Amid the chaos of March Madness is a simple leadership lesson: Know your team.
On Sunday, Brenda Frese, the University of Maryland basketball coach, went viral after cameras showed her shouting passionately at one of her players.
“I believe in you, but you got to want this moment,” she told junior guard Oluchi Okananwa, just a few inches away from her face.
While the interaction might appear abrasive at first — and sparked debate online about whether it crossed a line — Frese’s message turned out to be exactly what Okananwa needed in that moment.
“I love to be coached hard, and that’s what she does with me every single day. And really what that was, was a regroup moment for myself and her telling me she believed in me, because sometimes that’s really all you need to hear,” Okananwa said at a post-game press conference.
The guard said she was “forever appreciative” of the interaction, and after the heated conversation, she returned to the court and locked in for the rest of the game.
Moments like this can reflect a deeper level of trust between a coach and a player. In high-pressure situations, direct, emotionally charged feedback can cut through the noise — but it requires a strong relationship, according to Frese.
In a post-game press conference,Frese said that a coach needs to know their players. “You can’t have those conversations if you don’t have a relationship with them,” she said, according to Yahoo Sports.
Knowing your players
There’s a meaningful distinction between tearing someone down and delivering direct, emotionally charged feedback. In this case, Frese’s approach pushed Okananwa while also showing confidence in her ability to meet the moment.
“We do have to at times have those tough conversations,” Frese said at the press conference. “The best-of-the-best, the elite-of-the-elite wanna be coached hard.”
Tim Quigley, a professor of strategic leadership and governance at IMD, told Business Insider that Frese likely understood exactly what her player needed to hear, and that delivering it with intensityis part of the culture of sports — and real life.
“It takes your whole being, your whole soul, everything you’ve got, to compete at that level,” Quigley said. “Little, teeny things make all the difference. And that coach is working to get that out of her player. She knows her player and she cares.”
Quigley, who previously competed internationally as a cyclist, said those kinds of exchanges were common with his own coach. He added that while that specific kind of interaction is unlikely to occur in a boardroom, most CEOs have likely had similar moments of intensity with their teams.
“If we’re in the workplace trying to make a decision about, let’s say, it’s a multibillion-dollar acquisition, people are going to yell at each other at times,” Quigley said.
Quigley said the context in those scenarios is crucial. When people establish strong relationships and understand how to motivate their direct reports, those moments of feedback can be critical in helping them perform better without feeling belittling.
In the House, the chamber is evenly divided between the Republican side and the Democratic side. But you wouldn’t know it from Tuesday night’s speech.
There were noticeably fewer Democrats on hand, with several seats appearing to be empty on their side of the aisle. Several Republicans, apparently taking advantage of the open space, even sat on the Democratic side.
Many of the Democratic women who did attend could be seen wearing white, a color associated with the suffragette movement.
Ahead of the speech, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries encouraged Democrats to either boycott the speech or sit in silent protest, an apparent effort to avoid the disruptions that marked last year’s speech.
Rep. Becca Balint of Vermont was among dozens of Democrats who opted to attend the “People’s State of the Union” — a rally sponsored by the liberal groups MeidasTouch and MoveOn that was held on the National Mall — instead of the speech.
“I want to be surrounded by positive people who are really thinking about how to bring this country together,” Balint told me. “I cannot normalize this anymore. I just can’t.”
One Democrat who chose to attend, Rep. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico, told me before the speech that he believes it’s “important for me to be there to see what the president has to say.”
“People can choose to do what they want, but I feel like it’s part of my job to show up,” Vasquez said.
When Motolani Adedipe moved from Oklahoma to Seoul, South Korea, in August, she didn’t just pack her suitcase — she brought along her 6-year-old daughter, newborn baby, and mom.
Adedipe, who is from Nigeria and moved to the US to attend grad school in Texas, first grew curious about South Korea while interning at a biotech firm in Boston, where she shared an apartment with a Korean roommate.
“For that summer, I ate a lot of Korean food. She put me on K-dramas,” Adedipe, now 39, told Business Insider. That early curiosity soon grew into an interest in Korea’s history, economy, and language.
She became interested in Korean culture after sharing an apartment with a Korean roommate in Boston.
Provided by Motolani Adedipe.
Adedipe began learning Korean nine years ago online and continued after she moved to Oklahoma for work, where she became an associate professor at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
In September 2024, Adedipe applied for a Fulbright scholarship to extend her research in prostate cancer survivorship. She already knew she wanted to go to South Korea — even as she prepared to give birth to her second child that November.
