NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 25, 1999

Nicole Erickson

Gail Goestenkors

Hilary Howard

COACH GOESTENKORS: Well, this is just a very exciting time for us. We're nearing the end of our journey. And it's been a long and wonderful journey for us. But we still feel like we have business to attend to. We feel very good that we scheduled early to come out here and play. I feel like it was a real benefit to us; not just because of the competition, which helped us to get better, but because we feel very familiar and very comfortable in this arena. So we're excited to be here. I don't believe we're overwhelmed. We expected to be here. From day one, our goal was to be here. And our goal was not just to be here. Our goal was to win a national championship. So I know some people think that we've accomplished a great deal in order to get here. But we feel like we really haven't accomplished anything yet, because there's still some work to be done. So I believe we're in the right mindset to play well, and we know we're going to need to play well, because Georgia is an outstanding basketball team. The first glimpse I had of Georgia was when I was scouting Tennessee and preparing for that game. And I saw their SEC Championship game, and it was the first time I had seen them all year. And I just told my assistants, they are a tremendous basketball team. I didn't know how good they were until I saw that game. So, this is going to be a tough task. But I think we'll be ready to play. I think it's going to be an excellent basketball game.

COACH GOESTENKORS: It's so funny, because I've been asked that question from day one. And I have never, ever felt like we were in the shadow of our men. I have always felt like our men's basketball program casts a light on us and on our entire university. So I think it's a huge benefit that our men's program is so successful. I know especially early on it allowed me to get my foot in the door with some recruits. They didn't know anything about Duke women's basketball. But they knew about Duke men's basketball. And that sparked their interest just enough to help me get my foot in the door. So I feel very proud and very privileged to be at Duke University with our men's basketball team.

COACH GOESTENKORS: Well, I was a little worried. We started 1-3, and I was trying to figure out what was going on. You know, because we had such a successful season and we had all of our starters returning. And I thought, you know, it was a great schedule for us; so to begin the season 1-3 was a little disconcerting. But after watching many, many tapes and trying TO figure things out, I think we realized that I didn't anticipate that our injuries would bother us as much as they had. And we were not in the type of shape mentally and physically that we needed to be in to play that type of competition. In our preseason workouts, you know, the six-week workouts you have before you start, we had four of our starters injured. Hilary Howard did not do one day of practice. Nicole Erickson, not one day of practice. Peppi Browne, not one day of practice. Georgia Schweitzer did some, but then she tore her meniscus -- she had plantar fascitis. That's what Nicole has, and a torn meniscus. And Rochelle Parent did not work out because she also had a stress fracture. So it was -- I just thought just because we had so much experience that we would be able to step on the floor and play and compete. And we actually had to play our way back into shape. And I know the players probably didn't appreciate it, but we had them -- they had to go in the pool. Because the kids with stress fractures really couldn't run -- it was kind of a catch 22. I couldn't work them hard on the court and run them more because they were coming off of stress fractures. So we had to get them in the pool above and beyond what we were doing to get them in the type of shape that they need to be in for us to be competitive. If you talk about a specific turning point, I think probably one of the things was when we lost at Notre Dame. Peppi Browne got hurt probably two minutes into the game, injured her back. So she was out for that game. And we were on the road, and we were headed to Vanderbilt, who at the time was ranked. The players showed a lot of heart, because we had to play that game without Pep, and we were 1-3. And they came out and they played great basketball. And I saw a resiliency in there and character that made me feel that we were going to be okay. And then probably the other big game for us was at UCLA after Christmas; excellent basketball team, as you all know. And we were down 16 in the first half, and Nicole Erickson got hurt in that game. She had one play. She played for one possession and hurt her knee. So she was out for that game. So for us to come back from 16 down without Nicole Erickson, who had 29 against them the previous here, I think that gave us a lot of confidence. Those two games early on gave us the confidence we needed. And then, of course, the Tennessee game where we lost by 14. But we outscored them in the second half. And that's when we went on our big winning streak. Because once we finally really competed with a top-notch program in the second half, and we gained a lot of confidence through that.

