March 21, 2004

On the game…
“We have to learn from what happened to us today. We’ve got to go home and get better. We’ve got to develop leadership. That is what we’re lacking right now.”

On her decision to play Leah Metcalf…
“Leah can be a leader. She has at times for us. She is not really vocal, yet she is intelligent. She is a good player and I respect her. We communicate well.”

On improvement strategies…
“We’ve got to get tougher. I’m talking about physically tougher. We let physical play sometimes bother us. We’ve tried at practice to get them mentally tough and physically tough. If we’d played this game against our practice guys, you’d have seen a different team on the floor. That has been our Achilles’ Heel all year-our mental and physical toughness.”

On the importance of the point guard…
“So many times, a team like ours feeds off of their point guard, like Middle Tennessee feeds off of Patrice [Holmes]. When Ivory [Latta] is going, when Leah [Metcalf] is going, we’re clicking. That’s your quarterback. That’s the one that has got to lead your team.”

On referring to the outcome as am upset…
“It is [an upset] because of the seed, but Middle Tennessee deserved to win, because they outplayed us. My hat is off to them because they played really, really well.”