Holy Cross Press Conference Quotes

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Head Coach Bill Gibbons

Opening Statement

We are thrilled to be here, we love the bright lights and the NCAA tournament. It’s nice to be back. It’s an improbable run for us. This is my 12th trip at Holy Cross, and most of the time we were favorites to win the league and get the automatic bid. This year we had two point guards go down in December and finished third in the league, and not many people thought we were going to be here. That’s what makes it so sweet.  It’s a credit to our seniors and the way the team stuck together and kept believing. I think it shows what a true team can accomplish when the experts have counted you out. We are thrilled to be here and we know we have a major challenge to be playing Duke, but we are down here to compete and give them a battle.

 

On previous experience playing Duke:

After the selections came out, someone said to me, “At least you know them and their weaknesses.”  I said, “That’s true, but I don’t know if they have any weaknesses. I believe the aura of playing Duke and the #1 team in the country is off now. We also play UConn every year, so our philosophy is to play the best.

 

On travel problems:

We practiced before class yesterday, and we had all intentions of beating the storm out of town. Just as we were leaving town, it started snowing. Our flight was cancelled, and at 3 p.m. we learned the NCAA had gotten a charter for us to fly out Saturday morning. The Boston Herald took a picture of three of the girls lounging in the airport and listening to their iPods. Initially, we were going to go back to <?xml:namespace prefix="st1" ns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"?>Worcester, and I said, “No, we’re not going back.”  We got 16 rooms at a hotel we had passed earlier and had dinner and dessert and cheered for our men’s team. This morning we got up and had breakfast and left from LoganAirport. It was a little atypical but we stayed together and that made it a nice trip. Better late than never.

 

On his view of Duke:

Even though Curry is gone, I’ve seen a big change in Alison Bales, as far as her maturity. She took her game to the next level at the end of last year and then continued this year. I think Lindsey Harding has elevated her game as well. They have all the pieces, and it’s just a manner of their personnel maturing, and that makes them a better team. They were my pick before we were chosen to play them. If they can get by the Crusaders, I think they have the best team. If I had to vote for player of the year, it would be Lindsey Harding.”

 

On the injury problems:

The two girls we lost were both point guards, so we had an experiment and tried everyone except our manager at point guard at one time or another. We had Bethany O’Dell there, but we thought she was more effective coming off of the ball. Then we had Briana McFadden, who had never played the point, we put her there. And that was kind of the start of our preseason. Unfortunately, it was January 1st. We just kept getting better and kids started settling into their roles. Then we had the adversity of Brittany Keil and her knee problems and she has fought her way through those. So it wasn’t just losing the point guard we were dealing with, it was getting Brittany as healthy as possible. We wanted to have fun and stay relaxed. We wanted to enjoy the experience; we didn’t just want to make a run and not enjoy it while it was happening. I never saw the girls smile so much as they did during the tournament, and I think that’s one of the reasons we won. We are playing with confidence but we are having fun as well.

 

Kaitlin Foley, Senior / Center

On how the season experiences will help in the tournament:

We had to deal with a lot of adversity this year. We were looking to peak too early and we weren’t on the same page. Then we peaked at the optimal time during the championship. Right now we are all on the same page and our freshmen have really settled into their roles. We have a huge task on our hands but this is the best time, since we are all playing as a team and playing together. It’s a great time for our team.