March 20, 2010

2010 NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship
First and Second Rounds
Purcell Pavilion | Notre Dame, Ind.
Sunday, March 21, 2010

Cleveland State Press Conference Quotes

Head Coach Kate Peterson Abiad

On Celveland State’s motion offense…
“We have developed it over the last five years, but it really came into its own two years ago. What was left for us at the 6-2 height that could play predominantly in the post was not better than the shorter players I had. What I like about it, and the reason we went to the five-out motion offense is that we can put the best five players on the floor, regardless of size. We get pretty small. Our tallest player on the court is 5-11, and we have felt the most difficulty running this five-out offense outside of the conference. Every player on my team works on post defense and they have to be able to play it, but I think at least with five-out it brings their post players outside instead of staying in the paint all the time, so that we can get rebounds if we are quicker rather than just relying on paint or strength. We have so many options to on the five-out, and my players have high basketball I.Q. and work well together so that we’ve grown together over the years with this offense and really like it.”

On what an opening-round win would mean for the program…
“It would be tremendous and give us recognition. Being here in this position in the last two years is a start, but knocking someone off a higher seed would be amazing. My players have been watching the men’s games and seeing all these double figure seeds winning. I think they are in the right mindset to make this happen. So, winning the game would mean everything to our program. It would help us in the future with recruiting, give these girls the final feeling that they’ve made a huge impact at Cleveland State and above all that they would be really proud of their careers here.”

On counteracting Notre Dame’s depth …
“Well we don’t have a lot of depth. We’re both a small team and a small team. Given that, I am notorious for not subbing a lot. I give my kids a lot, a lot of minutes. I am hoping that the conditioning does not wear out now. Kailey and Stephanie both play 40 minute games, and in the last games so have Angel and Jessica. It is one of my concerns going into the game, but I would not say it is one of my top concerns.”

On Kailey Klein’s effectiveness as a scorer…
“It was one of my better sales jobs. I wanted a player that did not care how old she was and could come into a program and carry it to another level. It’s hard for a young player to do that. There are a lot of people in high school that do that, but it takes a special kid to continue that. She scored 2,500 points in high school and is close to that now. How does she do that? She thinks about scoring all the time. We don’t run a single play for Kailey. She just plays offense, and she runs them motion and reads. We don’t even say, ‘look for Kailey’. She’s open because she knows how to look for the ball, and the girls want her to have it, so we find her a lot. That is something that she has created herself. We’ve put her in a system where she could be successful, but she has taken it for a ride herself. There have been games this year where she has scored two points in the first half and 25 in the second, so it is always on her time. It always seems to come, and we’re hoping it does tomorrow.”

On the intricacies of the five-out offense…
“We don’t have anyone inside the three-point line to start our offense. All five players are outside the line, and we just make cuts and reads and weave our way in. If you look at our statistics or box scores at the end of the game, unless we are playing a team that is much, much bigger than us we have as many points in the paint as anyone. It does not mean we always take it outside the three-point line and shoot it, but we start there.”

Kailey Klein | Senior | Guard

On the challenges of facing Notre Dame…
“Personally, I think it’s their inside game that is the biggest challenge. Our tallest girl is 5-11, and we know we’ll be going up against a 6-4 girl. They’re a great team playing in the Big East, and I’m sure they’re going to push the ball up and down the floor. They’ll probably look to take advantage of their height advantage with their inside game, and we’ll just have to play really big tomorrow.”

On the development of the program and what it means to be at the tournament…
“It’s crazy to see. The four of us seniors signed on to be a Viking when they won four games. Just to see where the program has gone is impressive. Coach built the team around us four seniors, named us as captains and recruited a great group of girls around us. We work together so well, and now we have the opportunity to go the NCAA Tournament twice coming from this small school. We are really thankful and hoping to make the best of it.”

On making a name for the women’s basketball program at Cleveland State…
“We just really want to make a name for Cleveland State. That’s what we have set out to do since we got here, and it’s not going to be an easy road by any means against Notre Dame at their home court. We come from a small school, but we want to show that we’re not small-time players and what a better way to do it against Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament.”

Stephaine Crosleyo | Senior | Forward

On the advantages of the motion offense…
“We have the advantage of brining out the big players on the other team. There is advantage with our offensive rebounding as well. I know for me, personally, I rebound better with momentum.”

Jessica Roqueo | Senior | Guard

On how last year’s experience will help the team in this season’s NCAA Tournament…
“We were co-captains then but we were going in star struck and inexperienced, never having won a conference championship or been to the tournament. This time around we’ve had more insight on what to expect. We have grown and matured as players and are looking to try to make an impact this time around and not just be there to be there.”

Angel Roqueo | Senior | Guard

On the challenge of starting off against Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament…
“Being here at Notre Dame is a bit closer to us (geographically) so that we can have more of a fan base. They have a big program here and a big crowd, but we’re sort of used to it. We’ve had experience against other schools that have had big crowds, so we’re just here to play together, play for each other, and hopefully we will.”