Quotes From Women's Hoops Media Day

NORMAN, Okla. -- The Oklahoma women's basketball team took the stage in its annual Media Day on Tuesday afternoon at the Kerr McGee Courtside Club.

Approximately 30 media members were on hand to talk to OU head coach Sherri Coale and the entire team.

Earlier in the day, Coach Coale sat down with an ESPN crew to shoot an opening for the 2005 Coaches vs. Cancer basketball games on Dec. 5 (women) and 6 (men). Coale talked candidly with producer Lauren Iacono about her relationship with Sooner alum Jamie Talbert, who was stricken with ovarian cancer and just recently finished chemotherapy.

The feature will air as a lead-in to the Coaches vs. Cancer games on the Dec. 5 and 6.

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OU Head Coach Sherri Coale
On the start of the season:
“We've been through 11 practices now. I'm very proud of our upper-classmen. They have had tremendous attitudes coming into practices this year, good leadership in off-season training, very solid attitudes top to bottom right now, so I am really pleased with where we are. A lot of room left for improvement, we'll be a work in progress for a while but I think the ceiling for this team is very high.

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On the Paris twins:
“They've acclimated very well and again, the line share of the credit for that acclamation really goes to our upper-classmen because of their selflessness, their direction and their mentoring. A big part of Courtney and Ashley's development so far has been the mentoring of Beky Preston. She teaches them on the fly, going up and down the floor, whether she's defending them or they are defending her. She's really taken a big role in teaching them and bringing them along. And of course their acceptance of criticism, direction, teaching, willingness to learn and all of that together has brought them along the learning curve. They have a lot left to learn, obviously, but they are very skilled, very talented and as long as our upper-classmen continue to teach and guide, they'll progress rapidly.”

On Leah Rush:
“Leah has improved so much without the ball in her hand. She was tremendous last year as long as she had the basketball, not as smart, not as sharp, not as intentioned without the ball as she was with it. This year I think she's made tremendous progress in that regard and I think that makes her a handful because you guard her with someone that's 5-foot-7 or 5-foot-8, she's going to shoot over the top or post up. If you guard her with anyone who is bigger and has a little bit of a speed problem, she's going to take you to the rim. She's just so good at using her body in traffic and floating and preventing people from blocking her shots. She's a basketball player. She's got great instincts.”

“She may be the most intensely driven individual I've ever been around. In some regards, she reminds me very much of Caton Hill. Bottom line is she wants to win and she competes in everything. I think that is contagious. It seeps off of her on to everyone else.”

On Big 12 standings:
“I think when Baylor returns a player the caliber of Sophia Young and does what they did last season, they deserve that nod. Texas signed an incredible freshmen class and had a great year last year. Texas Tech is loaded and experienced at the key positions. I think it is probably about right and I don't think you rank teams based upon potential; I think you rank them based upon what they've proven. In that regard, it was probably pretty accurate, it's just mathematically impossible that we would finished that way. We're all in the south so I don't think we can finish one, two, three, four. It's an alright place to start; what matters is where you finish.”

On the point guard position:
“You don't replace a kid like D (Dionnah Jackson). You try to get what she gave you in a number of different ways. But, I think for the first time, maybe ever, we have the purest battle at point guard I've ever had in terms of Brittany (Brown) and Kendra (Moore) pushing each other on a daily basis. Both of them inching up in their ability level on a daily basis; both of them have improved in their ability to handle the basketball; both of them have improved in their defensive intensity and their on-ball containment, which is something obviously Dionnah was terrific at. But I think that the biggest improvement for both of those guys (Brown and Moore) has been in their attitude, and that is really the key to a point guard.”

On the 2005-06 schedule:
“It is crazy. The way you try to do it is to try to balance. I've always been one to play a very good pre-conference schedule because I don't want my guys to be shocked when Big 12 rolls around. I don't want them to wake up and think oh my gosh this is a different deal, what are we supposed to do.' I want them to be prepared, but there is a fine line there. It's a balance but you don't want to destroy them before you get to the part that reall matters. We had a really good balance before we got the invitation to the WNIT. You don't want to turn that down because it is an amazing opportunity, you get extra games, you get games on your home floor, and you get a chance to be in a tournament atmosphere. It's a precursor to the NCAA and it's too good of a deal to pass up.”

“Then we got a call from ESPN to be a part of their premiere Women's Big Monday game in which we'll go to Columbus to play Ohio State on ESPN2 in January. Going to Columbus to play Ohio State is not really something you want to tack onto an already difficult schedule, but it's ESPN. It's great exposure for recruiting and puts us in a tough environment. I can't think of any better preparation for Big 12s so we're going to take it and go up there to see what happens.”