HILARY HOWARD: I think the biggest thing is we're just playing the best basketball of the year right now. In the beginning of the year we struggled, obviously, right on the same court. But just right now we're really -- everything is clicking since we have played here, and it's nice to be back. I feel like we're familiar with the rims, just little things like that that do make a difference. We're just real excited to be back here.

NICOLE ERICKSON: Like you said, you're at the Final 4. I think if you have a let down when you're at the Final 4, something's wrong somewhere.

COACH GOESTENKORS: I think it's very important. I honestly don't think we would have beaten Tennessee if we had not played them previously. We gained so much confidence through that game. And, honestly, in the first half when we played them the first time, we were a little intimidated. I think it takes a half for that to wear off. It happened for us last year, also, when we played Florida in the pre-conference and we lost at Florida, and then when we played them in the NCAA tournament to get to the Elite 8. We were so much more confident and so much more -- I am a very strong believer in a nonconference schedule.

COACH GOESTENKORS: They are fantastic. They are incredible. Very complete players. They play a great defense. Their tremendous rebounding guards push the ball up, make great decisions in transition and can shoot the 3 and penetrate. I'm looking for weaknesses. If any of you know, just feel free to send them to me, because they are excellent, excellent players. I think we are going to have to definitely slow down their transition a little bit. They love to get up and down the floor. And we can't afford -- they score so many of their team's points. We can't afford to let them both go off on the same night. One player can go off. But when they are both hitting and both feeling good, they are very difficult to stop.

HILARY HOWARD: There's a lot of great backcourts in the ACC. I think the twins, they are hard to compare. The UCN backcourt that we play against is very offensive-minded and very potent. But I don't think I've seen a backcourt like the twins, because I feel like they have no weaknesses and they can do it all.

COACH GOESTENKORS: I really don't see it. I was very happy. You know, we got together on Tuesday evening, told them they could really enjoy the victory on Monday night, what was left of it on tuition day. And we got together as a team on Tuesday evening and had a dinner. And we were all excited and we talked about it, the highs. And how everybody was telling us how wonderful we were to not let it go to our heads. And I think that night was very good for us, because it got us back to where we needed to be. And we really haven't accomplished anything yet. And we still had -- our original goal was still the same, and that was to win a national championship. We had an excellent practice yesterday. We worked very hard. I feel like we're loose. But I feel like we're focused. I feel good right now. And I think the team does, too.

NICOLE ERICKSON: Coming back here, I love playing at home. I think we want to redeem ourselves from our last showing here in San Jose. As far as personal for the season, I think I've grown a lot and I've learned a lot about myself. It's been a pretty difficult -- ups and downs playing with an injury. And mentally, I've been up and down. But I think with the help of, like, my teammates and the coaches, I think getting through it and I think our team has grown a lot from it as well; not having -- there were times when I wasn't vocal and like a leader like I should have been. And other people stepped up and did a great job, and I learned from it.

HILARY HOWARD: I think we're very hard to beat when we execute. And, you know, throughout the season we've -- some pressure has taken us out of our offense. But I feel like in the quarter court we execute, especially Michele VanGorp down low, and some of the shooters around the perimeter. I feel we're tough to beat. As a pointguard, I feel like I need to get us into an offense and make sure we're running something all the time.

COACH GOESTENKORS: I think -- I couldn't answer that, to be honest with you. I think every time there's tremendous players. I think because we're playing Georgia, that's who I'm focused on right now. So I think watching the twins is an incredible experience. They play very, very exciting basketball; so, they are, and the entire team, the Georgia team does. But they really make them go. So I think people who haven't seen them will be very excited to watch them play. It's an exciting brand of basketball.

