March 20, 2010
Head coach Melanie Balcomb and several members of the Vanderbilt women’s basketball team met with the media Saturday afternoon prior to Sunday’s NCAA First Round matchup with DePaul.
LISTEN TO VANDERBILT’S PRESS CONFERENCE
VANDERBILT OPEN PRACTICE DAY QUOTES
Head coach Melanie Balcomb
Opening statement:
This is a great time of year. This is what we’ve worked all season for and we’re just glad to be here. It’s March Madness and we can’t wait to get started and play again.
Thoughts on coming to back to Xavier:
My first thought was I knew it was bound to happen at some point. I thought about the players that I coached and I heard from a lot of them. I knew it would be difficult to come back. I have great memories here. I always said when I was here, it’s the people that make the place. I look forward to seeing a lot the people that made this place special for me. At the same time, I love the place I’m at now and it’s been eight years. I’m excited to bring this team here. That makes my chest pound. It really does. It’s a great opportunity and a great challenge. I’m not going to let that take away from the fact that we’re here to play DePaul in the first round of the NCAA. It’s one of the things I’m good at, focus. (I’ll think about it) the first five minutes I walk in the gym and then I’ll be in business mode from that point on. Then it won’t be about me, it’ll be about my team, getting them prepared and ready to play.
On pulling up to Xavier’s Cintas Center:
It’s the second time. I came back for a (Xavier) Hall of Fame induction. Jennifer Phillips was the first player inducted. This past year, two of my players were inducted again, but we were playing at Western Kentucky so I send a video. I’ve only been back once before. This is like building my first house. We got to design everything. Now we’ve done the same thing at Vanderbilt. It was a learning experience as a coach and an interior designer. It was a great experience for my next job. I use those experiences on and off the court to help me at Vanderbilt.
Memories of 2001 with Xavier and run to the Elite Eight:
To be honest, I haven’t thought about it a lot. It’s been a long time. I think of memories of Vanderbilt. It’s a tough question. My memories are of winning and having teams that overachieved. That was a very talented team that had a lot of confidence. That’s what I’m bringing here today, a team with a lot of confidence. That’s what it’s all about.
On having Cincinnati players on the roster:
I’m looking forward to what my players are looking forward to. We’ve been sent far away and we’ve had players from the west coast and now we have players from Cincinnati. Ashley Bridge is from Princeton (High School) and our former player, Dee Davis, was from Princeton. Obviously, I recruited Abby Smith from Mt.Notre Dame. We do a lot of recruiting in this area, I know a lot of the high school coaches. It’s nice for the players’ families to be here. The last couple years, we’ve really struggled by being at a location where they could all come and enjoy this. You have to enjoy it. It’s what you’ve worked really hard for and I feel like this is a place where we can have a crowd out there helping us. That’s something to be thankful for because you don’t have control over that
On Vanderbilt’s style of play:
That’s always been my recruiting philosophy and the people to my right are what I’m excited to be bringing here. A point, a post and a shooter, then great role players around them. We’re really into team chemistry and people accepting roles and working really hard at them. I think I have that. Our job is to get there by March. I don’t tell my team to be the best team in December, January or February. We need to be a whole team and that’s what the team needs to look like by March. Right now, the team looks like it’s supposed to look like, where we can compete at our best.
On playing closer to home:
For me, I’m from Louisville, Ky., so my family will we able to come up and watch. They’re really excited. Gabby Smith (Princeton High School) and Ashlee Bridge (Mt. Notre Dame High School) will have a lot of people here, so it’s always nice to have a lot of support we haven’t had in the past. It’s going to be fun.
On learning from the Vanderbilt Men’s First Round NCAA Tournament loss:
You can’t take games for granted. You have to be ready for anything to happen. It’s March Madness, teams are upset right and left. Unfortunately, the guys maybe looked past Murray State and they gave them a run for their money. I don’t think that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re getting ready for DePaul. It’s going to be a great game and we’re really excited.”
On how SEC Conference play prepared Vanderbilt for the NCAA:
In preseason, we played a lot of different types of teams. The SEC is more athletic and explosive. Teams are big, fast and stronger. It makes us physically and mentally tougher to play these games in March. It’s been great preparation in all aspects.
