March 19, 2011
The Aggies (27-5) were awarded the No. 2 seed in the Dallas Regional and will face 15th-seeded and Southland Conference champion McNeese State (26-6) in the first round of the 2011 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship to be held Sunday, March 20 at the CenturyTel Center. Tipoff between the Aggies and the Cowgirls is set for 4:05 p.m. (CT) on ESNPU.
For full NCAA Tournament coverage, visit the 2011 Tournament Central page.
Audio from today's press conference is available to the right in mp3 format.
QUOTES
HEAD COACH GARY BLAIR
On McNeese State...
"McNeese State is the biggest turnaround story in women's basketball from winning seven games last year to 26 games (this year) with basically the same team. Give (head coach) Brooks (Donald Williams) a whole lot of credit. We just want to advance, whatever it takes. We will use everything that happed in the men's tournament regarding upsets. I will pull out every David and Goliath story I have and just say we don't want to be a part of that. Never overlook anyone. Give them their respect and do what you do early to make sure they don't get off to a quick lead. Make sure that the right people are shooting the ball early and that we're playing defense early."
On how much experience makes a factor in the tournament...
"If there's experience, (Rutger's head coach C.) Vivian (Stringer) and I wrote the book on experience because we've been around since the beginning of time. McNeese has nothing to lose. They're a small six-foot and under team and they have two very good guards out front. Those two guards have shot more free throws between the two of them than my top five guards put together. However they are getting to the free throw line, we've got to do a pretty good job of playing defense and not fouling against McNeese State."
On where A&M's program is...
"We're having top 10 recruiting classes every year and we have to validate what we're doing on the national scene. Sometimes the media and the fans and even the recruits will not give you that true recognition until you've been to the Final Four. That's been our goal from day one. At the same time we're very realistic that we haven't lived up to expectations in the NCAA Tournament, expect maybe the year we lost to Tennessee in the Elite Eight in 2008. It's time for us to do what is expected of us. Playing in this region we're in, I love it, and Shreveport is all we're going to talk about until we're out of here. It's just great to be here."
SENIOR FORWARD/CENTER Danielle Adams
On her role as a leader on the team...
"I'm not vocal type, but my performance shows my vocal skills in a sense. I'm there to help my teammates and do the little things. I play both ends of the court and help a lot on defense."
SENIOR POINT GUARD Sydney Colson
On last year's tournament and what the team's learned from it...
"Last year we were extremely disappointed. We didn't come in as focused as we should have and that left a sour taste in our mouths at the end of the year. This year we have a renewed sense of energy and focus. Teams that we've played before, we're taking seriously and playing our game no matter what."
On playing in Shreveport and possibly playing a team with a home court advantage...
"We've played in a lot of hostile environments in the Big 12, so we know what it's like to have some adversity thrown at us by the crowd, but if we come out with the same goal in mind as a team and don't let anything affect us, then we'll be fine no matter what the crowd is like. Hopefully we have a lot of fans that would be great."
On the experience factor between A&M and McNeese State...
"It helps us a lot because we've been in this situation before. There are four seniors on this team and a bunch of juniors who have played significant minutes for us since their freshman year. We have a goal in our minds that we want to achieve and we don't plan to let any upsets occur on our path there."
JUNIOR GUARD Sydney Carter
On Danielle Adams on and off the court...
"Like you said she's a great player. She makes it a lot easier on everyone else because she draws so much attention to herself. She plays both ends of the floor and is an all-around team player that does so much for us that people might not see. Most of the time she's just laughing at me and Sydney (Colson), but she's a pretty goofy girl. We all have that type of relationship that we're all cracking jokes on each other. She's all business on the court, but she's not like (off the court)."
On last year's tournament and what the team's learned from it...
"It was motivation for the team and gives us that drive to want to get farther than we did last year and not disappoint ourselves or anyone else."