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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYS


October 20, 2010


Jordan Barncastle

Raeshara Brown

Jalana Childs

Kathleen Nash

Carlee Roethlisberger

Brittany Spears


KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

THE MODERATOR: We will do a very similar format to this morning where we have the student-athletes get to provide some stories that may be different than what you typically cover or maybe just some of the off-the-court sort of things.
We would like each of the players to start with the typical, tell us your name, your year and your university, but also tell us your hometown and the number of people in your high school graduating class.
RAESHARA BROWN: My name is RaeShara Brown. I go by RaeRae. I'm a senior at the University of Missouri. I am from Little Rock, Arkansas. I had 863 in my graduating class.
KATHLEEN NASH: I'm Kathleen Nash. I am a senior from the University of Texas. I'm from Plano, Texas, and I had over 1,000 in my graduating class.
JORDAN BARNCASTLE: I'm Jordan Barncastle. I'm from Texas Tech. My hometown is Martin's Mill. And I'm a junior and I graduated with 26 in my class.
BRITTANY SPEARS: I'm Brittany Spears. I go to the University of Colorado, and we had a lot, like thousands, like 9,000, 10,000. I don't know. I don't know.

Q. You had a big high school?
BRITTANY SPEARS: We had a big high school, so I don't know.
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: I'm Carlee Roethlisberger, I'm from the University of Oklahoma. I'm a senior. I'm from Findlay, Ohio, and graduated with a class of around 500.
JALANA CHILDS: I'm Jalana Childs, I go to Kansas State University. And I'm a junior. I'm from Orlando, Florida. And I graduated from a class of over 1,000.

Q. Variety of backgrounds and that's what brings us together. Jordan, we will start with you. With people in your class now, that doesn't make this any less significant, that you were President of the senior class, President of the National Honor Society, president of the student council, vice president of the science club and you want to major in premed. Sounds like you have a pretty good idea of where you are going and particularly how it relates to this team, about being a leader for your team with Texas Tech.
JORDAN BARNCASTLE: As you said, those things in high school, they're a little bit insignificant, in my opinion, for 26 people in my class. But leadership on the court-wise, we only have one senior on our team. And me being a junior kind of puts me in that leadership role just because of my age.
But I think that the fact that I have been here for three years, which is most on our team with transfers and underclassmen and things, I think that it is my year to step up and lead the team on and off the court.
And I'm trying to make things happen, surprise some people.

Q. Jordan, I have you beat. I had 21 in my high school class. So you can come from small beginnings, right? RaeShara, I know that you like to travel a lot and your family went on a lot of family vacations. Where was the favorite place that you went on a family vacation? And why is it your favorite?
RAESHARA BROWN: I think that my favorite was when we went to Kissimmee, Florida, and we drove a little ways to Orlando and went to the Island Adventures. That trip was my favorite because we actually won YBOA national championship that year. The theme park was amazing.

Q. Did you drive there?
RAESHARA BROWN: We did take a bus trip there, 18 hours. That was a lot of bonding and a lot of extra stuff you would get to know about people that you probably shouldn't know (laughter).

Q. Carlee, please tell us about your experiences in Haiti and what you saw and how you were able to bring some of that back to your community.
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: As a team this past summer, we went to Haiti and did a mission trip with the Mission of Hope there and just got to do -- it was an orphanage, a school and they also have a church on-site.
Basically, our job was to minister to these little kids and just to bring joy back to their lives through the game of basketball.

Q. You ran several clinics. What did you do in your downtime when you weren't on the court?
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: We were just playing with them, anything we could do. We took bubbles, we took jump ropes, took extra basketballs. So anything between that -- some of us took a day to do some work, they had medical supplies that were shipped there that they had in boxes there that had expiration dates that were coming up and they had no idea what they could do with them.
A lot of us took time to organize those so they would be able to help them.

