Duke Press Conference Quotes

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Head Coach Gail Goestenkors

Opening Statement

We’re really excited to be playing close to home and we feel that this is an extremely challenging sub-regional, very exciting, and we’re ready to play. It’s been a long time since we had a game and our last game was not our best game, so we’re anxious to get out and redeem ourselves.

 

On the long layoff since their last game

This will be our fourth game in 27 days so it’s interesting that you go through the entire season and play two or three games a week and then you have these huge breaks, but, I think it has kept us fresh. I gave the players a few days off for spring break just to get away from basketball and get mentally and physically rested. We came back and had a great week of practice, very competitive and very intense. As far as what we worked on, it was about getting back to basics. When you do have so many games together you’re always preparing for your next opponent. This time allowed us to just focus on who we are and who we’ve been all year long.

 

I think the time off helped. We’ve got some sore knees just through the wear and tear over the course of the season and I feel like when we played our last game against NC State I feel like we had some dead legs. We were just fatigued, so, I think it’s given us a chance to get mentally and physically refreshed.

 

Abby Waner, Sophomore / Guard

On being close to home

I think it’s good to be in our comfort zone, like tomorrow, we’re going through our same routine that we’d go through if we had a home game. It’s nice to be familiar with our routine and what we’re doing. As far as staying in our own beds, tonight, the people who are in the dorms are staying in a hotel to kind of get away because people are back from spring break and are probably going to be louder tonight. It is nice to be able to go back to our own rooms and get ready to play.

 

Lindsey Harding, Senior / Guard

On the layoff since their last game

I feel we’ve been really anxious to get back and play and like Coach said, we want to redeem ourselves. Our practices, I feel, have been great, very competitive. We’ve been going at each other because we know it’s the hardest going back against each other. I think we’re just ready to play.