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Kendra Moore
On Brittney Brown:
“I'm a different kind of player and Brittney's a different kind of player, so both of our potentials put together could make us a potent combo. Whereas with D, (Dionnah Jackson) she had it all and with Brittney and I together we make one. I have the flashy part and Brittney is the solid player and we are both going to use that to our advantage.”

On the Paris twins:
“Our program is going to rise because of them. They are so awesome, Courtney especially. All we have to do is get the ball to them and they do their thing. They are improving every day. We are looking forward to play a real game with them and I'm sure everyone else is looking forward to watching them.”

On playing after her ACL injury in high school:
“Yes, I am totally back. My freshman year was hard because I was basically coming from my junior year of high school to college. Then my sophomore year I was picking up on things and this year I am confident on what I'm supposed to be doing and how I'm supposed to be doing it.”

On being flashy with Coach Coale:
“She'll let me do basically what I want to do. She doesn't limit me to anything, so I can do what I want to do as long as I'm confident with what I'm doing and I'm doing it right.”

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Leah Rush
On her position last year:
“One of the best things is that they didn't really know where to put me so I got to play the two, the three, the four and the five. But being able to move around so much against some of the best players at their positions in the nation was really integral in the improvement of my game. I think that stretched me a little bit and made me see options I hadn't seen before and it helped me to be a more complete player.”

On her changing role:
“Well, I'm not stuck on the block this year. I'm moving around and playing a little bit of everything and I think that's good for the team and we can get a lot of different match-ups that way. Play me at the three and we can have a really big lineup. Play me at the five and maybe we will have a really quick kind of trapping lineup. Put me at the four and we'll have a more traditional defense. There are a lot of different options depending on different people and where they play.”

On not having to play such a physical position this year:
“It's been great so far just being able to step out a little bit and let Courtney take care of the big people down low and let me have my space and guard people closer to my size. It's been really nice. My bruise count is way down.”

On Coach Coale's optimism for the team:
“All the pieces are here this year, we're not lacking anything. I think everything we need is here and we just have to capitalize on what we have.”

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Erin Higgins
On the team:
“We've got people who have really stepped up in the off season and who have really been working on things that are going to get them a lot of playing time. I don't think if you take Dee (Jackson) away and Leah (Rush) away there goes our scoring like it did last year.

This year I feel like if you take one thing away we are going to count on something else. You take two things away and we are going to counter with something else. That's where as upper classmen we have to teach our freshmen to look for things like that, to look for mismatches and disadvantages.”

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Britney Brown
On a potential postseason run:
“It always good when you can come in and be in the NCAA tournament every year, it's been six years in a row. We didn't finish the way we would have liked to last year but we are looking forward to this year and getting further in the tournament.”

On the schedule:
“It's going to be a challenge but we are going to go out and play many of the top 25 teams in the country. It is going to help us prepare for our Big 12 Conference and in my opinion, it is one of the toughest conferences in the NCAA.”

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Courtney Paris
On the upcoming season:
“I'm really excited to get things going and be able to play. At practice we just have so much fun and we've really clicked really fast and it was cool to see the chemistry. You throw a pass and you know someone is going to catch it and finish it. So it's been really exciting and I'm kind of waiting to see how it's going to turn out when we play against somebody else.”

On expectations since practice started:
“I knew we would be really good but I never thought we would develop a chemistry as fast as we did. And that's a real big thing, especially with a team that runs a motion offense. Knowing what Erin (Higgins) is going to do or to know where Kendra (Moore) is going to cut, it makes a lot of things interesting and it really makes for a better style of basketball.”

On the team:
“Automatically when you have a team, and this is why I knew right away I was going to fit in at this program, with Chelsi (Welch) and Erin (Higgins) who can drain threes and Leah (Rush), who is versatile and can get to the basket, and a solid guard with Kendra (Moore) and Brittney (Brown) and if I have one person on me then I'm still going to score and I'm going to demand the basketball and that's really what you want. And with this team, who can you really leave open?”

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Ashley Paris
On all the hype surrounding her and her sister:
“It's pretty shocking and with that comes expectations, but I'm confident in Coach Coale that she will have us ready on time. It's not too much pressure.”

On her expectations:
“I want to win a national championship, the Big 12 and anything else that's a championship and I feel like it could happen here. If it doesn't then I have learned so much and I have gotten so much from my teammates that it really won't matter.”

On her position:
“I'm the trailer right now, the four player, and I think it's working out pretty well. It allows me to utilize the chemistry between me and my sister and it also gives me other advantages like cutting to the post and being on the perimeter. It doesn't really limit me, it allows me to get around the court.”

On fitting in at Oklahoma:
“I think it's going well. For the most part we are still learning a lot and I know that I didn't know that much about basketball until I came here. I'm being patient with the system and I'm slowly seeing how I fit in and I love it. At the end of the year I think that it will all work out great and the system will become second nature to me.”

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