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NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 2, 2007

CLEVELAND, OHIO

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with a opening statement from the coach and then go to questions for the student-athletes.
COACH STRINGER: We're excited to be here. We have got a busy day today. We hope to get some rest tomorrow because we recognize that we're on stage with the biggest game in women's basketball.
It seems only appropriate that we would have a opportunity to play Tennessee.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Essence, I wanted to ask you about Katie Adams. Coach said the other day that she's been sort of a person who goes unheralded as kind of a great leader for you guys and do you think you would have -- I mean, it's kind of a strange question, do you think you would be here without somebody like her?
ESSENCE CARSON: Not at all. Katie, she's definitely -- she was a big help in the preseason. Throughout the entire year as well. Especially with the freshmen. There are five freshmen. So without any upperclassmen we would have never gotten this far. Without Katie especially, because she's just so inspirational. She shows you what hard work is all about. Even if you don't get a chance to come on the floor she never gives up. She's always on the sidelines cheering you on, telling you what you're doing wrong and how you can fix it: And those are definitely the people that you need on your team.

Q. Epiphanny, what can you tell us about Shannon from high school and did you talk to her about coming to Rutgers with you?
EPIPHANNY PRINCE: Shannon is a great point guard who likes to score, in transition and run the team. And, yes, I did try to get her to come to Rutgers, but I guess she liked Tennessee better.

Q. Any good stories about her?
EPIPHANNY PRINCE: No. Sorry.

Q. Have you ever taken her on in practice? Did you play her one-on-one?
EPIPHANNY PRINCE: No, we just used to shoot around after practice to get -- to try to help our jump shots get better.

Q. And who was the better shooter?
EPIPHANNY PRINCE: I don't know.

Q. Question for Kia. Your team did a good job, you and your team did a good job defensing Fowles. Can you talk about the difficulty you'll have with Parker?
KIA VAUGHN: That I would have? Or we will have? As a team?

Q. Well, the team, because she's a little more versatile player than a Fowles.
KIA VAUGHN: Well, the team, we're going to play her like we normally play anybody else. No difference.

Q. For Matee, I wanted to ask you, Candace has said that it wouldn't be complete if she didn't win a national title at Tennessee. Do you feel that same way about winning a national title at Rutgers? Do you need that to complete your career there?
MATEE AJAVON: Of course. I think that every one who comes to college has a goal of one day winning a national championship. So in her perspective, yes, you know, that may fulfill her. Yes, in my perspective it may fulfill us too. But we just look to play a hard 40 minutes and may the best person win. Best team, that is.

Q. You five and your teammates, how did you sleep last night? Have you talked about that? Did you get a full eight hours? Were you too excited? How did you sleep?
ESSENCE CARSON: We slept pretty well.
(Laughter.) The tournament isn't over yet. For us, yesterday was a great game for us. Yes, we can be excited, but we can't be overly excited because we still have a goal that's still ahead of us and we're still trying to reach that.
So we won't -- after tomorrow's game, you know, if the outcome is positive on our part, then we probably won't get any sleep. Probably be out celebrating amongst each other.
But we still have a job to be done. And we're looking to be well rested, bodies and mentally, and looking just to go into the game and just play the game, the game of our lives.

Q. Did anybody else not sleep well last night? Everybody got their eight hours?
ESSENCE CARSON: Yes.

Q. E, this is now the third year in a row that you'll play Tennessee here on this stage. Why are you more prepared for them this year, and how do you just feel about constantly seeing them?
ESSENCE CARSON: Yes, it's the third time that I've gotten a chance to play them. And especially in the NCAA's. I feel that we're well prepared this year as a team, as a whole. The players, one through ten, I believe that we're all prepared. We have all gotten the chance to experience some type of game time during this NCAA tournament. And especially since we're -- we have a more balanced scoring team and we are playing defense just as well as any other of Coach Stringer's teams.
And right now we're just working together. We're rolling and we're just believing in ourselves. And I believe that all ten of us believe in ourselves. And I believe that's something that we might have lacked in past years.

Q. For any of the players, curious how often or if there's times in which Coach Stringer has referenced the 1982 team that -- the last team she took to a championship game at Cheyney? Just stories or something she's pointed to. Is that something that comes up often for you guys?
ESSENCE CARSON: Well, Coach Stringer references a lot of things?
(Laughter.) But she has brought up the 1982 team. She has brought up the Iowa team that she's coached. She has brought up many things that has happened to her in her life to show us that no matter when you're struggling, or how much you're struggling, that there's still light at the end of the tunnel. So we're just as motivated. We have talked to past players and we use them as motivation as well.
But most importantly Coach Stringer's our motivator just simply because we exemplify her character. She definitely let's us know time in and time out that it's not where you come from, it's where you're going.

Q. Kia, can you give us an idea how tough Coach Stringer's practices are?
MATEE AJAVON: No.
(Laughter.) I think that's impossible.
KIA VAUGHN: It really is. You really can't tell. Each and every day is different. Very different. It depends on how you react and how you turn out and how you start the practice. So what she may throw at you there.
Basically we just go in there with an open mind and we're ready for anything.

Q. For any of the players, can you talk about the underdog role and do you guys sort of kind of like that role going into this game?
ESSENCE CARSON: Honestly, we never really pay attention to the seedings, rankings, or whichever you may call it. But we just look to go into the game and just play the best game on that day to be the best team on that day.
Throughout this entire month -- well, it's April now, and throughout the entire month of March, there's been upsets. Any day can be any team's game. And we're just looking just to take that and just to continue to play the basketball that we have been playing throughout the second half of the season.

