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NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR


April 3, 2006


Alison Bales

Monique Currie

Gail Goestenkors

Lindsey Harding

Wanisha Smith

Mistie Williams


BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS

DEBBIE BYRNE: We'll allow Gail to make an opening statement and then I'll ask you to point your questions to the players first and then we'll release them to their breakout sessions and Gail will remain in here with me then for a while.
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Just excited to be playing for the national championship. It feels good to be able to say that. It's been a goal of ours all season long. We're looking forward to just a tremendous game. Obviously Maryland is playing excellent basketball and we know it's going to be a great battle.
DEBBIE BYRNE: We'll go to your questions, please.
Q. Question for Mistie, can you talk about how badly you want to win this championship, not only for yourselves but for Coach as well.
MISTIE WILLIAMS: Definitely. For the past four years I feel like we have had the teams that have had the ability to win, we just haven't been able to pull it off. I think this team is more special than any team I've been on because of our relationships we have with one another, as well as with the coaches. I feel like together we are all like one team and we all have one vision and it just seems that everything's being set up in the right direction and we just have to finish it off this year.
Q. For Alison: You played a pretty active center in Sylvia Fowles last night. You played her to a standstill, a fairly active front court too. How do you look at neutralizing what they do as far as quickness?
ALISON BALES: Well, all three of their post players, Langhorne, Harper and Perry are all really talented, really great players. And I think that we know we have seen them a lot this season already and I think that we know their strengths and weaknesses, and I think that we all want to do -- we'll have to do a good job together on them.
Q. Monique, what makes this team different than the Final Four teams you've been a part of before?
MONIQUE CURRIE: Mainly our depth, and our balance. We have players coming in off the bench who could very well be starting and who contribute a lot. And our bench definitely makes a difference. When we came to the Final Four when I was a freshman, we only had eight players. So that gets tiring playing a game every other day for three weeks almost. So that's the main difference.
Q. For Monique and Mistie, usually when one team beats another team as many times as you guys have beaten Maryland, there's something more than just physical there. Was there a point during those games when you like looked at them and saw that maybe they were perhaps psychologically beaten, and have they gotten some edge back by beating you guys in the ACC tournament?
MISTIE WILLIAMS: I don't think it was mental. Maryland's a great team. And the whole entire ACC is just amazing. I think that Brenda Frese has done a great job getting the players that she does need and she's a tremendous -- she inspires her players to play their best every game. It's tough to be beat a team three times in a row, North Carolina or Maryland. And we know each other so well, it's going to be difficult to stop one another.
MONIQUE CURRIE: Yeah, we're both extremely familiar with one another and we'll have to go out there and play hard, just like they will. And whoever wants it more will pretty much win the game.
Q. Monique and Mistie too, coaches are always telling players this is your time, this is your special time to go out there and do what really you've worked so hard for. In your mind, is this Coach's time?
MONIQUE CURRIE: I think it's her time. Most definitely. And we always talk about or everyone always talks about that I wanted to come back so I could win a championship. But for me, seriously, I wanted to do it for Coach G because I know how hard she works and how dedicated she is to this program. And even though we have been a successful program without a national championship, I think that would definitely separate us from some of the other good and great programs and put us in that elite class of programs.
So this is for her. This is her team and she's brought us a long way and developed this program into a national powerhouse, and to finally get a national championship will definitely lead us in the right direction in taking another step for the program.
Q. This is for Mistie and for Alison: Looking at the two match-ups we saw in the semi-finals, front court play really was a huge difference I believe in both games. Can you talk about the pending matchup with this front court against Maryland and how have they rated in terms of the front courts you've faced in the conference and how have they prepared you for this game that you're getting ready to play against?
ALISON BALES: I think that Maryland is one of the most talented and also one of the deepest. They don't have one post player that's of amazing quality, they have three, especially in Harper and Langhorne. You have to be able to guard both of them. You can't really help off one, you have to be able to stay with both of them all the time.
MISTIE WILLIAMS: Yeah, just playing them three times has prepared us for any other front court that we have run into this entire tournament. All of them are so talented and All-Americans and it just doesn't stop there. They're a tremendous team and I think that we're as prepared as we can be at this point in time.
