WBB NCAA TOURNAMENT FIRST ROUND: Scarlet Knights Meet the Media
Mar 21 | Women's Basketball
STORRS, Conn. - The Rutgers women's basketball team met the media on Thursday morning as they gear up for its first round NCAA match-up up with Buffalo on Friday at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN2.
Press Conference Quotes Acting Head Coach: Timothy Eatman
Opening statement: "Well were are extremely excited by being here and we felt like the selection committee wanted to be sure that Coach Stringer was felt when she got here. I don't know if a lot of people know that Coach (Felisha Leggette-Jack) , who is a wonderful person and tremendous basketball coach, has done a great job with the Buffalo team. Her first job was with Marianna Freeman, who was the head coach at Syracuse. Coach Jack was one of the best players to ever play there, was the number one leading scorer and rebounder at the time. She took a job to work for Coach Freeman, who was a longtime assistant of Coach Stringer. Coach Freeman played for Coach Stringer at Cheyney State and then she went on the be her assistant there and at Iowa. So, the family tree of Coach Stringer is here ringing solid because of the fact that Coach Jack came up under Coach Freeman came up under Coach Stringer. And of course, our staff, Coach Domond who is from Connecticut got an opportunity to come play for Coach Stringer at Iowa. Michelle Edwards, who was National Player of the Year for Boston, also had the opportunity to play for Coach Stringer at Iowa. So, we are excited about being here and we are just happy that we are remembering our head coach who is a tremendous leader for us by building the foundation for this program. We are just working hard to make sure that she understands that we are proud of what she has done for us and we are trying to return the favor back to her and make her proud of us."
Can you talk about the mood of the team without Coach Stringer around? "We are excited, this team has moved forward from Day One when coach gave us the opportunity to run the program and said that she needed to take a few days off to get herself strong. The team hasn't looked back; they haven't blinked about what we are trying to do as a program. One of the things that coach has always taught us is that you deal with the moment, and the moment is here right now for us to try and be as successful as possible. So, our kids are excited and enthusiastic about getting the job done. We understand that we are not only representing ourselves but Rutgers University and the state of New Jersey. We are excited to make those people proud of us and that we are their basketball team. Our team is ready to go."
Could you talk about your match up against Buffalo? "Of course the familiarity comes to mind, I hope they don't call the plays the same as we call the plays. As we watch the film, they run a power, a blue four, a scarlet…so we are seeing us as we are watching them. It is going to be a game of execution, who can execute their system the best tomorrow night. They are wonderfully coached as I said earlier and Dillard is probably one of the best players, she's a pro. She's probably one of the best players that we are going to face this entire season and she's not a volume shooter. She averages about 25 points per game but she's not a volume player. She averages 11 assists a game. They run the floor hard at the four position and their three player is an extremely great rounder. They can bring a point guard in that is extremely quick in Dixon or they can put another kid at the point spot that is a great three-point shooter. What they represent and their match ups is going to be a challenge for us. They play a heck of a rover defense and that 1-3-1 zone defense can changed into a 3-2 or a 2-3 defense at any time. We have to be very disciplined on the offensive end but we have to be very aggressive eon the defensive end. Getting that balance for us during the course of the game is going to be very difficult for us but we welcome the challenge."
What is your relationship to Coach Stringer? Where do you fall on the tree? "I started when I was 19 years old. My mom was a basketball coach and she got me into basketball. I knew at a young age, playing college basketball that I wasn't going to be a pro. Family full of coaches. I went to my first clinic in Nashville, Tenn. and I got the opportunity to hear Coach Stringer speak and my life was changed. I went right up to her afterwards and told her, hey coach I would love to work for you! She looked at me and took a step back while asking me, have you finished college yet? I said no ma'am. She replied, that would be a start to get your college degree first. But what she did next was give me the opportunity to work a basketball camp. I rode the bus 24 hours from Alabama to Iowa to work that camp and the rest is history. She's been like a mom to me ever since then."