Q. When you experience that as a team and as a group, how does that come back to helping you guys put things together from a chemistry standpoint on your own team?
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: Definitely, it was a bonding experience. You do a lot of team retreats and things like that, that bring you together, but it is just a whole other level. People's -- different sides of people, they just open up and their eyes are open to seeing things that a lot of us would never experience. And we were able to do that and to be able to share that, it's something that is going to affect the rest of your life.

Q. Brittany, I want to talk to you a little bit about your academic journey. Before you came to Colorado, you went to a year of prep school and now at Colorado, you are scheduled to graduate on time this spring in sociology. So tell us a little bit about how your journey through the academics, what it means to your family and how it's been to get to the point of being able to graduate on time?
BRITTANY SPEARS: It is a big deal for my family because they want to see me graduate. I had lots of support system, so everybody helped me. My tutors and everybody at school just helped me get through this.

Q. Just the fact that you took that extra year with prep school to get ready. Has it been easy, has it been challenging, how has that part of your journey been?
BRITTANY SPEARS: Mostly with basketball and get away from home, like the home sickness went away when I went to prep school. So when I got to Colorado, I was fine. Because at prep school, I was like crying and wanted to go home and everything. But as soon as I was there for a little while, I was fine. I think it helped mostly with my school, of course, but mostly my home sickness went away.

Q. Kat, I was disappointed to find out that Zig Ziglar has moved out of the neighborhood. I was looking for something inspirational from you to share. You are a finance major. You had an internship this summer. Tell us a little bit about that.
KATHLEEN NASH: I interned with an investment banking company downtown in Austin. It was just a good experience to be able to get out into the finance world and carry over some of the stuff that you learn in the classroom. It is pretty boring in the classroom and you don't really know how it will ever apply. It was --

Q. It is the real world, Kat?
KATHLEEN NASH: It was nice to see how it transfers over and work with people. It helps mature you.

Q. When I think about finance, it makes me think about numbers and for you the number I think about is 47% outside the arc last year, which was third in the nation. How do you improve upon that and how will that factor into your team this year?
KATHLEEN NASH: I mean, we have a very versatile team. We have different things. We like to run and we have Ashley Gayle in the post. So, I mean, I tried to expand this summer going deeper, which is usually something I don't do. Hopefully it will just be an outside threat, to pull people away from the basketball and give Ashley Gayle some more looks inside.

Q. I must be on an academic theme. Jalana, you actually changed your major this summer from nutrition and exercise science to --
JALANA CHILDS: Well, my freshman year I was nutrition and exercise science. After my first kinesis class, I was out. I changed to sociology, which I didn't figure was going to get me anywhere. Hotel and restaurant major now.

Q. To catch up, you took 20 hours this summer. Did you have time to do anything else besides go to class this summer?
JALANA CHILDS: No. I actually -- I was in study hall every single day, night for hours and hours. I lived in the ALC, the athletic learning center. It was a struggle because I -- I didn't go home for that three-week break after school ended. And I hadn't seen my family in so long.
I was just like, basketball is the only thing I have. I had school, actually. I had an inter-session class that was from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. So that was fun. I was really focused on basketball.

Q. Fun?
JALANA CHILDS: I was really focused on basketball and I would get stressed because I had tests every Friday in biology and I didn't know what I was doing in that class. I had breakdowns every single week this summer. When it was over, I was hallelujah. It was a struggle. I did learn a lot about myself that I can actually do it. I dealt with that stress and now I'm -- I'm back to 12 hours (laughter). I'm normal.

Q. Coach Patterson runs a pretty complex offense, angles, spacing. I always hear him bring up the same concepts. For you to carry that academic load, it should be no problem for you to move into season with that very thick playbook that she provides.
JALANA CHILDS: You are right. I love being a junior right now because I have learned so much from my freshman year and last year, not really being as good as I thought I could be. And now I'm learning these concepts and I'm -- it is clicking in my head. I'm trying to take that leadership roll-over, and it's -- it's hard, but I'm enjoying it.
I'm excited for this season. Coach P teaches us a lot, and it is good to see that we can actually learn and turn it over and be good.

