NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 5, 2003

Alana Beard

Gail Goestenkors

Iciss Tillis

COACH GOESTENKORS: I am excited to be here. I think it's going to be an exceptional Final Four. I think that we are very excited about playing. I'm looking forward to the game. We can't wait to get back on the floor.

COACH GOESTENKORS: That's a better question.

COACH GOESTENKORS: I think it's very important. When we talked about it as a team, we don't have one specific person that's going to step up and be that third scorer. We do have several players that are very capable. I think Lindsey Harding has done a good job for us. Mistie Bass as well stepped up in particular in the Georgia game. Jess Foley stepped up. Some teams know who the 3 are that are always going to be there and provide that scoring punch. We don't know who that third person is necessarily. It seems like somebody has always stepped up for us.

ALANA BEARD: I think having a balanced attack is always a key to success. Like what she said, I think anyone can be like the third person, like in the Georgia game Mistie Bass had a great offensive game. I think we can rely on anyone. It's not just one person.

COACH GOESTENKORS: I think there are several teams on the verge. I think when you look at Texas in particular, they are here and playing great basketball and they're young. So I'm sure that they will have aspirations of coming back again next year. I think Texas Tech is a team right on the cusp. Purdue has been here several years and was one game from coming back. Stanford is another program they're returning everybody. So I think there are several teams that are hovering with that elite status.

COACH GOESTENKORS: Does everybody think they are the underdog? What was the first part of the question? Do I feel more --

COACH GOESTENKORS: Not necessarily. I guess it relieves some pressure. However, we have not been the underdog much over the last 2 seasons, so I think we have been comfortable with that favorite role. It's not necessarily an easy role. But I think we have become comfortable with it. It's been a long while since we have really be an underdog. I think we are enjoying it. You know it feels good to be the underdog really, maybe for the first time all season. When we played Tennessee before, if at any point in that time we were the underdog would have been that first Tennessee game, and even though we were ranked No. 1 and they were No. 2 we had lost Monique Currie to a torn ACL, so there were many people that questioned us at that point in time, how would we respond to the loss of Monique. Even when we played Connecticut at home I think a lot of people thought we might win because we are at home. So we haven't been the underdog maybe since the first Tennessee game. Now I know, listening to everybody and watching TV, and reading newspapers that everybody pretty much thinks that Tennessee is going to win this game. I told our team today it's a great opportunity when you are at the Final Four. You win 35 games and people don't think you are going to win. We need to take advantage of that opportunity.

COACH GOESTENKORS: I think that was the key win in the history of our program because it was against a tremendous team that was a 3-time National Champion, going on their fourth and everybody thought they would win that, because we had the "Three Meeks", that was huge for us. It was also big in that it was a nationally televised in prime time, so a lot of people got to see that game and it had the David versus Goliath theme about us. So I think that was really important for our program that we found out and we knew that we could compete against the very best and beat the very best and going to the Final Four as well. I think it gave us that exposure with some of the high school players that maybe hadn't seen us on TV, to get a chance to see us for maybe the first time.

ALANA BEARD: I think every thing has been blown out of proportion. My coach knew I loved Tennessee., Tennessee was a good team and everyone loves winners. I think he took it upon himself to send the tape. I don't know what happened with the tape or anything like that. But as far as UConn, I didn't know much about UConn. It was about Tennessee and Lousiana Tech at that point and low and behold here comes Duke. You want to love a winner. I really didn't want to go to Duke, but my parents, that was the only thing they told me was to keep Duke on your list. I kept them on and I truly feel this is the place God wanted me to be. I am here and I have no regrets at all.

COACH GOESTENKORS: We have watched that game. We did a highlight and lowlight on the team after the game. Our players felt good after the game. I wanted to make sure they saw the tape. We weren't as good as they thought. That was probably their worst game, I think they would agree. They were young in their offense. They were just learning the motion and they have had several lineup changes since then. They are much, much, more athletic now. They have gone with their better defensive lineup, and they are pushing the ball in transition. They are attacking the offensive glass, and I would say there is no comparison in their team. There is no comparison in our team. We have changed our lineup as well. We have gone with a better defensive lineup. We pushed the ball in transition more because we are a little quicker. I think we are both older, wiser and much better ball clubs.

COACH GOESTENKORS: I think Mistie has distinguished herself to be one of the post players at Duke University. She has had a typical freshman year in that it's been up and down. She started off so strong and pushed for that starting role which we put her into. But then we realized after the Connecticut game that we weren't getting up and down the floor the way we needed to. When she was in the lineup we had Iciss at 3, so we went with a big lineup. We weren't as quick and we weren't doing a very good job defensively. So we replaced her with Lindsey Harding, one smaller, one quicker, and at great quickness to our defense which also ignited our offense. And when Mistie broke her nose she lost a lot of confidence because she had to wear that mask for a long time. We couldn't throw bounce passes to her. She couldn't see to make the bounce pass. She struggled scoring as well. She was very, very, frustrated with her place. She always stayed positive. She is all about the team. We talked about the fact that freshmen, their seasons are going to have ups and downs. If she stayed positive, continued to work hard, good things would happen for her. I feel she is on the up again. She is playing her basketball which is perfect timing for us.

ALANA BEARD: Definitely more businesslike. Being it was our first time, my first Final Four, and we only did it with 8 players, it was overwhelming. I think in San Antonio every one was so close together. All of the fans and you. You would drive up from the airport and you would have police escorts and the band is playing for you, and I think it's was overwhelming. Now you come here and it's like we still have something to achieve and we are not satisfied. Last year we were satisfied making it to the Final Four because we only had 8 layers. This year we don't want to leave here empty handed.

