Courtesy of Stanford Athletics

NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship

2nd Round Pre-game quotes

Stanford University

March 20, 2011

Stanford, Calif.

Stanford University

Head Coach Tara VanDerveer

Opening Statement…

First of all, we’re very excited to be here today, and have the opportunity to play an excellent St. John’s team.  A team that I think

will really come in where we’re going to have to do some things to be successful.  We’re going to have to take care of the ball.

We’re going to have to run our offense really well.  We’re going to have to keep them off the glass and we’re going to have to

defend.  I’m excited that we’re having this opportunity.  I know that our team with Kayla’s leadership, with Jeanette’s leadership,

with Nneka, our captains will take control of this and we’ll be ready.

On staying at Stanford…

I think that for me personally, I’ve had three different athletic directors.  I was hired by Andy Geiger.  When changes in athletic

directors happen, there were times that I thought that I should be looking at other schools.  But since Bob Bowlsby has been here,

he and I are a great fit.  Maybe coming back from the Olympics, there were some really, really tough times for me personally.  I

think that one of the thing that we as coaches that we want to feel appreciated, and there were times when I definitely didn’t feel

that.  I just thought, “This is not working.”  But I love living in California, I love working at Stanford.  That’s when I started

taking piano lessons, I got dogs.  I’m really happy to say that we have tremendous support from our administration, our president,

all the people at Stanford, and I’m in a great place, but I haven’t been in a great place all the time I’ve been here.

On Stanford’s basketball intelligence…

I felt that sometimes with our student-athletes sometimes things are taken out of context.  I want our team, and the people who

are writing about the subject, to get it like we really mean it.  Coming to Stanford, we have to recruit a certain caliber student.  A’s

in classes, AP classes, high SAT scores.  Sometimes that’s viewed as intelligence.  Whereas that does not necessarily correlate to

basketball IQ or basketball smarts.  The question is then, what is basketball intelligence?  We know everyone at Stanford has

academic intelligence.  Sometimes we’ve had people with, in the old days, 1550 SATs, but they couldn’t learn plays.  Basketball

intelligence to me is where you play a lot of basketball and are able to recognize a lot of basketball.  You might not be able to get

A’s in AP physics or real high SAT scores, but basketball intelligence is the ability to make decisions on the basketball court…  I

think you learn basketball by watching it, by playing it, not just showing up to practice, and playing it from a young age.  I won’t

use the word intelligence, but intuitiveness.  I’ll use for example, I think some things come easier to Chiney [Ogwumike] than to

Nneka [Ogwumike].  Here are two kids who have the same experience.  You can tell who’s faster, you can tell who can jump

higher, but you can tell who makes good decisions.  They’re very receptive, they’re very coachable, and they want to make better

decisions.

On coming into the tournament prepared…

I’m like a Stanford kid.  For me, personally, and for us, we have to outwork people.  I’ve probably worked harder this year

probably than I ever have, and I thought I worked pretty hard before.  I’m trying to with our team to accentuate the positives in

our team, take advantage of the positives in our team, not focus on the negatives.  If we’re not good at this, let’s put people into

position where they’ll look good.  It didn’t happen until December, after we lost at DePaul, and we saw a few things before that (I

think I had my coaching head in the same before then a little bit) and just saying, “Alright, we have to make some changes to

what we’re doing to make people look better.”  I enjoy the strategy and the thinking of it.  I think we did a better job of attacking

the zone against them than the last time we played them, or even better than last week when we played UCLA.  I need a lot of

reps.  I watch a lot.  I don’t know if anyone watches more than me.   It just takes me a while to get it.  What are we doing, what’s

our defense, what problems do we have.  I just try to really be direct and have a checklist.  We go to practice and we’ve got to

work on this, we’ve got to work on this.  We have a list of the top 12 things we have to do.

Senior F/G Kayla Pedersen

On the possibility of the seniors never losing on their home court…

“Today I think we are just thinking about St. John’s and how we can prepare for them. We have one last game at

Maples and I am glad that we have that last game here, but it is a little bigger than that. It is an NCAA Tournament

game and for the seniors it is do-or-die. So I think for the seniors we are just going to prepare really hard and have a

great game against St. John’s tomorrow.”

