University of North Carolina Athletics
Coppin State Press Conference Quotes
March 19, 2005 | Women's Basketball
COPPIN STATE PRESS CONFERENCE
MARCH 19, 2005
Coppin State coach Derek Brown
Opening Statement:
"We're real excited to be here, this being our first time ever in the NCAA. We're not particularly excited about playing Carolina at home, but we'll do the best we can. We're going to come out hard, and we're going to play aggressive. That's the way we've played all year and we don't expect to change too much."
On if he plans to alter his team's game plan due to Carolina's up and down game:
"We don't want to change our philosophy too much. We try to get up and down the floor. We'll take what we have. If we see that we can run and we have numbers coming up the floor, we'll take it. If not, we'll probably run our second, which is an offensive play anyway. If we can't do that, then we'll just walk it up. Depending on how the game goes, if we need to slow down and walk it up, we'll do that. We can do both so, we'll see what happens."
On if it really matters playing Carolina at home:
"I think it matters a lot. I would rather play at the Coppin Center. I'd like to play Carolina there if I had my choice. They sleep in their own beds-I don't know if they are- but, they're close by. Their friends are here, and they know the surroundings. They've been here before; we've never been here before. We've been down the road to Greensboro a couple of times. Even if we were there, it's a still different from being here in Chapel Hill, so I think it makes a lot of difference."
On the problems they might present to Carolina:
"Good question. We'll try to get it inside. We have a big girl that has some size with her so we'll try to draw some fouls. We won 23 games this year and we've done some things right. We have goals we set out to accomplish this year and we've achieved all those goals."
Junior Forward Sherrie Tucker
On her thoughts of playing in her first NCAA tournament:
"It's going to be exciting. This is the first time our program has been here, and we are just going to have to go out there and play."
Senior Guard Denita Plain
On her thoughts of playing in her first NCAA tournament:
"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and we are just excited to be here."
On what she knew about Carolina before she watched them on tape:
"Some of the time this year we've watched them on television. We watched the ACC tournament when they played the University of Miami. So, we've heard a lot about them, all of them, a couple of times this year.
On what she thought about Carolina:
"They're a pretty good team, but like Coach Brown said, we're going to go out there, we have nothing to lose, and we're going to leave everything out on the court. Whatever happens, happens. We feel if we hang around and stay in the game, anything is possible. That's why it's March Madness.
