BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYS

October 19, 2005

Jody Conradt

Nina Norman

COACH JODY CONRADT: Thank you very much. I am very happy to be here and to have representing our team Nina Norman. She is a senior and a guard who has been a big contributor to the success of the program over her three-year career. Isn't it the best time of year? I think although we're all enjoying the success of our football team, it's excitement that surrounds the beginning of the basketball season. There is something about this time of year and the new players that come on your team and you look at the progress and the hard work that the returners have put in and there's optimism for all of us. I certainly feel that way about this team. I think as it gets closer to that first game, I will probably have more questions than I will have answers because as most of you are aware, we have seven freshmen on this year's squad. I have never been a part of a team with that many newcomers. Almost half our team is new. Almost half our team has never stepped on the floor and played a Division I basketball game. They are an outstanding group in terms of talent and potential. At this point I guess I will have to just say it will be the coaching that's the determinant as to whether we're successful or not. That's a joke. (Laughter). Thank you for laughing.

COACH JODY CONRADT: I needed a program almost going into practice because again it's a huge freshmen class. The first thing I did notice about this team and all through the summer and we had the advantage of bringing a lot of freshmen to campus for summer school, but you always look at what your returning players do over the course of a summer because realistically the improvement they make and the commitment that they show is going to be the critical factor in terms of determining the success of a team. And in our program it's always been the fact that the leaders of the team need to be the seniors. They have been there three years, they know what is expected and how seriously they take that leadership role tells a lot about the potential of a team. And I haven't had a group who has taken that commitment any more serious than the seniors on this year's team and that certainly is due in a great part to Nina Norman. I think she has been one of those players in our program that has been unheralded, underrated and in a lot of ways overlooked. She has been a tremendous competitor for us and has been one of the driving forces behind our team. I have to feel knowing now what I know about Nina, how she spent the summer, that she was waiting for a time for it to become literally her team, and it has. We have met periodically and talked about where are we with our team, what do we need to do, and Nina has been great in the locker room with our team. I really feel confident about how these freshmen will transition because of the leadership they are receiving from Nina and the other two or three seniors on our team. So I am excited about it. They are talented. The question with freshmen is always how can they perform on a consistent basis. We won't know that for a while down the road. I don't remember what the question was, but hopefully I answered it and all that.

NINA NORMAN: It's hard. I didn't realize how hard it was until they are getting on me like they are tired and I am telling them to keep going because I was in my freshmen year and I shared my experiences with them because they think it's pretty easy to me and it's not. But I am really looking it because they are coming along really well and they are listening. It's going to be hard if they don't listen, but they really listen to me and look up to me and I just want to help them out as much as I can because they are really great bunch of girls.

NINA NORMAN: I was scared. I played scared a lot of my freshmen year. I think once they get out there they have to get a feel for it on their own they are not going to understand how tough it is until they get out there. Back in high school they were probably the best player on their team and they didn't have to work really hard to get what they needed and now they are going to have to work. They are seeing in practice that it's hard to get by somebody and that the old moves that they used to work don't work now. They have got to learn the game. I think once they start learning it and get some experience under their belts they are going to be fine.

COACH JODY CONRADT: Absolutely.

COACH JODY CONRADT: I really appreciate that question because that tells me that you really paid attention and you noticed the impact that Nina Norman had on our team. We're kind of up and down during the season and I think we didn't probably meet the expectation that's we had for ourselves or maybe that others had on us. But we had really started to play well toward the end of conference schedule and into the Playoffs. Then Nina breaks her hand, and it was tremendously difficult for our team to move forward without her being 100%. I think they appreciated very much the fact that she was willing to play with a broken hand that took almost all summer to heal. But at the same time when she wasn't able to perform at the same level, our team wasn't nearly as good and hopefully we can stay injury free. It's always an issue. But when you lose a key player at a key point in the season, it's disappointing, but it's also pretty predictable. In terms of the freshmen I couldn't pick right now who is going to play right away. I would say that two or three of them need to play early and need to play well for us to be good. No one has him united themselves right now. That's the overwhelming feeling that I sense from this team. There are seven of them and nobody has taken themselves out of it. We're really going to be good, my prediction and my feel at the guard position. And Nina is setting the tone for that group for sure. The surprise is, I'd have to say at this point everyone knew Erika Arriaran was talented and she hasn't disappointed in any sense. But I don't think anybody really knows how good Carla Cortijo is. She has an uncanny ability which few players do, which is to know what is going to happen two, three plays down the line. She is going to be an outstanding player. I think the other player that stands out in my mind is a player that people probably won't name immediately is Aubry Cook. She had an injury in her senior year and therefore didn't play because of an ACL tear. I have been impressed with her competitiveness, her nastiness, in a very positive way, and I think she will be a player that will play right away. We still have a couple that are coming back from injuries and surgeries so they are not all seven in practice 100% right now. So it's going to be fun. It's going to be interesting, but I enjoy the enthusiasm and the newness that freshmen bring to a program.