Q. It is amazing how you can learn some things as a freshman and then by the time you are a junior you can actually vocalize to the rest of the team what you are supposed to be doing, where you are supposed to be doing it and when. Jordan, playing for your dad, your dad being a basketball coach, was there ever a moment when you weren't talking basketball at your house?
JORDAN BARNCASTLE: We actually had a rule at my house that we couldn't discuss controversial basketball topics at the dinner table, like, if I got in trouble that day, I couldn't bring it up. If he was mad at me, he couldn't bring it up. So needless to say, we finished dinner pretty quickly and would go into the living room and talk about what we needed to talk about.
Yes, there is another aspect to our relationship. I mean, typical father-daughter relationship. We are really close. But him being my basketball coach all through high school, it definitely brought us together overall. We had those times where, you know, we butted heads and wanted nothing to do with each other for that day. But all in all, it brought us closer together and we're still close today and I think a lot of that has to do with basketball from high school.

Q. RaeRae, you are known for your defense and your tenacity. It is really no surprise probably who your favorite football player is. But why don't you tell people who that is and why he's your favorite football player.
RAESHARA BROWN: I fell in love with Ray Lewis the year they won the championship. He came out of the smoke and out of the locker room and he just, like, had a different kind of -- just vibe about him. And he's very exciting to watch. When he hits somebody, you literally cringe. And he enjoys it. And I think to enjoy your job that much is something that's -- you know, just amazing.
And I feed off of that. You want to bring that same type of intensity and that same type of excitement to the defense because defense is tough to play. It is probably one of the hardest things to teach in basketball.
And I think that if you have fun with it, you know, try to set personal goals because Big 12 has some of the best offensive players. If you set a goal that you are going to try to stop one of them, I think that's a pretty good thing.
Take a lot of pride in playing defense. Yeah, I love the Baltimore Ravens and Ray Lewis.

Q. Carlee, I wonder who your favorite football player is.
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: Definitely not Ray Lewis (laughter). Ray Lewis scares me as well and definitely cringe every time I see him come on the field.
My brother, definitely. I'm very proud of him. And was happy to see him back on the field this last Sunday.

Q. We were, too.
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: Thank you.

Q. We found out in our first session there is a lot of hidden musical talent inside our student-athletes. We had -- Monica Engelman is quite the musician, can play a lot of different things. We found some singers. I think there were even a few dancers. We're working on this concept of a Big 12 band. We need a theme song for the Fox Southwest Big 12 conference. Can any of you add? Brittany Spears certainly has the name. Can you sing? How many times have you been asked that question? A zillion times?
BRITTANY SPEARS: A lot of times.

Q. What do you say?
BRITTANY SPEARS: I say yes sometimes, no sometimes.

Q. I understand recently you had a little fun, Brittany, in the cafeteria after a swim workout or something like that. Is that something you would like to share with us, explain kind of the fun you had in the cafeteria one day.
BRITTANY SPEARS: One day I was eating and I had my swim cap with me. And I put it on my head in the cafeteria and I started going like this (indicating) and talking about Michael Phelps and everybody started watching and videotaping. It was silly.

Q. It got you on YouTube somewhere?
BRITTANY SPEARS: I hope not.

Q. Back-to-back Final Fours, Carlee. What will be special about this year's team?
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: We have six new girls coming in. We have one transfer and five freshmen. So it is a lot of learning and a lot of teaching here real early. We started off after preseason. We went to four days of a defensive camp and four days of a motion offensive camp just to kind of get their feet wet before we started practice. They are quick learners, and it has been fun.

Q. In those four days of defensive camp, was there a basketball involved?
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: No basketball.