Q. I talked to some people last night back in New Jersey and this morning, and they said there is no way this team can not win tomorrow night, based on the play of what they saw last night versus what Tennessee did with North Carolina. Do you feel that?
ESSENCE CARSON: You can't make a definite prediction at this point. It's going to -- you're going to be able to tell when the ball goes up in the air tomorrow. For me to say that, no, that we don't have enough power to face a Tennessee team, that would be wrong. And for me to say that, yeah, we're too strong for them, that would be wrong as well.
It's a 50/50 chance here. And it just goes by how well we play tomorrow.

Q. Last night Governor Corzine was here, Coach Schiano was here, Coach Fred Hill was here. Can you just talk about like playing this game for like for New Jersey and for Rutgers.
HEATHER ZURICH: It definitely meant a lot for us just to have such big people from New Jersey come to our game. It's just been a great opportunity and representing the state of New Jersey, we're just really proud. Even having like Coach Schiano here, what the football team did this year, we're just happy to carry on and be in the championship game.
THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you. You can head to the break out room. We'll take questions for the coach.

Q. Your teams throughout the years have developed reputations for not letting one player beat you. You did a great job on Fowles in the semis. Can you just talk about the challenge Parker will pose in the championship?
COACH STRINGER: Well, I think that Fowles is probably the most dominating center with all that she could do. And clearly Candace Parker is the national Player of the Year.
There's nothing that she can't do. I think everybody's always impressed with the beautiful athlete, the beautiful body. I mean she can rebound, dunk, shoot the ball, play the point. I mean, how many players in this world can do that? None.
She's Candace Parker all by herself. But maybe between today and tomorrow, whatever time the game is played, we'll try to figure out something to make it a little less easy, and right now I don't know what we're going to do. I've been up all night thinking about it and looking at some tapes and I'll be talking with the coaches.
But I think that people should remember though Candace Parker's a great player, but that's not -- that doesn't define the Tennessee team. I think the Tennessee team is a huge team. I mean across the board. Once you deal with Bobbitt, who is a 5-3 player, then you jump 5-11 and then 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 across the board. Remember, these are all select athletes that Tennessee picks. They have first choice on the blue chip athletes. There's not one player that's not a first team All-American or a probably a national Player of the Year.
These young ladies have a great deal of pride, they're extremely versatile. They can flat out get it done. Some players are this-and-that players. They can either do this or they can do that. These players are this and that. They can do this or that.
And Pat, you know, is just the greatest coach in my opinion, period. So they have got the great players and a great coach and a great tradition. They're used to playing in pressure situations. They have been to the Final Four. This group of young people haven't been, but the team has. So Candace says that her career isn't complete, I imagine that that's the way she feels, and that should be.
But we'll have to figure out what we're going to do. I know it's not going to be just one person that's going to handle her.

Q. Can you talk about Shannon Bobbitt, the player you saw in high school to the player you're seeing now, how close you came to getting her. Just in general terms what she's added to the Tennessee team over the team that you saw last year.
COACH STRINGER: It's a much needed piece. I think that was the smartest move that Tennessee could have made. Because they have always had the giant players, what I call pro sized guards, and we all have seen that. But they have never had the quickness that they have needed.
So you add the quickness of Shannon, few people can take the ball away from her and what's so great about her is she's so extremely intense and fundamentally sound defensively. She probably went to one of the best junior colleges in the country that definitely emphasizes great offense and great defense, and it's a real tribute to Coach Landers. We were aware of Shannon earlier in the year and obviously she went to the junior college for a variety of reasons, so I'll say it like that.
But I remember my nephew sending me a tape because there was something online with her handling the ball. She was just as smooth as Allen Iverson. She's just a little itty-bitty person, you know. And I sort of lost track of her. And then realized where she was in the junior college. And I would like to have brought Shannon to Rutgers. We did have her visit and I'll leave it like that.
A long story short is by Final Four time she decided to go to Tennessee. And that's good for them. Because she did improve her shot which she didn't have as consistently in high school. But she's doing it all right now and she brings fire and fight and she's a true point guard because she's unselfish and she doesn't care who gets the job done as long as they win. And that's what you want from a point guard.

Q. You talked last week about the six player game. Is that what you grew up playing or do you just -- you were aware of it? And also in the 25 years since your first Final Four, some of the things that struck you as how the game has evolved.
COACH STRINGER: Well, no, I always played with the guys down -- no, I always played with the boys all the time. And most of the time I was the one that was choosing the team. So I don't know. The six player game -- although, in my high school we didn't have sports for girls and that's so unfortunate. I was so excited to go to college because I figured I could put my talents to use and we started off that way. With the 3-up and 3 back. My reference had to do more with when I went to Iowa the entire state was a six on six and of course that's where they would average 15- to 20,000 people at the girls high school game. I was in awe of that. So it was difficult and I knew better than to try to get the state to change. E. Wayne Cooley, who was the head of the Iowa Federation, was the -- the politically correct thing would have been for he and I to get together. I was explaining why we needed to have these athletes from Iowa play for the University of Iowa. I thought they were the best shooters in the world and fundamentally sound, but when it came to facing up with the basket and seeing all this other movement that it was going to be difficult. So Pat Summitt called me and we talked about that because Tennessee was one of the few last states to change from the six on six game to the five on five game as well.
And Elaine and I continue to remain friends. But it was just a matter of things eventually evolving. And the statement was that girls couldn't run as much because they may have a heart attack. And they just couldn't -- their hearts couldn't take it. But we see now that they can and now they're even dunking. So the game has evolved quite a bit. Quite a bit. The athleticism on the part of the centers is incredible. So right now it seems like a center is not the complete player if she can't shoot the ball well at the three point range and go inside and pretty soon it's going to come down to, hey, how many players do you have that can dunk. And that's what it's going to come to.