On how the team practices…

“I think in practice we drill our offense a lot. We do a lot of offense review, defensive drills and a lot of half court

breakdowns and preparing against pick and rolls and going over different defenses. I think we practice like any other

team, but we do take ownership over how we run our offense and play our defense. At the beginning of practice we

start with simple ball-handling skills that I know Toni and I have been doing since we started playing basketball, so

we work on the fundamentals in that way. As far as offense and defense, we do have breakdown drills. We will have

like a triangle drill.”

On having basketball intelligence …

“I agree with Tara that we don’t necessarily have better basketball intelligence than another team. I think that any

team, on any given day can be as intelligent as the other. Intelligence isn’t exactly intelligence on the basketball

floor, so it is however that translates. Any team is capable. We are starting at zero with every other team that is in the

tournament right now.”

On how special it would be as a senior class to have not lost at Maples Pavilion…

“I think it would mean a lot. It has probably been a goal of ours for a year and a half. I think it would be a great

accomplishment. A lot of great teams have come here to play us, so it is something special for our four true seniors

to kind of bond over. Today, I think we are going to prepare as hard as we can so we can make that happen.”

On Coach VanDerveer….

“I think Tara is one of the best, we all know that. I think the way that she prepares us and instills this confidence in

us that we can get the job done. We know what the other team is going to do before they even do it. I think that kind

of makes us feel like we can compete with the best of them.”

On the development of freshman guard Toni Kokenis…

“She definitely has stepped up. I don’t think she lets any of that affect her; like any of the hype or anything. Toni just

comes in and she is fearless. She doesn’t really care about anything besides getting the job done and how she can

help us and if that means stepping up big for us in game, like she did at UCLA, then that is what it is. Or if it means

making the pass to the post, that is what she does. I just think that selfless mentality is really making her stand out

right now.”

Freshman G Toni Kokenis

On being out a few games earlier in the season with a concussion…

“Being out with my concussion was a little bit of a bummer. But we watch video all the time and I was able to study

the game while I was out. And then coming back, I have great teammates and they really helped me feel more

comfortable when I came back. So just feeling more comfortable in general with our offense and what I can do to

contribute to our team and what I can bring off the bench.”

On what the team was doing in particular against UC Davis to hit so well from the three-point line…

“We were moving the ball really well on offense and the posts were doing a really good job of screening the defense

and creating open shots. People on the perimeter were able to just knock them down.”

On what has helped with her development…

“I would say definitely more in practice and getting more reps and playing against pressure and taking advantage of

the reps you get when you are out on the court and making those count.”

On what she thought her role would be as a freshman….

“I just wanted to be able to come in and help contribute to the team to help us to be as successful as we could be.”

On Coach VanDerveer…

“Tara and the coaching staff do a great job preparing us for the game and all the scouts and the video we watch, just

encouraging us to become students of the game and understanding what we are doing on each and every play and

making ourselves believe that we can play together. And work really hard and get the job done against anyone.”

NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship

2nd Round Pre-game quotes

St. John’s University

March 20, 2011

Stanford, Calif.

St. John’s University

Head Coach Kim Barnes Arico

Opening Statement…

“We’re excited to still be in sunny California.  We’re excited to have the opportunity to play a team like Stanford, even at

Stanford.  It’s a great opportunity for our players to play one of the best teams in the country and see how we fare.  A great

opportunity for us to shock the world.”

On what St. John’s needs to do against Stanford…

“Obviously, yesterday, we didn’t shoot the ball well.  We were fortunate to come away with the win not shooting the ball very

well, and that was due in part to our defense.  We cannot turn the ball over like we did yesterday to be successful against

Stanford.  That’s the biggest thing, because they will take our turnovers and turn them into points.  That’s what I’ve seen them do

to teams all year long.  UCLA had that lead in the first half [of the Pac-10 Championship game] because they took care of the

ball.  They didn’t give Stanford a lot of opportunities to get transition points because they didn’t turn over the ball, and then when

Stanford made that run, a large part of it was due because they started forcing turnovers.  So I think that’s the biggest thing.  We

can’t have as many turnovers tomorrow and expect to be successful.”

