NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 29, 1998

Tamika Catchings

Chamique Holdsclaw

Kellie Jolly

Pat Summitt

COACH PAT SUMMITT: Well, first thing I want you to know is that I'm going to smile for you, okay? You can ask me anything you want to ask me. But the first thing I'd like to tell you is the best team doesn't always win, but tonight I thought the best team won the Championship that they deserve. And they've been the best team all year long. But I kept saying, let's see what happens when we get into post season and March Madness. I am so happy for this team because of their love for the game, their competitiveness and their chemistry and love for each other. And it has just been an incredible year. I cannot imagine this team not getting what they deserve. They deserve a National Championship. They came out in the opening minutes clearly ready to play. I felt good about it. I told them I've been to 15 of these, I said I've never felt better going into a Championship game than I feel tonight.

CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW: It's firm and it's final.

CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW: I really enjoyed it. It's exciting. I mean, I guess I'm used to kind of winning right now, and everyone is "Meek, you're not really excited." You've kind of been there and done that. I was excited to be there and win this with this team. But I've been there, so I'm not going to be crying or anything like that.

CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW: I think at times we do. No one expected us to do as well this season. They said we were young, we didn't have enough balls to go around. So it feels good at the end that we finally proved everyone wrong, and we went out and won a Championship. And everyone in the team has participated.

KELLIE JOLLY: Pat told me before the game started for me to be aggressive offensively. And I had some open looks and was able to knock them down. It's hard to guard the players that I'm on the floor with. And sometimes I'm going to get some good open looks.

CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW: It felt good, because we saw our game going to work. We wanted to come out intense and aggressive. When we were up by 15 points, we knew we had came out to take care of business. We knew we had control of the game, and wanted to continue to play hard.

KELLIE JOLLY: For me, yeah, it was. But I thought that those baskets were pretty big. Two back-to-back 3s, that will hurt another team. But like I said, they just came to me.

COACH PAT SUMMITT: Well, first of all, just being with them today in practice and the film session, and tonight just seeing them on the bus and the locker room, they were loose. We were all loose. Even Coach DeMoss was loose. And I just felt like they were ready to play. I thought they'd done an excellent job of comprehending the gameplan and what they needed to do. And for me, going in and going in with this particular team, they played both ends of the floor. And they play a tempo unlike any team that I've coached. And I felt like for 40 minutes we would make it an up-and-down game if we needed to. We had done that for 38 consecutive games. I was confident in a 40-minute game we could win this game.

TAMIKA CATCHINGS: Yeah, I think we played very well today. We had ups and downs at times, but we came out for the most part and played our game the way we knew how to play it.

TAMIKA CATCHINGS: I'm excited, just because this is my first -- I'm just excited to be here. As far as Chamique, she's been here. But, I don't know, she's happy. You can tell she's happy.

KELLIE JOLLY: It's her personality.

CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW: We were excited. I think it was two athletic teams, and we got up and down the floor. A lot of exciting plays. And for the people watching the game at home and the fans, it's women's basketball at another level.

CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW: Come back as a better player, win another Championship and leave here in style.

CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW: You know what, next year's team will be the best ever.

CHAMIQUE HOLDSCLAW: That's what I think Coach expects me to do, is come out with a lot of intensity. She told me my role before post season started, and stressed it throughout the season, to look to get the ball up. Once I get up, it filters through the team, and everyone else goes out and starts making big plays.

KELLIE JOLLY: I think we've maintained focus throughout the season; had a lot of attention this season. And we were just really mature in handling that. And I think that we just went out and we're just taking this game one possession at a time. It was just another game for us. Just happened to be one for a National Championship.

COACH PAT SUMMITT: I tell you, I really think that it's probably the best for the coaches that are out there that played against us. I can tell you it's the quickest, the best defensive team I've coached and the best transition team overall that I've coached. I also can tell you it's a team unlike any that I've coached in terms of their competitiveness and their will to win. Also their willing to prepare to win. A lot of players say they want to win. But this team, their preparation was tremendous. As far as all those coaches out there that coach a lot of great teams, this one is a different style. But I like this style probably best of any I've seen.

COACH PAT SUMMITT: You know, I got my degree in education. I couldn't give this team anything but an A tonight.

COACH PAT SUMMITT: I'll be honest with you, I think our fans -- we increased our fan support to about 15,000 this year. And I think offense had a lot to do with it. I'll think on that. I might be able to come up with a new slogan. I did call this team America's hustle team. That was our slogan in most season. We wanted to be America's hustle team. And I truly felt like they committed to really coming up with hustle plays and keeping the heat on, both offensively and defensively.

COACH PAT SUMMITT: Only two times in Kellie's career have I gone to her right before the game and said you have to be offensive-minded tonight, you have to be aggressive offensively. Last year in the regional Championship game against Connecticut, I think she had 19. And then tonight in this game. From watching film, and I watched a lot of film, I really felt like Kellie would have an opportunity to get some shots off, because you have, obviously, to be concerned about other players on our basketball team that put up numbers, particularly Chamique, Tamika and Semeka. I said you're going to have a chance to do this and you have to be aggressive on the offensive end. Now, you might wonder why I'm not smart enough to do it all the time. But I felt tonight she really needed to do that.

COACH PAT SUMMITT: Well, I don't know. You don't always win when you're supposed to. But I tell you, certainly with this freshman class and Chamique coming back, and Kellie will be a senior, we should have a terrific team. You never know about the injury factor. We've lost Kyra Elzy or I think we'd have been a better team even this year. If we stay healthy and our two freshmen will come in and do the things, I think they're capable of doing it. I think you're going to see an exciting team next year, as well.

COACH PAT SUMMITT: Tamika, she plays so hard and plays so quick, that a lot of times she will quick shoot the ball. I watched our game against Arkansas. You play as hard as you're playing until you catch the basketball, then you no longer have to play quick. It's like Coach Wooden always said, be quick, but don't rush. She rushed some shots. But tonight she had a lot of poise when she was in a position to shoot the basketball and drive it.

COACH PAT SUMMITT: No. I'm having the time of my life. I don't think I've ever been happier. And I've said this many times, I think the women's game obviously needs to continue to grow, and we need exciting teams. A team like this is going to be great for women's basketball. And hopefully we can just elevate our game. I love doing this. The men's game, they have plenty of great teams and great coaches, and I don't think they need any help from the women's side. And this is my passion, right here.

COACH PAT SUMMITT: It's changed me in a number of ways. First of all, I haven't had the coach effort, and I've been able to really use my energy to plan practice, and go in and try to be a better teacher and better coach for this team. I've not had to motivate this basketball team. They've taught me an awful lot about transition and defensive -- different defensive schemes, because of their quickness and their commitment to be a pressing team. So we're running -- we ran a lot of multiple defenses. We ran a lot of different looks offensively, because we were very smart. So they've helped me expand my Xs and Os and certainly had a lot of fun in the process. Vice-President Gore called and said he watched the game and loved it, and we made all of Tennessee proud. He talked about how we came out and played in the opening minutes. And he also talked to Chamique, and she asked him -- I think her question was, are you going to get tired of seeing me at the White House? And I'm sure he said no. And he said we'll look forward to your visit and just want you to know how proud we are for you and the team and the staff. And with that, before I leave, I just -- I want all of you to be aware that this is not only a great team, this is a great staff. Mickie DeMoss, Holly Warlick and Al Brown are second to no one when it comes to game preparation, and I certainly shared this with them. And I feel like the luckiest head coach in America. I have the best team and the best staff. Thank you for being here.