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NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOURApril 1, 2006La'Tangela AtkinsonSylvia HatchellIvory LattaCamille LittleBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS DEBBIE BYRNE: We're going to let Coach Hatchell make an opening statement and then we'll go to your questions. SYLVIA HATCHELL: I believe you were a former coach. Giving all the information. That's good. We're, of course, like all the other teams, excited to be here. We're just enjoying the experience and having a lot of fun. This is a special team, as you can tell. These young ladies up here, and we're just excited about playing a great Maryland team. We have already played them and we know what a great team they are. So it should be an exciting game tomorrow. DEBBIE BYRNE: Questions. Q. If there's one thing that seems to tie all four teams together it's they all run well, at least they are very good transition teams. Some of it is ACC style, but is this also now the trend in women's basketball? SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well I hope it's the trend in women's basketball, because I like it. But you're right, that's a very similar characteristic of all the teams; they go up and down the floor, run the ball well, they all have a strong inside-outside game. And just good balance, good flow. And I think all four teams here are a lot of fun to watch play. So I agree with you 100 percent. Q. Coach, to flip the coin on that, how important will it be for your team to execute in the half court set if Maryland is able to take you out of the, or at least not take you out, but at least limit your abilities to run? SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, I think Maryland likes to run too. They score a lot of points. Our games this year it was 98-95 and then 91-80. That's a lot of points for both teams. Plus I think it's great for women's basketball that people see the talents and the skills and abilities of all the players. But we're known for our fast break, but of course if you know our team, and our coaches, we keep a lot of detailed stats and records in our grading charts and all that. And actually our percentages in the half court offense are above 50 percent this year. So I really think that we have executed well in our half court offense, especially when we had to. Now, yeah, we like to fast break, but when we need to run a half court offense, we have executed well, especially in pressure situations down the stretch. And especially in some recent games. Q. Sylvia, as the dean of the coaches here, would you just offer a comment on your colleagues, especially the young Coaches Brenda and Pokey, please. SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, dean, man, you make me feel old. (Laughter.) The only time when somebody says dean that I think would make me feel real good is they compare me to Dean Smith, to tell you the truth. But it's an honor to be here and I think we got a lot of good young coaches now out there. Pokey was a great player and took over for Sue Gunter and just again, she has brought her expertise as a player to the game. Her intensity or her passion. I've gotten to know her real well in the last few years. We have a special relationship. We have talked a lot about on Nike trips and other times about transition game. I think we have a lot of the same philosophy with motion offenses and defensive concepts and stuff, so I really have enjoyed the relationship I've built with her. And then in our league, you know, the team or the coaches, it just gets better and better every year. I know a few years ago we played Minnesota, whenever Brenda was there, we played them in the NCAA tournament and we beat them in Chapel Hill by just a point or two. And I said right then, you know, I told Minnesota they better take care of her or somebody is going to grab her and they did. But Brenda has done a good job at Maryland and she and I have talked about a lot of things. She's asked my opinion about some different things, so, but it's great for the game, especially in our league. And of course Gail has been at Duke awhile. And we're just big rivals, but we have a healthy rivalry. We have tremendous respect for each other and our programs and I think we make each other better. So it's just a lot of fun right now to coach and to see a lot of the younger players coming, a lot of the younger coaches coming through and actually last night at the banquet and I was thinking about a lot of the young former young players that are now into coaching and some of them that are assistant coaches other places and I was just thinking that a few years from now a lot of these kids are going to be head coaches, so it's a lot of fun to see them carrying on their passion and love for the game. Q. Coach, you obviously have a lot of success then you had a stretch against Duke where it was kind of tough. What turned it around for you and you just talked about how you made each other better, what did they do that made you better? SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, it's called Alana Beard graduating is what it's called. It was hard for to us beat them when Alana Beard was there. But again, like I mentioned, I think in our league, not just Duke, but all of our teams, we make each other better. The level of our conference competitively has increased tremendously in the last few years and it's not just Carolina, Duke and Maryland, I mean Boston College was almost here; we got a lot of great teams in our league. So, I think that again, you know, we have gotten some great players and in our recruiting the last few years, I think our style of play fits our players. And as a coach, when I was younger, I wanted to prove myself as a coach, but with