March 24, 2006
Baylor Head Coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson
Q: Talk about the strides your program has made since the Sweet Sixteen two years ago all the way until now.
COACH MULKEY-ROBERTSON: Well, I think it is pretty obvious. We've built a program we are all pretty proud of in Waco, central TX, and Baylor. This arena has been good to us. This is where we made our first Sweet Sixteen appearance. We think the world of the fans here. Good supporters of women's basketball. Very loud in The Pit. To win a National Championship in five years, I don't think any of us thought we could win that quickly. For this basketball team, this particular year to do what we have done, losing as much as we did from last year's team, I am very proud.
Q: Coach, you have kind of flown under the radar, getting into the Sweet Sixteen despite being the defending champions. Is that the way you like it or does it make any difference?
COACH MULKEY-ROBERTSON: We flew under the radar when we won the National Championship. We are kind of used to that, its kind of our territory. We are very comfortable there.
Q: Do you think the last few years of making the Sweet Sixteen, is making it now an expectation?
COACH MULKEY-ROBERTSON: We hope so, but I think we have to be realistic and fair to the team we are coaching that particular year. I think it depends on your classes, how many seniors you lose, how much scoring you lose, and you have to have realistic expectations. Once you taste the Sweet Sixteen and a National Championship, you aspire to do that every year. And we will aspire to do that, but sometimes when you are rebuilding and reloading/regrouping from year to year that may not be a realistic goal for that particular team. You want to have tradition, you want to be able to go into a recruit's home and show them the things that you have done in your program. That's what we are trying to do at Baylor.
Q: What is it like being a point guard playing or practicing for you?
COACH MULKEY-ROBERTSON: You probably need to ask them. I can tell you that there is not a recruit that plays for me that isn't told how it's going to be. Whether you are a point guard or a post player. Rachel (Allison) and everybody who plays for me knows that what you see is what you get. There is nothing pretentious about me. I love to compete and I love to make players a little bit better than I think they are, and I think we've done that in our program. Expectations are high, because I played the position, for two of the toughest coaches - Pat Summit and Leon Barmore. They expected a lot from me as a player and I expect a lot from my quarterback on the floor. They are an extension of you as a coach. They understand that with that position comes criticism, with that position comes a lot of credit. You've got to be tough minded to play it. I think that it is very important that you have a tough player out there. That if something should happen to me on that sideline, they can run the team because we trained them well.
Q: What do you do to counter a team that has five starters in double figures, and have you seen anything in looking at them that has shown you what you can do to counter?
COACH MULKEY-ROBERTSON: You've going to have to guard them, honestly. I don't think you can focus in on one player, I don't think you can focus in on one position. They are the only team that has beaten North Carolina, who is predicted to win it all, and if you can do that you are pretty darn good. The amazing thing about Maryland to me is how young they are and how good they are. Usually they are juniors and seniors when they are having the kind of year Maryland has, and you've got older players. They're young, and it's amazing what they are doing being so young.
Q: What has Sophia Young done for your program in the past four years?
COACH MULKEY-ROBERTSON: It will take all day for me to tell you about all of the things I think about Sophia Young, but I will quickly try to sum it up. When she was a freshman, she came to our program very raw. To not play the game of basketball for a long period of time, she is a tremendous athlete. She can play any position on that floor. I thought at times when I wanted the last second shot, just to flatten out the other four and let her go one-on-one with the ball in her hands. What you will find from Sophia is she is a player you enjoy playing with because she makes you better. She is a pleasant young lady you enjoy being around, and she has just grown by leaps and bounds as a person. She will, at the next level, take off further. She will have the opportunity to be our first two-time Kodak All-American. I've said it before, I can't think of enough adjectives to describe her.
Q: Can experience play a factor at this point of the Tournament?
COACH MULKEY-ROBERTSON: I guess it can if you allow it to. If you are good, you're good...and they are good. Nobody's going to sit there and look at a sheet and say 'Oh she's just 20, 22, and 18', If you are good, you're good, and they are good. Could it down the stretch make you relax a little bit as a coach...That a Sophia (Young) has been in this situation before, and maybe they don't have one...maybe so, but that's not going to win a game for you. Maryland is the two-seed and lets not forget that. They're supposed to win the game...and we are the underdog and have a battle on our hands. We are going to have to bring our A-game to beat them.
Q: What are you impressions of Maryland's post players, specifically Crystal Langhorne?