On Stanford as a team…

“I think they are probably the most talented team in the country.  As talented as they are, we’ve got to try and make an effort to

try and block them out every time.  They’re human too.  We’ve just got to do the best job we can and hope that they have an off-

night.  I thought we rebounded the basketball really well last night, I thought we offensively rebounded the ball really well.

We’re undersized every single night, so that’s something that we always stress and something that we always talk about, and

sometimes we do a great job of it, and when we do, we’re usually successful.  Other times, when we get pounded on the glass, we

have difficulty winning the game.  And that’s another one of Stanford’s strengths.  They can shoot the ball, they can take you

inside.  They can do everything.  That’s why they have a 62-game winning streak at home.  They’re a tremendous program, and

it’s going to be a difficult, difficult task for our team, but its one that we’re excited to have.”

Senior F Coco Hart

On approaching Stanford…

“I don’t think we’re thinking about [stopping Stanford’s 62-game home winning streak].  We’ve played at a lot of places with a

great crowd, and I don’t think it has bothered us as much.  I think we just go out there ready to play.  We don’t think about the

crowd and the fans.  We just try to play the game.”

On what they will need to do against Stanford…

“I feel if we go out there and play defense, we’ll be in the game.  This game, we’re going to leave it all out there on the floor.  I

feel we have to go out there and face the intangibles, the loose balls, dives.  If we do that, and we get the rebounds, box shots, get

them to one-shot, I feel we have a pretty good chance.”

Sophomore F Shenneika Smith

On Stanford’s depth…

“We also have depth.  I feel that if they can come in with some fresh legs, so can we.  That’s going to make the game more

competitive and that’s why it should be a great game.”

On playing in front of Stanford’s home fans…

“We also have some fans here.  At times we hear them, at times we don’t.  Last year, we kind of faced the same crowd at Florida

State.  The game came down to the wire, even though we lost.  We had faced that before at UConn in front of 15,000.  We’ve

faced some tough fans, but we’ve been able to play through it.  Tomorrow, we’re just going to the same thing.  We’re going to

focus on our game and what we know about Stanford and just go out and play.”

On facing Stanford…

“I’ve seen Stanford play.  I saw the Stanford-UConn game.  They have a pretty good offense that they run.  I feel like if we go

out there and play our game, play our defense, we know personnel, we just go out there and play.  It’s not how they play, but its

how you defend them.  Just know the ins and outs.  Just focus on defense, rebounding.  They’re a great rebounding team, and you

just gotta go out there and defend them.”

Hey everybody!

First of all. Here’s my story from last night on Stanford-UC Davis tournament opener.

http://espn.go.com/espnw/blog/_/post/6238579/women-ncaa-basketball-tournament-stanford-victory-uc-davis-was-story-evening

I will work to post as often as possible here in the next week or two. I am working for the Pac-10 – doing live blogs on www.pac-10.org, postgame recaps and mid-week features. I am working for www.gostanford.com doing features provided the Cardinal reach the regional next weekend in Spokane.

And I’m now doing some freelance pieces for espnW.

That’s a lot of writing for one girl – not to mention a feature I have due this week for ncaa.com. So, I will do my best to keep the fingers flying. But sometimes, they just must rest.

I’ll also try to link here to things I’ve done, so folks can keep track.

Happy March Madness!

Tara VanDerveer hoped that UC Davis wouldn’t end at the other end of the bracket for her team’s first-round game in the NCAA Tournament.

UC Davis coach Sandy Simpson wasn’t at all surprised when it happened.

Saturday’s first-round NCAA matchup between the top-seeded Cardinal and the No. 16 Aggies at Maples Pavilion is more than game between familiar foes, it is a game between friends.

When VanDerveer saw things in Davis’ “Princeton” offense that she thought she could use a few years back, the Davis assistant coaches came to Stanford and broke down film with VanDerveer and her staff for hours.

Simpson and VanDerveer have scheduled three games against one another in the last three years, trying to get sisters Haylee and Hannah Donaghe on the floor at the same time.

There is much mutual respect here.