Can I have you talk about a couple of your players and what they mean to the team? "If I can, I would like to talk about three of them because they are so special to the team. Stasha Carey is our lead; she and Victoria Harris are our captains. Where Stasha does it with the grace on the court to score the basketball, Victoria does it in the locker room where she keeps everyone on the same page. One is a talker and the other is silent. They both lead in two different ways but they are both impactful to our program. AG, Arella Guirantes, is a really great scorer. We feel like her best basketball is still ahead of her, she can make tough shoots for us and puts the team on her back a lot of times. She just takes it back to the basket and she is relentless on the offensive end. The balance of this group is very special but Stasha is a person that understands how to play the game and she plays it the right way. The best story I can tell you is the game where we are playing Wisconsin and she is 0-6 in the first half. As a staff, we said we need to find a way to get Stasha the basketball. We came back out in the second half and ran three straight plays for her, she missed each shot. I took her out and asked her how she wanted us to find her. Her reply was one every coach wants to hear, coach you don't have to find me just let the team play and I will find my way within the group. The most unselfish kid I have ever been around, most kids would say give me the basketball. She said coach you don't have to find me, just let me find my way…I'll rebound, offensive and defensive. I'll make the pass. I immediately put her back in the game and she ended up being our second leading scorer for that game. She's a great kid and just a joy to coach."
Rutgers Student-Athletes: Stasha Carey and Arella Guirantes
On excitement level coming into tournament:
Stasha Carey: "We're very excited, we worked hard for this and I know this a lot of the girls on the team's first time coming, and my first year being at Rutgers. So I'm just excited to get out there and play, and we're trying to go all the way."
Arella Guirantes: "Like Stasha said, we're just super excited 'cause we worked so hard to be here. We think that we deserve to be here and we have high expectations."
On being without Coach Stringer:
Stasha Carey: "It's always hard when your head coach isn't around, but we have a great coaching staff, supporting staff. Coach Eatman knows what he's doing, he's been doing well the past couple games. The good thing is we have talked to her, she's gave us some words of encouragement so that made us feel a lot better. And we're just gonna take that and run with it as far as we can."
Arella Guirantes: "It's upsetting that she's not here, but like everybody who's played for Coach Stringer before would say, she's prepared us for moments like this and she's prepared us for the future. So we already know what we have to do. We've known since the beginning of the season. We knew we would be here, it was our goal to be here. It's just what we do now. We have to play together and play for us."
On matchup with Buffalo:
Stasha Carey: "Basically so far they're a tough-nosed team. They've got a lot of runners, so we're gonna have to be quick with getting back in transition. Really hard-nosed players going hard to the boards so boxing out will be a key factor to the game."
Arella Guirantes: "From looking at the tape, they have five players who run the court very well. They have a very good scorer and very good role players around her. They're just a pretty tough team. They play hard for 40 minutes and I think it's just gonna be about who wants it more for 40 minutes. It's all about the little things that I see with this game. It's pretty well matched up, player-for-player. It's just about who wants it more."
On Buffalo's Sweet 16 run last year:
Stasha Carey: "I'm just gonna say we're not scared of anybody. I don't care if they're the lower seed or they're the higher seed, we're gonna play the way we're supposed to play, and we're gonna do the things we need to do. We're not taking anybody for granted. 'Cause on any day at any time anything can happen."
On Coach Stringer:
Arella Guirantes: "For me, Coach Stringer, she's just a really strong, powerful woman, and it's hard to not be moved by her when she talks to you, or when she says she has a plan for you. A lot of people, I know a lot of my teammates feel the same way, and they feel as though she's a mother figure to them. It just speaks to Coach Stringer and her legacy. She's just a great coach, she knows what she's talking about, she's a super hard worker. Even at the age she's at now, it's just crazy how much she outworks all the other coaches, and it just shows the love that she has for the game. And as a player, you want your coach to have that love for the game just as much as you, and a person that just wants the best for you."