NINA NORMAN: It's going to be different because Jamie always had my back. Anything that went wrong I could always come to her about anything. But I think I am doing pretty good on my own and I have another one that's coming up with me and she is listening to me and she is my outlet through other guards who are struggling a little bit. She is helping me out a lot in a lot of ways that I didn't think she could handle. Carla's doing very well. She is helping me out and telling me things that I don't see and I tell her things that she doesn't see.

NINA NORMAN: Tiffany is awesome. Who wouldn't want her on your team. She is doing really good. She is picking it up. She is really talented. And, I mean, she is doing a lot of stuff to help her game out. She has been working on her jumper. I have been seeing improvement in practice. I am really proud of her for that when she works on a couple more things in her game. She is going to be a really, really good player than what she already is.

COACH JODY CONRADT: My response to that is I think everybody knew as a freshman that Tiffany was going to be talented and an impact player, that certainly happened. I think you looked at last year and just look at the stats, she averaged 18 points and almost double-digit rebounds, so what is the next step? I think it is for Tiffany now to make the players around her better. And I have talked to her about that and I think she understands it. It's pretty common to see the seniors for sure, but also to see Tiffany in between her turn in a drill talking to one of the freshman and telling them things that are going to help them and to encourage them. And she has been really diligent in trying to set a good example, which hasn't always been Tiffany's strong suit. When she plays hard nobody plays harder. And that there were days where it wasn't always there for her. Now it's there, day in and day out. To just talk about why she is not here, day before yesterday, she got hit in the head with an elbow and, you know, I -- in an affectionate way she is a beast. Usually she is dishing out that kind of physical play, but she took one on -- in the eye and on the head and her eye was quite discolored, the white of the eye was looking like Texas Tech red to me. And she had a minor concussion and the doctor advised that the pressure on the eye, flying today was not going to be the most positive thing. So I know you are missing her fashion statement, but I am sure she had the outfit picked out. You will see it at some point during the year.

COACH JODY CONRADT: I don't think they are having time right now to worry about much except just surviving the next day of practice. I have been really pleased, you know, you have an impression of youngsters as you recruit them and you see them in their comfort level and in their environment and you think they are one way. What I have been most impressed with with this group is their willingness to learn. They have all stepped out there and tried and taken the challenge and I talked to Crystal Boyd yesterday in the study hall situation after practice. I said, Are you getting excited about the game? She expressed the same thing Nina said she felt as a freshman: I am really scared. So I think that's pretty typical of all of them. They don't know what to expect. They know the expectations are there. But it's all new and it's hard and it's an adjustment. My hope would be that this freshman class can have the same kind of successes -- only four years ago that I was sitting here talking about Heather Schreiber and Kala Bowers in a freshman class that was pretty highly rated. I had to ask Barb today but she said that that group and their four-year career won 132 games and lost 20. So if this next group can have that kind of success then I think we're going to be pretty happy with how they progress.

COACH JODY CONRADT: On our campus we're a team. It's a basketball team but extends far beyond just the players who make up that team. We have tremendous people on our campus and tremendous resources and I know that those of you who have covered the men's side and Texas sports in general know that Randa Ryan who has been a long-time employee on the women's side over our academic area has assumed some responsibilities on the men's side. And I thought, Okay, they have figured out that Randa is the best and they want her expertise and I am looking around and I am seeing Todd Wright at what he's done for Rick's program, so we made a trade, one Todd for one Randa. And now I think I have access and I think our team is benefiting from the best strength coach in the country. Todd Wright is not just a strength coach. He's a kinesiologist. He's someone who understands what the human body needs to play basketball at a high level and he's training our players the same way he's trained Rick's. I think my belief in him is pretty evident by the fact that if you ask Nina how many times our team worked together before October 14th date she could probably count it on one hand and maybe two. I felt like it was really important for Todd to have his six hours and, therefore, at the sacrifice of our doing anything much with our team in its entirety, so I think it will pay off for us ultimately. And the other part of that is that I can promise you around February those freshmen are going to be looking around saying when is the state tournament because the season gets really long for them as it does for some of the older players. So Todd has had our players in the maximum number of hours for the maximum time allowed anticipating that the base that they gained there will pay off for us in the long run.