NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 26, 1999

Nicole Erickson

Gail Goestenkors

Georgia Schweitzer

Michele Vangorp

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Georgia is an excellent team. They made some great runs, and I thought we withstood the runs and really showed a lot of poise down the stretch. And I just can't be any prouder of this team. We played with confidence. And I also thought we played very relaxed, which I thought was very important, and just with kind of a championship mentality that we've shown all year long. I thought our defense in the second half really stepped up. And just excited and ready to play.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Not much. We changed one of our quick hitters just to give it a little different look just because they were doubling her. And it made it more difficult for them to double her with the change that we made. But I think she just demanded the ball a little more. The defense loosened up a little bit. And we got her the ball, which is always helpful in scoring. She was fading away a little bit early on, and we wanted to go right at their post players. We thought we could get them in foul trouble. She started really attacking the basket, and I thought that was really big.

NICOLE ERICKSON: I think it is poise. And I think it has to do with being seniors and playing against this kind of competition all year long. I think that's basically it. And I think we feel confident in giving the ball to each other. We have three people that can really bring the ball up, you know, and that helps a lot.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Great players. Just great players. I don't think you have to be athletic to be a great player. Very smart players. And they do a great job. We give them a game plan and they stick to the game plan; and they know personnel very, very well. They are very, very focused; so if someone has got a weakness, we take advantage of it.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Actually, we believed that from day one. So, we always thought we were going to beat Tennessee. I don't think any of our players questioned that. We always -- from day one we talked about winning the national championship. We visualized it. We're not surprised. And it's nothing new for us.

NICOLE ERICKSON: We know they like to go left, shoot a couple dribbles, shoot a jumper; make the 3. So, we wanted to force them to go right and just try to knock balls as much as we could and just kind of follow them around a little bit and it worked.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: I don't think we had an emotional letdown at all. I think the players were ready to play. Tennessee was a very emotional game for us. We were exhausted the next day. If we had a letdown, it was the next day. Fortunately, we don't have to play. And after the players got a good night's sleep and the players had a long talk, we were very focused. I didn't feel worried, and I feel like we're ready to play.

GEORGIA SCHWEITZER: I feel like what she said, maybe that night when we first got back to school. It was pretty exciting. But we got our feet back on the ground, ready to play again.

NICOLE ERICKSON: Right now we're just focusing on the people we have to play. We haven't really been focusing on Purdue too much. It's good for them that they are here. But that's not really our focus. They are just going to be somebody that we have to beat, possibly to win the national championship.

NICOLE ERICKSON: We knew that we were going to focus on the twins. We know that they take about 30 of the team's 47 shots. So hopefully if we can stop them, that's a lot on their offense.

MICHELE VANGORP: I don't know. It's just like playing anyone else. You just take what you can get. I don't even really consider it a big deal.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: It wasn't anything specific. They got some early transition buckets on us. We switched our match-ups a little bit to put Nicole on Coco. We started with Georgia on Coco, but we wanted Georgia to go to the boards a little bit more. She was penetrating. It helped us because we had Nicole, and she could get back a little quicker. Nicole does a great job of getting back quick. And obviously Hilary Howard was also back. It's hard for them to run when you score, and we were very patient on offense. When you take care of the ball, which we did, and we score your baskets, it takes away the transition game.

NICOLE ERICKSON: Basically penetrating, skipping, stealing. I had wide-open looks and today they were falling.

MICHELE VANGORP: I don't take a whole lot of them. I'm really probably a lot more effective in the baskets. But, like I said, they were open -- pretty much were smothering me when I got on the block. My open shots were pretty much jumpers. To be honest, I didn't know where my feet were. I just knew I felt comfortable taking that shot from there; so, I just put it up.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Peppi played an excellent game. One of her best of the season. Especially early on in the game. With her penetration got them in some foul trouble, their post players in some foul trouble. They had a tough time defending her. She also did a great job on the boards. I think this is one of her best overall games.

COACH GAIL GOESTENKORS: Those were huge. And I was so proud of Lauren, in particular, just because she was missing her little jumper that she nails all the time. And when you do that, you start second-guessing yourself. So I was very proud of the way she came back. She can hit the 3-point shot, and has been hitting pretty well lately for us. It seems like our last three games she's hit a big three. Fortunately, this one didn't bang in like the other ones. She knows when we need her. She is going to take the shot. And she has great focus. Nicole also hit a couple of big baskets for us. And she's been doing that all year long. So it feels good to -- I think that the team gives each other confidence. When someone is not on their game, just say keep on shooting, we believe in you, and I think that makes all the difference in the world.

NICOLE ERICKSON: Every great team is going to make their runs. And especially like the Tennessee game. We made -- we withstood their runs, and we're comfortable with it. We know that other teams are going to do it, and we take care of business.