March 21, 2008

Baylor Head Coach: Kim Mulkey

How nice is to come back to a site that you have played before?

"Well, I love Albuquerque it has been good to us, I need to invest in some real estate so I have a place to stay. I think the fans here are awesome, they love their women's basketball what's impressive is they will come out and watch even if they aren't wearing a New Mexico uniform. "

Does have being here helped you in this tournament?

"No I don't think it is any different than playing at home, all the teams are hungry and all the teams are excited, being here before isn't advantage."

Do you think experience is overrated in the tournament?

"I don't know if it is overrated as much as it is how good you are as a team, you can be in the tournament for the first time, but if you are one of the better teams, you are going to be able to win. If your team isn't very good you are not going to win, I don't know if anything that the talent on the floor is a factor, we were excited the first time, we were invited to the NCAA tournament, I don't think losing our first game had anything to do with experience, but more the fact that Arkansas was a better team than us."

What kind of challenges does Fresno State bring to you?

"They are very athletic, they shoot a lot of threes, play a full court game, and bring a lot of enthusiasm, will take you off the dribble, they are very similar to teams that we play in our league because they shoot the three a lot. If you watch the men's tournament, they spread the floor a lot."

You are intense anyways, but since it's the tournament do you bring it a little more?

"I think you maintain that sense of level headedness, you need to know the personality of your team, the older you get the less you get up and down and holler, but I'm intense Jerry and the day I am not intense is the day I need to step away from the game. I think that intensity is good and that playing hard is what it is about. I know the kids are going to play for and that's all I can ask for. I don't know if we are going to shoot well or score a lot of points, but what I can tell you is we are going to play extremely hard. "

How hard has it been playing without Jhasmin the last ten games?

"Actually we just look at the last ten games as being 5 and 5. You can look at it anyway you want to. We have never been a program that makes excuses, Jhasmin has no doubt been a tremendous loss for us, but we have players that understand things like that happen. We don't dwell on it, what good does that do? We are a three seed in the NCAA tournament with seven basketball players, that's something we should be very proud of. That speaks of the work we have done all year. That's not the last nine games."

For Fresno State just being here is excited, what does this mean to your program to be here for the seventh time?

"We can definitely understand the excitement of getting to the NCAA tournament when we were here for the first time eight years ago and its fun and something that will always be remembered by the student-athletes, but after the first time you get a little taste of it and want to come back. I think at our job at Baylor is to make the tournament and if you look at what we have done over the last eight years we are maintaining that, were not going to be a one year wonder and that's the challenge for Fresno State because they are going to have to get back after you made it the first year you are going to want to come back and do better than the year before. "

Is it more of a problem just having seven players in a tournament?

"I think it is proven that it can be done. I have been part of a program that started the Final Four with eight players one year, the difference is that those teams that made it to the team with eight players had experience, and I don't have that luxury. What I do have is a very young basketball team, with Angela being the only senior, you look at the sophomores in that rotation and the freshmen in that rotation, the seven players gained valuable experience through the course of this year."

Baylor Players:

Rachel Allison
Angela Tisdale

What was the trip like was like and what are the expectations coming in?

Rachel: "We've already had a chance to play here at the Pit, they draw a great crowd and we obviously want to win. Those are the expectations of everyone coming into the NCAA tournament."

How much does the 3 game losing streak effect you?

Rachel: "Well I think that doesn't have any effect of what we're going to do in the NCAA tournament. That is in the past and we're looking forward and if I think that we work well in those games it's going to effect the performance we're going to have. I think we're going into the tournament with a lot of confidence. We've had some great practices leading up to now and hopefully we can get it done."

Can you do it with seven players?

Angela: "I think so because it takes only five to win a game. We've been playing all year with seven players and we have a good record right now. We are going to have to play hard with seven."

How much do you get your legs back after not playing for a stretch and worry about rusting?

Rachel: "I think that the break was kind of good for a us and a chance to regroup and get some good practices under our belts and also we'll come out ready to play."

What types of challenges does Fresno State present to your ball club?

Angela: "I think they very athletic and can shoot 3's. They have inside outside and everyone can score on there team. We are going to have to d them up one on one."

Rachel: "They can shoot it from almost every spot and that's going to be a challenge for the post players. We are going to have to guard their guards which are quick off the dribble who can shoot it as well."

How much does playing being there before play a part in the tournament?

Rachel: "My first trip as a freshman, I had the nerves but we have a pretty young team and not all of them have been there either so they are facing the same thing."

Does Fresno force you to do anything different or is it just going out and playing your game?

Rachel: "I don't think it forces us to do anything different, we're just going to have to be up from every spot. I know we have the ability to, its whether we can click on all cylinders as well as defense for 40 minutes."