Q. Between you and Pat, fuzzy math, maybe, I got 1,700 victories, 68 years combined coaching experience, is it a mistake to reduce this kind of a game, say that it's a chess match between two of the greatest coaches in women's history? Is there overemphasis on that at the college level or is that the correct way to look at the game?
COACH STRINGER: It probably is a chess match. She has her pieces and I have my pieces. And we're trying to, at the right time, make the move. There will be moves and countermoves. And as you may know, Pat and I are very good friends. And I've enjoyed coaching -- I just enjoy these kind of games. And I know that she does too as well. The players, I mean, there's a lot of things. That's why I thought Essence answered someone's questions brilliantly because you can't tell what's going to go on. It depends on how calm the players are and what moves they make and basically how calm we can be and the skills of the players.
But basketball is a game of chess. You just don't throw it out there randomly hoping and react to it. You hope to make a move and cause someone else to react and you look at players that are put in and you consider what you need to do with that. The decisions you make with regards to the patterns has everything to do with how well people handle certain kinds of offensive schemes. Whether it's a screen and roll or a post pattern or whatever.
So every time -- if you notice every time someone comes in, as for me, my coaches, I'll think more in terms of the patterns, my assistant coach, whoever did that game, will think more in terms of the matchups. And sometimes you get the matchups right and sometimes you don't.

Q. Just a quick follow-up, there's a scene in a movie Patton where George C. Scott's character is having a battle with Rommel's Panzers and he says, Rommel, you magnificent bastard, I read your book.
COACH STRINGER: I love it.

Q. Have you read Pat's book? Has she read yours? Is there anything that you guys do that the other doesn't know backwards and forwards?
COACH STRINGER: I can tell you this: Yeah, her book, "The Summit," to go into her mind and in terms of what was happening at the time that we were going to play them, I think it was for the -- it was either at the Elite 8 level -- yeah, it must have been. What was going through her mind. Yeah. Most coaches I think read or admire Rommel and Patton and all the great generals. I think it's appropriate that they call Bob Knight "the general." Because he is a general.
You move; it is a chess match. It is that very much. It's important to know the mind, the player. Sometimes you might even know from the clothes, the decision of the clothes that they might wear. It's really very interesting. You must know the mind because the players may change, the names and the faces of the players, but I study the coaches. Other tendencies that they have.
We say that all the time. Because you can't change. If you have been successful you may tweak and come up a little more here or there. For example, this year I tried to allow the team to run full blown for all out. We have never had offensive players -- and that's the mistake I think that so many times people think, well, Vivian just likes to walk the ball up the floor. At championship times we have been known to turn the ball over four or five times and that's an incredible statistic. But it's not that I want to walk the ball up the floor, I much prefer to run like I would much prefer to press, the problem is we have not had the players to run in too many instances and better still we haven't had people that have been consistent with their shooting.
But I couldn't -- it was against my own -- it was against my own grain when we were out there scoring a thundered points and other people were scoring 80 and 85 points on us, so someone should have known that pretty soon Vivian would go back to herself. You know. And not lose my mind and go ahead and do the things I'm most comfortable with. But it's great.

Q. You've told us in the past when Coach Summitt has called you at trying times and things like that. Can you tell us when she called you this season, when was the last time y'all talked and do you kind of feel like you owe her? That you're due a win?
COACH STRINGER: She owes me or I owe her?

Q. You owe her.
COACH STRINGER: Depends on what you want to say about that.

Q. It's been a long, and a lot in a row now that she's kind of gotten the best of you.
COACH STRINGER: You know what? I think that for me I would be wasting energy and stressing out too much. I sort of like the way I'm approaching everything. I don't know why. The same thing with the players. The players alluded to all of our -- so many of the Cheyney, Iowa and Rutgers players came because they're a part of the same family at a reception and so many of them gave testimony and they spoke because it is one large family.
To me it's overwhelming the cumulative affect of all of that. It's like a mom watching all of her children come home and you love them and see the things that they have done. With regards to Tennessee, it always seems that we always are playing one another. And we're such good friends. I'm sure that we -- I know that we prefer not to play. But on the other hand, we continue to want to make ourselves worthy to be considered in that elite company. To have an opportunity to play them time and time again. And so for those schools that avoid great competition, it's like this, you can run, but you can't hide. You can run, but you can't hide. Because ultimately if what you say you want is a national championship, they're going to be there. Lurking somewhere.
That is what we want. We want -- so we want to play the best. I'm excited about playing them. I'm not going to get hung up on, well, they just keep on beating you. I've lasted this many years, you know, so I got it in me. That's one thing about it. I can persevere. And thank goodness we have an opportunity to play now and we have been on them, if you want to go by the numbers, but it doesn't matter, because unfortunately, you know, the things don't work out quite the way that people want all the time.
Who would have not wanted, for example, North Carolina State to win their game against Connecticut just because they would be the sentimental favorite. It doesn't work that way. So we just -- I just got to think with a clear mind and let these guys play and be free of any of the burdens of the past. They just need to deal with here and now.

Q. Two questions: One, Nicky Anosike, was that somebody that you recruited? And if so, could you give us a little background there? And, two, what is it about her that coaches seem to appreciate that maybe the casual fans don't?
COACH STRINGER: Of course we would have wanted to recruit her. We want to keep every player in New York and New Jersey. I think that if we could really just recruit there, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., the parents would be happy, we could win at the highest levels. And that's what we have attempted to do. We need to own the Eastern corridor. We don't even have to go down the coast, if you will.
I was at a lot of her practices and talked to her coach at length. Long story short is that the name Tennessee and its rich tradition, and let's say Pat, was too much for me. I couldn't have recruited anyone harder. I love her because she's 6-3, she's got unlimited energy, she's quick, she runs the floor well, she is just a fundamentally sound player. I try tried to call her at the last second to speak -- do you want to speak to her mom or someone to explain to them why they should come to Rutgers. And we are the program that needs people, you know, we're careful with the people that we select. We're very careful, that's why you don't see large numbers of players. Because it's a certain kind of player and, first of all, it's a player that is not looking for stardom.
Nicky is not that kind of a player. She went to Tennessee not because it was Tennessee; I think that she was excited to go there. We probably needed her more. We always do need her, I think we always need players more than what Tennessee has. They got people in the cupboards getting ready to come out. Really, they just dust them off and put them on out there.
But as you can see with us, we take advantage of every player that we have and so when we say to you, come to us because as a freshman you'll play, I mean, what could be better? But Nicky, you know, she went to Tennessee and that was our loss and Tennessee's gain.