Q. This is also for Mistie and Alison: Kristi Toliver was saying that the way to beat you guys is with speed, their front court is faster than you guys, then they will beat you down court. I was just wondering how do you compete against that kind of speed?
MISTIE WILLIAMS: Okay. Um, well that's nice.
(Laughter.) I think that our post players are very athletic and I think that we have a height advantage and it's great that she says she can beat us down the court. That just makes us want to work hard and make sure that we get the job on defense done and that's all you really could say about that.
ALISON BALES: I have no doubt that Kristi Toliver is faster than I am down the court.
(Laughter.) But I won't be playing against her, I won't be guarding her, so.
(Laughter.)
Q. Lindsey, how has your perception of Maryland changed since the last victory in the ACC tournament?
LINDSEY HARDING: Again, it just shows how good Maryland is. The first time we did play them we did win significantly, but I knew that they were going to come back and come back stronger. We just can't sleep on them, we have to play hard. I have a lot of respect for them and their program. And it's going to be a hard fought battle.
Q. Following up on Kristi, what she said, not so much what she said but they seem to have a swagger about them, a lot of confidence, perhaps more than you might expect from a young team. Is that because they're too young to know better or could you sense that swagger developing over the three games of the season when you beat them once easily and then it got tough and tougher and eventually they beat you.
MONIQUE CURRIE: Well, they've gotten it done, they won big games, they bet us, beat North Carolina, and here they are playing in the national championship. So they earned that right to walk around like they -- walk around proud and feeling accomplished, because they have accomplished big things, despite their youth. They really don't play like they are a group of freshmen and sophomores and a junior. So they need that to come out here and play. You have to have confidence.
Q. For Lindsey, given Kristin Toliver's comments do you feel like it will be incumbent upon you to make sure that she doesn't run up and down that court as freely as some people might think?
LINDSEY HARDING: Yeah, definitely. I know that I'm going to pressure her to make every shot of hers difficult. She's been throughout this tournament hitting big shots for them and been playing with more confidence. So she's been doing a great job with that. But it's definitely my job to slow her down.
Q. For Mistie, is your dad going to keep his word and show up tomorrow?
MISTIE WILLIAMS: No. No, he's not coming. Nope.
Q. Monique, there's a lot of story lines about you coming back and you just answered one of those questions by saying "this is for Coach." Do you think that maybe you're creating pressure to accomplish this for something outside of this team, these individuals, the whole idea that you said in Bridgeport, there's a knock on our program that we haven't won the national championship. Is that creating kind of an external pressure that you have to deal with that Maryland doesn't, as the upstart?
MONIQUE CURRIE: That's a possibility. But this whole entire tournament is pressure. And you're playing under extreme circumstances. You're playing some teams that you're not familiar with, and with a short amount of time to prepare for each team. So we have to prepare ourselves as best as we can, and I think we work well under pressure and we feel like we have been the underdogs throughout this tournament and we have come out and proved to everybody else that we are here to play and we are here to win it all. And that's what we plan on doing on Tuesday.
But the pressure doesn't get to us. I don't think it has thus far and we just play Duke basketball, and we have been successful doing that.
Q. Question for Wanisha, you know what it's like to be a freshman point guard when you have a lot on your shoulders, can you talk about how much you learned last year and then what it's like having Lindsey back this year and how good of a back court you guys have been together?
WANISHA SMITH: It's great. I feel like my freshman year was a whole learning experience. Knowing what Coach G wants for me and knowing how to run the team at such an early age, and I feel like coming into the tournament with Lindsey, it takes a lot of pressure off me and hopefully it will take a lot of pressure off her with the way we perform. But I don't know, I just learned how to be mentally prepared and that's kind of helped me.
Q. For Lindsey, last night Coach G kind of complimented you on your defensive play helping double down in the post against Seimone Augustus. Do you feel that that's going to be another thing that you're going to have to do tomorrow night too, given the front court you're facing or strictly are you going to concentrate on putting pressure on the point?
LINDSEY HARDING: It's going to be huge. Like Ali said before, it's going to be all about team defense. Yes, we have to contain our own man, but we also have to be in help, and ready to help our teammates out. So defensive rebounding I feel is going to be huge in this championship game.
DEBBIE BYRNE: Ladies, we're going release you back now to your breakout sessions. We'll take questions for Coach.
Q. I heard you describe Mistie Williams as one of the most mature players that you've ever coached. Can you just talk a little bit about her development and what she has meant to this team this year.
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Mistie, even when we recruited her, she was wise beyond her years. She was the most mature recruit I ever had. She was always extremely organized and thinking ahead and planning ahead and didn't ever act like a freshman.
