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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYS (WOMEN)

October 28, 2010

Kevin Borseth

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

KEVIN BORSETH: Good morning, everybody. It's my job to make sure these microphones work so you can hear everybody else afterwards. Anyway, I thought I was talking for ten minutes, so I was prepared to talk for ten minutes. I didn't think you were going to ask any questions because we have the round tables afterwards.
Excited to get the season started. It's been an interesting preseason. As you know they've changed the dynamics of preseason practice for women's basketball. We went from a 40-day window from our first game back to October 3rd, so we've been practicing already for basically three weeks for the most part, which has been a lot different than what we've had before.
It's been kind of an interesting change, given us more time to slow down, construct, probably more than we've done in the past. I think there's been a sense of urgency with the October 15th start trying to get everything in on time, and this has been a nice change and a more relaxing change for us in terms of trying to get our program ready. So that was the change in the practice schedule. The men didn't have that, the women are the only one that had it, and I don't know, but it is what it is.
This year Veronica Hicks is our only senior this year. She's back for her third starting year. Going to be our leader. Last year did a great job scoring for us in double figures and she's our defensive stopper. She'll get a chance to see a little point guard action this year as well so she can relive some of her high school days. Go back and do that. She's good ball handler so that'll be a welcomed change from that perspective.
We have three juniors, Carmen Reynolds, Courtney Boylan, Jamillya Hardley. Carmen Reynolds started every game last year. Played a little bit the year before. Very good shooter, look to do some of the same stuff this year. Courtney Boylan will be our point guard this year at this point as it starts. Courtney was Miss Basketball in the state of Minnesota her senior year in high school. Played four years of high school as a starting point guard. Did a real good job with their program there, so we've got a lot of confidence in Courtney's ability. Of course she was Miss Basketball in Minnesota her senior year, as well.
Our sophomore class is loaded with five players. It was a class that we recruited that was a top-20 recruiting class when it came in starting with Jenny Ryan. Jenny is our third starter back from last year. Jenny, very determined kid. She was Miss Basketball in Michigan her senior year of high school, and has developed an outside shot now to be able to shoot the ball a little bit better. Of course very tenacious, very hard working and one of those kids that's just a natural born leader. Very excited to have her.
The other four, Nya Jordan is one of our kids that's going to be a pleasant surprise for us. Extremely athletic, very aggressive. Coachable kid. Another one of those defensive stopper kids and kids that can create.
Sam Arnold, 6'4" kid out of Chicago. Sam is a kid that can shoot it. Hasn't seen a lot of playing time last year but will see it this year.
Kate Thompson out of Minneapolis, another 6'3" kid, going to get a chance to see some guard play, big kid.
And Rachel Sheffer is a kid that we've had from Watervliet, that's going to get an opportunity to play a little bit down low, as well. So we're kind of sorting all that out.
We've got two kids in our freshman year, Val Driscoll and Kendra Seto. Kendra Seto is a red shirt and Val Driscoll is a big kid we got out of the east coast, about a 6'4" post kid, kind of our answer to Krista Phillips from last year, so that's kind of the makeup of this year's squad and we're excited to get started.
We're ready to get going. We've got a very difficult schedule this year. We play the likes -- at our home games we play against Kansas, Xavier, Boston College, we go out to a Cancun tournament and play Texas A & M. In the ACC Challenge we play Wake Forest. In the Big 12 Challenge we play Iowa State. So you can tell our schedule is loaded with very good teams. It's the kind of thing we like to do to see where we're at in our preseason, and challenge the kids right off the bat and get ready for the Big Ten season.
The Big Ten is probably as good a conference top to bottom as any in the country, as evidenced last year by the fact that every program had a winning record and everybody had I think 11, 12, 13 wins last year. Pretty remarkable top to bottom for a conference. Very balanced, very even and very competitive within. So it's going to be a tough year, but we're looking forward to the challenge.

Q. Obviously Krista was such a big part of everything that you did because she had been there a long time and you're so used to her. Do you change the strategy without her even though you have some size?
KEVIN BORSETH: Well, that's what we're going to work early a little bit. When we first came here our first year defensive strategy-wise we used a lot of things that we've done in the past as a coaching staff. K.P. was one of those kids that didn't really wanted to do what we wanted her to do defensively in the post area, so we had to kind of adjust to what she did because she was good at what she was doing. So the last two years we were a little softer defensively, we caught a lot more. This year I don't know that we're going to be able to do that. Val Driscoll is a kid that's got the ability to do that because of her size. We might modify it and go back to what we did the first year and be a little bit more aggressive defensively.
Defending the post is the biggest thing. Of course then high risk/high reward when you start to gamble in those respects. Makes your kids work harder, they play better that way and they don't have time to sit around and think whether they're going to do good or bad. They're too busy running around covering themselves up. So we have to work. That's a good question, though.

Q. After setting a record wins for a season, what are your goals for the future?
KEVIN BORSETH: Well, I think every program in the Big Ten wants to be a contender for the Big Ten title every year. I think every coach will tell you that and that's certainly a goal that we have, an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament every year is certainly a goal that we have. I'm sure every team in the country probably has that game goal and we're certainly no different. We want to be able to build on last year. Last year was a great year obviously, and to be able to build on that this year and to be more successful would be extremely rewarding and a direction we want to head in.

Q. When you advance as far as you did in the tournament, obviously through the tournament you're talking about the importance of staying alive and advancing, but do you go back to say, remember the run or say the NCAA is obviously the goal?
KEVIN BORSETH: Well, I think everybody in their -- you've got it set to be a Big Ten contender, get in the NCAA Tournament. That's what you want to be able to do, get in the Big Dance. Anytime you get an opportunity to play in post season like we did last year -- it extends your season. It was a lot of fun for our players. They got some tournament experience. They ran deep into the WNIT and certainly that was rewarding. So I don't want to shortchange that because it was certainly a lot of fun and a great opportunity and it certainly was successful. We don't go back and even talk about that at this point. Our eyes are forward, we're just trying to proceed with this year and be a little bit better.

End of FastScripts

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