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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYS (WOMEN)

October 27, 2011

Pam Borton

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

PAM BORTON: Obviously I'm very excited to have 11 returning players and four starters coming back. And I think with those four starters, we have a true point guard back in our program, which is very exciting for me as a coach. You know, point guards are very crucial to your team and so forth, but I'm very excited about how we've been practicing the last three weeks. I think as a coach you can tell a lot from your team how your practices are going and your work ethic and intensity level, but I think our team has come a long way and we've gotten better each day. I really like my team and the way we've been practicing and the direction we're heading.
We return Kiara Buford this year, one of the top four scorers in Big Ten this year, so I think her life will be made a lot easier this year with having a point guard with her by her side, so less ball handling. Our turnovers have already been cut even more in half in practice, which has been nice.
Having a point guard like Rachel Banham. She's one of the 20 kids in the nation last year. Obviously makes my job a little bit easier, and it's a lot more fun as a coach having that type of player on the floor.

Q. Do you see Kiara being able to fly back over to the 2 now, and how will that help her game this year?
PAM BORTON: I think she can be more of a scorer, less ball-handling responsibilities, less play-making every single time down the floor. You know, shot clock plays, end-of-the-game situations, I think a lot of that fell on Kiara, and I think obviously her shooting percentage went down because she was forced to take a lot of bad shots. A lot of the weight is taken off her shoulders, and I think having a point guard that can create her own shot and she's got a pull-up, she can get to the rim, she's got a three-point shot as well as make other people better. It's going to make the game easier for everybody around her. Obviously I've had a couple real special kids in my program in the past in that position, so it's nice to have a kid like that back on the court.

Q. Specifically for Rachel, when you're challenging her to actually the lead the team, she's obviously got a lot of skills, but what is it that you're looking for her in terms of being vocal, in terms of other things to lead this team to get them to the next level?
PAM BORTON: Well, I think in just running the team, I think she's got a great understanding of the game. You know, as a coach you're not coaching every possession and every pass, and I've found myself doing that the last couple years. You've got a point guard that can call the plays and run the team and not coach every pass and every play. She's very intelligent, she wants the responsibility, she wants the accountability, she wants the pressure. I'm looking for her to be a scorer first and foremost, and I think once she proves herself as a scorer, which she's a prolific scorer, I think she can be able to draw two and three people on her and be able to get other people open shots, and just like I said, make the game a little bit easier for everybody else.
We lost a lot of games last year at the end of games and giving up leads, and I think this game is a guard game and who's got better guard play and better decision-making. I think that'll help us down the stretch in games.

Q. She's drawn comparisons to Lindsay Whelan, which is a lofty thing to live up to. How do you manage those expectations and allow her to not feel that kind of pressure to take the program back to where it was then?
PAM BORTON: I think you worry about that, especially when you have a freshman, and she's from half an hour away from campus, and same type of Minnesota kid, same type of family and the whole works. But I think we all know that there's only one Lindsay Whelan. Lindsay Whelan is a once-in-a-lifetime player, look what she did this year, my goodness sakes. But I'm trying to shake Rachel in practice. I'm trying to get under her skin, I'm trying to shake her and I can't do it. I think she welcomes the pressure, she wants it. I think when she hears she's being compared to Lindsay Whelan she's not a kid that looks at that as oh, my gosh, this is pressure but looks at it as this is an honor and this is why I came here. I came here to help this program and to do this and I want to be able to take this program where Lindsay did.
So I think she welcomes that and she's a special kid mentally, her mindset. I'm still learning about her on the court, as well, and coaching her, but I think she's going to be -- so far, so good.

Q. Some of the rule changes, talk about the arc now under the basket and how much you think that will impact the game? Will it clean up some of the things that have gone on inside in the past?
PAM BORTON: Well, I think it'll maybe clean it up a little bit. I am not sure if it's going to make that much of a difference than what everybody thinks it will. I think it'll make the calls a little bit easier for the officials. For coaches as far as teaching, it helps us teach our kids better positioning and better help-side defense in the second line and just emphasizing that. So obviously we have to do a better job teaching as coaches.
I think it'll make the calls a little bit easier for the officials.

Q. One of your challenges last season was field-goal percentage, and I've been asking this a lot: In a very guard-oriented conference this season, what are you doing differently to really, really try to play the game from the inside out? I know you have great guards, but obviously getting those percentages up by getting into the paint a little bit with the post, are you focusing on that? And do you have a strategy that you think can get you ahead?
PAM BORTON: Well, I think we've -- I think across the country, I think field-goal percentage has gone down. I think the players are bigger, faster, stronger, more athletic, and I think if you look at the percentages, teams across the country are better defensively than they were offensively. I think that's just the trend, men's and women's basketball.
I think Jim Delany has done some research on that. I think it's just the trend in the last few years. But in looking at our team, obviously we want to score more points in transition. I think we can with an up-tempo point guard and just getting our team to really run the floor. I think Katie Loberg will be starting for us in the 5 position and she's a great runner, great athlete, as well. So we want to try to get some easier points in transition.
Like I said, I think when you've got a point guard that's able to create easy shots it makes the game a little bit easier for players on the floor. You find yourself with the ball in your hands right on the block and you've got an easy lay-up because somebody has made you an unbelievable pass or somebody is in the lane and draw kick for a six-foot shot on the baseline and nobody is guarding them, and I think that's what a point guard does. Your team, they give you a little bit easier shots from being able to create.
Katie Loberg is one of our more improved players on the team and obviously we're going to be looking to get more points in the paint this year playing from the inside out.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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