UC Davis is making its first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament, three years after the program completed its transition to Division I. They are there in the final season of coach Sandy Simpson, who is retiring after 14 years at the helm of the program.

“We are really happy for them and really excited to see them in the tournament and we hoped for them and for us that they wouldn’t be playing here,” VanDerveer said. “They have been here two of the last three years and they are not intimidated coming into Maples. We know we will have to play very well.”

In addition to the “Princeton offense”, which emphasizes motion, passing and backdoor cuts, Davis will defend with a unique zone defense, in which the Aggies play passing lanes and put pressure on the perimeter.

“We’re playing some of our best defense at this point in the season,” said senior Heidi Heintz. “O think that’s going to be a very important key for us tomorrow. Don’t hold anything back, play with all-out energy and hopefully give them some issues.”

The Aggies are playing with a purpose, as Simpson prepares to step down.

“Our biggest goal was to get to the NCAA Tournament for him for the first time in school history,” Mintun said. “But we don’t just want to be here, we want to make a statement.”

Simpson said he hasn’t had time to let his team’s fairy-tale ending fully sink in.

“I don’t think it was part of my thought process possibly until the conference tournament,” Simpson said. “Then it only seeped in a couple of times because you’re so busy preparing, watching film, preparing for practice – just the nuts and bolts of it, really. You don’t have time to consider that. When we eliminated Cal Poly and qualified, and we’re at center court and everybody’s hugging and celebrating, it kind of set in.”

The enormity of the task has to be setting in as well.

Stanford hasn’t lost at home since the second-round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament, but Davis senior Paige Mintun said the Aggies don’t have the “awe factor.

“We’ve all watched Stanford on TV. We’ve played them a couple of times,” Mintun said. “We know a lot of their strengths. We know a lot of the players. We know the level of physicality that we’re going to face tomorrow. I think it’s going to help a lot in preparing for tomorrow.”

Notes: Former Cal guard Casey Morris, the Piedmont High product, is making her return to the Bay Area with Texas Tech. Morris transferred to Texas Tech after the 2008-09 season. She sat out last season and has been a big contributor for the Lady Techsters this season.

“Playing in California is great, but at Stanford, everyone knows it is a hard place to play with the environment and the fans,” Morris said. “We are just worried about this first game and progressing to the next spot in the NCAA Tournament.”

Isn’t it interesting that five of the six West Coast entrants in the NCAA Tournament field – Stanford, UC Davis, Fresno State, UCLA and Gonzaga – find themselves in the Spokane Region, making it abundantly clear that the NCAA is weary of poorly attended sites for the women’s tournament and has made a major shift toward putting teams close to their geographical homes.

So let’s break down the Spokane Region a little.

The favorite: It’s obviously the top-seeded Cardinal, who will host the first two games at Maples Pavilion before returning to the place where their big breakthrough – the program’s first NCAA appearance in 11 years – came with Candice Wiggins leading the way in 2008.

The challenger: Xavier. The Musketeers are imminently worthy of respect and concern with Amber Harris and Ta’Shia Phillips inside.

The darkhorse: Kentucky. The WIldcats are not quite the SEC power they were last year, but with with an All-American in VIctoria Dunlap and a defensive game that resembles UCLA’s in tenacity and persistence, they could be troublemakers in this bracket.

The best game: Gonzaga vs. UCLA in the second round. Seriously can’t wait to see this one, provided Gonzaga can use the hometown advantage to upset sixth-seeded Iowa. Gonzaga as a No. 11? No respect, right? Maybe Zags’ coach Kelly Graves is auditioning for the Washington job and his chance to join the Pac-10.

The team who could mess up everything: North Carolina. The ACC has been down for a couple of years, but counting the Tar Heels out in the tournament is just not smart.

The five players to watch:

Toni Kokenis, Stanford. After her heroics in the UCLA game, can Kokenis be an impact player in her first NCAA Tournament?

Courtney Vandersloot, Gonzaga. If Kokenis has a role model here, it should be Vandersloot, perhaps the most talented offensive true point guard in the nation.

Victoria Dunlap, Kentucky. Dunlap is a versatile talent, among the best players in the SEC  that us left-coasters haven’t gotten to see that much of.