Follow Rutgers women's basketball at www.ScarletKnights.com and (@RutgersWBB) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all of the latest news and updates. For additional updates, download the Rutgers Gameday App.
Press Conference Quotes Acting Head Coach: Timothy Eatman
Opening statement: "Well were are extremely excited by being here and we felt like the selection committee wanted to be sure that Coach Stringer was felt when she got here. I don't know if a lot of people know that Coach (Felisha Leggette-Jack) , who is a wonderful person and tremendous basketball coach, has done a great job with the Buffalo team. Her first job was with Marianna Freeman, who was the head coach at Syracuse. Coach Jack was one of the best players to ever play there, was the number one leading scorer and rebounder at the time. She took a job to work for Coach Freeman, who was a longtime assistant of Coach Stringer. Coach Freeman played for Coach Stringer at Cheyney State and then she went on the be her assistant there and at Iowa. So, the family tree of Coach Stringer is here ringing solid because of the fact that Coach Jack came up under Coach Freeman came up under Coach Stringer. And of course, our staff, Coach Domond who is from Connecticut got an opportunity to come play for Coach Stringer at Iowa. Michelle Edwards, who was National Player of the Year for Boston, also had the opportunity to play for Coach Stringer at Iowa. So, we are excited about being here and we are just happy that we are remembering our head coach who is a tremendous leader for us by building the foundation for this program. We are just working hard to make sure that she understands that we are proud of what she has done for us and we are trying to return the favor back to her and make her proud of us."
Can you talk about the mood of the team without Coach Stringer around? "We are excited, this team has moved forward from Day One when coach gave us the opportunity to run the program and said that she needed to take a few days off to get herself strong. The team hasn't looked back; they haven't blinked about what we are trying to do as a program. One of the things that coach has always taught us is that you deal with the moment, and the moment is here right now for us to try and be as successful as possible. So, our kids are excited and enthusiastic about getting the job done. We understand that we are not only representing ourselves but Rutgers University and the state of New Jersey. We are excited to make those people proud of us and that we are their basketball team. Our team is ready to go."
Could you talk about your match up against Buffalo? "Of course the familiarity comes to mind, I hope they don't call the plays the same as we call the plays. As we watch the film, they run a power, a blue four, a scarlet…so we are seeing us as we are watching them. It is going to be a game of execution, who can execute their system the best tomorrow night. They are wonderfully coached as I said earlier and Dillard is probably one of the best players, she's a pro. She's probably one of the best players that we are going to face this entire season and she's not a volume shooter. She averages about 25 points per game but she's not a volume player. She averages 11 assists a game. They run the floor hard at the four position and their three player is an extremely great rounder. They can bring a point guard in that is extremely quick in Dixon or they can put another kid at the point spot that is a great three-point shooter. What they represent and their match ups is going to be a challenge for us. They play a heck of a rover defense and that 1-3-1 zone defense can changed into a 3-2 or a 2-3 defense at any time. We have to be very disciplined on the offensive end but we have to be very aggressive eon the defensive end. Getting that balance for us during the course of the game is going to be very difficult for us but we welcome the challenge."
What is your relationship to Coach Stringer? Where do you fall on the tree? "I started when I was 19 years old. My mom was a basketball coach and she got me into basketball. I knew at a young age, playing college basketball that I wasn't going to be a pro. Family full of coaches. I went to my first clinic in Nashville, Tenn. and I got the opportunity to hear Coach Stringer speak and my life was changed. I went right up to her afterwards and told her, hey coach I would love to work for you! She looked at me and took a step back while asking me, have you finished college yet? I said no ma'am. She replied, that would be a start to get your college degree first. But what she did next was give me the opportunity to work a basketball camp. I rode the bus 24 hours from Alabama to Iowa to work that camp and the rest is history. She's been like a mom to me ever since then."