I think she's grown into a great leader for us. And she's our most vocal leader. She's one of our hardest workers. I think she's really developed her game; when she came in she really didn't have any post moves and now she's got multiple moves inside. She's become a good passer at that high post, can hit the high post shot. And takes great pride in her defense as well.
Q. Could you just comment on the correlation between Alison's ability as a shot-blocker and rebounder to make you a faster team pushing the ball up the floor?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Yeah, I think Ali -- you know, Lindsey sets the tone for us on both ends of the floor, but Ali really gets us going on both ends of the floor. When she's blocking shots, I think it's extremely intimidating to the opponent, and it also changes shots, it also gets our transition game going. She gets the ball out quickly. It used to be where she would block the shots and she almost blocked them out of bounds and now she's gotten much better, she either blocks it and gets the rebound or she blocks it and her teammates know to go after the ball. So she helps us.
And when she's aggressive on the offensive end down low, that's just such a big bonus for us as well.
Q. You were asked the other day about the pressure involved with being a No. 1 seed again, not having any titles, you said you didn't think there was any pressure. Why not?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Because I guess I've let that pressure go. I've let that worry go about winning the national title. I feel like we're going to win it at some point. I know we're going to win it at some point and so that's given me great freedom, great confidence. I think I've learned not to try to force it to happen.
I think in the past perhaps I was so, I wanted it so badly for the team that I tried to force it to happen and I found out that that's not really possible. And just to try to control what I can, which is the preparation of my team, and let everything else fall into place.
Q. Could you talk about Monique's play this year and sort of that fine line she walks between trying to be aggressive but not doing too much.
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Yeah, it's a fine line. It is a fine line. And we have asked her to really move the ball and shoot the ball less and like I said before, we don't run many plays for her at all, which is different than we had in the past. But the grand scheme was to make everybody feel important. So that if and when she had an off-night, in a big game, her teammates would feel comfortable and confident that we were still going to win. Because that they knew they could score as well.
So her minutes have gone down, her shots have gone down, her productivity per minute has gone up. And she understands and accepts that that's made us a better team. And the fact that we have really put an emphasis on our post play this year has helped us. So she's been really the consummate leader for us in that she's been willing to sacrifice for the greater good.
Q. What, if anything, are you doing differently this week as opposed to previous trips to the Final Four to prepare the team?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Not much, really. Just much more aware and have talked to the team a little bit more about taking care of themselves, and resting. Because it is very fatiguing and can be somewhat overwhelming, especially for the young players with all of the media attention, and all the things that are required of them. So I talked to them about telling their family and friends and people that all of a sudden want to jump on the bandwagon that there's no more room. And that we just need to focus on ourselves and get rest, stay in the room and stay fresh and stay focused.
Q. With what Monique said earlier about wanting to win it for you, can you kind of talk about the relationship that you have being that she has came back for her fifth year and overcame the injuries, decided to stay around with the program?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: I just have so much respect for Monique. I wasn't sure last year if she was going to stay or go, if she would have gone she was going to be one of the top draft picks and there were a lot of reasons for her to go. She already had her degree. She could easily move on. But the fact that she decided to stay really for her team and for her coaches as well, you know, to try and do something really special while getting her Master's Degree I think speaks volumes to the type of person that she is.
Q. On Maryland's side what concerns you most, the brashness of their youth or the fact that they can basically play free and easy because they weren't expected to do this well this soon?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Hmm, that's a little bit of everything. They're an exceptional team. They can score at all five positions and they got kids coming in off the bench that are very good as well. They push the ball, they play great defense. Prolific three-point shooting team and now Harper has really stepped up, and really the last time that we played them in the tournament that was I think a break-out game for her. So with the added scoring, it makes it much more difficult to defend Langhorne. And she's very special.
So the fact that they are playing with great freedom, they seem to have a chip on their shoulder while they have been here talking about respect and I don't think anybody now could possibly not respect them. So it would be interesting if they can still say that because in my mind they beat the No. 1 team in the country twice. So I see them right now as the No. 1 team in the country. We're just going to go out and try and beat them.
