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NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOURApril 1, 2006Alison BalesMonique CurrieGail GoestenkorsMistie WilliamsBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS DEBBIE BYRNE: We're joined by Coach Goestenkors and Alison Bales, Monique Currie and Mistie Williams from Duke. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach and then go right to questions. GAIL GOESTENKORS: Just excited to be here as I'm sure all the teams are. It was certainly a battle to get here. And I think when you look across, we all had at least one game that we really had to fight through that came right down to the bitter end to determine who would get to the Final Four. So we are extremely pleased to be here and looking forward to playing LSU. DEBBIE BYRNE: And we'll go to questions. Q. Coach, three teams from the ACC and all three top three in the nation in scoring in points, do you think this is the kind of venue for the style of play of ACC and has it always been such a fast-paced style in the time you've been there? GAIL GOESTENKORS: It's grown. The style of play has certainly improved. I think it's always been a running conference. I came from the Big-10, I was at Purdue for several years and at that time it was more physical conference. And when I came to the ACC, that's the first thing that I noticed is that there was much more running and pressing in the ACC. I think the teams have just continued to improve from top to bottom. Q. Coach, I would like to piggyback on that question slightly, is the running game instead of a trend, becoming the norm now in the women's game? GAIL GOESTENKORS: I think more and more, you're seeing it more and more. I think that the players, I think again it all comes back to the high schoolers that are coming into college. They have been playing since they were in third, fourth -- organized basketball now since third, fourth, fifth grade. So they understand the game and it's a much more exciting game. The fans like it, the players like it, so I think we're seeing much more of it. So I do think it's a trend. Q. Monique, you've stated before how you came back for this year for a shot at the national championship. Can you elaborate on how much it means to you. MONIQUE CURRIE: Well, it means a lot to be back here. I think we worked really hard this season so that we could prepare ourselves to make this next step. It's been a goal of ours since the beginning of the year to win a national championship and to get over that hump of getting past the Elite Eight and finally making it here. It means a lot to me and it means a lot to my teammates. Q. Gail, is there a moment you can point to, kind of an a-ha moment where you said, it's not just us in the ACC anymore, there's other really good teams? GAIL GOESTENKORS: I don't think a particular moment, I think we started to see, probably not this year but last year, we have been pretty good for several years and North Carolina has been nipping at our heels. We had beaten them 12 straight times going into last year. So I think last year Maryland gave us a good run and North Carolina beating us three times, I think that's when we could see, we knew Maryland was young and they had good recruits coming in and the rest of the teams were very competitive as well. So we felt like -- I knew going into this year this would be the best year for our conference. Clearly. Q. Coach, financially, your budget at your school, has it, have you seen increases over the last three or four years in that budget or have you had the money from day one to be competitive in the ACC? GAIL GOESTENKORS: I think the budget continues to increase. I really don't pay attention to it. I know I go over it every year, that's about all I know. So I do what I think is necessary for us to be successful. My athletic director, I see red lines all over the budget. He hasn't done anything other than that to me thus far. So it's worked out all right. Q. Question for Monique: Who inspired you to play basketball and why? MONIQUE CURRIE: Who inspired me? I don't think I can like, necessarily pick one person that inspired me. But in my neighborhood everybody played basketball and at school everyone played basketball, so I just did that. And I enjoyed it. I played in rec leagues from when I was in the third grade, and so it was something that I was pretty good at and I enjoyed playing, so I just started playing because everyone else played. Q. For the players, as students and athletes at Duke I wonder if you could talk a little bit about how distressing the events are that are going on at your campus right now and how they may impact you. DEBBIE BYRNE: We're not going to address any other questions regarding that topic at this press conference today, so we're going to have to move on to the next question. Next question. Q. For Gail, Connecticut slowed the pace down, obviously, and you called it the prettiest ugly win or whatever it was. Do you expect more of the same in the first game here being that there's only one team here that's not in the ACC? GAIL GOESTENKORS: I don't think so. I think that when you get to this point everybody, you know what got you here. You stick with what you're good at, and LSU is a tremendous transition team. So I can't really see them letting the air out of the ball at this stage in the game. They're too good for that. Q. The coaches talk about the first five minutes of each half being very crucial. In your mind what do you need to see in the first five