Friday press conference Q&A Tara VanDerveer
Q. What do you like about your team going into this tournament?
VanDerveer: I like the fact that our team is very excited coming off of a big win in the PAC 12 tournament, we're playing with a lot of momentum, we're playing our best basketball at the end of the season. People are healthy for the most part and just we feel like we're, we haven't reached our peak, we're continuing to improve and everyone's playing really hard for each other.
Q. Back in November when you opened the season against Davis and you sort of reflected on Jennifer and her assistant coming down last may it was the third visit they made to campus to help you with the Princeton offense, am I right?
VanDerveer: Yes.
Q. Okay. And you said it was like playing your sister and now you meet on the NCAA stage and both teams are probably much better now. What is it like it play them again and everything that Jennifer's meant to you?
VanDerveer: Well, Jen and her staff have been extremely helpful, they're wonderful people, they're great coaches, and if we probably had our druthers we wish we were in different brackets so we could cheer for each other, but we're not and whether it's playing Jen Gross or we play Jennifer Aziz or like I said we played my sister Heidi, once the game, you do the preparation and the ball goes up, you want your team to play well.
I agree, I feel like we are much much better and that's a little bit of a challenge. Who has improved the most. We have a lot of young players, Maya coming back, the twins being really young freshmen. Jenna played so much and so well in that game. We just, we want to show that we have improved a lot and so that's the challenge.
Q. Speaking of improvement, looking at Davis, what are the things that you see that they have improved on that you have to be looking out for?
VanDerveer: Well, I really don't focus on the other team as much as I focus on our team. I think that they have three seniors in their starting lineup, so we're a much younger team and I think in some ways when you have a younger team they started out probably more not running new offenses, kind of doing the same thing and I focused on our improvement and so I just hope that we have improved more.
Q. You also said you had sent Jen out for a night in San Francisco. Did you get her a dinner certificate somewhere nice or are you willing to share?
VanDerveer: I got a hotel and, yeah, both Jen and Joe had come down and helped us so much that and I think it was actually during baseball season so they could go to a Giants game. What was the hotel that we used to stay in up there, you remember for the PAC 12? 55? Park 55, right.
You know I really do appreciate her help and just the willingness -- it kind of reminded me a little bit of old school basketball where I remember Fred Taylor at Iowa State, coaches worked together to get great teams and I really, she's a real special coach.
But having said that, we have our work cut out for us because they do know a lot of -- we're running a lot of the same stuff but that's what you do every day in practice, you play against your team that knows stuff. So we have got to have some wrinkles and we're going to have to play very well.
Q. The Hull twins are kind of a graph almost, I mean Lexie started and got hurt and Lacie came in and started and they have kind of been they have all contributed both contributed in different ways. Are they even in ability or is somebody bring something else the other one doesn't?
VanDerveer: They're different. I can't always tell them apart when I'm looking at two of them not with their uniforms on but their games are different. I think Lacie has, she's not maybe Lexie might be more of the I'm going to take charge with the ball and Lacie plays really well without the ball, moving the ball, they're both excellent three-point shooters, they both work really hard on defense, Lexie might rebound a little stronger, Lacie might have more assist, but they both, they both play really well.
But their games are different. You just have to watch them more I guess to be able to tell them apart.
Q. You have a long history of hosting except for that year with the gymnastics championship. What do you like about having different teams coming here and maybe hosting them and showing them around and just seeing the fluctuation of teams in the tournament.
VanDerveer: Well, the way that women's basketball tournament is now, hosting is a reward for being in the top 16 and you don't have to travel and for our fans I think it's great because maybe a lot of our fans can't go to the next spot. If it were to be Chicago, so our fans get to see great women's basketball.
Having Auburn and BYU in this bracket we have a great bracket and our fans are very sophisticated basketball fans, they have watched a lot of great basketball and I know that they will come out and support watching the tournament here.
Q. Speaking of Auburn, it's kind of like a full circle with the siblings, DeWanna Bonner and Erica McCall and having that history here, have you thought about that and kind of like the history of the game and that respect?
VanDerveer: Well, obviously, we played Auburn to win a National Championship, I haven't forgotten that. But also my connection with Auburn is through Ruthie Bolton and Ruthie will be at the game tomorrow and she's an Auburn grad and took their team to the championship three times. So I think it's, there's going to be a lot of kind of history in the building, which is great.
Q. You talked about having a young team. 32 consecutive NCAA appearances, what do you say to those freshmen who certainly came in thinking this is a possibility and almost something that they expect but what is the message as you enter the tournament?
VanDerveer: Well the tournament, I think the PAC 12 tournament is great preparation for the NCAA tournament in that you lose, you go home. And I've talked to our team about the fact and a specifically to our freshmen, this is, it doesn't matter what your seed is, it doesn't matter where you're playing, you have to play well, period.
At this point no one says, hey, you're a freshman, you get five extra points starting out. You have to be able to get the job done whether you're a freshman or a senior. And our freshmen have done very well, but we're thankful that we have the leadership of our upperclassmen and we're, I feel that our team is, they're, they really support each other, they're a very close team and this team wants to keep playing. That's what the freshmen have to feel as much as anything else, we want to keep playing.
Q. What did Davis run against you last game and what do you expect them to do defensively? VanDerveer: They mix up their defenses. They played mostly player defense but they will play some zone. They will do some pressing a little bit. I think it's more -- their offense, they're great three-point shooters, they have got a tremendous player in Morgan Bertsch, going inside and they are an extremely well coached team. So they do everything. They rebound, they play defense, they score.
Again, we just need to come out and play our game and I know they're focused on what they do and we focus on what we do also.
Q. Shannon's talents doing the anthem and everything else, you have a lot of players who have many talents, but how fun and special is that to have her?
VanDerveer: Well, if Shannon will sign during the National Anthem, she's taken sign language at Stanford and she asked me if she could do that and I said, yes. At first I thought she wanted to sing it and I said no. But signing is okay.
Shannon has had a fabulous senior year and we're not in the position that we're in without her great contributions and I think some of the reason of taking Shannon and Alanna, this is their last NCAA tournament and for Anna Wilson even though she's a Junior, this is her first NCAA tournament. So Shannon brings a lot to our team, she's a captain, a leader, it's really exciting to go see her have such a great senior year and like you said, have some special talent too.
Q. When did she come to you?
VanDerveer: It was in the middle of the year. I can't remember exactly what game, but maybe around January when she was taking -- she's -- this is not her first sign language class, she's good so she knows what she's doing and she just I think that that was something she wanted to do and I said that's great.