Cleveland State Press Conference Quotes
March 21, 2008
Cleveland State Head Coach Kate Peterson-Abiad
(Opening Statement)
"I would just like to say that we are thrilled to be here. I am very proud of my team and who has endured the road and journey to get to this point. This has not been a longstanding and traditionally successful program and we have been striving to make it into a championship program. This year things really fell into place and I am proud of the way the players have transitioned into this situation and we are looking forward to everything this tournament has to offer. We will be representing Cleveland State with a great amount of pride."
On Stanford on Stanford’s home court:
"We are just very excited to be in the NCAA tournament, first of all. We did not know that the season would end this way. When we did get the bid, I think it was more we were happy to be in the tournament then watching the seeding. We could have played in Russia, we didn’t care. Coming here to Stanford, we can equate this to going to Green Bay when we had to play the number one seed on their home floor. It was a team that we had beaten three times in 46 attempts. To a greater magnitude this is that same situation. This is a tremendous challenge for this team, but they have surprised me all along the way, so who knows what will happen tomorrow."
On size differential of Stanford:
"We have been trying to adjust to that all year. I spoke to that issue very early in the year and I said to my players that I don’t want to have to take questions about how going inside killed you or about being so small. I don’t want that to be an issue all year. If you go back through our box scores you will see that we are scoring as many points in the paint or more than our opponents due to our offensive style. Rebounding, we just squeaked it out; I think we were plus .1 during the season so we have been able to hold our own. This is the biggest team we have faced, but again I don’t want size to be an issue, I just want this to come down to which team is the better unit, rather than it being about size or depth or number of players."
On having any insights on dealing with Candace Wiggins:
"Do you have any insights for me? She is quite simply the best player we will face all year. She is a tremendous offensive scorer from the 3-point line and penetrating to the basket. I say this all the time, 5 versus the ball, 5 versus the ball. We don’t want to make this about one player. We want to make this about a team. We are going to defend Candace as a team. Yes there will be a matchup, but we want to defend her when she has the ball, everyone will be focused on stopping the ball. That’s how we made it this far defensively and we are not changing anything. She is a tremendous player, but we just have to defend as a team."
On their lack of depth:
"We are down from ten to nine, we were down as low as eight, but I have talked to my team about this and told them that this is a journey and that we have not had a lot of success prior to this year at Cleveland State, but we came here to build a championship team and we have had casualties along the way. Not everybody wants to do this, not everybody wants to fight this fight, but this group that we have of ten, nine healthy players that were in the battle are the ones that will go out and continue this fight. Regardless of numbers it is more about heart and who we have on the floor."
On the charter flight:
"We had a small plane and we had to refuel twice. We flew Cleveland to Lincoln, Nebraska and spent about half an hour on the ground. Then we flew from Lincoln, Nebraska to Ogden, Utah and spent about half an hour on the ground and then we flew from Ogden, Utah to San Jose. We left at 4 o’clock, Cleveland time and got in a bout 1 o’clock in the morning, Cleveland time, and then we had dinner and then went back to the hotel about 3 o’ clock Cleveland time, but they got to sleep in. But it was fine, they are resilient, I think the coaches had a harder time than the players."
On whether or not they were expecting the stops:
"We did not know. We were told that we would get in at 7:10. We are just kind of going with the flow here. They just put us on a plane and said they were taking us to California and we made it."
Cleveland State Forward Robyn Hoying
On being compared by Tara VanDerveer to the Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns:
"I think that is great, we like to play fast paced. Coach (Kate Peterson-Abiad) always talks about how we want to get our offense moving to make it harder to guard and start a transition game, especially since we are small team to create an advantage. So, I think it is great."
Cleveland State Guard Dominique Butler
On being happy to be here, but it also being ready to play:
"We have stressed that all year, that it is business, we come to play. This isn’t any different, of course we are on a national level right now and it is amazing to be at this point, but we have to come and be focused. It is a business trip as well as being a once in a lifetime opportunity."
Cleveland State Guard Kailey Klein
On the turnaround from last year:
" I can remember last year sitting at home at this time and thinking that I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to play in the tournament, but look it where we are sitting a year later. Last year we had eight wins and were just really building. We had a young team and a lot of new players. It took one year just to get our feet wet. We worked hard all preseason, all summer so we are going to come into this game with that hard work mentality."