minutes of each half to point towards success tomorrow night? GAIL GOESTENKORS: I think aggressiveness on both ends of the floor. But also poise. You want to say aggressive but sometimes you're so excited to get out there that you turn the ball over. So you want to stay aggressive, have that attack mindset, at the same time you want to show the poise necessary to take care of the basketball. Q. Would you just offer a brief comment, please, on the other three coaches in this tournament. GAIL GOESTENKORS: I think Pokey Chatman has just done an incredible job considering the adversity that their program has gone through over the last several years with the loss of Coach Gunter and then with Hurricane Katrina. I can't even imagine all that they have been through and she's really handled it with great style and grace. I think she's an exceptional coach. Brenda Frese, she's one of the up and coming coaches in America. She is extremely passionate and highly motivated. Does a great job getting her teams prepared and making adjustments throughout the game. And I just have the utmost respect for her. Then I think Sylvia Hatchell, she's Coach of the Year this year and I think deservedly so. I don't think anybody came close to her this year in what she's been able to accomplish with her team. They play, I think, one of the most exciting brands of basketball in the women's game. I think that people love to watch them play. I think they're good for TV as well. I think that they will get people that aren't typically women's basketball fans, if they just tune in for a little bit, and see them play, I think that they will come back for more. And I think she's just done a tremendous job, really, with her team and this season in particular. Q. Question for Coach: How do you rate LSU's defense and do you see improvement from the team that you played last year? GAIL GOESTENKORS: Most definitely. I think we're both improved defensively. And I watched the game that we had with them last year and it was like a slugfest. We were both, we walked the ball down the floor most of the time and our defense, we both had numerous breakdowns defensively. I feel like we're both in a different place now. We're both much better and specifically I think Seimone has really improved her defense and Erica White, there's been a lot on her young shoulders, but I think she's handled it tremendously. And she pushes tempo, but she also does a great job pressuring the ball on the defensive end of the floor. Then Sylvia, I think, last year she was still learning the game. She was a great athlete, but not necessarily a great player. This year she's a great player. Q. For Alison, can you talk about the particular challenges Sylvia will present for you. You're one of the few players that she will have played who is a little bit taller, she may be a little bit quicker than you, what are the challenges and what are you going to try to do against her? ALISON BALES: Well, like Coach said, she's a great player and I think that our whole post group will share the responsibility for guarding her. You will see me and Chante, we'll all give her different looks throughout the game. Q. Can you just comment on that a little, please, Coach? GAIL GOESTENKORS: She's, like I said, she's just playing a tremendous basketball and she's improved her skills. She might be one of the most improved offensive players of the year this year, from this year to last. So as Alison said, I think it's going to take a team effort. And we don't anticipate stopping her, that's not an issue for us, we know that's not really possible, we just need, hope to contain her. And it's not as much her scoring that really breaks you down as it is her rebounding. Because when one individual gets 15 to 20 rebounds, it's very demoralizing for a team. Q. Coach, how important is this game for you personally just maybe get over the hump and get this program winning a few more of the big games? GAIL GOESTENKORS: I really don't feel like it's important at all. I think being able to get to the Final Four four times is pretty nice. I feel very good about it. I know that our team is going to continue to be successful throughout my career and so I'm not, I don't feel the pressure of trying to win another game or win two more games. I know that we can. And my job is to prepare my team the best way possible for them to do that. So, but other than that, I really don't feel any pressure. Q. Gail, do you feel that the rise of the ACC and North Carolina in particular is finally allowing the women to sort of get their due on Tobacco Road, or do you feel that you're still sort of fighting for recognition down there with all of the tradition of the men's basketball? GAIL GOESTENKORS: I think that we have had such great teams and in the triangle area in particular, NC State, they were in the tournament again this year, but they have been to the Final Four as well. So I think it's been tough for us because we have great men's basketball teams, as well as women's basketball teams, so and we love it because it's, we're a great basketball school, and we really support one another. At times I think it's hurt our attendance probably at all of our schools and media attention as well, because there's only so much space in the paper and sometimes I think that with fans they pick and choose what teams to cheer for and which games to go to. So we're hoping now that since there aren't any men's teams still playing in the ACC, that perhaps some of them will, that haven't been women's basketball