|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 5, 2013Joanne P. McCallieJOANNE P. McCALLIE: Yeah, we're just really excited. Seems like we've had a lot of new seasons this year with different challenges that we've had, so this is another new season. It was very special for us to close out the regular season and to celebrate senior day and just‑‑ and to celebrate the accomplishments of the regular season. Now it's a new start, and a new start always feels good, and we're excited to get to Greensboro. Q. I'm doing a feature on players from the triangle, so I wanted to ask you about Chloe Wells and also Jenna Frush. What has a healthy Chloe Wells done for your team this year, and talk about Jenna and what she means to you? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Great. Chloe has meant so much to be back and to be healing her legs up and to be healthy, whether she's started or has come off the bench, she's got tons of great energy. She's a terrific shooter and play maker, gives us a great deal of ball pressure on defense and is just a vocal person and just a great person to have on the floor helping direct the team. So we're really excited about her and glad she could heal as well as she did considering the start of the season for her. For Jenna, again, a hometown player, a student athlete from Durham, getting into Duke and wanting so much to be a part of the team and then making such a great role for herself. Again, lots of energy, she's an incredible person, student athlete, gives us enormous energy from the bench, glue kid like no other, comes from a terrific family in Durham, and it has been incredible to have her part of the team. Q. I've got sort of a philosophy type question here. What's better for the ACC's image to outsiders; is it getting as many teams as possible into the NCAA Tournament or getting a dominant team to the Final Four? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Gosh, I think obviously both are great. I do think that it's important, the Final Four and getting a team to the Final Four. The past history has set the bar very high, and it is interesting you bring that question up because there's not a student athlete in the conference that's been to the Final Four for women's basketball, so we're starting anew, sort of fresh. The days of talking about the ACC and the Final Four are past days, not more the current ones, so I think it's extremely important that we get teams to the Final Four and the biggest stage and to really get back to that great history. I think that's very, very key, and if I had to pick one, I would say that was the most important thing. Q. Obviously leading and getting the top seed in the tournament four years in a row, as the coach of a successful team like that, how do you prepare a team heading into a tournament, its mindset, waiting for that first‑round game to finish and a hungry team trying to basically unseat the top team? How do you prepare the team mentally? JOANNE P. McCALLIE: Well, I think for us, we kind of‑‑ each year it's been the same, we've prepared the same. We've won it a couple years and then had lesser success other years. The reality is it's a brand‑new season, and seeds don't matter. That's just how you figure out who plays who. So from our standpoint, it's a brand‑new season, everybody is 0‑0. It's refreshing in a lot of ways because we‑‑ the regular season to me is very, very difficult and kind of a grueling endurance contest, and so the ACC tournament is one for the fans, it's exciting, it's in a great place, and it's an honor to be a part of it, and it's a lot of fun. But without question it's a brand‑new start for everybody, for every team, and I think that's what really brings it a lot of energy, and I think that's the way to look at it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|