Q. You may have answered this in bits and pieces, but when you said in your opening that it's appropriate that you're playing Tennessee, could you elaborate on that as to what you meant and also how unfulfilled have you felt that you haven't won a national championship to this point?
COACH STRINGER: I think that it's important every year that I have an opportunity to Coach because it burns so much in my soul. It being coaching. I think that when the day comes that I regret sitting down and writing out a practice or going over a tape. I get excited, during the season, my nanny will tell you, I never eat, just eat. I will take -- I have a huge bathroom with televisions in there and all that. Huge. I mean huge. So I'll just sit in there and eat. And so it's almost like it's a treat. I sit there and I smile and I really enjoy breaking things down. Breaking tapes down. I enjoy developing and putting things together. Every year I approach it, every year believe that we can win a national championship. This year, different. I really didn't think so. I didn't know if I could even last as a coach.
So to be here now I'm not going to spoil it by being obsessed with it. I really haven't been obsessed. I'm always hurt more often, I'm hurt because I'm losing young people and I won't see them again. I still have pain in my heart when I looked at that last shot the time that we played Tennessee and Cappie Pondexter just played her heart out. And the rest of the young people tried to play as well and we just came up short. And I remember looking at the clock and looking so deflated that it's almost like it's like a -- it's really like a noose on a neck and it's a mental thing and I wanted to cry for them. And because I take it so personal and I do cry. It means everything in the world to me because I don't want to see my kids' hearts broken. They play too hard.
But somehow we have come to a little balance that we really can't appreciate all of what we have gotten out of the season, and we're going to do everything we can to be fulfilled. Pat has won a lot of times. I really would like to know what it feels like and I don't need her to tell me what it feels like. I want to experience it myself. You know. And who wouldn't?
But in this you have to be good and you also have to be somewhat lucky. There are people who have won a national championship that you probably would have a hard time remembering their names now. Because it's a flash in the pan. It just happened overnight. I think most people will think about me because somehow we're that team that you're going to always have to mention because we're going to be somewhere there that's dangerously close. And even if we're out of the numbers, as you can see with the rankings, you always know that sometimes, somehow those Scarlet Knights are going to be a team that needs to be counted on. Somehow they're just going to find it, they're going to get that fight and they're going to be able to put it together.
So ask me that question, you know, Tuesday night. When do we play? Monday night? Tuesday night. Yeah. Ask me that question Tuesday night. I sure hope that I can tell you that I no he what it feels like. I just want to experience it. It would be nice.

Q. And would it be appropriate to play Tennessee?
COACH STRINGER: It is appropriate that we would play Tennessee because Tennessee has been that team -- it's kind of interesting, the year that my husband passed, it was Tennessee that came to Iowa. I think we at the time we were a No. 1 seed or whatever. Tennessee I think was considered one of the top teams, if not the top team in the nation, and certainly the SEC was the strongest team and so the NCAA selection committee found it appropriate that Tennessee and Auburn would come. And to our good fortune we emerged from that and we went on to a Final Four. When we went to Philadelphia, no matter what, Pat and I are connected at the hip. This year she called me just before the thing and says, Vivian, I promise you we're not going to be in the same region. But somehow Rutgers, me, let's say it like this, not me, not Iowa and not Rutgers, not Cheyney, because, you know, the first Final Four it was Tennessee, although they were on the other side of the brackets, I think they won their game against Maryland or lost their game against Maryland and we were with Louisiana Tech, so we have always been in that company.
But appropriate because I can think of no other team that on a more consistent basis or no other coach on a more consistent basis that has always been that person that says, I'm standing here, you have to come by me in order to get it all. And Pat is such a great competitor the great coach that she is, a great competitor, that if she has 50, she wants 60, and I don't blame her. She works hard and the team deserves that.
It's appropriate. That's the team that it should be. Anything short of that probably is like, well, but you didn't play the mighty Tennessee. So you know we get a chance to play them and if we're not good enough, we're not good enough. If we're good enough you'll find out Tuesday night. You'll know.

Q. Can you remember the circumstances the first time you met Pat and why the two of you hit it off?
COACH STRINGER: I can't remember. I was a little fish at Cheyney. We only had 1,500 students and about $3,000 budgets. A budget and I thought, wow, here we are playing in the first Final Four. And we were in Norfolk and she and I never got a chance to play one another. I just -- Tennessee seemed like this far, distant land. Unfortunately being from the East, some of us tend to think that there's nothing going on west of the Mississippi.
And where is Tennessee? Where is it? Okay. Ohio, Iowa, whatever. And we're just focusing on the East Coast. So I really didn't know. I just know it was a huge school and this coach had done great things. But, remember, television didn't bring those games and these situations to the front.
I think that Pat and I had a casual conversation because we met there for the meeting that they would have just before the Final Four. And I would come to hear her name so many times and took pride in saying that she was my friend. But what I do appreciate about her most is that contrary to what people think, they might see her as a powerful person and arrogant, but she's a very warm, caring coach, mother, and woman. With everything that she does.
We were standing on the sidelines and in our game at Madison Square Garden talking about clothes, believe it or not. We talk about our children. She's been great to my sons who have been in college and needed to get reports done and that. And she's been that person that will take time and call you and I know that she would do anything for me. If I'm down, hey, Vivian, you know, get your head up. We had a game where I just -- I tend to, you know, implement a lot of things and sometimes the players can be overwhelmed. And she was saying in our preparation for your game, I noticed that you guys were running a lot of patterns, Vivian, maybe you want to let them run it three times in a row because you know these kids today don't think quite as well or they don't remember quite as much. And I thought, you know what, that might make a lot of sense.
And I've talked to her about very personal things. So we're coaches, but we're people and human beings. And I appreciate that we relate more as a personal. But I will try to do my best to take her out Tuesday.
(Laughter.) You can bet your last dime on that. As she will me too. And we'll hug afterwards and it hurts. It will hurt her if she wins, but you think that she's going to take a break on me? Not at all. You know. And I love her still afterwards. But I will do my best. That's why you see bags on my eyes. I'm tired. But I will -- I'm going to go at it, believe me.