Q. Could you break down maybe the three Final Four teams that Monique has been a part of and is there something that separates this group from those?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: All I can say is probably the biggest difference in this team and those teams we were extremely guard oriented the first two trips. And with Alana Beard and Iciss, even though she was a post, she never scored really in the post. She was a face-up post player, finesse post player so, we are a finesse team, guard-oriented team and we didn't have great balance. We had two really prolific scorers. This team, we're much more balanced. We have got a good inside-outside attack. We made a concerted effort to develop that post game and there's just much greater balance on our team. So that if the outside game isn't working for us, we can pound it inside and vice versa.
Q. You had Crystal and Marissa over the summer, what did you learn about them and has it helped you prepare and how hard was it to let them go at the end of the summer?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Crystal and Marissa, I mean, they're, we tried to recruit both of them, we didn't even get in on Crystal, but Marissa we thought early on we thought we had a pretty good shot at her because she and Monique were pretty good friends. But they're both, not just great players, but they're great people as well.
So I think I spent half the time with Crystal, she would make a great play and I would be on the sidelines cheering, "Yea Crystal," and then I would be going, "oh my God." Because I knew I had to play against her for three more years. So she's just an incredible player. They both are.
Marissa, I said when we were recruiting her that I thought she was a combination of Monique Currie and Alana Beard because she was strong like Monique and smooth like Alana, and that's a pretty special combination.
Q. I can't imagine there's anything new that you'll learn for the third time around against Maryland, but can you give us your take on that impending matchup between Harding and Toliver and how has that panned out for you in the two previous matchups?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Well, the first time we played, Kristi was coming off of an injury so she didn't start for them. But when she was in, she was extremely productive. She came in, she hadn't hit a three in any of the games. I don't think she had made a basket actually. She had played like five games before our game and hadn't scored. And then she came to our game and she lit it up. She's played very well, I think, in really all three of the matchups against us. So they have done a great job when they get the ball into the post. I think their post players have done a really good job of finding her and again you have seen it, she makes big baskets for them. She has no fear, it's tough to defend that little fadeaway that she's got because she creates space. So you can be in her face but she take as little step back and it's hard to defend.
Q. Brenda said that one of her decisions to open practice today was sort of like sort of expose women's basketball to a broader audience, can you imagine on your answer sort of taking that hit for the good of women's basketball, the day before a national championship?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: I didn't know she had opened practice, so. No, I think that it probably goes to everything they have done up to this point. They have really opened up the doors, they have had the media on their bus and at their training tables, and so it makes sense now that she would continue to do that and her team has played extremely well. So I think I would worry about my team's focus, but we're just in a different place, so what works for one team doesn't necessarily work for another. But it's worked for them.
Q. You talked about trying to force it to get a championship, what kind of things do you think you did that might have been forcing it?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Well, I knew Alana Beard was our best player, so we ran most of our sets for Alana throughout the year, really because she was so good. And when we got in the tournament I kept trying to go to Alana and unfortunately she wasn't having one of her best nights. And instead of understanding probably that I needed to have a team that was a little bit more balanced throughout the season, I just, we were relying on one person. And I think too there was a lot of stress involved because specifically her senior year we were expected to win it. We were going, we were the No. 1 going into the tournament. And we felt the pressure but we never talked about it, like it would go away if we didn't talk about it.
And I learned from that. I think to just really get a better feel for my team and see how they're feeling, what they're thinking and sometimes they do feel stress, and they need to get it out and sometimes you just need to talk it out if that's the case.