different things that we accomplished. Now I don't have to prove myself as a coach, the main thing now is I just want my players to experience success and I want to see the smiles on their faces. I want them to have fun and I want it to be one of the best times of their lives and I just want to help them grow as basketball players and as people, and that's where I get my enjoyment from. So I'm having a blast. Q. What are the things that your team has to do to match up against Maryland? SYLVIA HATCHELL: What do we need to do to match up with Maryland? Well, maybe we need to recruit you. (Laughter.) Well, we have already played them a couple times and I just think there's a lot of good one-on-one match-ups on the floor, at every position. They're outstanding and we are too, I think a lot of the little things will make a difference, I think it will come down a lot of it to rebounding, and just whichever team the ball is going in the hole for tomorrow. Q. To the players, Maryland was the only team that defeated you this year, do you think whatever questions you had you solved in the ACC tournament title game or are there still some things you have to be concerned about tomorrow night? IVORY LATTA: Could you repeat the question, please? (Laughter.) Q. Maryland was the only team that beat you this year. When you defeated them in the tournament game do you think you solved all the holes they might have found or are there still some things you as a team have to be concerned about tomorrow night? LA'TANGELA ATKINSON: Well, since we lost to Maryland, we improved in practice and we got better throughout the game. So just improving throughout practice and the rest of our games we kind of solved everything during practice. Q. Coach, with Ivory, do you almost have to suppress some coaching instincts with her, I mean there are things you would maybe normally tell a player not to do that you have to let her do? And I think maybe the answer is yes, maybe Ivory might want to comment on this too. IVORY LATTA: That's for the coach. SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, I think with accountability and responsibility, when you show those characteristics, you get more privileges. And Ivory has proven herself to me when she came in as a freshman. I let her make a lot of mistakes, because I knew that it was going to pay off in the long run. Of course she was skilled when she came in, her ball handling was excellent, her three-point shooting was excellent. But I think that her knowledge as a point guard, her decision making, just her experience, the experience in our league has just paid off tremendously for Ivory, but I've coached her long enough that we can look at each other and pretty much know what we're thinking and she knows what I want done out on the floor, and I can make a little gesture to her and she knows exactly what I'm talking about without saying anything. But again, because she's been accountable and showed responsibility on the floor and decision making in pressure situations, then I give her more freedom because she's proven herself. IVORY LATTA: Yeah, right. I think Coach pretty much said it all. But it comes down to, I think it all goes down to confidence and she has a lot of confidence in me and that right there just builds up my confidence to go out there and perform to the best of my ability, but I'm just happy that she's given me the opportunity to go out there and do the things that I do. That's my girl. (Laughter.) Q. Sylvia asked Gail this question just a little while ago, but do you feel like the rise and the success of the ACC has finally kind of allowed the women to get their due on Tobacco Road or do you feel like you still need to fight for recognition, considering the tradition there? SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, basketball is basketball and our men have had a tradition for a long, long time. And it's just, there's just no rivalries and there's just nothing like ACC basketball. I grew up a men's basketball fan. That's one reason why I wanted the job at North Carolina. It's a wonderful environment to be in. You just can't express what the feeling is like when you're in the area we're in, of course on our campus it's tremendous. It's just such an honor to be on that campus with former coaches like Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, now with Roy Williams there, it's just so, it's a basketball coaches heaven, paradise really, and then with all the other coaches coming in, I've made friends with a lot of the coaches, of course all the women's coaches, but men's coaches too. A lot of them when they come to town they will call me up. Bobby Cremins and I are good buddies, and Dave Odom, he's out in South Carolina, so it's just a wonderful feeling, I guess you could say with the relationships that we have and I don't look at it as men and women's basketball, I look at it as ACC and basketball. I think the women have really put the ACC on the map this year with three teams being in the league. And I'm telling you, the ACC women may be better next year. I know you think, well how can it be better, but it could be better because I think a lot of the teams are going to be even better next year. So, but all the coaches get along well, it's a tremendous relationship that we have, yesterday some people were asking a lot of questions about us and Duke, you know, yeah, we're eight miles apart, but we have a lot of respect for each other and we make each other better. I think one reason why we're both here is because we make each other better. So it gets some attention at times but I think both teams do really well to keep things in perspective. And we really, like I said, we both have tremendous respect for each other. Q. For Ivory, you've been on TV