Q. Earlier Essence spoke about -- spoke very highly of Katie Adams. What does she mean to the girls on this team and how important is it to have someone of that character on a team that's so young?
COACH STRINGER: Katie's been the mom to these players. During the summer when we were recruiting, Katie has been the person -- well, Katie, Katie told me this or Katie gave me extra workout. Or Katie said I better not do this. Katie has been like a mom.
Katie is as important as you think Kia is or as important as you think Essence is. Katie is every bit as important. What she says goes. She takes us through the warmups, they're going to warm up and they're going to warm up the right way. Why? Because she's a player of truth and of honesty. She has the right to say anything to anyone. At times it's as -- a simple example, she and Mat are extremely close. They have been roommates from the beginning. Sometimes if Mat -- let's say that I'm jumping on Mat about something, and Mat's looking like, dang, she's just on me. And Katie would just say, you know you're wrong. And, you know, she can say anything to anyone of these players. She is the most respected player of all players.
Why? Because she always does the right thing. She's going to work extra hard. Several players were able to go to Virgin Islands only because of Katie. Because while Katie had done her letters and her suicides and all that, when others mentally were so doggone weak that they couldn't meet minimum standards, Katie would run the extra time. I would have to say, Katie, just don't. Or if Brittany is struggling with her shot, it's Katie that's going to take her out and continue to work on her shot. She's the most giving person. She knows that as she prepares other people, if you want energy and fire on your team, that's who you have.
You want someone that's going to simulate what the other team is going to do. Knowing that that person's going to get better. Katie deserves and I would bet that if all of them were to vote and say who do we give the greatest heart award to, who is the most valuable player to, not talking about the points, the most valuable player on this team, there is not a doubt in my mind beyond anyone it would be Katie Adams. Katie is necessary for any team, coach, organization. She's the ultimate team player. She really is.

Q. I'm sure you can find some artistic beauty in last night's games, but how would you rebuff critics who said those two semi-finals were ugly basketball?
COACH STRINGER: Two semi-finals? I guess that includes ours too.
(Laughter.) You know what? I really don't care. Because writers write and coaches coach and players play. It's kind of interesting. Too bad coaches can't write also. It's just like sometimes people come to our games, I tell you, one of the most difficult games for us to play is the game to be played against Villanova. Now people are bored to tears, but as a coach I am so rewarded because it executes so well and I love the way our team plays defense. You have to be so exact with angles and all that. I'm a purist, Pat is a purist. You know, notwithstanding turnovers and things of that sort, most people want to be entertained. So you want to see a dunk, see the breaks, well, you can bet your last dime we're going to try and make sure you don't see dunks and you don't see breaks.
But, I mean, that's why they write the way that they do. I could care less. I would hope that everybody could be happy but at this particular point since we worked so hard we just want to be happy. And happy is winning. I know that Pat would probably say it was an ugly game, but she's glad she won. I don't know what everybody said about LSU, it was a defensive game. And we all should he know that defense wins championships. We know that. So that's what they have to say, it's too bad.

Q. Just a follow-up to the question, when you started out you talked about the showcase. This is such a showcase for women's basketball. Not any concern at all, 50 turnovers in the second game, first game the lowest to score ever, 35, which was your defense, of course, and congratulations on that. But not any concern as a pioneer of women's sports of how that looked on TV last night?
COACH STRINGER: Well, I hear what you're saying but you need to ask yourself what are you saying? Because at the beginning of the game you hear them say "star watch." Sylvia Fowles with the beautiful hook the most dominating center in the country. She can dunk any time. She's finger rolling over the top. You have to appreciate the athleticism and the beauty of that. So why can't people get a lot more into, if she does those things, what are they going to do. Everybody here asked me what we're going to do about Parker. What do you want me to do? Let her dunk? Would everybody be happy? Then Pat would be sitting with all the people with orange on, everybody's excited. Hornbuckle is going behind the back and Shannon Bobbitt is giving you a New York show. Everybody's happy. But Coach Stringer and crew are not happy. So you know what the star watch is. I know what that is. If I didn't do something you would say, she's a dumb coach. Guess what? I can't win. I cannot win. So I'm going to win. Doing and winning the way that we need to do and get it done.
So it's about the show, but, I mean, all I can say to you, and most of you know that during the NBA games the guys don't play any defense. You know they don't. All-Star Game, everybody's happy. 125, 135 points, did you see what Kobe did? Kobe did this, he did that. When it gets down to the championship you see some real basketball because the game is offense and the game is defense. And so the turnovers, I mean, as you can see those teams were pressing, they were playing so hard. They were pressing so hard. I don't know what else you can do. Now maybe you would say on the official side of it that the officials need to call it much tighter. Maybe they call it earlier. I don't know. But I just hope that whatever the heck they do, they go ahead and are very consistent with both us and Tennessee. That's all I'm asking for. If you're going to be loose, let it be loose. If we're going to have a slugfest, let it happen. If it's going to be smooth, but make sure it's on both sides, and you can't tell it, and let the chips fall where they may.
But I think you have to appreciate the beauty of the great athletes that are there, and yet you have to appreciate the real determination on the defensive side of the ball.

