think I had a great conversation with the coaching staff. Coach kept mentioning also about bringing great people, not just great players that I will have to play with. I think they could get me to where I want to be, so that's why I chose Miami.
THE MODERATOR: This question is for both of you young ladies. There's a lot of recruiting coming out of the portal. Both of you guys are transferring in. Why Tricia? Speak to her as a head coach and what's so special about her.
RA SHAYA KYLE: She's really special. I mean, she's been a part of my family for a really long time. She had a chance to coach my aunt at Toledo. I've heard nothing but great things about her.
She's for us. She's for our team. She comes in every day, and she does what she would expect us to do for her. She cares about us as people before players, which is a really big thing for me.
She's just very genuine. You can tell that she cares from her down to the whole coaching staff. Like she said, she's brought a good team in and people who really care about each other too, so just the environment. She touched on culture a little bit, and I'm a big culture person as well. Our culture at the University of Miami has been really good and is really good.
So I would just say, yeah, TC, lover her down bad. I mean, she's really good. I really love TC.
GAL RAVIV: Yeah, same. I think the biggest thing is that she cares about your success like it's her success. When I had a conversation with her before I committed, I think the trust that she put in me, that's what got me to trust in her too.
THE MODERATOR: Tricia, we were talking about this, the difference it feels right now this time of year from a year ago, still all new face from a year ago, mostly new faces this year. What is the biggest difference for you as the head coach?
TRICIA CULLOP: I think time. Any time you're building something of significance, it doesn't happen overnight. We had to build last year's team very fast and we did the best we could, but that's never a recipe for success.
Having a year to build this year's team and to know exactly what pieces we were going after and to be very picky. You know, if you want to build something special, the people that you pick to build every part of your organization have to be on point.
They said nice things, but I'll just say this: I love the people, and these two are a big part of it. We have great people, but we have great teammates and great leaders now that I feel like are going to run through the wall for each other, and that matters.
THE MODERATOR: Ra Shaya, you had a double-double in 50% of your games last season. That's a remarkable statistic. How do you want to build on that now in your last year of competition?
RA SHAYA KYLE: Try to make that 100%. No (laughing). I would just say keep working hard and keep buying into what my coach has planned for us, keep buying into all the coaches, buying into my strength coach, buying into the nutrition part of it.
Just doing what I got to do every day to keep tack is stacking on to those double-doubles. I would like to average a double-double for the whole season and that's my goal, but I can't do that without my teammates.
Just keep building, keeping our team together and listening to everything everybody has to say.
THE MODERATOR: You were a stats sheet stuffer a year ago, Gal, across the columns. Describe your game to the ACC fans out there.
GAL RAVIV: I think very competitive. I'm a person that wants to win. I will do everything to win. Yeah, I think that's, like, one thing that I would describe me as.
THE MODERATOR: Gal, do you like winning more or losing -- not that you like losing, but do you hate losing more than you love winning?
GAL RAVIV: That's a tough question. I hate losing. Like, I hate losing. My mind is just, like, not okay when I lose, but I think I like winning more. That's the goal at the end of the day, win. When we get to do that, then it's --
THE MODERATOR: One year now in the ACC, but there's some truly remarkable coaches in this league. What makes this league of coaches so special?
TRICIA CULLOP: I think number one, elite coaches that go out and recruit elite players. When you look at the players that left our league to go to the W last year, they were prepared. They didn't sit the bench. They played.
You've got coaches that are developing not only to be great in the ACC, but to be great beyond. I think that that is probably the biggest testimony of our league, is that there are players who started, players that took their teams deep into the W that are competing at extremely high level and we played against them a year ago and we're cheering for them now because they are representing our league at the highest level.
It is a great league, top to bottom. You have to be prepared every single night. I do credit a lot of that to the people that are leading the organizations in our league. We have great coaches.
THE MODERATOR: Ladies, a lot of newcomers. I'm going to ask each of you to give me the one player that maybe we don't know about right now that after a couple of weeks, everyone is going to be talking about.
RA SHAYA KYLE: I would probably say Jessica Peterson. Big presence down low as well. She's our four player. Can play four and five; very versatile. I think she just brings the grittiness. She's tough down low. She's going to go nail, nail, tooth and nail for us every game.
THE MODERATOR: Is she going to take some of your rebounds?
RA SHAYA KYLE: I mean, we both like the rebound. However we got to get it done, we're going to get it done.
THE MODERATOR: Good answers.
GAL RAVIV: I would say Amarachi. I think she's a three-level scorer, and I think she's a great defender on and off the ball. Great person as well, so I would say her.
THE MODERATOR: This is the last question. It's for each one of you, and Ra Shaya, we'll ask you to start. When I say "ACC women's basketball," what's the one word that comes to mind?
RA SHAYA KYLE: I would probably say competitive.
GAL RAVIV: That's what I was thinking. Competitive, yeah.
TRICIA CULLOP: Elite.
THE MODERATOR: Miami women's basketball, thank you so much for giving us your time today, and good luck this season.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports