March 21, 2004

On winning the game...
"Even through adversity, during a six-minute stretch of very passive play in the second half, we found a way to change our body language and found a way to win the basketball game. I am really pleased with our overall effort and the opportunity to advance to the second round."

On the Jennifer Justice/Ivory Latta match-up...
"Going in, I knew Jennifer Justice would be a good matchup for [Ivory Latta] because JJ has good size and Latta doesn't. I was hoping that a mismatch in size would cause her some vision problems. Sometimes JJ is concerned about smaller, quicker players. JJ doesn't necessarily know that she is as quick as Latta probably is. I thought Chrissy Givens coming off the bench would be our best match-up, but it ended up that JJ really did a good job and caused her problems because of her size."

On the idea of beating North Carolina...
"I sincerely believed--my entire staff sincerely believed--that we could win this game. We were selling it to our team. We showed them film. We showed them ways. We told them what would be most important, but you never know as a coach if they're buying it or not. The last spiel I gave before we walked out on the court was, 'Don't wait until the first media time-out to figure out whether you can play this team or not. Trust me: know that you can.'"

On Tia Stovall and Krystle Horton...
"Offensively, they are the best I've got, and not individually, but as a package. They play really well together. They were able to have some inside passes between each other that were easy shots, easy lay-ups. Candace Sutton is obviously a problem when you're standing two feet from the basket, but our offense allows both Tia and Krystle to come into the high post areas, and they are both capable of knocking down that 15-foot shot."