COACH GOESTENKORS: Tennessee does a great job of people -- with their athleticism and their defense, particularly the third time they played, Georgia played a fantastic game. They were up by 9 a couple times in the first half, had a chance to push it to double digits, really were in the game until the very end, until Tennessee went on one of its patented runs and went out of reach. But Tennessee did a great job on them defensively with their athleticism and their physical play. We're not as athletic as Tennessee, so that really doesn't help us a whole lot. We're going to have to find another way to be successful. There was another part to that question, I think. They play a great defense. They pressure the ball. They are up and in the passing lanes and they play smart defense. Clemson, they played a zone, a matchup zone the whole time. Clemson is not a great shooting them. They only have one three-point shooter. It was very smart to play Clemson with their matchup. Iowa State, they took them entirely out of their game because they played pressure man up and in their passing lanes. They did not give their shooters an open look. Andy Landers did a great job, from what I can see on the videotape, of taking people's strengths away from them.

HILARY HOWARD: With the experience we gained last year going into the Elite 8 and having all the stars return, we just felt great going into the season. We felt like being a contender for the national championship was a legitimate goal. We were just real excited to start our season NCAA San Jose. We were hoping to start in San Jose and end up here. And it's just tremendous that it's worked out. And I think the biggest thing for us is that we believed throughout the whole season, because we've had a lot of ups and downs with both injuries and early season losses. So I think the thing with us is our team chemistry is so great, we just feel like we've believed in ourselves the whole time.

COACH GOESTENKORS: Hilary is one of those players that is invaluable to the team, and it does not always, and hardly ever, shows up on the stat sheet everything that she does for our team. She is a tremendous leader. She's our emotional leader. And when things get tough for us, we really look to her to run the offense and to control things, but also to set the tone defensively. And she has the mindset of a champion. And I think that is contagious. And I think our players really feed off of that. Her teammates, they trust her, and they believe in her. And I think she, likewise, believes in them. And, like she said, we have tremendous chemistry. And I think that really starts at the guard slot and with your pointguard.

COACH GOESTENKORS: I think it's a going to be a tremendous matchup. They have got great guards. And people aren't talking much about Pam Irwin, but she reminds me a lot of Kelly Jolly, even though she make may the point. She makes you extend your defense a little bit more. And then they have got some really good post players. I think Tawana McDonald is going to be -- she's a good player right now. I think she is going to be an exceptional player. Great shot blocker. They change your shots quite a bit. They block a lot of shots. I think it's a good matchup, because they have a good inside-outside attack. Obviously their two guards dominate a little bit more. But we also have a real good inside-outside attack. So, I think both teams are probably going to try to get the ball inside early on and try to get somebody in foul trouble. Because we are both very, very aggressive on the defensive end of the floor. It's going to be a battle, I think, maybe of tempo. You know, they love to run. We kind of pick and choose when we run. We like to run, but we also want to run the quarter-court sets and make sure we get Michele VanGorp involved in our offense.

NICOLE ERICKSON: Well, the ups and downs, mainly, I think they just started at the beginning of the season. I was really disappointed in how we started and, personally, how I started, and just frustrated with my foot not being able to run; usually, when I get in a slump, my way to combat that is to do extra and run extra and shoot extra. And with my foot, I couldn't do that; so it was really frustrating. And it took me awhile to kind of get back into a groove of things and calm down and take some pressure off myself. So that was basically the frustration right there. And as far as North Orange County, I don't know how many people. I know my family is going to be here. That's all I've heard so far.

COACH GOESTENKORS: Peppi is our defensive specialist. She is the one that really is a stopper for us. I mean, she does a great job, not only on her own play, but she gives great help. She brings high energy to this team. I know if you've seen many of the games, she's the one that always seems to get the rebound and the key loose ball or she's always on the floor. And she just brings -- she really sets the tone for us, especially on the defensive end of the floor. Offensively, her goal and what we need her to do is get the ball into Michele quite a bit, so she sacrificed a bit of her scoring to be a better team. But her penetration to the basket can really break down teams also. So we really rely on her enthusiasm for the game. And during the game it takes us to another level, I think, especially on the defensive end of the floor.

HILARY HOWARD: We talk about having poise a lot. I think that's the biggest thing for our backcourt. We're not as athletic as other backcourts. And we just have been, against Old Dominion and Tennessee. I feel like we're prepared. Georgia does put great pressure on the ball. But, once again, we have three people in the backcourt who can really handle the ball. So it really takes a lot of pressure off of each of us.