March 20, 2004Head Coach Lisa Bluder
"We're very happy to be here. Last year we weren't in the tournament, so this makes it even more special to be back in the big dance. We're not especially happy we have to play the home team. That's going to be a tough task. We have a lot of respect for Virginia Tech and what they've done. They have a tremendous team, they're very well coached and it's going to be a tough task playing them on their home floor. We're coming in here after two weeks of practice so we're ready to get playing again. We're kind of anxious to get back on the floor. We didn't end the season on a positive note, so we're looking forward to getting back out on the floor to ease our minds and show what kind of basketball we're capable of playing."
"At times we're very good and at times we're a very average basketball team. As a coach you hope you can find out what's putting your team in one mode one night and one mode another night and we haven't been able to figure that out. I can't explain it, but hopefully the good team will show up tomorrow to give Virginia Tech a good game."
"I think [Ieva] Kublina is a tremendous player. A lot of foreign players have that style where they're able to post up inside and get outside and shoot the three. It makes it a match-up problem for us. We have to prepare to stop her from outside and inside. That's a difficult task for anybody. We've watched enough film that we know she's capable of it and I guess that's half the challenge. You know it's going to be a problem, now you just have to take care of it."
"I love their [Virginia Tech] defensive tenacity. They're holding opponents to only 55 points a game and that's tremendous. We want to be able to put points on the scoreboard. We're a much better team when we're scoring at a high rate. I think a high scoring game would be to our benefit. I think we need to rebound well too. Virginia Tech is a tremendous rebounding team and we're going to have to keep them off the boards. Rebounding is also going to be a key but the number one thing is offense, being able to put points on the board."
"We do play a little quicker pace of basketball so you're going to give up more points, but our defense has not been a strong point all year. It seems like when we give up points, we give up a lot of points. When we've lost, we've lost big. That's been our Achilles' heel all year."
"We know that we're the underdogs, playing against a team like Virginia Tech that has such a dominant home court advantage. This team [Tech] takes great pride in their defense, they're so fundamentally sound. They don't make mistakes, they don't put people at the line. They're a very strong rebounding team both on the offensive and defensive end of things. When you go on the road, you always worry about scoring and now you add a tenacious defensive team like Virginia Tech it makes it double trouble you're going against."
Iowa Student-Athlete Jennie Lillis
"I think that we have a really good offense in our triangle offense. We have fun playing together and have a lot of assists. Jamie's [Cavey] done a tremendous job opening a lot of things inside and outside for us and Kristi Faulkner is also a great shooting guard for us."
"[Getting back to the NCAA tournament] Was a goal from the beginning. Like coach Bluder said we didn't come last year and that was a little disappointing. That was definitely a goal for the three seniors on this team to get back to the dance."
"Obviously their [Virginia Tech] defense is a strength for them. The thing that our team needs to do is play Iowa basketball. When we win games that's what we do and we don't worry about everything else. When we worry about everything else that's when we struggle. We need to take care of the little things. We need to concentrate on rebounding, on defense and not let our offense dictate our defense. We need to go out there and make sure we put some points on the board."
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