Q. In a different topic, when you got to Rutgers, I believe they were still called the Lady -- were they not called the Lady Scarlet Knights, I believe? And you ended that immediately. What do you think about this Lady thing, this being 2007?
COACH STRINGER: Well, let me say that I understand that that's something more regional or southern in that respect. And with all due respect, then that should be the way that it is. If that's the way everybody likes to refer to it. I just believe that basketball is basketball. And you don't need to make a distinction. I think that we should be good enough, Coach Chaney and I used to practice together. And we never made a distinction between the girls, this and that. He and I were -- when I say practice, we would run 10-minute scrimmages of the matchup zone. And the guys -- a guy by the name of Andrew Fields, who was drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers would tell the press that he learned his jump shot from Valerie Walker, who was probably one of the finest jump shooters in the country. She was shooting at four point range when she was way back when. And here she is 6-1, 6-2, handled the ball like a point guard. He didn't have any shame of that because Coach Chaney as a male taught him to appreciate basketball is basketball.
And so I just believe in equality of people. Not male and female. I don't think that -- for example, that a woman should be paid less or more. I think that you should be judged strictly on the quality of the work that you do. No one could work harder than these young ladies when I'm practicing them at 4:35. We have had to get up at 4:00 to practice at 5:30. And they need gas and food in their bellies and it doesn't say, well, you only weigh 120 pounds so you only have to pay 99 cents a gallon for the gas. It's the same.
So I just don't see a distinction. If we're going to play basketball, let's play basketball. If our game isn't nice and pretty or as is not as it should be, if we're not making passes, we don't need to see jump, throwing the ball all over the floor, rolling all over the place. But, likewise, I just want people to be respected irrespective of black, white, purple or green, male or female, to be paid and appreciated in the same way. And the thing that I would do most for everybody is I wish that more fans would come out and really support women's basketball.
We do have a responsibility to make it entertaining, and that's what I'm saying, that, no, I'm not talking about a slugfest because this was not poor basketball; it was just great defense and it was just a bit much. But I think that people should come out and just support the sport. There would need to be a lot more promotions and I think that some of the numbers and the attendance that you saw at the other Regional sites has so much more to do with the fact that fans as a rule with women's basketball tend to support their teams rather than have appreciation for the sport. And you when you look at a Connecticut executing and a Tennessee executing and as so many of the teams across the country, at Duke, you know, there have been so many great teams and I just think that it's time to, on my side of it, just me, you know, just me, just drop the Lady thing, let's play basketball.

Q. Let me take you back again to '82. You played Rutgers twice that season. Manufacturers Hanover Classic, they beat you and they lost to Louisiana Tech I think in the first night. You got them again two months later and you beat them up. What do you remember about that Rutgers team and a 32- or 33-year-old Theresa Grentz?
COACH STRINGER: Well first of all, in the Manufacturers Hanover Classic, I don't think that I was coaching. My daughter, Janine, was in intensive care for six months. I was in the hospital. That was probably -- and I didn't leave the hospital. That was probably in Madison Square Garden. We found out that she had contracted meningitis in November or Thanksgiving. So I wasn't with the team. It was amazing, too, because so much of the dreams that I had I've not been able to be a part of. I remember my team coming to the hospital to see me. But no, wow. So that hurt me because I would love to have coached and, yeah, I think it was at Madison Square Garden. Vivian was never there.

Q. What about Theresa, what do you remember?
COACH STRINGER: She was great Coach. Fiery. She's living and she's doing a great job. In fact, I think it was her game against Purdue or someone that was impressive and just great. She's been Rutgers basketball, the spirit of Rutgers basketball, deserves all recognition. She was the first female that was ever paid. I thought that Fred as an athletic director had tremendous foresight and that was the first time they ever paid a female coach.
So many of our women coaches and men's coaches have been pioneers. She has been. She's been a leader. And I was stunned that she left Rutgers. Actually she and I talked and she was thinking about that. And what I remember about her is being a very considerate and kind person. She and Rene Portland brought their Rutgers and Penn State team, their teams to the hospital to see me. And we go back and I really appreciate that. Because I didn't leave the hospital and I knew that she was genuine. That was a time when coaches could be a lot more human beings. Right now you can't do that. You got to look at tapes. But she showed me the kind of support that she had, she and her team had for me.
And really I think that people -- unfortunately I think people, writers, all these people from the outside try to battle this and battle that. But I really -- I work hard to try to help everybody to remember that we're still people, human beings. She's a great coach. A good person. And I'm not surprised about her having a stellar career. However, I remember her even more as a great player at Immaculata because I started coaching -- like Cheyney was the first job I had, so I never coached anywhere else, but that was the most dominant center, she was mean. She was just mean. I always saw a scowl on her face and she just took care of business. But I had a lot of respect for her and always have and always will. And, you know, I'm glad to continue to try to keep the connection between the Scarlet Knights and what we're trying to do going.

