Women's Basketball Media Day Press Conference Quotes

Colorado Head Coach Linda Lappe

Opening Statement
“It's an exciting time of the year for us; we're about two and a half weeks into practice. And we really have an unbelievable focus right now to get back to who we are as Colorado Buffaloes and what we are about. We are about playing defense and getting up and down the floor, along with playing together and playing hard. Just being able to reenergize our program and it's been a fun year to do that with so many young players, while at the same time having some great veterans that add to the mix with experience for a young team. It's been a good two and a half weeks of practice, and I'm really excited to see where we are and we keep getting better every single week. We're just ready to see what this team can do as we get into scrimmages and exhibition games. Then we start our game on November 14^th against Loyola Marymount.”

On Losing the Graduated Arielle Roberson
“The good thing about it is that we didn't have her for very many years. We didn't have her at all last year and she really only played two years here. We feel like some of our other players will keep stepping up. Jamee Swan was able to step up last year and provide us with some good inside presence and provide some rebounding for us. I like what freshman Monica Burich does both at the three and four positions. Makenzie Ellis will be a force as freshman this year, and might be one of the biggest surprises on our team so far this year. She is coming off an ACL tear and I didn't really know what to expect from her as she came in. But she has great principles and is one of our best defensive players, especially on the weak side. We really think that we have a lot of different options. Rebounding will be a big key for us, and defensively we need someone who can guard the athletic three's and four's. So right now we are going through the process to find out who that's going to be. And when you have young kids it takes a little bit of time for them to understand what that level looks like.”

On Junior Haley Smith Taking a Leadership Role
“Haley is somebody that has to step up for us. She made huge strides from her freshman to sophomore season. And we need her to make another jump for us this season. She has to start it with her defense; we need her to be a defensive leader. It's something that she has to really work on, it's not one of her biggest strengths but she's pretty solid at it. But we need her to be more of a defensive threat. Haley is great at knocking down the open jumpers that others create for her. But we've also challenged her to get to the rim more often, and yesterday in practice she did that several times. She's one of the more athletic and strong players on our team. She's also extremely fit and takes care of her body. She puts herself in position to be solid, and she's always been one of our most consistent players. That bodes well for her leadership role, since you need your leader to be consistent. She needs to set the standard high this year and really hold her teammates accountable. You need your point guards to be consistent, it doesn't matter what class they are. We need Haley to lead in a certain way, but we need others to step up as well.”

On the Learning Curve for Freshmen
“We want them to be on the fast track. We will have at least one but sometimes up to three freshmen on the floor at any one time. The great thing about our freshmen class this year is that they have great basketball IQs. So there are a lot of things that you normally spend time teaching freshmen that these guys coming in don't have to learn. They've been really well coached in high school and club and they've played at a high level. The things that we are teaching them are positioning and offensive sets, along with how to fight through screens sets. We don't have to teach them the things that are really hard to teach, like when to pass the ball and other things of that sort. It's been a lot of fun for our coaching staff to take the next step with our team. But we expect our freshmen to be ready by the start of the season for us to have a good season. We know there's going to be some bumps along the road, and we know that we're going to have to stay on them to learn. But they are highly completive kids, with great basketball IQs that want to win. They are willing to do what it takes to make the team successful.”

On Utilizing Senior Jamee Swan
“She's got great skills on the inside and we need her to be that inside presence for us. She's probably our best inside player at this point so we're going to challenge her to be a presence on the block. We also like her on the move away from the basket as well. It allows her to use her athleticism. If she's rebounding the ball at a high level, which we think she will. A lot of times she'll be facing the basket or be away from the basket in our offense. Then defensively she needs to be a presence for us as well. We need her to get eight or nine rebounds for us. She's one player who's going to have to take a big step so she can be a consistent force on the floor every single game, it doesn't matter what the level of competition is we need her to be at her best. We feel like she can be steady enough to do that.”

On Her Relationship With Men's Head Coach Tad Boyle
“I respect Tad a great deal. What he's been able to come here and do is tremendous. The unique thing about our relationship is that we were both hired within a week of each other. And we've grown together, both having our highs and lows. I enjoy watching his practices, and seeing the drills he runs. I know I've gone into his office a few times asking for advice on certain scenarios. It's just great to get ideas from him, and I really enjoy the staff. Some men's staffs out there do not spend much time talking to the women's staff so we appreciate that they do that. If I had a son I would want him to play for Tad and his coaching staff. I'm excited to watch the men's program go forward this season.”

On Making Offseason Improvements as a Coach
“We really took a step back this offseason as a staff, and looked at where we've fallen short. One of those is that we've suffered a lot of injuries these past few years so we've made some changes in conditioning. We've focused more on developing fitness and strength for our players. We feel like if we can keep our best players on the floor then we can do some great things this season. Also just getting back to who we are, which means getting back to emphizing defense, making sure that if a player can play great defense that we get her on the floor more often. It's a mindset that we feel we didn't have last year. That's on me as a coach. Every single day the players need to know that we're going to be tough on them, so we can make sure they can get through anything mentally. I feel like this year we have the talent to be able to do that, and it's been fun to work with our players to get them there. This team is as compeitive if not more competitive than the team that went to the NCAA tournament a few years back. That's what I remember from that team, everyday at practice it was an all out war. They want to win every drill and I'm seeing them do what it takes everyday at practice.”