Can I have you talk about a couple of your players and what they mean to the team? "If I can, I would like to talk about three of them because they are so special to the team. Stasha Carey is our lead; she and Victoria Harris are our captains. Where Stasha does it with the grace on the court to score the basketball, Victoria does it in the locker room where she keeps everyone on the same page. One is a talker and the other is silent. They both lead in two different ways but they are both impactful to our program. AG, Arella Guirantes, is a really great scorer. We feel like her best basketball is still ahead of her, she can make tough shoots for us and puts the team on her back a lot of times. She just takes it back to the basket and she is relentless on the offensive end. The balance of this group is very special but Stasha is a person that understands how to play the game and she plays it the right way. The best story I can tell you is the game where we are playing Wisconsin and she is 0-6 in the first half. As a staff, we said we need to find a way to get Stasha the basketball. We came back out in the second half and ran three straight plays for her, she missed each shot. I took her out and asked her how she wanted us to find her. Her reply was one every coach wants to hear, coach you don't have to find me just let the team play and I will find my way within the group. The most unselfish kid I have ever been around, most kids would say give me the basketball. She said coach you don't have to find me, just let me find my way…I'll rebound, offensive and defensive. I'll make the pass. I immediately put her back in the game and she ended up being our second leading scorer for that game. She's a great kid and just a joy to coach."
Rutgers Student-Athletes: Stasha Carey and Arella Guirantes
On excitement level coming into tournament:
Stasha Carey: "We're very excited, we worked hard for this and I know this a lot of the girls on the team's first time coming, and my first year being at Rutgers. So I'm just excited to get out there and play, and we're trying to go all the way."
Arella Guirantes: "Like Stasha said, we're just super excited 'cause we worked so hard to be here. We think that we deserve to be here and we have high expectations."
On being without Coach Stringer:
Stasha Carey: "It's always hard when your head coach isn't around, but we have a great coaching staff, supporting staff. Coach Eatman knows what he's doing, he's been doing well the past couple games. The good thing is we have talked to her, she's gave us some words of encouragement so that made us feel a lot better. And we're just gonna take that and run with it as far as we can."
Arella Guirantes: "It's upsetting that she's not here, but like everybody who's played for Coach Stringer before would say, she's prepared us for moments like this and she's prepared us for the future. So we already know what we have to do. We've known since the beginning of the season. We knew we would be here, it was our goal to be here. It's just what we do now. We have to play together and play for us."
On matchup with Buffalo:
Stasha Carey: "Basically so far they're a tough-nosed team. They've got a lot of runners, so we're gonna have to be quick with getting back in transition. Really hard-nosed players going hard to the boards so boxing out will be a key factor to the game."
Arella Guirantes: "From looking at the tape, they have five players who run the court very well. They have a very good scorer and very good role players around her. They're just a pretty tough team. They play hard for 40 minutes and I think it's just gonna be about who wants it more for 40 minutes. It's all about the little things that I see with this game. It's pretty well matched up, player-for-player. It's just about who wants it more."
On Buffalo's Sweet 16 run last year:
Stasha Carey: "I'm just gonna say we're not scared of anybody. I don't care if they're the lower seed or they're the higher seed, we're gonna play the way we're supposed to play, and we're gonna do the things we need to do. We're not taking anybody for granted. 'Cause on any day at any time anything can happen."
On Coach Stringer:
Arella Guirantes: "For me, Coach Stringer, she's just a really strong, powerful woman, and it's hard to not be moved by her when she talks to you, or when she says she has a plan for you. A lot of people, I know a lot of my teammates feel the same way, and they feel as though she's a mother figure to them. It just speaks to Coach Stringer and her legacy. She's just a great coach, she knows what she's talking about, she's a super hard worker. Even at the age she's at now, it's just crazy how much she outworks all the other coaches, and it just shows the love that she has for the game. And as a player, you want your coach to have that love for the game just as much as you, and a person that just wants the best for you."
Follow Rutgers women's basketball at www.ScarletKnights.com and (@RutgersWBB) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all of the latest news and updates. For additional updates, download the Rutgers Gameday App.
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