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She made it through the first review in December, but when months passed with no update, she figured she hadn’t made it. So when the acceptance came through in April, the moment felt surreal.
Winning the Fulbright scholarship gave her a chance to further her research in South Korea.
Provided by Motolani Adedipe.
“It was like the best news and almost the worst news at the same time. Best because finally I get to do this. But of course, the anxiety, how do we start planning now?” Adedipe said.
Thankfully, her family was supportive, especially her husband.
“It required faith, sacrifice, structure, and for both of us to really imagine a life that looked very different from what we had planned,” she said.
Moving to Seoul
Her physician husband couldn’t accompany her to South Korea, but they agreed that she would bring both daughters along.
“How many of her peers would ever say, ‘Oh, I took a gap year in Korea’?” she said, referring to their 6-year-old.
Knowing the scholarship would last just one year made the decision easier. Her husband has visited them in South Korea several times and plans to make more trips over the coming months.
“I saw it as an opportunity for my children to experience another culture, language, and way of life, while still having a clear sense of return,” Adedipe said.
Now, she homeschools her daughter in the morning before sending her to a “hagwon,” a type of private academy that many Korean students attend after school.
She says she sends her daughter to an after-school academy in Seoul.
Provided by Motolani Adedipe.
“Not all of her friends speak English, so they kind of communicate through play,” she said.
Adedipe’s mom, who had traveled to Oklahoma to help out with the kids, joined them in Seoul.
As she searched for housing, Adedipe had a long checklist: enough space for her family, easy access to the subway, flat streets her mother, in her early 60s, could navigate, and a neighborhood that felt safe for kids.
She found a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in Mapo-gu, a district in western Seoul home to several universities.
Her two-bedroom apartment is about a 30-minute commute to her office.
Provided by Motolani Adedipe.
Although the apartment was smaller than she initially hoped for, it turned out to be a great fit: It’s surrounded by greenery and about a 30-minute commute to her workplace.
Her scholarship includes a housing stipend that covers her rent, which she declined to share.
Per the latest December data from the Korea Real Estate Board, the median monthly rent for an apartment in Mapo-gu is 1.39 million Korean won, or about $940.
Adedipe says her schedule varies from week to week, but her work typically starts in the afternoons. She goes into her office at Seoul National University Hospital several times a week, while continuing to supervise her lab in Oklahoma remotely at night.
Forging closer relationships with her loved ones
Data from the Ministry of Justice showed that the number of foreigners living in South Korea at the end of 2024 stood at 2.65 million, a 5.7% increase from the previous year.
A US veteran who had retired in South Korea previously told Business Insider that he appreciated the country’s safety and culture of respect. Meanwhile, a millennial who moved from Switzerland to Seoul said she valued the convenience of city life, including how most stores stay open late.
She says she has been surprised by the kindness of strangers in the city.
Provided by Motolani Adedipe.
One of the biggest adjustments, Adedipe said, has been the extent to which technology is deeply woven into daily life in Seoul. Nearly everything is tied to having a registered phone number.
“Once I got my card and I got a bank account and I got a phone number that was registered, life became easy,” she said.
Even though the city is known for its fast-paced lifestyle, Adedipe says she’s been surprised by its human side.
“I lost my stylus in the bus, and I was able to get it back. It was tagged, and they verified they found it. That could never happen in the US,” she said.
Watching her daughter flourish and adapt to their life in Seoul has been especially meaningful.
“Now that I’m seeing where she’s shining. My goal is to keep encouraging her to find her passion in life and do that,” she said.
Being able to live and work in South Korea felt like a “full circle moment” for her.
Provided by Motolani Adedipe.
In addition to learning Korean, her daughter takes part in extracurricular activities, such as piano, inline skating, and Taekwondo.
“She’s doing everything that I never could have been able to give her because in Oklahoma, if you’re doing all those classes, you have to drive your kids to all those classes,” she said. “But here in Korea, because of how the education is structured, she does all of that in a school, and she loves it.”
Living abroad with her mother has brought them closer. After leaving Nigeria for the US in her 20s, Adedipe went nearly eight years without seeing her mom because of visa issues.
“And now that I get to live with her again, it’s like a dream come true,” she said.
Looking back on her own experience, Adedipe says living and working in South Korea has felt like a “full circle moment,” after years of interest in the country.
“It felt like all the pieces of my life — research, storytelling, culture, and well-being — were suddenly being invited into the same room,” she said.
Do you have a story to share about relocating to a new city? Contact this reporter at agoh@businessinsider.com.