fans but are Duke fans or North Carolina fans, will now watch the women's teams play and hopefully come back for more. Q. Coach, I just want to ask you about rebounding. I know when you had that stretch at the end of the regular season where you really weren't playing your best ball. You were pointing to turnovers. But you're on pace for a tournament record for rebounding and I want to know what's behind that or what you've been doing differently to rebound as well as you have? GAIL GOESTENKORS: Well since the end of the ACC tournament that our main focus has been rebounding. So we have done -- many days we do warm-up drills, that it's, 10 minutes of just rebounding. Totally breaking down the rebounding, making sure we do the little things well. I thought we got to the point where we were just trying to outjump people. In certain games you can do that but in the big games you can't get away with that anymore, and we learned that the hard way. And when we don't box out, we have been making players run. Since the beginning of the season we hadn't done that. So we went back to some of the things to make sure that the emphasis was to do the little things well in the rebounding category and it's been paying off for us. Q. Mistie, for you, talk a little bit about the balance that you have to have when you come to the Final Four, you want to have fun, there are distractions, you got to focus and work hard, just balancing that, all that, and if you could follow-up with how maybe Coach helps you guys stay a little loose and enjoy it all. MISTIE WILLIAMS: Yeah, it's really important for us to really remain focused. I remember my freshman year there's a lot of hoopla and a lot of stuff going on and it's really easy to get caught up in all of it. I think that just with the seniors, we're just going to be focused on keeping everybody under wraps and letting everybody appreciate all of the things that are given to us and all of the attention that we are getting, but at the same time we are here for one thing and one thing only. And I think that Coach, we really haven't talked about it, but we can have fun with each other and not necessarily worry about what's going on around the Final Four and just stick together. Because that's what has made us so successful is that we are here together and we have accomplished something great, but we're not finished. Q. Monique, could you talk about what Alison has done to become a more all-around player? MONIQUE CURRIE: Well, I think she's just a lot more aggressive when she's on the court, offensively and defensively. Last year we used to stress that we wanted her to be more aggressive on the offensive end because she would be aggressive on the defensive end, but then she wouldn't really demand the ball and this year she's really done a good job of doing that and I think she's a lot more confident, which helps her in games and be more willing to take chances or make a move or shoot the ball when she gets it. Q. Is there a time you remember when she really demanded the ball? MONIQUE CURRIE: Well, um, I don't know a time in particular, but when she pulls me over and it was like, "I was open, you could have given me the ball," then I know that she really wants it and she wants to do something with it. Q. Coach, could you talk a little bit about the impact that Abby Waner has had in the tournament and whether she's been everything you expected or more than you expected. GAIL GOESTENKORS: I think Abby's, she's played her best basketball right now, which is exactly what you hope for as a coach. I think she came in playing great basketball and then she lost her confidence a little bit, which happens with freshmen quite often. But she always remained positive and she fought through and she never lost faith in herself. And I think that was huge and I think her teammates really helped her through as well. But every time she shoots I think that as a coach and I think her teammates believe it's going in. Sometimes it was to the point where we believed more than she did. But I think that they helped her and we all tried to help her understand that one, she can't be so hard on herself, which she is, she's a perfectionist, and two, that she needs to shoot for us to be successful. And we believe in her and I think that now she is believing in herself again, which is important. Q. How big an impact has she been in the tournament? GAIL GOESTENKORS: Well, she's been huge. When she came in and she, last two games in particular she's hit big shots right away when she came in. Even though one was a bank shot, which she did not call, it was a three and it gave us momentum and she had a big old smile on her face and that's what we needed to see, that she was relaxed and ready to play and believed in herself. And even just the way she's carrying herself, even if she doesn't hit a shot, she's carrying herself with such confidence and poise that I think that it makes us all better. Q. Gail, and the players, what's one thing you have to do differently against LSU compared to last year in the Regional? GAIL GOESTENKORS: Well, I think last year we had eight players and when I watched the tape again I could clearly see we ran out of gas. So I think that this year we need to use our depth to our advantage. Last year it was a disadvantage, and this year I think it could be an advantage for us. DEBBIE BYRNE: Any of the players? Any different answer? If not, we'll move on. No. MONIQUE CURRIE: Just win. That's different. (Laughter.) DEBBIE BYRNE: Good answer. Q. Gail, can