March 17, 2007
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Stanford Cardinal
Head Coach Tara VanDerveer
(Opening Statement) "I'm really pleased with how we played it was a great start. Idaho State is a team that has been playing really well and they have had a great season. They have great three point shooters, our team just did we what we needed to do. Doma was a great player so we might have to do some post defense work, but overall I am very pleased with how we played.
(On the guard play) "Cissy has had some really good games, in practice she has been going hard and I felt that she would have a good game. Cissy is a really good shooter and they left her open, which gave her a rhythm, and she hit her shots today. I felt it really took some pressure off of Candice and it also gave Brooke a lot of good looks.
(On playing Florida State) "I think it is a very different matchup. They had people knocking down shots today; they are very athletic and have a great inside outside game. It is obvious that they can play and they are really playing well defensively. They change a lot throughout the game and will present a strong challenge.
(On Jayne Appel) "Jayne is a great passer, she played water polo in high school which has helped her court awareness. This wasn't one of Jayne's best games but she was the focal point of the defense, which helped our other players.
(On Brooke Smith) "She scored on the block today and she scored facing up a lot. She has had a fabulous year and this is a chance for her for a lot of people across the country to see her play.
(On Melanie Murphy) "Melanie today played a very solid game, she played well defensively and hit her free throws. I think this was a really good game for her, it is important for freshmen to play early in their first NCAA Tournament game so I made sure to get her in there quick. I thought all three of our freshmen did very well but Melanie will be key for us.
Stanford Guard Candice Wiggins:
(On the other scoring threats) "I have trust in my teammates, Cissy Pierce and Brooke Smith are both great and I am used to them playing well.
(On Cissy Pierce's play) "It shows that she's a great shooter and people can't just sag off of her. We have great perimeter shooters on our team and it just builds our confidence when she is hitting her outside shots.
Stanford Guard Cissy Pierce
(On her hot start) "They were sagging off me and I found some soft spots in the zone. I felt sometimes they were five or six feet off of me and I didn't think about it, I just shot it.
Stanford Center Brooke Smith
(On the hot start) "We just wanted to play hard and pick up from where we left off in the Pac-10 Tournament. We haven't played in over two weeks so we were really ready to play.
(On her efficient shooting) "My shots were falling, that is always fun. Idaho State was playing a zone defense which left people open and when they do that we have to make them pay and we were able to do that today.
(On Stanford's attack against the Idaho State zone) "You just need to find the open spots in the zone, there will be open gaps. Idaho State had to pick their poison because they either had to double and triple team inside or contest the perimeter shots.
Idaho State Bengals
Head Coach Jon Newlee
(Thoughts on the game) "It's disappointing, scorewise. I thought we'd come out and play a lot closer. Our effort on the glass really got to us, our lack of blocking out. I thought Stanford did a great job going to the boards, using their size advantage. They went out and hit some shots that maybe they don't normally hit. I thought they played extremely well, defensively. They got and really attacked our shooters and they played like the number five team in the country. I just feel like we didn't play as well as we possibly could."
(On Stanford coming out early and hitting shots from the perimeter) "I was thinking this is my worst nightmare. We tried to take the inside game away and someone who hasn't shot the ball very well, is knocking shots down. Our gameplan was to make them shoot three's and we got away from that. We wanted it to be more like when they played Cal, making 6 of 35. If they're going to make those kind of shots, I think they have a very good chance of going to Cleveland."
(On Natalie Doma's play) "Nat played extremely well. I've always said Nat could play in any league in this country and be good. She could play in the Pac-10. She could play in the ACC and SEC. She has that kind of talent. She will continue to work and her work ethic will continue to grow. Talent-wise she can do it and I thought she showed that tonight. The threes she made are not luck. She makes them all the time in practice. It hasn't been a big part of our offense because we need somebody to play inside. She came in really focused and I thought she had a fantastic game."
(On Brooke Smith's play and how he thought they played her as well as Canice Wiggins' play) "Brooke Smith really came out and got in her comfort zone and hit those mid-range shots. We wanted Brooke to step outside and shoot those threes. She did a good job of stepping inside and hitting that 15-footer. She got on a roll and I don't think we did a very good job of recognizing where she was in her shooting zone. She knocked her shots down when she had to. She's a great player. There's no doubt about that. I thought we did a great job on Wiggins. If you were going to tell me Wiggins was going to have 16 points, that's fine. I thought, especially in the first half, we did a good job. We got to Wiggins. We rushed her threes ad really did what we wanted to do with Wiggins. I thought Smith was the one who obviously hurt us and she really took it to us."
(On what he told his team after the game) "I told them that this game was not going to define our season. Our season was defined by being Big Sky Champions, going to the NCAA Tournament being a reward for a long year and the way we played the last month-and-a-half to two months in our conference. I said don't hang your head. Don't let this game define our year because it didn't. It was a great opportunity to come in here to play on ESPN and show everybody what we have. There's a lot more to us than we showed today, but our year's been fantastic. Our goal was to get to the NCAA Tournament. I told them now we have to use this experience to grow on and to build on. Now, next year, our bar is going to be raised higher. The bar is going to be get to the NCAA Tournament, win games in the NCAA Tournament. That's something we'll start talking about in spring workouts when we have everybody, but Boesel back."
(On Stanford having the ability to be a Final Four team) "Absolutely. They have it all. They have inside and outside. They're athletic. They have Wiggins. She's a great player. I still believe she is the best guard in the country. With the kind of balance that they have and it is balanced when they hit those shots, I don't see any reason why they can't be a Final Four team."
(On Stanford having home court advantage) "It's a huge advantage to play at home. Especially when you get to this NCAA Tournament and you're playing at home, I mean, give me a break. It's a joke to me that teams like that are playing at home. It needs to be fixed up. If it's going to be a national tournament, then make it a national tournament. Get people off their home floors and make it 50/50, neutral site, and then let's play. I don't think they (Stanford) beat us because they were playing at home. They would have beat us at a neutral site today, but they're still staying home on Monday. They're sleeping in their own beds. They're shooting in their own gym that they play and practice in. I'm sorry, but that's a huge advantage and they definitely used that today.
Jeni Boesel
(On her feelings after her last college game) "There's a lot of emotions right now. It's hard to go out like that. It's nice to be done though. I'm happy with my experience."
(On whether she was nervous going into the game) "I don't think so. I felt that if I wasn't very nervous, the team wouldn't be either."
Natalie Doma
(On how she felt about her game today and on Brooke Smith) "Brooke played awesome. I give her all the recognition. For me, the three's were just open. I just took those shots and luckily for me they went in this time. Their post players were aggressive defensively, so I couldn't get every shot that I wanted."
(On playing on Stanford's home court) "It's never easy playing away, especially at Stanford, with all their fans. It was a great experience and I wish we could have played a little better, gave them a better game."