Jane Albright Speaks at Monday's Press Conference
November 12, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Jane Albright addressed the media on the upcoming regular season and comments on the exhibition games. A partial transript of the press conference follows.
Opening Statement: "I think we are most excited because we are all healthy. We have a big week of practice ahead. For us to compete like we want to compete we need to be healthy and we are healthy and in really good physical condition. If we can just get through one more week, I think we will be ready for a very good team that was in the Elite Eight last year and won the Pac-10. It will be a good chance for us to see coming out of the gates what we can and cannot do."
Thoughts on the seniors' mentality: "The most important thing is probably resilience. You can't start a basketball season in November and say you are going to get to March or you are going to get anywhere without something wrong. I think you have to be able to run a sprint but also know what a marathon feels like. There are ups and downs, but you need to have resilience through whatever happens. We need to control the things we can control, and the things we can't we need to let go of. I am sure our other three classes look to the seniors and see how they react. I have seen them do that whether it is in an exhibition, a scrimmage, or a practice 'they pay attention. When you have high expectations for the year'you don 't know if you are going to meet them or not'but if things start to go wrong, certainly that becomes blown way out of proportion. The reason we scheduled the tough games we did or we did not schedule was to get us ready for the Big Ten. It is a really tough opening schedule for us and if it goes well we must stay level headed, if it doesn't the seniors must keep us going."
On concerns about kids wearing down in February and March: "I have had teams where I have had to deal with that with kids being run down. Barb Frankie was an example where they certainly have more chances of being hurt, but they practice every day anyway so you just play the odds on that."
On the rotation: "You'll probably see 10 players, more significant minutes from two or three of them, and the rest probably 15 minutes for each player. We have got another week of practice but I don't think Candace Smith will start for us. We may start Kristi Seeger, but we have some things we have to look at in practice. If you go by game performance you would put one in the lineup and if you go by practice performance you would put the other in the lineup. We just have to get the starters figured out first. Stephanie Rich didn't get many minutes in the last game and she reacted the way you would want a kid to react, she didn't say a word and then came in and worked extremely hard and outplayed a lot of people in the last couple practices. I will have to play her more in this next game."
On Candas Smith and Emily Ashbaugh: "A lot of people expected Candas to come out and be Jessie Stomski or Tamara Moore because of the minutes she played last year and that is not fair, and I think it frustrated her. We are going to be really patient with Candas Smith and Emily Ashbaugh. They are going to have to produce for us but not huge contributions. Emily is going to have to play defense and rebound for us. She didn't rebound for us in the first two games and if she doesn't she won't start. I think she understands that."
On concerns about team: "Our lack of having a conscious with the ball. We have had way too many turnovers. I don't think they are physical mistakes just a lack of concentration. Also we are inconsistent with our rebounding."
On things that impress you about the team: "Everybody's unselfishness, they worked hard and are sincere about having fun. When you get to the game that should be the fun thing."