you think back to '99 when you as a new coach of a Final Four brought a team that hadn't been to the Final Four before, what's that experience like, say, from when you win a Regional final to maybe that first moment when you're here. Can you talk about that. GAIL GOESTENKORS: I think that the first year, in '99 when we came for the first time it was coming off of a huge upset win over Tennessee. And so the elation of that game was such that it almost overshadowed the fact that we were going to the Final Four. Because it was a David versus Goliath, so that was a huge story. So it was a totally a whirlwind from that point until we got here. And I don't think I actually ever came down off of cloud nine until I was back home after we had lost to Purdue in the championship. So I almost didn't have time to really catch my breath and understand what was happening to us. And once you get here for the first time, it is really, truly overwhelming with all of the media exposure and all of the events that you're required to go to, the game itself is just two hours and probably it's the one thing that you actually want to do is play the game, but everything that surrounds it is extremely overwhelming. Q. Gail and any of the players, what does Augustus do better than any other player you faced this year, and do you think she's the best player in the country? GAIL GOESTENKORS: Seimone moves without the basketball and reads screens better than any player in the country. If she's the best player in the country? I think we have got a pretty good player here as well. I think she's certainly one of the best players in the country. It's hard to compare all the players because they all do something a little different, we're comparing point guards, wings and posts. Q. Question for Monique: Could you talk about the way that LSU defended you last year and what did you learn from that experience? MONIQUE CURRIE: Well, Hoston guarded me last year and I'm pretty sure she will probably guard me again this year. She's an excellent defender, she's long and she's aggressive. She was all over me for the entire game and I just think I need to do a better job of moving when I don't have the ball and definitely setting up and using my screens to get open, because that's the only way I could probably shake her off, because she is a really, really good defender. But we set good screens, so I'll have to use those. Q. For the players, after the losses to North Carolina there's been a perception that Duke may be the more talented team but maybe is not quite their match in terms of physical and mental toughness. How do you respond to that, that maybe you're more finesse than toughness? Have you worked on that or is that something that you accept? MISTIE WILLIAMS: I definitely don't think it has anything to do with, like, a mental toughness. I definitely think with our size and the way the style that we play that it's not as finesse as you're stating that maybe you've heard. Our team is very physical and we play with a lot of heart and a lot of passion. I just think that on those typical occasions, those occasions that you're speaking of we just had defensive breakdowns and let them get on runs and really didn't capitalize on their weaknesses and let them play to their strengths. So we just really had to come back and kind of bring everything back and just collect, and just kind of reflect on what we could have done better and how we were going to change it. And I think that that two-week span where we didn't play, we really just capitalized on how we're going beat any team that we would face in this tournament. Q. Coach, you mentioned the 12 straight wins against North Carolina and you guys are had such a good run there for several years in the ACC, do you feel like that that has helped the whole ACC get better? Do you feel like the rest of the programs realize they had to compete with that and that's brought everybody up to this level? GAIL GOESTENKORS: I do. I feel like, and the other coaches told me that in the ACC that they had to, they felt that they had to do a better job recruiting to compete with us. Because we did go on that run where we won 50-some straight games and I think that it really, it was tough at the time I'm sure for them but at the same time it made them better because they knew the type of player we were recruiting against Tennessee, and UCONN and they needed to recruit against us as well. So I think the entire league has really stepped up its recruiting efforts and you can see that when you look down the line the last couple of years at the top recruiting classes, several ACC teams have been in the top five. Q. Gail, you talked about just no men left for the ACC, but has it created a buzz even within your area within Durham and Chapel Hill and then also within the conference itself having the three teams? GAIL GOESTENKORS: It has. Our entire conference I think is so proud and we talked in the preseason about the fact that we had several teams we thought could make it to the Final Four and that we thought we had the best conference overall from top to bottom, but until you actually back it up in the NCAA tournament, it's just all talk. So now I think that our commissioner, he's here, and the assistant commissioner are here and I think they're so proud and to be the first conference to have three women's teams in the Final Four I think is pretty special. DEBBIE BYRNE: On that note we'll say thank you very much to these ladies.
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