Q. That doesn't sound like that much fun.
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: It was rough.

Q. Jalana, I heard you are going to be the next American Idol. Why didn't you jump up?
JALANA CHILDS: No. I like to sing in the locker room to annoy my teammates in the morning when we have some early morning workouts. I sing a little Alicia Keys. My singing voice is terrible. Mariah White, I will put her out there, her favorite rapper is Eminem. And I swear she knows every word to his songs. And she -- when "Forever" comes in by Drake and Eminem, she is Eminem. She is a rapper. She might get a record deal one day soon. I don't know.
As for my singing, it is just in my dreams (laughter). I have no vocal talent at all.

Q. Jordan, high expectations at Texas Tech, a lot of new players. Improvement every year for Kristy. This is her first team that will be all Curry, if you will. What can we expect to see out of style?
JORDAN BARNCASTLE: I'd say that what we bring is versatility and depth this year as opposed to previous years that I have been a part of. We have new freshmen. We have people who are now eligible off injuries last year. So it's new faces to you guys but a few new faces from freshmen-wise. People who just haven't been eligible but have had that year to grow and learn and gain some experience in our program. And I think that this being the first full Curry recruiting class team, I think it's going to be great and we have very high expectations. Fell short last year and we're not looking to repeat that.
And like I said earlier, I think we will surprise some people and open some eyes.

Q. Kat, there was a chance during your high school days that you could have played another sport. You were an all-American in volleyball as well as being a terrific basketball player and you still carry the same passion for the game that you had when you made that choice to be a basketball player and not just follow your sister who we will not see this year, right?
KATHLEEN NASH: Right. I'm still very passionate about basketball. And I'm still very happy with my decision to choose basketball over volleyball. I feel like I've had a good career at Texas and I have been really happy to play under Coach G.
It wasn't as I was expecting, I would say, when I committed and stuff, but everything's gone well.

Q. Even though you and your sister were a year apart, you guys looked like twins out on the floor. It would be hard sometimes to figure out which one -- you know what I am talking about? Which one is the shooter, which one is the rebounder? You're both. What's your sister doing? Give us an update on her and how she is carrying on in her life as a regular student.
KATHLEEN NASH: She is in grad school -- advertising grad school at Texas. So she's just studying all the time basically. She has a lot more free time, I'd say. We still live together, so we see each other all the time, just not at practice. We have a few hours every day where I go to practice and she just does whatever.

Q. I wanted to make sure Carlee we asked you the same question. You made the same decision as far as foregoing a volleyball career and choosing basketball, any regrets or any feelings about your choice?
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: Definitely not. I'd say to make it back-to-back Final Fours is one thing. I don't think anyone could ever regret it.
But make it to a lot of OU volleyball games, but you miss it, but definitely no regrets.

Q. Is there a chance in your fifth year that you would go play volleyball?
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: The thought has crossed my mind, but probably not.

Q. We could break some news right now if you want to announce it.
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: I think I will wait until after basketball season to make that decision.

Q. We can finish up with just some of you seniors, others underclassmen. What are your aspirations after your career is over? Just kind of go down the line.
RAESHARA BROWN: For me, I want to stay in sports. Right now my major is nutrition and exercise fitness. When I get done playing basketball, I plan on going into sports med for grad school and I want to think about becoming an athletic trainer.
KATHLEEN NASH: I'm actually not sure what I'm going to do when I graduate. I will either get a job, maybe move somewhere like New York or something totally different like that or I could continue playing sports. I am totally undecided yet.
JORDAN BARNCASTLE: I am hopefully med school bound and that's what keeps me motivated. I'm a biology major.
BRITTANY SPEARS: Hopefully I will play basketball. After that work with juvenile kids. That's it.
CARLEE ROETHLISBERGER: I'm hoping to go back to Pittsburgh and possibly work with one of the three professional teams there in some way.
JALANA CHILDS: I am hoping to stay in the hotel and restaurant business. I mean, I've done an auction this past year at our school, and that was pretty fun. It was basically event planning, but I definitely want to work for a hotel. Hyatt maybe, Embassy Suites.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much for your time. We wish you well as the season moves forward.

End of FastScripts

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