NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 29, 2002

Geno Auriemma

Sue Bird

Swin Cash

Asjha Jones

COACH GENO AURIEMMA: Well, I've got to tell you, Rosalind Ross played a great game today -- (laughter.) You know, when you're going into a game of this magnitude, you really don't know what to expect, honest to goodness. All day long I was just preparing myself for anything that could happen. And I was prepared for anything that could happen. And the way our kids played and the way we played on the defensive end and the way we -- just the way we took the game, to a very good team, a very good team, I'm really, really proud of my team right now, I really am. They're a pretty special group, and we played a pretty special kind of game tonight, and I'm really, really happy for them.

SUE BIRD: Yes, it's the last game. I mean I think we're going to enjoy what happened tonight and kind of just soak it all in, and take it all in tonight and have fun. And tomorrow it's back to work. We have practice and, I don't know, it's kind of weird thinking about it being the last game. It's the biggest game of the year all year. So I don't think any of us is going to let any of that other stuff get in our heads.

SWIN CASH: Well, coming in as a freshman, you're just ready to play everybody. You don't really know the magnitude of this game, I guess, that the media and everybody puts on it. I think we did a pretty good job of playing them our sophomore year. So I'm not really sure exactly where the question is going with that. But today's game was really fun for us, and we had a lot of fun out there. We played really well, and we're just happy with the outcome.

SUE BIRD: They're a great team. Obviously they wouldn't have been here, being in the Final Four if they weren't. And I think we just want to come out -- all year we basically concerned ourselves with ourselves, what we were going to do on offense, what we were going to do on defense. And of course we go over what the other team is going to do, but it's not our number one concern. And I think that's exactly what happened today. We played really well as a team. A lot of individuals played really well, and I think when you have that happen, the score can kind of get out of hand sometimes.

SWIN CASH: I think coming into the game we definitely brought up Notre Dame. We wanted to put ourselves in a different position from what happened last year and we just came out ready to play. When we got up at halftime we knew coming out what happened in the Notre Dame game. We were focused, in the first five minutes we stayed right where we needed to be.

ASJHA JONES: That's the nature of our defense to begin with. Most players are so tall that we can't let them get deep in the block row. So I think because they're so much taller than us, we had to do a good job bumping them off the block, and hit them on the foul line.

COACH GENO AURIEMMA: That's a good point. Because going into the game there were three areas that I thought we had to do a really good job in. I thought we had to play great interior defense, that's number one. I thought we had to really, really block out and not allow second and third, fourth opportunities. And three, we had to make sure that when we got the ball off the glass, that we really attacked their defense before they got set and not allow them to wear us down with their defensive pressure. And you go in and say, okay, maybe we do one of those three really good -- I thought we handled those three areas really well. To be honest with you, and I don't care what the score was, no matter what the score was, you never feel like you're -- Until there's two and a half minutes left, I thought I don't think they can come back now, but that's the way you have to treat it when you play a team like Tennessee.

COACH GENO AURIEMMA: We played them three times. Once down in their place, where they were just happy to have us, and great, there was a full house and played like it. They're young kids and their eyes -- they didn't know whether to play against us or ask us for autographs, you know? And then played them in the regionals, and I thought again they were so excited about being in the regionals that they forget they were there to win the game. When they came up to our place this year, I saw a different Oklahoma team. And it kind of bothers me, you know. Sherri Coale has got them thinking they can beat us. And that's the kind of team I saw up there this year, and that's the progress that they've made in the couple of years that those kids have been together. So the team we're playing tomorrow night bears no resemblance to the team -- Sunday night -- to the team we played the two times we played them before this year.

COACH GENO AURIEMMA: Yeah, it is correct. You know, a lot has been said about what I say and how I say it and what I mean. And I'll be honest with you, there have been some times and there have been some things that have bothered me, but it's never about Pat. There's things that Pat does that nobody else has the ability to do. And what she said after the game to me is going to stay between the two of us. But it says a lot about the character that Pat Summitt has.

COACH GENO AURIEMMA: Well, Diana makes the kind of shots that nobody else on our team can make, and she also takes some shots that nobody else on our team would dare take. But at the same time she has a certain flare for the game and a tremendous amount of confidence in herself. And I think that that confidence rubs off on the other players. They know that when she's in the game we're okay, and that's the kind of effect that she has on our team.