Trisha Stafford-Odom knows how to get someone excited. The longtime women’s basketball coach, former WNBA player and ace NCAA recruiter is relentlessly positive and excited for what’s to come. How could she not be? Her Charlotte Crown, one of the four inaugural teams in the Upshot League, are heading to the first ever championship series with her in the dual-role of head coach and general manager.

“It's a good feeling, man, to feel like a winner as a player, as a scout, as a general manager in this instance, majorly, and as a coach, feels pretty darn good,'“ she says.

While it’s long been discussed that the lack of roster availability in the WNBA makes it one of the hardest leagues to catch on in, Upshot is a new league — meant to be something of a G-League equivalent for the W — where players and coaches can both remain a part of a basketball pipeline without going to Europe.

But that doesn’t mean it’s a fun participatory game. Whether it’s her players or Stafford-Odom herself, there is a clear air of seriousness from Charlotte heading into the weekend.

They want to win. It means something here.