ICISS TILLIS: Same thing, last year it was totally different. Almost nerve racking. This year I mean I think everyone is really focussed. I'm not really excited to tell you the truth about the atmosphere at all. I'm really calm. I know what our goal is here. It wasn't just to come to the Final Four. It's to win the National Championship. All I'm thinking about is what can we do this time differently than we did last year. What is it going to take for us to win this year instead of oh, we get free gear from Nike and Tiffany bracelets and stuff like that. (Laughter.)

ALANA BEARD: It's kind of hard to pass. I'm just playing. I don't know, I just think Iciss and I play really well off of each other. I think it's not just Iciss and I. I think as a team everyone has a sense of when they have to step up and do something for the team. Like me personally, when I'm on the court, it's all about defense with me because I know defensively it is great. That's our main focus. You in the back of your head, you know when you have to step up, when it's time to step up. It was sort of a learning process. You have to feel for it now.

ICISS TILLIS: It's kind of like a matter of picking and choosing. If you see one player on your team is really hot that game, you know you can kind of sense when to get them the ball and when you need to step up and play. And I think Mistie was a great example in the Georgia game, she sensed that inside we were really struggling, and I told Mistie -- I'm like Mistie go in post pretty hard, and we will give you the ball. She did that. After Mistie went on her run for those 10 points she opened up a lot of other things. All of a sudden our outside shots were more wide open than they were before. Vicki was able to get her 3's off because people kept syncing on Mistie. It was this domino effect. People automatically step up at the right time always. I don't think it's a thing like, oh, I need to score here. It just kind of happens.

ALANA BEARD: I didn't get into college basketball until sophomore or junior year. I didn't watch it on television. As far as my mom against my dad and brother, we would kill them every time. We started making bets. It was always my dad and brother washing the dishes. Because they always lost. My mom still has a little game. She has got it. My momma is good.

COACH GOESTENKORS: You haven't seen anything until you have seen Iciss and Alana's mom playing on the court together. (Laughter.)

ALANA BEARD: Iciss's mom was a point guard. My mom was post and up hitting 3's. Everyone would jump through the gym, come look at this.

ICISS TILLIS: Alana's mom did a left hand post on me and made it. I was like you really can play. You really can play. I played in college. I was like, oh. My mom is trying to shoot. I'm like, mom, you seen me shoot a million times and your form is that poorly.

ALANA BEARD: They were worrying about breaking their nails.

ICISS TILLIS: Their nails would scrape the balls as they shot.

COACH GOESTENKORS: Rebounding and transition. 2 big concerns. And they are exceptional in both areas.

COACH GOESTENKORS I think there are several factors involved. I think one, the opposition we have had has been tremendous. I think Georgia played an outstanding 2, 3 zone and made it difficult for us to penetrate the gaps, get to the basket and we settled for 3's. So we weren't very smart in that game in the first half. We attacked better in the second half. And then Texas Tech is just an exceptional defensive team. They are very strong, very athletic. They bump cutters. They do a great job. I would like to give credit to our opposition. We can't take full credit for all of our misses. Am I worried? No, I'm not, because I think we learned some valuable lessons. I think we learned we can rely on our defense. I think we learn that we don't need to score 80 points to win a basketball game; that we can win low scoring games which prior to the tournament we really didn't know that. We felt like we needed to really score a lot of points. So I think it's been good for us to know that we can win those games and we can win close games. They have all been close. There have been some benefits to the games that we had.

COACH GOESTENKORS: I feel the same way now that I felt when it first passed and they first said we were going to have predetermined sites and that is that it was a very unfair. That we needed to make a change. So it didn't matter whether we had a home site or we didn't. Once we found out that that was going to happen, I think every coach that you talk to feels the same way. It needs to change.

ALANA BEARD: As a team, it's like when we get on a bus we all have to sit in the same seat. If someone tries to sit in someone else's seat, I'm like move to the back. I think we run out in the same order. I think we just keep our routine the same every game.

ALANA BEARD: It has been an important part for me. I think freshman year I cried every year in practice because I made a mistake. There was always a tear coming out of my eye for every reason. It's something that goes with maturing. You have to learn. I think the biggest help has been Monique Currie to our team. Her attitude is just like whatever. I can miss a shot and she is like whatever. She will come down and take the next 5. She has really helped me a lot to just get through that. It's okay to make mistakes and I definitely learned a lot in my past two years.

ALANA BEARD: No.

ICISS TILLIS: I felt the shooting was better this year. The depth perception is better. Everything I think is more compact this year. Last year it seemed so far away. But it seems more open. I think, like a real home court, almost.

ICISS TILLIS: I think any time you have a close bond when you know everyone on the team, on the court, it's just automatically going to attribute to trust. I feel like everyone really trusts each other because we built trusts with each other off the court. You know on the court we always, you know, there is never bickering or anything like that. We never yell at each other. We try to be positive at all times. I think it's close to your friendships. Off the court I can honestly say all of us are very, very close friends.

ALANA BEARD: I can't remember. I didn't cry. I wasn't that big of a Tennessee fan. I don't know who I was pulling for. I think I was pretty neutral.

COACH GOESTENKORS: If it is an away game I hope it's the LSU game. I think because it's a dome, I don't think anybody is going to feel like they have the home court advantage.

ALANA BEARD: I don't know about the story, it wasn't a big deal. Winter is using that in a different way, like motivation. We haven't really seen a difference in Winter. There is no difference at all.

ALANA BEARD: Kara is a smart player. She is a good player. She can hit outside shots, take it to the hole, hit the mid range shot. You can't play her one way. I think our defense is just going to be like pressure up in your face defense. That is how it's going to be on all of their players.

ALANA BEARD: I have been pretty good with it. That's not a good question.