March 22, 2004
Head Coach Bonnie Henrickson
"We're really excited to have the opportunity to play Penn State tomorrow night. It will be important for us to carry over what we did well against Iowa and learn from what we didn't do well against Iowa. The good news is we were pretty good yesterday, the reality is we need to be even better tomorrow, and this group realizes that. I trust they're focused and excited about the opportunity."
"We have confidence and recognize that it's a tremendous opportunity to play a No. 1 seed and have the opportunity to do that at home. Our staff and players realize that that alone, playing here, won't guarantee us a win. Whether we play Penn State here, at Penn State, or on a neutral court, we have to play a complete game."
"Penn State has an advantage with Kelly Mazzante. What's difficult about Penn State is not just Kelly Mazzante. You don't shut down a player like Kelly Mazzante, you hope to slow her down a little bit. With that mind set we've got to make sure to contain and not let anyone else have a career night against us because there's so much balance. I don't know how many teams in the country have four 1,000 point scorers and one that's near 3,000. It's some really amazing offensive numbers and then to have the Big Ten defensive player of the year in that group as well. I don't know if at any position we have an advantage. If we played five games of one-on-one, I don't think we win five games. That's where this group understands its strength in numbers and how important it is for us to be good as a team tomorrow and do the little things."
"I think the three things that are critical for us are to defend the three, defending in transition and obviously we've got to be able to score. Kelly Mazzante is almost Reggie Miller-like in how she can get her shot off. Her footwork is not the same each time, she has the uncanny ability to be off balance and still knock it down. Everyone has played them differently and how smart they [Penn State] are about how you play them. They're very good about reading screens and reading defenses. You might have a game plan to stop Kelly Mazzante, but all of a sudden Brungo gets good looks, Wright gets good looks because they read how you might defend."
"Dawn Chriss will get the initial match-up with Mazzante and Kerri Gardin will be on Wright and those two will have the opportunity to switch. It's a focus and concentration on the defensive end. We go back to fundamentals on how you defend certain screens. It will be critical for us to communicate and communicate early on how to defend those two. Bobby Knight's right, it's a game of mistakes and who makes the fewest mistakes. Our room for error is very small with a group that is that efficient offensively.
Virginia Tech Student-Athlete Carrie Mason
"They're [Penn State] so balanced offensively, you can't concentrate on one person because there's two and three other girls that are capable of big games. We're going to have to buckle down defensively and defend tendencies, communicate and play as hard as we can."
"Both of them [Jess Strom and Tanisha Wright] are very good players, they've both grown since I played with them. They both do a great job offensively and defensively, they're very scrappy. It should be an exciting match-up."
"[Tanisha Wright] She's very active off the ball and very physical. She can anticipate passes and can run through passes. We're going to have to take care of the ball and be strong with it. If she's guarding you , you have to get the ball off your back foot so she can't take it away."
Virginia Tech Student-Athlete Erin Gibson
"We realize that Penn State is going to be ready and we have to be ready for them so we have to step our game. [Iowa] Was a confidence builder, but we also realize that we have to be focused on tomorrow."
"Ieva [Kublina] is a tentative person by nature, but that's one thing she has worked on this year and she's getting better. I think she's progressed. She's a great player and she's going to have her big games, she's played aggressive when we've needed her to and hopefully she can keep that up tomorrow."
"I'll be guarding [Reicina] Russell, obviously we have Nare [Diawara] and she's 6-6 herself, so we go up against that everyday in practice. You've just got to be physical and try not to let her have easy touches close to the basket and get to her legs by posting her up and doing all the little things right."
Virginia Tech Student-Athlete Kerri Gardin
"Yesterday we had them [the crowd] behind us and it gives us a lot of confidence and it was exciting to play in front of the crowd and have them here behind us. That helped us a lot and gave us a lot of confidence in the beginning."
"We can't give her [Kelly Mazzante] any space, they run her off a lot of screens, she's a great shooter. We just have to be there in her face and maintain contact wherever she goes and not give her any easy looks."
|
Ticket Market Place
Travel Center & Info
Sports Radio Network | FAQs