Q. In looking at the three games, the two wins and the one loss, is there any one or two things that you look back at that game you lost and see, this is why, this is what we didn't do that we may have done in the two wins? And secondly, without giving away too many secrets, what do you feel is going to be the key tomorrow night?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Well, in the third game we got outrebounded, so that's always a concern for us. We take great pride in our rebounding and obviously Maryland's an excellent rebounding team; they lead the nation. But that was the game that we got outrebounded and they shot I think 13 more, made 13 more free throws than we did. And in that last game, and I think it was, they were much more aggressive than we were, attacking the basket. So therefore, they got to the free throw line. So I think that we, they got us back on our heels a little bit, specifically in that third game and we need to just be more aggressive now.
So I think the keys as always, it's not a cliche, but we all say it, it's going to be about defense. It's going to be about rebounding.
Q. How is your team feeling and what are they thinking? Are they nervous going into this game? Are they feeling the weight of a great senior class that's leaving?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: No. Right now I think we're in a really good place. Even before the game last night in the locker room while we were talking, you could just sense a very quiet confidence. And it was good to see. And I thought we started off real well. I think playing Maryland. And I said this when Maryland played North Carolina, I think when you're dealing with a team that you're extremely familiar with, I think that's a good thing. I think that for both teams. I think that can help you forget about the fact that you're on the grandest stage, and there's a national audience and you can just focus on the fact that you know this team very well and there's a level of comfort when you're playing a team that you've played several times before.
So hopefully both teams, and I expect both teams to play an excellent basketball game because there is that level of comfort between us.
Q. You talked about relieving the pressure or at least not ignoring it. Was there anything you did special to do that or to motivate the team. I know that Maryland actually came by the Garden when they were in Boston to play Boston College. Did you do that or anything like that?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: No, I've done that in the past several years and I felt like that put more pressure on my kids, honestly. So I have done that probably on maybe three different occasions where we were in the same city so I took them around and talked to them. And sometimes it worked for us, we went to Atlanta, and sometimes it did not.
So I haven't done anything in particular.
Q. Maryland played in the original Final Four, 25 years ago, but how do these teams, your team and Maryland, represent the evolution of the women's game in terms of size and speed, do you think that evolution is going to continue at this rate or is it beginning to come into where it's going to be sort of?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: No, I think it's going to continue to grow. It's amazing how far our game has come and I think you're exactly right, you can see it with now the size, the speed, the skill level of really many of the teams that were in the NCAA tournament, Candace Parker dunking. You know, we are recruiting players right now that are dunking in high school. Several of them. So it's not just one player. I think that next year you're going to see several players dunk. And the year after that probably even more. They're getting bigger, stronger, faster, and I think that we're going to continue to really grow at a very rapid rate.
Q. I was wondering if you could comment on what a national title would mean for this program as it relates to all the success that the men's program has had at Duke and all the attention they have received nationally.
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Well, I think that we have established ourselves as one of the premier programs in the country. Winning that national title I think would just put a little exclamation point on it, and I think our men, they have been great role models for us. And when I first came to Duke that was one of the great lures for me was that our men's program was so successful and I thought, well, if they can do this, and why can't we. We had the same academic, the same things to sell, the campus, the student life, all, it's all the same. Cameron Indoor Stadium.
So if they can do it, you know, we should be able to do it as well. So it's just a matter of time.
Q. With the year Monique had as a freshman and just with everybody and then she got hurt, was there ever a "what if" for that year because you guys were so close and I mean, what if we had her on that team?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: I think probably at the time during that season and at the end we felt like she could have been the missing piece, but there are probably for every team there's wouldas, couldas and what ifs. So everybody has to deal with some injuries. That was a significant injury for us, but we let that go and moved forward, just like everybody else needs to.
Q. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think Coach K went to several Final Fours and walked away without winning a national championship. Do you see any similarities in the past that in the paths that both of you have taken and would you derive any special satisfaction if you win tomorrow?
GAIL GOESTENKORS: Any time I can be compared to Coach K in any possible way is a good thing. Yeah, I think, I know it took him several years, I don't know how many, but we're just -- it would be very satisfying to win. I think that everybody's, every coach's goal and dream is to win the national title, so we're 40 minutes away.
DEBBIE BYRNE: Gail, thank you very much.

End of FastScripts...

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