March 18, 2012
HEAD COACH MIKE CAREY
CHALLENGE ON FACING THE SISTERS:
You always watch Stanford on television and they are even better in person. We know we are going to have our hands full with them and they have some other good players too. They are also capable of hitting the three and those shots will hurt you the most.
PROGRESSION OF THE PLAYERS SUCH AS CRISTAL AND LINDA:
I think first of all they have come a long way. They are good people that come from great families and they do good work in the classroom, which is more important than basketball. Linda has come in and accepted her role and has done what she has needed to do but overall both girls are great young ladies.
DO YOU BELIEVE EVERYONE IN THE LOCKER ROOM BELIEVES YOU CAN BEAT STANFORD:
I can go back to a month ago when no one gave us a chance against Notre Dame, but we beat them in front of a capacity crowd. Do not get me wrong, Stanford is a great basketball team but there is no doubt in mind the locker room knows we can win this game. Nobody is picking us to win this game but us. We need to come out and do what we need to do and not let them make easy buckets. They have a lot of skilled people but I also like our defense against them.
HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO GET THE PROGRAM TO HE SWEET SIXTEEN
We talk about that all the time with the players and it is not "ok" to just make the tournament. We want to win the whole thing, but it is all about matchups and it is what it is. Our next opponent is Stanford and we need to focus on them not the other stuff. As a program, absolutely everyone wants to make that next jump.
POSITIVE START TO THE GAME:
Get the sisters in foul trouble. (Jokes) No, we need to not let them play the transition game we need to make them play defense. We need to play physical and make them run their offensive sets. We need to score from outside of the post and if we can do like what we did yesterday we are a pretty good offensive team.
PLAYING FIRST DURING THE DAY, RATHER THEN THE LATE GAME:
Yeah, I was talking with Aysa about it yesterday and we like just getting up and playing and not worrying about eating or any of that. You get to scout the next opponent afterwards and it is nice.
OPPONENTS A SIZE ISSUE:
People ask me that all time like what is the difference from the Big East and the Big 12. Texas had great size and Stanford does as well but that is just an adjustment we will make and we will need to get different people involved.
COACHING AGAINST GREAT COACHES:
I have watched a lot of her games on TV and she is very down to earth. She talks to you and is a pleasant person. She could be like some of the coaches that don't really talk to you with that type of career she has, but she is a great person and I appreciate that.
WHAT IS YOUR SENSE OF WHAT STANFORD WILL TAKE AWAY FROM YOU:
They are going to try to take away our post. Aysa and Yaya will need to play well in transition defense and I think they will double us and sag off Jess Harlee. They are going to play man and run through their post game and move the ball well. T answer your question they will try to take our post away and try to run on us.
Player Quotes
Junior forward/center Asya Bussie
Do you find that being as physical as you are can take a team like Stanford, who plays more of a finesse game, out of sync?
All year we've been playing really aggressive and I feel like if we can do that tomorrow, we can get them out of their sets and just mess with their flow. That's something we've been focusing on, just playing West Virginia defense.
What did you think about the [Ogwumike] sisters yesterday and what do you feel like your job is, defensively, against them?
I think they're great players but if we do what we've been doing all year with working the high-low, and our guards step up and play, we'll be fine.
Do you believe everybody in your locker room, heading into tomorrow night, feels like you can win and beat this Stanford team?
Yeah, I think we all do and if they don't feel that we can win, they shouldn't be on the court. But yes, I feel that we can beat them and I feel like, if we don't believe in ourselves, nobody else will either.
How much do the players talk about being the first West Virginia team to make it past the first-round [of the NCAA Tournament]?
We don't really talk about, I've thought about it, but it's not something we've talked about.
A year ago this time, you we're preparing to play against Brittney Griner, now you have the [Ogwumike] sisters. Can you compare and contrast the two, and talk about what the challenge is like. Also, I know you had come across Griner in some AAU ball, have you run across the [Ogwumike] sisters at all in your career?
Never, I have never played against them. As far as some of the challenges, they're really athletic and they run the floor, so we have to prepare for a totally different game than last year. I think if our guards step up and play the time of game we played yesterday [against Texas], we'll be perfectly fine.
Freshman guard Linda Stepney
Do you believe everybody in your locker room, heading into tomorrow night, feels like you can win and beat this Stanford team?
I believe that everyone in the locker room as well as our coaches, believe we can beat them. Even the fans believe we can. So, as long as we believe, I think we can go out there and beat them.
When you saw the bracket announced on Monday night, I know you were excited to be in the Tournament, but then you saw Norfolk. What's it like to be able to come home and have your family be in the audience?
It's been really nice. I was really excited one I saw that we were playing in Norfolk. It was nice to have all my family and the fans from high school come over to watch the game and show their support for us. It's just really exciting.