NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 30, 2000

Helen Darling

Andrea Garner

Rene Portland

Q. Your team played very well last week, but how would your team be without Helen running the point?

ANDREA GARNER: Helen brings a lot to the team, her experience and leadership is definitely something that we have to our advantage. Our backup pointguard is only a freshman; so without Helen, you know, we could probably be a little helter-skelter sometimes, but Helen really comes down and gets us going.

HELEN DARLING: I really can't -- I really can't do that right now. We haven't watched a lot of film on them yet. We'll probably watch a lot of film today and tomorrow. I know she's a great guard, excellent shooter. That's all I really know about her right now.

ANDREA GARNER: It takes our program to another level. I know it probably helps with recruiting and everything. But our program has never been there and it's great to see this finally get to a point that a lot of great coaches have already been to. It's great for our coach and great for us as seniors. And personally to be back here my senior year, back where I come from is great for me, also.

HELEN DARLING: I think we're a different team from earlier in the season. We're executing plays a lot better our defense has picked up. We've added a lot of different defenses and I just think going into this tournament, a lot of us had a lot more confidence than we did in the first game, and I just think it's going to be a great game.

HELEN DARLING: I really don't think about that. I just try to focus on one game at a time and I just hope that the teams aren't looking past us. We are a great team and we came here to win it just like everyone else is here to do. And so I just hope that we can come out and give them a good game.

ANDREA GARNER: I haven't heard too much about -- I don't read too much about the matchups as far as UCONN and Tennessee goes. I know we're not going to let them get their easily. We have a game plan and we plan to execute it, and hopefully we'll be the one to move on and advance to the championship game.

HELEN DARLING: I just think earlier in the year, I think I did a great job of creating for my teammates, and so when teams scouted me, I don't think they knew I can score or what I was able to do, and so a lot of teams left me open and dared me to shoot it, and I think I've worked all summer and even during the year on my jump shot, and when teams don't play me, I try to really kill them with that, and I'm just taking what teams give me.

HELEN DARLING: I remember a lot of transition. They ran very well. And the rebounding situation, they did an excellent job on the boards. And we did a great job of boxing out.

ANDREA GARNER: I think her ability to shoot the 3, you know, out of transition or just spotting up I think makes her very dangerous. Like pointguards you can back off and play penetration because you know they are looking for a pass, but she can make the shot so I think that's what makes her a great pointguard.

HELEN DARLING: For me, I think I'm still in shock a little bit. We came in and there was a lot of people outside waiting for us and cheering for us, and I'm just really happy and excited that we were able to play as well as we have to make it here, and I'm just looking forward to what else the Final Four brings.

ANDREA GARNER: We had a chance to go over to my family's house last night for dinner, and the reception was great, and, I don't know we just had a great time and hopefully it will just continue.

RENE PORTLAND: Same thing. She is pretty intense. She is a gamer. She plays with great pride and even in practice off a hard day at school, you can tell in her face or the rest of them that they might be a little tired or distracted, and she immediately puts it in to games. And kids can tell at practice when I'm not happy with them. I'm very, very quiet and she picks it up and will say, "come on, blue," and she will stop a drill and huddle them, and she has permission to do that. She will kick butt right there, and at that time I don't really listen to some of the words that are used and she proceeds to get everybody moving for me. Helen is the nice one. She's the peacemaker and very -- cuts it to the chase sometimes. So the two of them are I think a good combination. Off the court, Helen is involved in everything that we're involved in. We do a lot of work with Easter Seals with therapeutic horseback riding for children. She's very involved with that. We have a program with -- where the student athletes are involved with our schools in the area and she's right in the front line. We have a little kids booster club that chants H-E-L-E-N all the time, so she is a great role model to those kids. And that's probably the things that she likes the best being around them.

RENE PORTLAND: Well I'm not sure I was quoted correctly, considering what I'm dealing with. I think we did a very good job of attacking the post area. We had a lot of high-low combinations. I think in that game. They had an injury if that position so we were able to take advantage of that. That is an area with that we were very pleased with that we were offensively able to do some things. Killed is not the word, because we lost, but I felt that was an area that once we got started after it was not 17-4, that is where we got the area started.

