Marie Ferdinand knew the transition from college basketball to the WNBA would be tough, if not physically then it would be mentally. She had a new system to learn, new teammates to meet and a new coach to guide her through the process.

Nothing she had experienced before prepared her for what happened July 6.

"To this day, I can still remember that day," Ferdinand said, five weeks later. "We had a game that night, we were all in the locker room crying. It was crazy."

About two hours before the Starzz were to meet the Rockers at the Delta Center in Salt Lake, Utah head coach Fred Williams resigned, noting it was "time for a change." Assistant Candi Harvey would guide the team for the rest of the season.

"I was thinking to myself, 'Oh my God. Only in the pros can something like this happen,'" Ferdinand said. "We had to wipe away our tears and go out and play a game."

Slightly dazed from the day's events, the then 5-8 Starzz took the floor and haven't looked back since. They beat Cleveland the night Williams resigned, going 14-5 under Harvey to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history.

Successful turnarounds after getting a new coach at midseason are rare. Yet, when two teams change coaches, make the playoffs and meet in the first round, it's rarer still. The Starzz take on the Sacramento Monarchs, another team which made a midseason coaching change, in a Western Conference First Round series.

To turn the season around, a team has to believe in the new leadership. Monarchs coach Maura McHugh, who was 14-6 in the regular season after taking the reigns when Sonny Allen resigned June 25, has seen her players respond.

"It's been great," McHugh said. "I need to thank the players. They got behind the plan, really came together for me. I have nothing but great respect and admiration for them and my staff.

"But it was unexpected. You really don't have any way to prepare yourself. You just step back and ask yourself, 'What do we do now? How do we proceed?'" Sacramento proceeded quite well as they secured the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. To get them back on track, McHugh saw what had to be fixed and went about doing it.

"We had to fix a little bit of everything," McHugh said, "but it all started on defense. We fixed what we could fix in the limited practice time we have in this league.

"But more than anything, our defensive energy was low. We weren't playing as well as we could and our fundamentals were off. We weren't guarding the ball, we weren't boxing out and rebounding. Those were things we could fix in a short time, and it's made a difference in wins and losses."

Defense has been the difference with the Starzz as well. Harvey made it a priority when she took over.

"We have played with a lot of passion, we played harder and we've gotten better defensively," Harvey said. "I demanded they get better defensively. We're giving up 60-65 points a game now, but when I took over, we were giving up about 75 points a game.

"The better defense you play, the less pressure there is to execute in the half court offense. We can run on some people."

With four players averaging in double figures, the Starzz can execute the offense. All-Star forward Natalie Williams, who provided Utah with 14.2 per game during the season, said the change gave the Starzz the boost and focus they needed at the time.

"I really like her energy and I think she does a great job of preparing us for games," Williams said. "She focuses on what other teams do best and working on taking that away.

"She's really brought us together as a unit and helped us realize the importance of each individual possession of the game. We're working the ball around for the best shot, and I think we're playing well together."

Monarchs All-Star Ruthie Bolton-Holifield says the coaching change also brought Sacramento together at a tough time.

"I think she's motivated us," Bolton-Holifield said. "She let us know why we're here. Sometimes you play the game for so long, you lose focus. She brought us back to reality. We needed to have discipline and we needed to seize the moment."

McHugh noticed the lack of focus.

"We were an underachieving team that was searching," McHugh said. "People were asking, 'What's wrong with Sacramento?'

"That was the first thing we had to do. We had to figure out what was wrong and set a goal. Our goal was to get to the playoffs and to still be playing at this time of year."

For McHugh, the support in Sacramento has been instrumental in the team's success.

"I think the response we had from the team, and also our fans, has been great," McHugh said. "The fans have been so supportive. It's easier to do your job when you have the backing."

Harvey, too, has found this season to be most enjoyable.

"It's been fun," Harvey said. "I really enjoy coaching this team. They've played hard for me, they've accepted the challenges I've thrown at them.

"They've been a joy to coach and I want the ride to go as long as it can go."