Q. Would you talk about Kia and her development since she's been there and how important she's been through this tournament run for you guys.
COACH STRINGER: Kia has been incredible. I think that she's much more confident. Kia's heart starts to flutter and her eyes start to blink and you really have to settle her down. I am very careful when I speak to the team because I have been known to be a motivator to the point where the players can feel like, wow, we could just accomplish all things. But sometimes if I can fire you up so much that someone like Kia might be too emotionally strung out, so I try to just try to tone everything and speak specifically of what has to happen. Because she takes a tremendous burden. I can't even tell you. She -- there were a few things -- and let me give you a example. There were a few things that I wanted to do a little differently because Kia can shoot the ball very well. But she can probably move around the 3-point range and just stroke it and I probably put as much matchup zone on her as I would some of our guards, let's say it like that. You all have not seen that.
So but in this one game to take the post away from the basket, I was going to have her come to the high post and start hitting those shots and bringing the four down. Heather just reversed the positions. And she was so upset, tears started coming from her eyes because we had changed something and she just wanted to be -- she just wanted to do the right thing. And I said, Relax, whatever we're doing, we're doing, we'll do it. Next year you'll see a lot of other things. But Mary Anne has done a great job in helping her to understand herself more as a player.
And, again, a great credit goes to her. To the to all of the assistants who have helped the guards to deliver the right passes, Kia, to really finish with her. She's a much more confident player. Much more confident. I was really pleased at the way she held herself with Fowles. She pump faked, she let her come down and took her time. And believe me, she has great range and you'll see a lot more from her and a lot of that has to do with her work against Courtney Paris. I remember Essence Carson calling me from Mexico saying, Coach, you're going to be pleased with Kia because Kia really hasn't in practice been able to bang against someone her size and to know. Courtney Paris, I'm sure really helped her a lot. By the time she got finished knocking her around and by the time her arm got dislocated I think that Kia knew that she had got to get tough and tougher. And that's the difference.

Q. You mentioned before a little while ago how you got athletes or a little bit more willing to run this year and push tempo. But it seemed like last night after you guys got the lead, half court defense and especially on the offensive end a lot of half court offense kind of shortened up the game like that. If you guys can get a lead on Tennessee tomorrow night are you going to try to dictate tempo like that again or do you want to run with them?
COACH STRINGER: We will do one of two things. We will either put our foot on the gas and get in the car and drive you out of control, you know, or we'll get back we're not going to become a passenger. We can't become a passenger. We got to dictate some things. And there's several ways that we can do that. Either by the half court defense presses or the full court defenses and presses. We need to know whether or not we run, we have to run at our own speed but we can't try to run faster than what we have control of.
I think that Matee just naturally likes to get out and go. Now, I don't know what the heck she was thinking about last night because she started putting -- instead of her just one or two and kicking it up to the wings, she wasn't -- she was keeping her hands on the ball. Way too long. And we wanted to try to push the ball up the floor. We will always try to do that. We'll try to score in transition. That's what we do. But we're trying to not go out of control. We'll just go ahead and go at the speed that we need to go and try to either speed them up or slow it down.
I think smart teams will do what we did. They will milk the clock and take the shot with the lead. That's going to allow them to either drive to the inside or like as Coach said, as you may have seen, we've jacked it up a couple times real quick. But that's not what you do to win games. You're trying to win a game. So we'll shorten it up of course.

Q. Can you talk about the aura that sort of surrounds the Tennessee program and how you kind of -- do you think your team will be affected by it or because your team is so young they may not realize?
COACH STRINGER: This team is very young. I have to remember sometimes some of the words that I use. I mean, I look at them and they look real blank. So.
(Laughter.) Really, you know, Coach will talk to me and say, Vivian, they don't know what you're talking about. And they're very innocent. I mean, people that I know to be great, they don't know. Tennessee, see what they do is they relate -- like, for example, Epiphanny's best friend is the young lady at UConn. They call each other after every game, the center, you know and the other power forward. They're all great friends. I'm not surprised about the -- by the time in this day and age the way it's happening now these kids are playing together during the summer. They may compete against each other during the AAU's. Sometimes they encourage each other to go to each other's schools. But in the summer they spend time going to Argentina or whatever. It becomes a for USA basketball, it becomes a matter of them having a appreciation so they have to become teammates. Also so they just have an appreciation for one another and it's our job just to give them information and go fight for their school and they will be technically -- they will just be technically sound. They will just be technically sound.

Q. When you were talking about Shannon Bobbitt she said she gives you a New York show. Describe what a New York show is. Describe it in terms of both Shannon and Epiphanny, the point guards, the particular thing that a point guard gives you as a New York show a point guard or a two guard?
COACH STRINGER: Well, we don't see a New York show from Epiphanny Prince. You don't even see a high five. The girl barely raises her arm above her shoulders when she's going through the line. You know how everybody does a 360 and hit a hip or something like that? Epiphanny is very shy, quiet, drops her head. You have to -- she's very smart so she will you have to catch what she just said. But she doesn't -- that's not her.
Shannon, you know, that might be Shannon's thing, you know. So she will do that and talk some stuff. You have never seen Epiphanny say boo. You haven't seen Epiphanny -- in fact, you know, she will be -- one day she was running down the steps and trying to get to downstairs and one of the coaches said, why are you running? Well, Mat's going to get on me if I'm one minute late. She's the kind of person that is going to ask you, can I go to the bathroom? I really have to go. Can I take a shower in the other place because it's too cold in the other spot? She is just is a very -- she more or less is like the person that comes off of Walton's mountain with John-boy, Walton's mountain, you know. One of the writers referred to something about Ferris Buehler's Day Off or whatever. She didn't know what they were talking about.
These kids are young. They're into other things. I don't know what to say other than the fact that if it's a New York show it will be Shannon. I think that Epiphanny will give you a very solid, intelligent basketball game in the purest sense. We'll see her running her. We won't see her running her mouth or anything. Matee, you never seen her one time look at somebody like look what I just did? You know you're not going to see her pluck her shirt. You know you're not going to see that. Essence Carson, that's not in her nature. I was stunned because she's the spokesperson for this group. We have worked for two years for her. She's a straight-A student, but she never spoke. I said that she texts 90 percent of the time until she realized that I wasn't going to play her until -- unless she started talking to me.
So probably the person that has the most outgoing personality is Kia. And with Kia, Kia, Kia is so strong that you can see the fight -- you know the proudest moment? You know when I knew she had arrived is when I saw a picture in one of our newspapers and you could see Essence's finger, the hand's clenched, and she said, Finally. When I saw tears coming from her eyes when she shot a foul shot, when I saw Kia jump in the air and you could see that fight, teams that I've had before have always shown their emotions. This group really doesn't. You see Mat, you never see a change on her face. She might make a 360 pass. You never see -- she got these oval eyes, she sees out of the side of her head. She's like a snake. She's looking at you like this and she's just like this. I mean, it's amazing. You don't see any change in expressions.
Most of the time I think that they're not ready to play because she got this little -- Heather, Heather will not try to lift her head up because she got real little eyes and keeps her head down like this. I said, Heather, I know one thing, you better not be going to sleep on me. Her as well as Mat, they just look like they're sleeping. And then you say what you say and they say, okay, let's go. You know.
But they're very subdued. This is a very much like no other team that I've coached. So I decided to fit more to them than them trying to conform to me. Because they're not the kind of people that show much emotion. You'll probably see it at the end of the game, but there's not one Brittany Ray, if I don't say Brittany, tap her on her shoulder and make her answer, she's, yeah, no, whatever you want to say. That's how they do. So it's just the style. Just this group of kids' style and it's probably good for me and for them too.

