NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 6, 2003

Jamie Carey

Jody Conradt

Nina Norman

Stacy Stephens

COACH CONRADT: I hope your vocabulary is varied to describe all of the things that I think this team feels about that game. Summed up in disappointing, it's hurtful, it's all of the things that you can imagine when a team plays as hard as they can play against another really good team and then it comes down to plays at the end. But what I tried to tell this team, it wasn't just about the plays at the end in a close game, it's plays all the way through. And we had our opportunities, I thought we came out shaky, I thought we settled down and started to be patient on both ends of the floor, and I frankly thought that we did some really good things. It's easy to overlook those things and think about the things that weren't so good. But in my mind it's not going to diminish what I feel about this team. This is a very special group of young woman that have probably exceeded everybody's expectations except their own. We are going to be disappointed and we are going to hurt, but I reflect back on a year ago when we lost in the Sweet 16 and that was the motivator for this team to come back and show what they are capable of. And I know them well enough that I know this loss is going to be a motivator as they go over a long hard off-season.

JAMIE CAREY: I hit quite a few screens this year and I come up fine and that's the same in this case as well.

NINA NORMAN: She's player of the year for a reason. She's a great player. I think everyone in here knows that. At the end of the game she took over. I don't think that killed us, it was some hustle plays that we lost, that's what she had. In those situations every little thing counts.

STACY STEPHENS: It was a very physical game. It's a Final Four game. The referees are going to let us play because everyone here wants us to play. They don't want to see a bunch of free throws. A very physical game on both ends of it. You know my compliment to the other players, they played a tough physical game and it was a good matchup.

NINA NORMAN: I think we had some mental lapses on defense. We didn't find players in open court. They had a lot of fast break buckets that we didn't catch the slasher. We needed to tighten up our defense and we got a little bit careless.

STACY STEPHENS: The entire game I wanted to get everything possible. At the end of the game I think they were sending a couple of people toward me to make sure and block out, you know, to make sure that I couldn't go get the ball. I'm sure they did a great job on everybody else. I gave them credit for great hustle and great blocking out on those.

NINA NORMAN: All star games are fun and you get to try to do anything you want to do. In this case I took the game very seriously and I had fun also, I took it more serious than the all star game. This is the Final Four and we wanted to go all the way.

STACY STEPHENS: Well, that was a little bit surprising as they were letting us bank and everybody was hitting everybody inside. Once again, referees are human, they make mistakes, they are in charge of the game. You have to adjust to what they do. I probably could have stepped it up more on the other end on at the defense and tried to make up for it.

COACH CONRADT: It was one of those plays and you don't have very long to set up anything that you need to get your best offensive players in. That was a lot of pressure on Alisha, there is no question about that, but it was a situation that I know she would want another opportunity to do that. And she is obviously very upset, but I think again we have to talk about misplays earlier in the game and not focus on that one. I think the ball just got away from us and as time was running out and there was not time to recover.

COACH CONRADT: Alisha is our best, one of our best and probably our best 3 point shooters. I want to get our offensive team in the game, and I thought that we needed to get a quick look, we were going to call another time-out. I didn't know -- I thought we were going to be two possessions down after the free throws. As it worked out we weren't, so we can second-guess that all we want to, but I thought we were going to need the time-out if we scored a bucket because I thought we were going to have to have 2.

COACH CONRADT: I think I talked about that on the media day. It's probably not the best thing for a sport because it's what is expected, and I think the more suspense you have in a sport, the more interested draws. I'm sort of the feeling that that wasn't a run away tonight. So I'm not sure that Texas isn't right up there with Connecticut based on what I saw tonight.

COACH CONRADT: I think we see Nina Norman being a clutch in a lot of situations, if it's not for our winning the lottery and Jamie Carey coming to our program, Nina Norman would have been the starting guard throughout this year. She's a special player. She is a player who is not afraid to step up and make plays. She understands the game, very, very well. Her defense is improving, and when she can play on the defensive end, as intensely as she plays on the offensive end you are going to see her get in even more critical situations, but I'm not going to trade her. She is the point guard that I've wanted since I first saw her as a high school sophomore. I think you saw why tonight.

JODY CONRADT: I really didn't. I knew again, I was worried about just what happened. Taurasi making plays. Unfortunately, they got a breakaway. Unfortunately they had a couple of defensive breakdowns. We didn't have our safety get back and therefore they got uncontested shots. But again those are breakdowns, just the same as a couple of non-boxout at the end of the game. Or the last fumble of the basketball. So there were any number of plays. And you know that when you're playing against a good team, and as a great player as Diana is, that leaves yourself vulnerable.