COACH MULKEY-ROBERTSON: Like all of their players, they are outstanding. They come with lots of accolades from high school. They are all high school All-Americans. They help build that program and bring it to the level that it is today. Most of those players, if not all of them, had the opportunity to go to the UCONN's, the Tennessee's, but chose to go to Maryland and help build a program. I have the utmost respect for their ability, that from watching them on television. I have not seen them in person, but watching them on television scares you enough, so I am not sure I want to see them in person until we have to.
Baylor Players
Senior Jordan Davis
Freshman, Jhasmin Player
Senior Chameka Scott
Q: The feelings regarding being in Albuquerque defending the national championship:
PLAYER: It's really exciting out here playing in front of all these fans and all these people. We're just excited to be in the sweet sixteen. We're hoping we can beat Maryland, continue to go forward and make it to the final four.
Q: Regarding the altitude and how the coaches have prepared the players:
PLAYER: The last thing the coaches have been trying to tell us is that we are probably the best suited team because we did play in the altitude last week. Then coming here there is not much of an altitude change so that should be good.
Q: Feelings regarding being in Albuquerque defending the national championship:
DAVIS: We're excited. It's our third year in a row making it to the sweet sixteen, so we're really excited. The freshman are excited because it's their first year. We're enjoying being here, we were here a couple years ago and they have great fans and the atmosphere is really great here. Hopefully we'll come out and play hard.
Q: What role has being the defending champions carried into this year's tournament:
DAVIS: I think winning the tournament last year kind of puts a target on our back, where our opponents try to play their best game against us because they want to knock off the champs. I think we've handled it fairly well this year. We've continued to play very hard and deal with it. That's just our mentality, to come out and play hard every night and hopefully come out with a win.
Q: How has the sweet sixteen changed from the past few years to this year:
SCOTT: I guess the obvious change is that we were definitely the underdog in those situations and each year we kind of picked up new things. Now we're at the point where we understand exactly what we have to do. Basically the biggest thing is the experience factor that we have.
Q: How are the younger players going to adjust to the pressure on a stage like this?
SCOTT: I think actually we're very optimistic about our attitudes. I think they feed off of us, how we act in certain situations. I've noticed that they take on our attitude, so they're really excited about being here, but they try to have a calm head and act like they've been here before. It's a big stage but it's good because they play like the same mentality that we do. We're aware of what we're capable of doing and we're very confident in what we're able to do so they don't as nervous as most freshman do at this level. I've noticed in a lot of the games where they easily could have made a freshman mistake, but they don't because they've been learning all along by watching us and they understand that they can make some mistakes but don't dwell on it. I think that's what a lot of freshman get caught up in and they've done a really good job of going along with the flow being behind us and watching what we do.
Q: Regarding Maryland's lack of sweet sixteen experiences:
SCOTT: The experience factor is something we're aware of but I'm not sure how it helps us win game. But the fact that Maryland has never been here before could help them, because I remember when we first got to the sweet sixteen how hungry we were and how much we wanted to be a part NCAA tournament for as long as possible. So that's how the perspective is for Maryland.
Q: Regarding the importance of not falling behind in the game:
SCOTT: Not falling behind early in the game has been a focus of ours lately. We always want to get a focus on not necessarily getting a lead but establishing our dominance early and trying not to stray away from our game plan and what we do. So we'll be looking to do that against Maryland, just like we have the past few days.
Q: Do you have the expectations to go to the sweet sixteen every years now?
DAVIS: Yeah you always look for that. This class came in their first couple years and struggled a little bit but now we've gone to three straight sweet sixteens and we have a good group of freshman, a good group of sophomores and a good group of juniors. So that's just something the players look forward to and hopefully it's something that they will strive to get to.
Q: How much tougher is coach on point guards?
DAVIS: Coach is pretty tough on point guards. She was a point guard herself in college so she knows what needs to be done. She knows what it takes to win ball games so I think Angela Tisdale gets a lot of good coaching and takes a lot of the heat sometimes. But she's done a great job with her and Tisdale has really stepped up for us and you can attribute a lot of that to coach Mulkey.
Q: You didn't get to play two years ago the first time Baylor went to the sweet sixteen, so talk a little bit about what that was like.
DAVIS: It was really tough to sit and watch, but I think I learned a lot from the sidelines, just getting a different perspective. The fans here were great, there is a great atmosphere. I think everybody played hard and I expect the same things from the girls. We have been playing as hard as we can all year. I just hope everybody goes out there and plays with everything they have and they leave it all out on the court.
