Big Ten Media Day Press Conference
Oct 15 | Women's Basketball
Big Ten Media Day Press Conference - Rutgers Coach C. Vivian Stringer
Opening Statement:
COACH STRINGER:Well, this being our second year in the Big Ten, it's great to be back. It's a tough conference for sure. And it promises every flavor of the game that you can possibly have. Our team can run. It has got great shooters, great size; and it continues to offer us a tremendous challenge, certainly with all of our teams, top to bottom. And we obviously miss Betnijah Laney, who was very much of a key for us. But certainly with Kahleah Copper returning, we expect great things from Rachel Hollivay without question. We do expect some outstanding shooting from Cynthia Hernandez. And then, of course, Tyler Scaife who was and continues to be a major player with us. I've noticed that in practice it seems that we're going to have major contributions from a number of the freshmen that have come in, at least on the point guard side of things. And so it promises to make a big difference for us.
Q. Last season you guys performed well but had difficulty beating the conference's top teams. With a season under your belt in the Big Ten, how is that going to change how you approach teams like Maryland, Northwestern?
COACH STRINGER: I felt that we were in all of those games, actually, and I hope that we can be much more poised this year, and make it the kind of -- end up with the results that we anticipated right from the beginning. Maryland obviously is an outstanding team. Certainly Ohio State. The promise of Michigan State and the work that they're doing, it just promises to be something special. And, of course, Northwestern was really tough this year as well. But, quite frankly, we don't look at anyone with a name. We come to play. We believe that we can play with any and every team that we are competing against. We do need to shoot better, so those are some of the things that we're working on. But the Big Ten is just tough, and certainly deserves the number of teams that were invited into the NCAA. There's no question about that.
Q. Loved how Cynthia Hernandez would come in last year and just could be instant offense from the three-point line. And we talked about -- you've always been very successful in the interior game. But how much more now do you have to -- especially having a year in this conference and seeing how much the three-point shot makes a difference at critical times of the game, you mentioned Hernandez and Tyler Scaife. Is there someone else that you're kind of grooming to be more of a three-point threat or a perimeter threat, or are you changing your style of play at all to focus on that a little bit?
COACH STRINGER: We've got to utilize all of our players in that Briyona Canty -- we're trying to figure out whether or not Bri is going to run the point or is it going to be Tyler because she's asked to play that particular position. Our strategy isn't changing. We're certainly going to be a defensive team, but we've got to score more. I think that we may have been the bottom team in the Big Ten in terms of shooting the three. But believe it or not -- I hope that it shows up on the court, but we've been practicing a lot of threes. It makes a big difference. Hernandez was able to open the floor up quite a bit. But at the end of the day, we've got to be able to score at the three-point range, and it was obvious that that's what is here in the Big Ten. It's physical, it's tough. They're rebounding. They're pushing the ball at speeds. And so there's no question that the flexibility that the Big Ten is offering us is what we've got to adjust to. And probably the biggest area has got to be shooting it at a greater distance. So we've been spending a lot of time working on that, and obviously we've got to continue to deal with it at the three-point range, and then be a very good defensive team.
Q. Coach, last year the offensive pace was picked up by you, and the 55 defense, we all know that that's that big number to keep your opponents under, but on the offensive end, in terms of pace, how do the freshmen that you were speaking of, the point guards -- how have they come in and what is the biggest thing about their game that matches the pace that you want to play?
COACH STRINGER: Are you talking about the incoming --
Q. Your incoming freshmen this year. How do they come in and play the way that you want to play on the offensive end, in terms of pushing the pace a little bit more than you had in the past?
COACH STRINGER: Yeah, let me give you -- there's no question that when we start to talk about KK (Sanders) -- she's small, she wants to push it at speeds, excellent ball handler. The same thing with Aliyah Jeune. Now, she shoots it well, and we've been recruiting her for the past four or five years, so she does shoot it at range. So what we're trying to do is practice a lot more of just letting it go and being comfortable with that. It will allow us to shoot it at range, still play the defense that we must play with those two young ladies as guards. The inside players that we have for this year, it's going to take a while before they're ready. But they've been working hard every day. And we're counting on our veteran players really to make the kind of contributions. Certainly with Briyona Canty. We expected her to put forth a -- let me say it like this. She is capable of playing positions one through three. We just got to put the best players on the floor and count on them to blend. And then if we can get the kind of contributions that we need from Aliyah Jeune, who can open the game up; a KK, who is extremely quick, extremely bright. She can add another dimension to us. And I think that with those combinations we can be all right. We do have Rachel Hollivay, who we've got to have -- play a much more integral role on the floor. And this being her senior year, there's every indication that she will -- she's doing a great job offensively. She's going to be many times at the top of our press. And I think with those things we should be a -- demonstrate a more veteran player. And certainly having had an opportunity to play in the Big Ten for a year, it gives us a much better sense of what the Big Ten is all about. And those are just outstanding athletes that have a high skill level. And we've got to adjust to that.
Q. Coach, one of the strongest points about the Rutgers-The Rutgers program has always been the high-low post combination. And wondering if you can speak of that relationship specifically between Tyler and Kahleah and what their chemistry has been like on the court to help develop that.
COACH STRINGER: Tyler and Kahleah are best of friends off the court as well as on the court, and it's obvious with the kind of work that they've been doing this summer. What we need really is for Rachel Hollivay -- she can be a scary talent. I mean, really, no one has really seen that yet. But she's coming. She really is coming along. I think that what she's going to give us is something that we haven't seen in quite some time. We do need Aliyah Jeune -- we need her to come out with that three-point shot. We've been recruiting her for the past five or six years, and that's what we were recruiting her as, as an outstanding three-point shooter. With that, with KK Sanders, I actually stepped off the floor for a second to basically try to kiss her yesterday in practice. Thank God. She's extremely bright, very, very, very talented, and probably one of the greatest competitors that I know. And a simple example is there's a three-part test that we do all the time. It's a battery. And if you fail any part of that -- it's a conditioning test -- you have to take the whole thing over. Well, most people, when they know that they failed Test No. 2, then they halfway go through Test No. 3, going through the motions because they know they have to pass all three. Few people -- few people take that as an opportunity to work through Test 2 and to work on the conditioning side of 3. I've never seen that. And when I saw that, I thought, Wow, she's a rare breed. KK Sanders is a rare breed, extremely bright, works extremely hard. She is little but she's mighty, and I can't tell you enough how excited I am, you know, for her. And I think that Briyona Canty is coming into her own. She's a senior, who has tremendous talent, so for us, we need tremendous flexibility of all of our guards. We just need that. We need for our freshmen, in particular KK, as well as Aliyah Jeune to come into their own because they're going to offer us range. You know, I know that everybody here knows that we've not been known as a three-point shooting team. We've been more of an attacking, slashing, defensive -- you know, attacking that way. We will still look to do that. But I think that -- and I'm hoping that we can offer that particular element because it would allow us to be much more competitive in those big-time games. You can count on us bringing the defense, but we need to bring a lot more of the offense in different ways. So we hope to do that this coming year.
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