On Making Defensive Adjustments
“I thought we were a little less aggressive last year in how we coached defense. This year we are back to our aggressive defensive style, teaching the fundamentals of keeping our hands up and moving our feet. Just being where we need to be defensively and playing team defense. Last year I don't think we played great team defense, we talk about playing five verses one- the idea that the player with the ball is going against more than just the player guarding them, but we want them to be going against the five players on the floor. It's about taking pride in our defense and knowing that's how we are going to win. Last year it was the best offensive team I've ever coached, but it was the worst defensive team that I've ever coached. And not surprisingly it was the worst team record I've ever had as a coach. We're going to be able to score at a high level, but the question for ourselves is will we be able to play defense at a high level? The Denver Broncos have shown that defense can do some amazing things. When we went to the NCAA's we were holding teams to fewer than 50 consistently every night. We want to get back to having a presence on the defensive side of things.”

On Her Own Freshman Year at CU and Working With New Freshmen
“I look at this freshmen class and it's hard not to make comparisons to the year that I was a freshman. There were five freshmen in that class, just like there's five freshmen in this class, just the competitive spirit to come in and revive a program that has been pretty good but not where we want to be. It does take some time to learn to play at the level needed at the college level. Your freshman year is the hardest and most challenging year that you go through because there so many new changes. So I'm being patient with our young kids and I think remembering how it was for me as a freshman helps me coach. It is exciting and I try to look at this group as unique and we are going to move forward together.”

On Improving Ball Security
“I have no doubt that it's going to be better this year. Four of the five new players this year are ball handling guards. And three of them played point guard in high school or club at a high level. I saw them play against some great defenders and they were able to handle the ball just fine along with seeing them play against our practice players. They have great pace and awareness on the court. It's going to be better than it was last year but at the same time we need to be sure that we are ready. We still need to put in our press breaker plays, since it's a huge thing for us to handle the press at a high level. That's something that we will really work hard on as practice moves along.”

On Adjusting to the Rule Changes
“There are a couple things to deal with, for example if I call a timeout in the first 30 seconds of the game then there's no media timeout for the rest of the quarter. So you're playing over nine minutes without a stoppage of play, which means you need to be in shape. It also means that it's a player's game; we have to be able to recognize runs without me calling a timeout. I don't want that media timeout that's going to come at the five minute mark of every quarter. We need to put emphasis on the type of shot we should take when facing a possible big run. It's going to change how I manage the game, versus how I let my players manage the game. I think it's going to be fun for people to watch, since it's going to play like the NBA. With a timeout I can advance the ball to the sideline and it gives us a great opportunity to score. We can run great sideline plays with little time remaining instead of having to go the full length of the court. You're going to have a lot of different sideline plays, normally we didn't spend a lot of time on it but now we will. The other thing that is going to change is the fouls. At five fouls in each quarter you start shooting two free throws so there's no more one and one in the women's game. You have to make sure you aren't fouling a ton at the beginning of each quarter. At the end of the quarter the fouls reset, which is kind of interesting since it allows you to become aggressive again. Those are a few things that will affect the game, those three or four probably being the biggest ones.”

On Recruiting From Either the Club Level or High School Level
“I like watching both. On the club level you get to see them play against the best. There's a Nike EYBL league that has the best players in the country, and all four or our freshmen played in that league. You like to see them against great players, but I like seeing them play on their high school teams because you can see if they understand a system and are they able to run set plays. There probably going to be a lot more plays called and run at the high school level then at the club level. You want to see if they can play in a defensive system and how they interact with their teammates they see every day. There are so many things you look at in high school, but you look at the team aspect of it. And that's probably a lot similar to a college atmosphere as compared to a club team that's only together for a few months. The higher level clubs have a great system, playing 60 games in four months through the spring. They have great coaches and a system that they play. If the girls are playing in a great club system you definitely can see a lot about how they react to coaching and how they handle adversity. We definitely get a lot out of watching club basketball.”

Colorado Players

Guard/Forward Lauren Huggins

On Taking On Leadership Role
“I've been told that I have one of the loudest voices on the team so being able to utilize that and help my teammates and be that vocal leader and get everyone together and organize type leader.”

On Freshmen Interactions With The Team So Far
“Off the court it's great, we always see them together which is typical for a freshman class but they're also integrating really well with the rest of the team outside of practice and then on the floor it's been great, you get to see them make gains even since June and just being more comfortable with this system and allowing themselves to make mistakes. As a freshman you're a little worried coming into practice, you don't want to be the person that makes mistakes, but everyone makes mistakes even as a redshirt junior. Then being more comfortable with their skill sets and our system has definitely improved.”

On Defensive Approach In Practice
“We focus a lot more on defensive breakdown drills, being able to get through screens, the proper positioning whether it be wing denial or help side, and then when we scrimmage, putting all those pieces together and carry over from week to week. It also helps with the whole defensive intensity, it provides more flow and comfortability on offense. You hear a lot of 'offense sells tickets and defense wins championships' and that's a motto we're going with and if we want to win games, we have to hold teams to a low margin of points so that being our focal point has been really helpful.”