RENE PORTLAND: Men and women alike. I don't know, maybe it's because we start so early here. I can remember being involved at our parish in third grade; they had us all playing basketball. There was a lot of participation in the CYO leagues, and I don't know if we're all Catholic, but there's why I got started, 1 of 7 kids. Mom and dad made us all go through that program, though high school and through college. And I think in my time back in college, I can remember walking from St. Joes, dribbling the basketball, that was a big thing to be part of the men's program of the big five, certainly our experience that we had at Immaculata. But you did it all the time, CYO basketball was around us all the time in all this area.

RENE PORTLAND: Well I'm 1 of 7 and my husband is 1 of 6; so that helps a lot right here. There's so many connections in this Final Four to Philadelphia. So I'm sure Shawnetta have her family in full force. I think if you were just going to buy a ticket to go to the Final Four and you lived in this area, even without Penn State being in it, maybe you bought a ticket and now you can identify to us. And that's what we're hoping to people can identify to us, because the ticket was hard to get where before we even got here. So we're hoping that Penn State alumni bought them up before they even knew we were coming.

RENE PORTLAND: You must be a Sue Bird fab fan. She is playing with a calmness about herself right now. Most players when they get hurt, the year they come back is transitional for them and she's passed the transitional stage. I felt that's what hurt the most when we played them down in Florida. You're always going to have Shea and Swin doing their thing, but she really has a peace about her. You can't leave her; find her in transition. If you look at our scouting report that's the first thing, find her in transition because she makes things happen. If we leave her to go jab at somebody else, she's going to hit the 3, but she's capable of penetrating. But she has great respect from Geno. I think when coach loves their pointguard, the pointguard knows it and you can see that Geno loves her, like I love Helen, and they just play with a spirit about them and the team knows there's an incredible trust. That's the key that starts the engine; and she certainly starts their engine. Now, is that high test, yes, that's high test but she really gets the engine started.

RENE PORTLAND: She's so dangerous because she has an incredible nose to the ball. Whether it's loose ball, rebound, getting herself to the basket, she gets herself to the foul line probably more than anyone else, so that has to be a big key to keep her off the foul line. She can hit the 3, but she wants to go hard and she's going to make you play hard; she posts you up, she cuts across the lane, which is very dangerous in many of their offenses. But Shea is an incredible competitor. There are times I this think she is pretty protected, but I think she does know how to get the job done.

RENE PORTLAND: I had the opportunity to play against her -- I didn't play -- I coached against her in the southern in the University World Game. She is very different when she plays for her home team. She really blossoms here. I think incredible speed; she can play some really good defense. But offensively, there's a pace about her that is really tough to read, you know, she paces herself or she can go full speed and beat you off penetration. She can hit the 3. I think, offensively, I think her development, if I saw her during the summer, she is a whole different kid here. So she should be thrilled that she's here. On this team you can't figure out who the X factor is because there's just so many of them.

RENE PORTLAND: This is a very, very special team to me, obviously. To make this trip even more unique, last night I stepped out on the floor to coach my first practice to get ready for the final hour and I stood on Hawk Hill where I stood. I don't know if my players understood that feeling, but my old AD stood at the door and I knew where everything was. That's the gym I announced I was pregnant with my first daughter. I told my team before I told my husband, to be quite honest. Going back to Hawk Hill was the kickoff to the whole thing, and knowing that brothers and sisters are around the corner, mom is in town right now it's really rewarding. To take this team, to take Penn State to the Final Four is obviously -- and hopefully to a National Championship something that when I signed on to this hectic way of life, that's what you want to do. So I'm glad I'm get to go do what I want to do.

RENE PORTLAND: You're not going to see a whole lot of difference. You might see a different play on a bounce, but you're not going to see a whole big difference. They do have incredible depth. Our players really have to know the differences between them, which way is right. Our players are really going to be to be schooled on player personnel, where they put people in their 2-2-1 press, who you pass over, who you dribble past. So I think it's more homework on the player's part to know the player's personnel; so I think that's probably the biggest change. Our coaching can't change. We have going to our horses. You don't save anything and you certainly throw out everything on the floor. And if we get ourselves in foul trouble like we did with Iowa, you pray that that kid goes in and plays the same way she did that night.