Jessica Breland, North Carolina. Breland’s comeback from Hodgkin’s lymphoma is one of the most inspiring stories of the year.

Jaleesa Ross, Fresno State. The Bullodgs senior is one of the best 3-point shooters in the nation.

Predicted first-round winners:

• Stanford over UC Davis
• St. John’s over Texas Tech
• North Carolina over Fresno State
• Kentucky over Hampton
• Gonzaga over Iowa
• UCLA over Montana
• Vanderbilt over Louisville
• Xavier over South Dakota State

Predicted second-round winners:

• Stanford over St. John’s
• Kentucky over North Carolina
• Gonzaga over UCLA
• Xavier over Vanderbilt

The Sweet 16 teams

• Stanford over Kentucky – a difficult matchup for the Cardinal.
• Xavier over Gonzaga – a rematch from last year’s Sweet 16. XU’s size won out easily.

Regional final

• Stanford over Xavier. It will be closer than the 89-52 beat-down the Cardinal put on the Musketeers in December. But the Cardinal get back to their fourth Final Four.

NCAA Tournament

(1) Stanford vs. (16) UC Davis at Stanford, Saturday, approximately 4 p.m.

(3) UCLA vs. (14) Montana at Spokane, Saturday, approximately 4 p.m.

(11) Gonzaga vs. (6) Iowa at Spokane, Saturday, 1:10 p.m.

(12) Fresno State vs. (5) North Carolina at Albuquerque, Saturday, 1:15 p.m.

(7) Arizona State vs. (10) Temple in Salt Lake City, Saturday, 1:05 p.m.

WNIT

Wednesday

Pepperdine at Oklahoma State

Portland State at Wyoming

Thursday

UC Riverside at Colorado

Cal at Cal Poly

UC Santa Barbara at USC

Nevada at St. Mary’s

Arizona at Utah State

Here’s the link to the Seattle Times story:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/huskies/2014493498_uwom15.html

Busy weekend coming up working for espnW, the Pac-10 and gostanford.com.

Always working for LCH too.!

http://espn.go.com/espnw/blog/_/post/6218067/top-seeds-dominate-ncaa-women-tourney

Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer was rallying support for the Pac-10 during the weekend.

She made it clear that she would like to see four conference teams (at least) in the tournament.

She wants to see UCLA get a No. 2 seed.

She wants people to remember that for all the talk about the power concentration in the Big East, the Pac-10 went 6-2 against the Big East this season – including Stanford’s win over Connecticut and UCLA’s road win over Notre Dame….

The reported attendance for the Pac-10 Tournament title game was 2,618.

Last year’s attendance for the title game at the Galen Center was 2,432.

Was the Pac-10′s format change a smashing success? No. Was it an improvement? Too soon to tell.

Here’s guessing the Pac-10 tries this format one more year with the new 12-team conference before the new media deal kicks in and larger-scale change takes place.

I have my vote of course. Move the whole tournament to Las Vegas. It’s done wonders for the WCC. It is a destination site that would bring large travel parties (excuse the pun) from around the conference. It would inject energy and excitement into the format. Just a thought…

Utah’s Michelle Harrison is headed back to the NCAA Tournament with the Utes after Utah defeated TCU in the championship game of the WAC Tournament.

Harrison is a fifth-year senior who spent four years at Stanford before moving on to graduate school in her home state with Tara VanDerveer’s blessing…

USC coach Michael Cooper indicated that his team will accept a WNIT bid if it his team does not get selected for the NCAA Tournament.

The same is likely true for Arizona and Cal. Arizona has the best chance to get in between those two…

Cal coach Joanne Boyle sounded like a tired, frustrated coach after her team’s semifinal loss to UCLA.

Boyle has been trying to get the best effort our of her team all season. She has challenged that effort publicly since the beginning of the season. It was tough to watch her continue to do that to the end.

“It’s my biggest frustration,” Boyle said. “To be a championship team, you’ve got to wear that jersey with pride. You have to have pride in your sport. We’re not always on the same page with this, and that’s my biggest frustration.”

Go to www.pac-10.org and find the blog.
We can chat while you watch TV.