On Being Used Offensively Outside Three Point Shooting
“Definitely trying to expand, you never want to be one dimensional. I would say that being a three point threat is definitely still my main goal but I've also been incorporating a pull up jumper game as well as coming off different options in our offense for layups or being able to penetrate and pitch is going to be a big thing this year.”

On Having An Extra Year Being A Redshirt
“There's definitely a level of comfort that comes, sometimes they'll throw that curveball at you but being an upperclassmen I have my other juniors and Jamee as the lone senior to depend on and help the other underclassmen be more acclimated and be more comfortable with the system. There's definitely a level of comfortability.”

On Freshmen Learning Curve
“Having five newcomers and four having the opportunity to play there's definitely a faster learning curve for them but all four of our freshmen and even Ariana Freeman, all of them have a high basketball IQ and because of that they're able to pick up on little details quicker and so having them out on the floor is going to be imperative for all of us. There's going to be more competition with the fact that we have such a young team and knowing anyone can play. I think this year we have a really solid group of individuals and a really deep bench so you can't complain with that.”

Guard/Forward Haley Smith

On Becoming More of a Leader
“It's something new for me and it'll be a really great challenge and a lot of fun this year. I've been working a lot with my position coach Kelly Finley on leadership and how I think I can best fill that role, since we have a lot of leaders on the team this year. We're not necessarily having one captain or one person that is called on to lead. Figuring out how to work together and how to best use our strengths, to stay true to yourself but stay open to some new roles, that's something I'm really excited about.”

On Mental Toughness
“One thing Kelly always talks to me about is training your mind like you train your body. So thinking about things ahead of time and accomplishing things in practice, like how can we accomplish this drill, what are the challenges, what are things beforehand that we need to remind ourselves of, and what are things that people can figure out on their own. Deciphering, as you're going into a drill, what's the most important thing and what's the focus and being able to effectively communicate that to the team is something I've been working on a lot. Taking a whole bunch of information, finding the key points and delivering that to the rest of the team.”

On Improving as a Junior
“Freshman year on to sophomore year I've worked a lot on my shot, and just extending my range, and I've continued to do that working back to the three [point line]. But now I'm working toward being able to get to the rim, being more explosive, and being more of a threat in that way.”

On Her Free Throw Shooting
I think working on my shot helped to improve the free throws. I wouldn't say I was always a good free throw shooter, but the repetitions over the past seasons have made it a lot better. Something that should help this year is getting to the line more often. I had some streaks and things but the pure number of free throws was less than I could have gotten. Attacking and getting to the rim is going to help me do that.”

On Carrying Over Last Season's Pac-12 Tournament Success
“I remember that feeling, how all of us returners felt at the end of last season, and the momentum we had, and we want to carry that over into this year. We have a lot of young players who are really excited; they have so much enthusiasm and just want to learn. They also bring in a lot of talent and a big edge for us.”

On The Freshmen
“They're jumping right in. They've had to take on some big roles. They're not really getting their feet wet, they're going full force. I'm excited to see them out on the court this year, it's going to be great.”

Forward Jamee Swan

On Playing Strong Defense
“We're obviously good at getting the ball through the hoop. We play basketball. But defense is something that you don't really learn growing up. The first thing you learn playing basketball is how to shoot. We're sort of putting offense on the backburner, it's still something we work on every day, but our defensive presence is going to be phenomenal this year and I can't wait for everyone to see how fired up we are on defense.”

On What To Bring Into This Year From Last Year
“Just the intensity on defense and everything that we do. When I was a freshman Chucky Jeffery was the senior leader, along with Meagan Malcolm-Peck and Brenna Malcolm-Peck, and they didn't put up with anything. If you came in and you had a bad practice, they would pull you aside and say 'look, you need to pull your head out of your butt and let's go.' For me, I want to recreate that, and have Haley Smith be the Meagan Malcolm-Peck of our team, Lauren Huggins be the Chucky Jeffery of our team and have people that will make sure that everybody is on target and on the same page, all at once.”

On Awareness Of Sub-Par Defense Last Year
“Defense is huge for us, and without defense you can't have a successful team. It was very clear in how many defensive drills we did in practice that our defense was sub-par. Last year I was really slow on my feet and just backtracked, and I'm not sure what the cause was but it just felt like I was behind in everything. I was never in the right position for defense. Coach Lappe tells us every day, 'if you can play defense, you're going to play'. So, if we have a freshman on our team that plays the best defense, she'll play. She'll start. She'll do everything, because without defense you can't win.”

On The Search For The Starting Five
“Not 100% sure. We have a group of people that Coach Lappe still mixes up. She'll have a set group of people and trade in two or three, see how that works, and then switch two or three more and see how that works during practice. Up until day one, that's exactly what it will be – figuring out who can do what and who can be where, who has the best defensive game and who can ultimately lead on the court. Right now, we're just trying to get the team chemistry down before we get the “starting five” chemistry down.”