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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S MEDIA DAYSOctober 25, 2012Kristy CurryDALLAS, TEXAS THE MODERATOR: We're joined by coach Kristy Curry. Your opening thoughts? COACH CURRY: Thank you. Really looking forward to the year. I've had the comparison of an NIT, and an NCAA, and know what it takes and know the difference. Between Monique Smalls and Chynna Brown and Christine Hyde and Casey Morris, tremendous people, tremendous leaders. We've talked about our season with those kids leading the way, really like a couple of our newcomers. Really pleased with a couple of our players coming back, Kelsi Baker, looked like the player that we recruited in the preseason, Jackie Patterson, a newcomer, Minta Spears. We're just thrilled about this group of kids and the commitment they've made in the off‑season to be better and to take that next step. Q. Can you talk a little bit about what it's going to take from your guard play to get back to the NCAA Tournament? COACH CURRY: When you look at our team a year ago, obviously a lot of little things. I think you look at the point differential, and it was 3.7 in conference play for our team. So everything starts up top. We have to play every single possession, and take pride in each possession. It might be a missed free throw here or there. Obviously, that's an area of improvement. Shot selection, our field goal percentage has to get better. So a lot of things, especially on the perimeter, decision‑making that we can control. 3.7 is pretty slim, so a possession here or there is really going to make a difference. Q. If you can imagine, a lot of talk about Baylor coming here as defending national champions. But you guys played them as hard as anybody did the last year. Two games right down to the wire under ten points. What is the secret to staying with Baylor and possibly beating Baylor this year, do you think? COACH CURRY: Yeah, I'm not sure there is a secret. If there was, I certainly would like to know it. But I think the thing is just obviously Brittney just changes the way you defend, she changes the opposite end for you, and you have to make adjustments. You just about have to play near perfect from that. Obviously, this year when you look at their team and their roster, it seems they have more depth than they've ever had, so that's a scary thing. They bring great things for this league, and how much love and respective for Kim, and having worked with her. I'm always pulling for her except when we play them. Q. The tournament has always been linked with the men's tournament over the course of the history of the league. You guys have been breaking off and you're going to be down in the Dallas area. What do you think this could do to the growth of women's basketball by having to come down and play here? COACH CURRY: Yeah, I think it's tremendous. The state of Texas can embrace it. Tremendous high school basketball in the state. Was in school a week ago, and the coach was excited about having the opportunity to get her team here. I think it's going to be great. Having played in the Big Ten, and saw that the men's and women's tournaments can both be successful and stand on their own was a great experience and a great comparison for us as a league that we can do the same. The way you look at this part of the country and how they support women's basketball at Baylor and Texas and Texas Tech and Oklahoma and TCU coming into the league, I think it's going to be great for women's basketball in the state of Texas, and especially in the Metroplex. I think a lot of folks will get behind it and support it. Q. I know your goal like always has been to win a National Championship. It's been 20 years, I guess this is the 20th anniversary of the season that the Red Raiders have had. Is there anything special about that? Is there anything about that season that you look at them and go, hey, we were there once, we can get back there or anything like that? COACH CURRY: No question. I think that when you look across our league and Texas having done that, and Texas Tech having done that, and Texas A&M, and in the state of Texas and Baylor, it's phenomenal to look across the state and the fact that we've won that many National Championships in the state. The simple fact that Texas Tech did that 20 years ago, we are so excited for February 17th when we host Texas. The entire team will be back. It's $93 season tickets. Sheryl Swoopes came in about a month ago and spoke to our team. We're thrilled to have her back in town, and a part of what we're doing and trying to get her back with our program some. So our players take a tremendous amount of pride. Actually, that day we were going to wear throwback uniforms that represent that team. So we're thrilled about representing Texas Tech and continuing to work toward that goal of doing that again. Q. I saw that Jackie was named Big 12 in the voting there. Can you talk about her? Obviously playing high level junior competition up in Kansas. But how do you see her fitting in with your team? COACH CURRY: I think we expect her to make a major impact, And she expects that. She's a tremendous young lady. The thing that I've been most impressed with is how coachable she is. She just wants to get better every day. She's left‑handed. She's hard to defend. She can jump out of the gym, and she's got to learn to play every single possession. When she gets the pace down, she can be special. So we're thrilled about the impact she's going to make. She's very versatile, been working hard to stepping out and hitting the three. She's going to bring a lot to our team, and really to avoid losing Kierra Mallard and Jordan Barncastle. Hopefully we won't miss a beat. We'll be better. Q. Your reaction was priceless there. I have to hear what you're thinking about Geno's suggestion about the rim? COACH CURRY: I really don't have that much of an opinion on it. I think I focus so much every day on how I can put the people around me in a position to be successful. So I try not to focus on all that other stuff that can take your time. So it's an honest answer. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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