NCAA Tournament Selection quotes: March 15
March 15, 2010
Texas Women's Basketball 2010 NCAA Tournament Central 2010 NCAA DI Women's Basketball Championship: First/Second Rounds, Austin, Texas (Erwin Center) Head Coach Gail Goestenkors On playing San Diego State: Yes, they beat us last year and I know they return most of their starters, I'd have to go back through the roster and see how many exactly returned but they're a team that loves to run and loves to press, a very exciting team. We do know them and obviously would like to have a chance to redeem ourselves since they beat us on their home court last year. On preparing at home: It's so nice to play at home and to get to sleep in your own bed. If we were playing away, right now we'd be thinking about everything we'd need to pack and where are we going, are we going out west, etc. So it makes it so much more comfortable when you know you're at home. It's an exciting time for us. When you're in the tournament you want to be as comfortable as possible because it's stressful. You know it's one and done so anything that you can have happen that helps you feel more comfortable is a great thing. On the team's mood: I think we're really anxious, we're excited. Also a little nervous because we know we didn't play our best basketball, so we've got several days of practice to work on some things that we need to work on to feel better about ourselves and go in with a lot of confidence. On playing on your home court: We're at home and we want to protect our home court. It's all about protecting the home. We've seen just about everything we might face throughout the course of the Big 12 season. Nothing that anybody throws at us is going to surprise us. On the start of the NCAA Tournament: It's a new season. Everything we've been through - playing UConn in the non conference, playing Tennessee, all of those things were designed to help us be prepared for these moments. On motivating the team: I actually talked to the team today. The last tough loss we came off of was the Iowa state loss, when we had seven days to prepare for our next game because it was our bye week. I said, when we really did a great job in practice and had such good practices, that's when we went on our six-game winning streak. This is the second time we're coming off a tough loss and we've got a week to prepare. It's a good time for us to have several days to prepare and get back to basics. Senior guard Brittainey Raven On playing in Austin: We're more confident playing on our home court. We're just going to have to be ready. On playing in the NCAA Championship: We're very motivated. We have a week to practice and get ready. The last time that we had a week off to practice and get ready we went on a six game winning streak. So every day we're putting in extra work in the gym, whatever it takes to get the same result. I'm very excited. I potentially have six games and I want to put it all out of the floor. My teammates want to do the same thing. We just want to go out there, play together and to the best of our abilities and win. Sophomore post Ashley Gayle On the strength of schedule: I think our preseason as well as being in the Big 12 has definitely prepared us for the tournament. We played a lot of tough competition in the preseason and the Big 12 is one of the best conferences in the nation so I mean what more can you ask for to help you prepare for the tournament. On playing in the tournament: It feels great, I'm really happy. We're at home we're in the Erwin center, we're going to have Longhorn fans here so it's going to be a great atmosphere for us. On heading into the season: I think it's a new season. Coming off the Big 12 Conference season and going into the tournament, we break everything up into segments and now it's a new season, we're 0-0 and we're trying to start over and begin a new season.
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