Jane Albright Addresses Media
December 17, 2001 | Women's Basketball
Wisconsin women's basketball coach Jane Albright spoke with the media Monday at the Kohl Center. Albright discussed the upcoming Big Ten season opener against Purdue and BadgerBall's newest promotion, Cram the Kohl. An edited transcript of the news conference follows.
Opening Statement: At the beginning of this year, we talked about the first game with nationally-ranked Washington here and how it was the biggest game on our (preseason) schedule. I didn't say that we had to win the game, but I said we had to play like we thought we could win and we had to have that personality in that game. We feel the same way about Purdue. Finally, last year at Purdue, we played like we thought we could win the game. I think that was a step, but I think now everything is a lot different. We've got some momentum and I would anticipate that they've got some momentum coming in here. It will be a big night for us. It's certainly a game that I will not have any trouble motivating my players for in anyway. I think that there are probably not a lot of weeks that go by that the team doesn't think about Purdue.
Cram the Kohl's the other thing I'd like to talk to you about. It's Christmas and people talk about giving and gifts that you can give people. One thing that I've felt very strongly about for this group of seniors is giving them a gift that they could take with them the rest of their lives which would be a sellout crowd here at the Kohl Center. We've sold out three times here for women's basketball and unfortunately it was the first year that we were here (at the Kohl Center) so this year's senior class has never played in front of a sellout and it's something that I feel very passionate about. We've put together a great promotion, which we're going to call Cram the Kohll.
It's Christmas time, if you don't know what to give somebody, give them tickets to the game. One of the other things that I'm personally doing is challenging the city of Madison to Cram the Kohl' and I'll give 25 cents for every person that is here to the Ronald McDonald House. It's a win-win situation. If you want to come to this game, there's a way to come very cheaply. January 20; if you'll mark that on your calendar as a red letter day for us.
Thoughts on the Boilermaker's Past Success: Purdue's got an inside-outside game. Inside, they've had dominant post players if you look at any of their great teams, with the exception of the year [they had] Stephanie (White-McCarty) and Ukari (Figgs) two great guards in the backcourt. They have blended their talent very well. They have athletes. They have shooters. They have skill players, and they are a very good offensive rebounding team. And they think they're supposed to win.
Badgers-Boilermakers History: I will always say that I felt that our breakthrough weekend here at this program was when we beat Purdue and Penn State in that weekend [1995-96 season] when Barb [Franke] was a senior. If you look at that team we had seniors in the lineup and I think Purdue didn't have as many. It gave us a lot of momentum. Unfortunately, what we've done [this year] as far as our record, our RPI being seventh in the country, none of that really matters on Dec. 28. (Instead) it's (finding) a way to win the game.
How realistic do you think your chances are at Cramming the Kohl ' Very realistic. I think this town is very excited about our basketball team. And I think we're going to keep giving them reasons to get excited every time we go out on the court. And we did it before. If you ever wondered what women's basketball is about in this town then figure out a way to come, please.
Teams plans for Christmas' We're giving this group a lot of leeway. We're going to be available to for individual workouts, but our last team practice is tomorrow. That was kind of a bargain of being 9-1; a little bit of a reward for them. This is a highly motivated group. They know what's at stake here.