On Vanderbilt’s current level of play:
We’ve had a lot of good practices leading up to the tournament and that helps with confidence. As a senior I’ve had a lot of confidence in how we’re practicing, playing and starting to accept the roles they’re in and doing things outside those roles to help us. I’m just excited to play other people besides us. I thoroughly excited about the tournament right now. I think we’re ready.
On Balcomb coaching in Cincinnati:
It’s nice for her to be back in a city where she had great success and for us to have the opportunity to potentially play a team she used to coach. It’s a unique situation, but first we have to get past DePaul.
On playing closer to home:
We were sent across the country the last few years, so it’s nice to actually be on this side of the Mississippi (River). My family will be here, too. I think our whole ticket list was filled, so will have quite the nice level of fan support.
On learning from the Vanderbilt Men’s First Round NCAA Tournament loss:
It’s really disappointing. We’d have liked to see them win because they had a great season. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to pull it out in the tournament. I feel bad for them, but we plan not to do the same thing.
On the DePaul match-up:
They’re similar to us. They’re pretty big and they like to run in transition, so we’ve been preparing for that all week. We’ll have our game plan set, we’ll practice it today and be ready for tomorrow.
On Vanderbilt’s current level of play:
In the SEC Tournament, we started to step up our game a lot. We are playing well, we’ve had really good practices the last couple of weeks and we’ll be ready to play tomorrow.
On playing closer to home:
I also have family coming (from Colorado), they’re making the trek.
On level current of play:
We got a lot good practice time in and we’ve really competitive in practice. I think we’re ready for this tournament.
DePaul match-up:
When it comes to height, it’s all about getting the defender to move her feet to get around her, being smarter and faster than them. You don’t have to necessarily always have to be taller, you just have to work harder. I think we’ll be just fine.
DEPAUL OPEN PRACTICE DAY QUOTES
Head coach Doug Bruno
Opening statement:
Totally proud of these young women for putting us in a position to be here. Feb 14 was the week we played Notre Dame and UConn in the same week, they both drilled us pretty good, and we had to win out to be here. I think that’s a testament to the leadership of Sam Quigley and Felicia Chester and the young players led by Keisha Hampton and two freshmen figuring some things out. We don’t win one in a row five times, into the big east tournament we wouldn’t be here and I’m really proud of them for putting us in that position.
That said the page has got to be turned and we have to be ready to represent the big east and compete against a very good and a very well coached Vanderbilt basketball team..
Thoughts on returning to the tournament 8 years in a row:.
I think every team every year is unique, I think explaining to your team and getting your team to understand that getting here seven years in a row doesn’t guarantee you’ll get here the eighth. I think the youth factor is very hard to say that because we’ve been here, I’ve sat here eight times, but the player have sat here two times for Sam and Felicia, one time for Keisha, so the rest of our team has never even been here. So its really more unique year to year, you’d like to think it would give you an advantage but the experience of collegiate sports don’t die on you, and I know the competitors sitting next to me have a gnaw in their chest about going one and out and that’s what makes this tournament so beautiful and so great for the fans is all the drama and the story lines that come from each individual game, but as a coach and a player unless you win the last game it’s a crash and burn. Whether it’s the first game or the fifth game, it’s a hurt and I trust it hasn’t gone away from the players next to me and it will affect their play tomorrow and hopefully they can help the younger players understand what this is all about.
Sam Quigley
On pulling together after rough week playing UConn and Notre Dame:
Just to say that after we got killed by Notre Dame and UConn, I think that gave us a little motivation just to improve the way we were playing and get better each day.
On playing in front of a large crowd:
Yeah, I think some of the bigger crowds come from the bigger teams that we play, UConn obviously, Notre Dame I think had a record crowd the day we played them, and I think it just helps grow the game and gets us excited for the games we play.
Felicia Chester
On pulling together after rough week playing UConn and Notre Dame:
At that point in time we basically had to win the rest of our games, we really tried to focus on one game at a time. Each game we would say we were fighting for out NCAA lives. Each game we took one game at a time.
Thoughts on returning to the tournament:
This is me and Sam’s third NCAA tournament, and the last two years we’ve lost in the first round so we’re definitely not going to be satisfied with just making it here, we definitely want to move forward.
On playing in front of a large crowd:
I love playing in front of big crowds, it just makes the energy so much more. Definitely love big crowds.
Keisha Hampton
On playing in front of a big crowd:
Having a big crowd here, it’s fun to play in front of a big crowd, like the UConn game, the Notre Dame game, it’s just motivation.