RENE PORTLAND: I'd love to talk about the legacy. There would be no Rene Portland in basketball in there was no Cathy Rush. It is incredible to think that many of us that left her are doing what we're doing. I get to be a mommy coach and she was a mommy coach, too. And I remember Eddie and Michael running around that gym and jumping over Big Wheels and her standing there drinking a cup of coffee because she was exhausted. But she was organized before people were organized. She made us do double sessions before the world thought about double sessions. I remember running springs because I was late for practice, and that was 25 years ago and who really gave a crap and she did. We went to her home, to me taught me how to mix it all together, to be a mommy coach, to be there for us, because I always felt Kathy was there for me, but she as always there for her family. It was at a time, just like we are -- sometimes women's basketball still takes the back seat. It was in the jumper seat when she was coaching and she made us feel important. She made things happen for us in Philadelphia. There was great media coverage. We got on national TV, played in Madison Square Garden. She was quiet, gentle and I remember one time in practice she yelled and we all just laughed because she never. There was a presence about her that made us very proud and happy to be behind her and we never questioned a thing that Cathy Rush did. We were very, very pleased that this is here for her. They are going to honor her on Sunday and we will all be with her. We will be at the Hall of Fame when she finally gets into it. And that's the lady that other than my mom and dad, she ranks right up there.

RENE PORTLAND: We say a prayer before every one of our practices to ask that our distractions leave our minds, and that's the only time I don't need distractions. In practice and game time, I think we can do that. We are very fortunate to play in the Big-10, where there's a lot of crowds, certainly on our campus there's a lot of things hang towards us. I want the kids to enjoyed us. We went to Andrea's house last night. We could have said we're tired and we want to go home, but I want them to be excited and I want to point things out to them. It's almost like your wedding day. It's such a big day, and sometimes the bride doesn't remember what it was. And I always tell you to remember everything to try to remember everything and enjoy everything, and that's what I'm telling my players. They are the brides right now, and to remember everything that's happening, keep a smile on your face, take great pictures and when it's time to say I do, get to work.

RENE PORTLAND: Money always helps. I think fund-raising is a big thing. A few years ago we went on the ventures of Rene's List, which was a fund-raiser that we did at Penn State, and it was just women's basketball and expanded to other women's sports. Got us on TV, our public broadcasting system WPSX on campus does a super job putting us on , the Rene Portland TV show. That exposure helped us, and it went on to volleyball, gymnastics and we've been able to do those kinds of things with this program. The school disbanded Rene's List because the athletic department, they saw an interest and that's very, very positive. I think kids groups, booster group, our young kids club, we let the young kids in for free. They don't drive and they don't have any money to eat, so they have to bring their parents to those kinds of things and sit them together. In women's basketball, I think families are a big fart of our demographics and we cater to the families we cater to the schools. And I think you have to do giveaways, you really do. That's where the money is going to come in. If you don't have money, you have to open your hearts. We do coaches clinics at Penn State. We've made ourselves extremely available to everyone. The kids sign autographs, sign the basketball; anything we can do to win the hearts of somebody, we're going to do. And sometimes, it doesn't cost anything, just a smile on your face. Winning helps, too.

RENE PORTLAND: I would hope that we have the advantages because of Helen's experience. I think she's making terrific decisions and I think she's doing a terrific job for Penn State. The last weekend she was challenged by Christy Sides as well as Jackson from Louisiana Tech and that was the matchup, that was the write-up that was the challenge for her. Helen doesn't play defensively the pointguard. We put her off on the two guard because she is queen cheater. She is never in the right place, and if she ever left the pointguard, I'd be having a heart attack; so tentatively she is our pointguard. She rose to the occasion last weekend. It's going to be a wait-and-see thing, but she's very intelligent and she's playing her best basketball yet.

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