March 20, 2004

On being in the NCAA Tournament…
“We’re excited to be here in the NCAA Tournament and we know our first round opponents very well. We’ve seen them a lot on tape, and they are very athletic-just like us. We know several of their players very well, and they had a great season. They are very efficient on offense and they are very aggressive on defense.

It should be a great game tomorrow, and these two players right here [Candace Sutton and La’Tangela Atkinson] are very special. Candace is our senior captain and last year ‘Tangie’ was the ACC’s Rookie of the Year and she is leading the ACC in rebounds this year. We are excited to have a chance to play tomorrow and hopefully we’ll do a good job and move on.”

On Middle Tennessee State being a program on the rise…
“They have been good-Stephany [Smith] and I talk quite a bit because we’re good buddies. We talk about recruiting and we always visit and talk. We keep in contact with them because of the friendship that we have and because we know some of their players. They have been good for the past few years. They have done well with their recruiting and they are very competitive. “

On potentially recruiting Patrice Holmes…
“We didn’t really recruit Patrice. We looked at her, but at the time with our depth chart, even though she is a good player and could play in the ACC, we didn’t have a need at that time.

We did have a need for La’Tangela Atkinson. I’ve seen her play a lot, and we know she is a great player because she played with another great player [Atkinson]. She has the whole package. I watched them play for a couple of years together and she made ‘Tangie’ look good because she got her the ball a lot. They really complemented each other when they won the state championship in Patrice’s senior year. She’s the whole package and she’s been a great kid and their high school coach does an excellent job. We know her background.”

On being a Final Four-quality team…
“We have a well-balanced team. We’re young, and we’ve played real well at times this year. We’ve been up and down. Some of our inconsistencies can be attributed to how young we are but we’ve played with a lot of firepower.”