Q. You kind of touched on this a bit earlier, about how playing defense isn't glamorous especially in this day and age. How have you been able to impress upon your players that this type of defensive mentality is the right way to go, the best way to go?
COACH STRINGER: Because every time we see a team play and they look like the next coming of Michael Jordan, the next question, and I'll run that clip back and say, Now let's consider what's going on here. If this player got the ball and they got a finger roll they got a hook shot, this or that, let's determine whether or not there was any pressure. Was there? No. Somebody comes up they just like bend over, get their head down, and so let's apply pressure when you want to win. So this is what we have got to do if you just stand behind someone and when they have got nice moves like that, then they're going to be able to do that.
But you need to play a side, force an angle and force the target to be a moving target. Not something just standing there. And letting things happen. So in wanting to win, and in trying to protect one another, knowing, recognizing the Sylvia Fowles' show, we're going to have to drop two people on her. Okay, but if they start to have the four starts to hit the shot, then we got to be able to rotate. We're prepared. We have gone over these things a lot of times. But right now it hurts so bad to lose that it doesn't take much to figure out that we want to win and we'll do what we have to do.

Q. Vivian, in the book that the season has begun, is it appropriate that Tennessee be the last chapter? Of all the teams that you could be playing?
COACH STRINGER: Wait a minute. Are you -- did you write a book?

Q. No, I didn't write a book yet.
COACH STRINGER: Oh.

Q. I'm just saying if you looked at the season as a book and every game is a chapter, is it appropriate that the final chapter be called Tennessee and not something else?
COACH STRINGER: Yeah. This is going to be for a great story line, isn't it? I mean you should get together and collaborate. You'll benefit from all of this. Over the years.
But as I said to you before, it's only appropriate -- it's appropriate for so many reasons, and they're too numerous to mention. It's only appropriate that we should play Tennessee. And it should be the last chapter in the end story, the end. I think that all of us have seen so many coaching greats retire and I have been personally hurt to see so many of our coaches who have just been the fiber of this profession leave. Pat is a staple. And I hope that we continue to remember that. And some of us have just been around to do the right -- to continue to stay. But I think it was a passion and a drive in your heart. I can think of no more appropriate team, honestly. It started with Tennessee, in my mind, you know, and it should end that way. So, yes, the end. You and I can come up with a book and we'll work on it.

Q. Two part question. You alluded earlier to attendance for women's basketball games. Can you speak to your experience in the Greensboro Region Final and during and your impressions of the turnout when you played Arizona State. And, secondly, your thoughts on the discussions of moving the women's tournament back a week to give it more visibility?
COACH STRINGER: Exposure. Yeah. That's probably the reason why I mentioned that. Because the fans were just great. It's kind of interesting. I thought that it was interesting all the clips that I continue to see of Rutgers team, not very many and they should have shown us all the time. Because every venue that we played in it has been packed. Whether it's Michigan State, or whether it's at North Carolina -- they keep showing these clips and I see empty seats. I think that basketball fans unfortunately are fans of their particular team. I think that men have a lot more following of basketball is basketball. So you don't have to be from Georgetown, you're still going to come and see a Georgetown-Ohio State game played. You know what, I mean, and that's what we got to draw. And I really want this to be a direction and I know the NCAA knows this, but whether they have to put more matchup zone or try to encourage our athletic directors, our presidents and that to do a heck of a better job of promoting teams because it's unfair. There is not that push the way that it should. In the meantime, all you can do is take care of your particular fan base. Duke, Rutgers, Connecticut and the likes. But when we played Arizona State, you got a chance to see that. Because, I mean, I know they were hurting, but still they didn't come to see Rutgers and Arizona state play.
So that's why I said that. The idea I think that's been kicked around with the ESPN about moving the game back so that it doesn't compete with the men's game, I think that that's possible. They're concerned about going into the golf and going into the start of preseason baseball. There are a lot of things to be considered. But for sure we need our own show. We need our own show. And as the game continues to grow, Candace Parker is good for the game. Sylvia Fowles is good for the game. Ajavon is good for the game. So many players.
I just think that we really got to have the good minds and the people to promote the sport the way they should to really get together and talk about how. Because all of you are here obviously care enough about what's going on but we have got to do -- I think I could be real happy to see that we are enjoying the same kind of attendance once we -- where would we go, wherever we go. And that becomes the coaches have a job to coach, we're doing that. The players are continuing to work to get these players to be better because we have a job to entertain.
But I do think that the administrative side of everything, NCAA, the universities, have got a much more of a responsibility to promote this sport. The matchup zone can be made in women's basketball. If other people would believe and work to support it the way that it should. But it's not being done. And I just have to say that and I'll take this opportunity to say that we need to make a much bigger step because whatever we're doing is not enough.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.
COACH STRINGER: You're welcome. Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

April 2, 2007

Matee Ajavon

Essence Carson

Epiphanny Prince

C. Vivian Stringer

Kia Vaughn

Heather Zurich