NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 30, 2001

Camille Cooper

Kristy Curry

Katie Douglas

COACH KRISTY CURRY: I would like to compliment Southwest Missouri on just a great season and a very good basketball game. They just made us earn everything that we got, and certainly, have to just give our team all the credit in the world because these kids have all year long just fought and fought and fought and I thought they really executed our game plan to a tee. I am very, very proud that we are going to have a chance to play for a National Championship.

CAMILLE COOPER: I credit my teammates. I think everyone was crashing the boards and we knew we would have to continue to out rebound them and it paid big dividends. We got second and third opportunities and it really helped out in the offensive end.

KATIE DOUGLAS: I think we just rotated a lot of people on her. You know, we've been watching a lot of film, and you know, we've been watching what other teams were doing and were unsuccessful and I think at times we made other players beat us and we really got on Jackie and got two people on her, and it's tough to score when two people are on you. So, that's what we did. You know, you couldn't say enough about our great defensive effort tonight as a team.

CAMILLE COOPER: I think their guards really stepped up on the perimeter, we had a freshman guard in there at times, people switching after. They just really played hard. Credit her because you really have to put two or three people on her. It was a total team defensive effort.

KATIE DOUGLAS: Coach Curry switched me to the point, and -- which was fine, because I'm comfortable playing there. I've played there throughout my career and I think it was a good decision, because coming into a trap, a bigger point guard, I could see over the traps and obviously we got it inside and were successful. Just give her the credit, I suppose.

COACH KRISTY CURRY: Players make plays.

CAMILLE COOPER: I think so. We joked about people saying we kind of snuck in, but we have learned to expect the unexpected and we believe in each other. That's what got us here. I don't know, just a total team effort, if no one else believes in us, we believe in ourselves and we are going to play hard for each other.

KATIE DOUGLAS: I think so. You know, everybody is always counting Purdue out, and like Camille said, we always have the consistency to believe in ourselves and that's what made us successful. You know, we like being the underdog. Keep making us the underdog, because we have been successful thus far, but we know that we belong here and we are just excited about being here.

KATIE DOUGLAS: I really wanted to be aggressive tonight from the get-go. I think that helps me throughout the game, if I'm aggressive at first, and then, you know, I was hitting some shots tonight, which is good. I didn't have a great shooting performance in the Final against Xavier, I really wanted to come out and be a spark and be the aggressor.

KATIE DOUGLAS: Very excited. Excited for our team. Excited for our program. You know, it really, it really feels good to know, you know, all of the preseason stuff that we went through, all of the stuff, the up-and-downs we had throughout the here, and to be playing in the National Championship game is unbelievable.

CAMILLE COOPER: I don't know, I think Purdue recruits great coaches and great players. The school has remained committed to us and we have remained committed to the program. It speaks loads for Purdue's tradition of excellence, and just playing hard and playing together and trying to go as far as we can.

COACH KRISTY CURRY: I just thought that, you know, Shereka, goodness gracious, she's a freshman and coming into that situation, she's just been a huge presence for us defensively, as far as her long arms and her size, we feel like we had a little size advantage there and that might bother her a little bit. I thought that Kelly Komara, Katie Douglas rotated well off Campbell at times and certain things that we wanted and the -- our goal was to hold her under average and hold everybody else in single digits and we nearly did that as far as single digits and I think we held her under average. Just got to give Shereka and Shinika a lot of credit. The kids were outstanding.

COACH KRISTY CURRY: Yes. Most definitely.

COACH KRISTY CURRY: I think definitely. You know, it is a very physical style. It's big post players that do bang on each other and just really a lot of tenacity defensively. I think that's a style in the Big-10, and that's something that we've really tried to do a good job this year with, is just being very tenacious on the defensive end. When we do that, we are very successful.

COACH KRISTY CURRY: I just think that a turnover to Katie Douglas is something that's very minute, when you consider what she's been through. You know, she just keeps coming back. You know, she has faith in herself and belief in herself and her teammates. A turnover is nothing for Katie because of so much that she's been through, and I know that may sound silly, but you have to understand this young lady, how much she perseveres through adversity, personally and on the court. Turns it over, she'll come right back at you.

COACH KRISTY CURRY: My goodness, she was all over the glass, wasn't she. She did a wonderful job, and I thought Shereka and Shalicia just really, really took up the slack from not sending -- (inaudible) -- Wright into boards tonight really understood that we needed them back in transition, and Shalicia was outstanding defensively and on the boards.

COACH KRISTY CURRY: I think we did a nice job of respecting everybody around her. Jackie is going to get hers. We did some things that we wanted. We thought we limited her. No. 1 thing we did against Jackie was stop her in transition, and I think that's where she has been so successful in the past is getting a lot of transition buckets. She just got a couple, but we wanted to meet her at halfcourt, and I thought the kids did a nice job in transition and tried to shut down everybody else around her.

COACH KRISTY CURRY: Play the man and just double ball once in awhile with some help, walled her off. We knew had to get back in transition. We didn't watch the Northern Iowa film. Didn't have time to get it.

COACH KRISTY CURRY: You know, the first four minutes, she came out and got 10 pretty quick, if I'm not mistaken. You know, we just tried to wear her down. And I think something else the kids did a nice job was on her high-court offense, we really set a lot of screens and ran her a lot, making her try to guard us. So we made her the aggressor and made her work hard on the defensive end, because she's a great defensive player.

COACH KRISTY CURRY: Well, I think it's every coach's dream to have a chance to play for a National Championship. I'm so very, very proud for everyone at Purdue and our entire Purdue family, because it is going to be a special day for us to lace up our shoes and play for the one that matters.