enough now that you're a recognizable face around America. And you really are emotional on the court. Some people have said that sometimes it looks as though you're showing up the other team or like Diana Taurasi before you, people kind of have a negative impression, some people, and a lot have a positive impression, can you comment on that? IVORY LATTA: No, I just came to the conclusion. No matter what I do, people are going to say the things they want to say, but as long as I'm out there having fun and enjoying myself and my teammates enjoying it, as long as I'm not doing anything to hurt my teammates or disrespect my coach or my school, I'm just going to keep doing it. And until coach says, hey, you know, don't do that anymore, then I'm not going to do it. But she knows from the bottom of my heart that I'm not going to go out there and do anything to disrespect the other team or disrespect the university. I'm out there having fun and I'm going to keep doing it. My little dances, my smiles, my anything, I'm just going to have fun out there. That's what she always tells us before we leave the locker room is main thing is to have fun. And that's what I'm going to keep doing. Yeah. Q. Coach, along those similar lines can you kind of put into words what Ivory does, both with her play and her mentality to kind of help the team and also you've kind of compared her ease in front of the camera with I think a Marian Jones, the last point guard, can you kind of expound upon that too a little bit? SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, first of all, Ivory is a great kid. And let's start with the foundation, because I'm very southern, as you can tell, and there's an old saying "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." And she has a wonderful family. Her mother and daddy, just the environment she grew up in, we had time I could tell you about her home visit, that must have been what, close to a hundred people at her house there. And the whole house was full, we had the windows up, people were sitting in the windows, they were sitting on top of the furniture, it was just unbelievable. We had a big feast, a big feast. And it was on Sunday, went to church together and then went to the house, all teachers were there, and family members and all the boys that used to play on the court with her. It was a wonderful day. What a great time we had. But Ivory is first of all, she's for real. She's for real. And she has a heart and a passion for the game of basketball. Ivory is very concerned about her image. She wants to project a strong positive image to everyone that is involved with the game. She has tremendous respect for everyone on the court, the opponents, the referees, the media, everyone. She's just, I think she's great for the women's game right now because she's such a positive role model. And she's very concerned and very aware of little kids. If she's in a big room full of people, I mean, even if the president of the United States was probably in the room and there were little kids in there, Ivory would go to the little kids. I don't know if she's drawn to them or they're drawn to her because of her size. (Laughter.) Stop kicking me, Ivory. But she's just has a heart and a passion for the game. And again, even though Ivory gets some individual awards, she's really all about her team. She wants to uplift, to lift up her team and bring recognition to them. And just the example is that the ACC Tournament there, in the final game, when the clock was running down and she called her, one of her teammates that had played a great game. Erlana and gave her the game ball, wanted her to have the game, the ball the last few minutes. And then when they gave her the MVP award, she looked at me and says, "I don't deserve this, Erlana does." And I said, "Well, tell her that." So she's always lifting up her teammates and trying to make them better and just a great kid. And her excitement and enthusiasm and passion for the game it makes people smile. It makes people feel good, it makes people smile. I can't tell you the number of letters and phone calls and e-mails we have gotten from people that have just said how she brightens their day. And again, and I'll finish, and I know I talked too long here, but I've been coaching a long time and one of my main goals, well right now the first goal is to win games for the University of North Carolina, but second of all is promote the game. And I feel like the way we play and having a player like Ivory sells the game of basketball. Because I want people to fall in love with women's basketball. And that's one reason why we go up and down the floor. Because I want them to score a lot of points and make it exciting and fun. I don't like low-scoring games. I made the comment, it's sort of like watching paint dry. I like to go up and down the floor and that's what we're all about. I don't like slow games. Q. I'm going to hold you to five minutes on this one. Seriously, Coaches do talk about the first five minutes of each half. The importance of the first five minutes of each half. What do you need to see in your mind in the first five minutes of each half for it to be a successful night tomorrow night? SYLVIA HATCHELL: Intensity. Aggressiveness on offense and defense. The intensity level. And we have started this year mostly well. We did not start well in the Purdue game. But then in also a few games in the second half we come out of the locker room not with the intensity level. I call a quick time-out and then we get to the intensity level that we need. So I think just the intensity level that we come out with on both ends of the floor. Q. Coach, for three teams to be from one conference, do the stars kind of have to align to get these teams all here? SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, it's interesting how all three teams got here, but I'm not surprised at all. Because they all deserve it and they're all very, very good. So I'm just glad we're all in different brackets. So we could be here. I'm not surprised at all. That is just how good our conference is. And it may be even better in the future. Q. Ivory, I could tell by the look on your face that when she was describing the home visit that's pretty much how it went. Can you explain why everyone was there, I would think you would want to have that to yourself? IVORY LATTA: Yeah, that many people I think that was pretty much my whole town. So I don't know. I just know that they have been following me throughout my whole career at North Carolina and they're very supportive and I just know that when I told them that North Carolina was coming, everybody just wanted to come. So my mom, she cooked up a big feast for everybody and we didn't know that many people was going to come. People started showing up that I ain't know who they were. I'm like, all right, they coming with North Carolina shirts on. Well, I'm like you know what, just go ahead and enjoy yourself. But they have been very supportive with me throughout my career. And I just can't thank them enough for the things they done for me. Q. Coach, do you think in the past women's players more reluctant to show emotion on the court and was there more so than men's players? SYLVIA HATCHELL: I don't know. I never really thought about that, to tell you the truth. I don't know. Maybe you ought to ask the players that. I don't know. I'm usually not speech less, but I don't know. LA'TANGELA ATKINSON: I don't know. IVORY LATTA: Oh, I think it's great for the game to be honest. Because they say a lot of women shouldn't do a lot of things and men are able to do it, but whenever we go out there and show emotion and just show our passion for the game also, and we like to go out there and fight hard and dive for balls and hustle and play with a lot of intensity. So without emotion in the game, I think that it would be pretty much boring, yeah. I think I think that sums it all up. Q. Just a follow-up in that vein: Isn't it fundamentally sexist to criticize women for doing what in the men's game would be celebrated as attractive flamboyance? SYLVIA HATCHELL: I don't know. I would have to think about that a little bit. We just try to do what helps us be successful. In being emotional on the floor and showing our, like Ivory said, our passion and enthusiasm for the game, it helps us. And I'm going to tell you, we enjoy it. We show our love and our heart and our passion for the game and for each other and I let our players have a lot of fun out there. They enjoy the experience and they enjoy each other, and the chemistry on our team is absolutely incredible. Just because we got a lot of great players on our team, but they know that they are ten times better with each other than they are by themselves. So they work really, really hard just to keep that chemistry going and to let each other know how much they appreciate each other. And I think that's real important. They are constantly giving words of affirmation and affirming each other and how important they are. So, but the emotion out there, I don't know, I just know I used to think that men's coaches in women's basketball they could carry on on the sideline and if they got a technical, that was fine. No big deal. But if a female coach got a technical, then, oh, you know, that was... and I know, I've felt that way. So maybe that's in the same ballpark, I don't know. But all I know is that we're going to play with a lot of heart and passion and have fun. Q. Coach, just wondering if any of North Carolina's opponents came up with any creative schemes to stop Ivory and slow the transition game down, any kind of novel defenses? SYLVIA HATCHELL: Well, let's see, trying to think. We have played some great teams. They played a lot of good defense. Tennessee put a big player on her. We have had some of them do that. I think that from my perspective as a coach, as teams try to double her or put a big player on her, or different things like that, then I'll tell her we'll run something to get a mismatch or make them switch off, or if it's a trap, then we'll do something to let her break the trap or I have two point guards in there lots of times, if you watch us play, then the other one will bring it up the floor and then that -- if there are two of them trying to guard her, then somebody is open. So again, we have had -- I tell you, when we played the first game in the NCAA tournament, Riverside. Yeah. And it was at Vanderbilt and we sit underneath the baskets, there the benches are on the end and so we were sitting underneath the basket and I noticed that when they would shoot the ball, all five of them just took off running to the other end of the floor, but none of them went for an offensive rebound. I looked at my assistant coach, I said, you think they were afraid of our fast break there? All five of them, not a one of them went to the offensive boards. They would shoot the ball and take off. All five of them. So I felt that was interesting. (Laughter.) But I don't know. There's a lot of different strategies you can use. But again, Ivory is not our whole team. We have got a lot of good players on the floor. Camille can play point guard if she needs to. Sometimes she brings it up the floor because she throw it in for us. Tangie can bring it up the floor. We put Tangie in the middle, we give her the ball and then she attacks the basket. So we have a lot of things that we can do. So it's just not Ivory. DEBBIE BYRNE: Thank you very much, ladies. Appreciate your time up here.
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