March 23, 2002
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Old Dominion Quotes
Head Coach Wendy Larry:
Opening Statement: "From the jump, some of the difference would hopefully be not only size, but athleticism. We had athleticism and size. I'm not sure if they have ever seen a combination like that."
On the play of Monique Coker: "Not perfect, but I think we have seen her (Monique) play very well on other occasions. We have seen her rebound better, but not shoot better."
On Kansas State's enthusiasm: "I think youth has great enthusiasm. I don't think this team (Kansas State) was going to fold. They came back with the three. They will be around for a while, we will be hearing about Kansas State for a while."
On Old Dominion's seed: "I think certainly some of the scores have spoken for that. We knew we had a basketball team capable of playing the best teams in the country. Our seniors believe that with additional effort, they could be here, competing for a position in the Final Four. When the pairings came out I was in a state of shock, but we decided that night that the only way we could make a difference was to make some noise in the tournament."
On the game: "I think when you get points at the rim, your percentages go sky high. If we had finished all those shots around the rim we might have been shooting around 70 percent. The high percentage is about paint points."
On the last Connecticut game: "I would like to think Lucienne was not as healthy as she is now. We hadn't decided on a line up because of injuries. We were in a state of disarray at that point in time. We now know who our go to guys are and who to go to off the bench. To have an opportunity to fight for a spot to the Final Four, we will be able to put our best game together on the floor. They are a tremendous offensive team, relentless on the glass."
On being in the Elite Eight: "We've been here before, just the ability to be an underdog in the tournament. We are in a position now to ruin parties, that is a great place to be. When you are in that position, you can be a little more relaxed and have a little more fun. We are just not happy to be here, we are here for a purpose."
Forward Lucienne Berthieu:
On the game: "We had to work inside and out, we needed to establish our inside game first. We knew they were going to sag in their zone, so we had to get the ball out to bring the zone out."
On Old Dominion's seed: "If anybody is still wondering, we play with intensity and we are still playing, I don't know, I guess it is your call."
On being in the Elite Eight: "It feels great, I think there is still a lot to come and enjoy, we just have to take it one game at a time."
On rebounding: "That was one of my focuses at the beginning of the game, finish better than I did last game. Coming into this game, much has been made about our rebounding, I tried to do that the best that I could."
On Nicole Ohlde: "She's tall. She is a lot taller than me. Our game plan was to help and push her to her left. She hit some good shots. We did a good job of frustrating her in the first half, but she picked it up in the second half. She is a great player."
Guard Hamchetou Maiga:
On the game: "In the second half, we couldn't come out and just play, we needed to come out strong and not let them back into the game."
Guard Okeshia Howard:
On their first game versus Connecticut: "I thought our game against Connecicut, it was early for us. We played them well, we hung in there, but to the end we got caught up. I think we can play better against them this time."
On Kansas State: "They are a real good shooting team, we wanted them to do something they weren't used to doing, like penetrating. They are a good three point shooting team and we wanted to limit their three point shots."
Kansas State Quotes
Head Coach Deb Patterson:
Opening Statement: "I thought Old Dominion played a tremendous game on both sides of the floor. Certainly they were the more assertive team on both sides of the floor. They rattled us and we never put ourselves in a position to be competitive."
On the game: "I thought we started the game real tight, mentally and emotionally. We got some good early looks and when we missed them, we passed up the next good look. We got intimidated early and never recovered. We were our own worst enemy the first ten minutes of the game."
On being in the game: "You have to credit Old Dominion, they came out with a swagger early on. Even when it is a six or seven point game we are still in it, but you would have never known by the way we played. There was very little defense on our part tonight."
On Lucienne Berthieu: "We thought we couldn't take her one-on-one. When she did catch, we wanted to dive down or deny the ball, I didn't see a lot of that tonight. We really just played very poorly, she is a great target. You have to give her a great deal of credit, she scored well. When your plan is to sag in the zone, it is a bit of frustration. We just didn't compete mentally."
On rebounding: "I didn't think rebounding was a huge factor tonight. The majority of their points were in the point. It was a game that didn't come down to rebounding. Because we were playing weak defense, they tracked down some loose balls. We got rattled early. When you are shooting the ball in the paint at will, rebounding was certainly a moot point."
On Kansas State's ability to defend: "I think Old Dominion was unique in that they were extremely athletic in all five positions. My impression would be that it would be unfair to judge our league's ability to defend in a game like this. We really did not compete tonight. I don't think it is a reflection of our league or our team. Old Dominion just exploited our weakness."
On the team playing tight: "As soon as the ball went up and we missed a shot, I could feel the tension like a brick wall. We were frozen, very, very tight. I didn't sense that in the locker room."
Nicole Ohlde:
On Old Dominion: "I think we knew coming into the game that they had a great inside game. We didn't show up to play the way we needed to play tonight."
On Lucienne Berthieu: "I think Lucienne is a tremendous player on both sides of the floor, she got the best of me on both sides."
On Old Dominion: "They really positioned themselves well. They were able to get quick shots and we weren't there to defend them."
Laurie Koehn:
On the game: "Our lack of defense killed us. We weren't executing shots and getting where we needed to be on offense and that is why we turned the ball over."
On Old Dominion: "They came to play. They played great defense, caused us turnovers and caused us to rush a little bit."
On the end of Kansas State's season: "It is really disappointing, no matter how old you are, it is not a way you want to end your season, you always want to go out playing your best and we didn't do that."