Linda Lappe, Colorado Head Coach:

On playing their best basketball late in the season:

“I think we are playing our best. I am so excited that we had a chance to play Stanford in our last game. I think Stanford really helps up prepare for the next level, which is now. It was a blessing in disguise – nobody wants to play Stanford because they are so talented and they run their system very well and I think they’re going to do really well in the Tournament. For us to be able to play a top-notch team like that before a long layoff and having to play some really good basketball, it was going to be key for us. We’re going to use a lot of those things we learned from that game. We watched a lot of film after that game. We’re going to take a lot of different things offensively and defensively from that and I think it’s going to help us as we go into the Kansas game tomorrow.”

On Kansas’ experience:

“Kansas has some experience and they have seniors on the floor that start for them that have played a lot of games that have been through the Big 12. They do have more NCAA Tournament experience than we do, but I think last year was their first year and they were able to get to the Sweet 16, so it doesn’t always mean a lot and doesn’t mean everything for sure. Us being home neutralizes their experience in the NCAA Tournament. We’ve tried to keep things as consistent as possible throughout this last week to be able to manage our emotions as we go into tomorrow’s game. Obviously there’s going to be some butterflies and some jitters, but the biggest thing is to make sure you’re cool, calm and collected and playing the way you always play, whether it was playing California, Stanford, or Louisville, or Wyoming, we have to go into this game exactly how we went into the rest of those games. If we do that, I think we’re going to have a high chance of success.”

On hosting an NCAA Tournament:

“It is a great thing to host the NCAA Tournament. I’m really grateful for our administration, for [Athletic Director] Mike Bohn, for bidding on the tournament. It’s a huge advantage. He believed that we would be in the tournament and that’s why you want to host. You want to give your home school as much of a chance to get out of the first two rounds as you possibly can. I’m so happy that Colorado has been gracious enough, not only financially, but with our resources, our people. Our employees here have done a lot to make this tournament a really good success.”

On playing Kansas:

“It was just a couple years that we played them three times and twice every other year. I think I played them eight times in my career. We feel a very good familiarity with Kansas. I think [Kansas head coach] Bonnie [Henrickson] does a tremendous job with her team. She always has them prepared. She always has them ready. She’s done a nice job of turning their program around. When she got it, it wasn’t nearly what it is now. I have a lot of respect for what she’s been able to do. I know one of our assistants picked her brain asking: ‘How did she do it? How did she turn it around?’ Because when we got the job, it was very similar. I have a lot of respect for what she’s been able to do. Kansas, in general, we know what they’re about. We know that they play in a good conference and we’re just excited to be able to play an old opponent in the NCAA Tournament.”

On Ariel Roberson’s development after redshirting last year:

“Anybody who’s had to redshirt, I would want them to do what Ariel did. That is, she was very engaged. She did her rehab during practice. She made sure she watched. She understood what our team was lacking last year and something she could bring this year. Part of that is consistency. Part of it is competitive fire. Ariel is a competitor and she loves to win. She wants to take big shots. She wants to make big stops on the defensive end. She’s a really good defender as well. What she was able to do was watch and learn and to see positioning and how important that is. People who go from playing to coaching right away, they don’t realize how much they were missing as a player. She had an opportunity to sit and watch and to be able to see all those things that maybe everybody else wasn’t able to see. She used it as an advantage for her. The other thing she did was to continually work on her shot. Even when she couldn’t really bend her knees or do anything like that, as soon as she could stand, even before she could stand, she would sit in a chair and shoot. She did anything she could do, basketball-wise, before she could even be on the court. She kept her touch and I think it really helped her shot. She shot it well this year, better than she ever did in high school. I think she utilized that year to get better at something. She is the one you want every injured player to watch and emulate because she did it the right way and that’s helped her this year.”

FIRST PRACTICE DAY QUOTES – Kansas

Bonnie Henrickson, Kansas Head Coach:

On scouting Colorado:

“Defensively, not only in their numbers because numbers can be deceiving, but when you watch them on film and see how well they play together. They can choreograph some things defensively, but they also play some great position defense. They play really well together. Look at their defensive field goal numbers and they are in the top three in all the team defensive stats in the Pac-12.  They play the top of that league tough in one possession games. Watching them on field the numbers make sense. Sometimes you look at numbers and they do not always add up but theirs do. Angel [Goodrich] said it and she’s exactly right. Those pieces that were here two years ago are much improved. Chucky [Jeffery] was good as a sophomore. The Wilson twins were good as freshmen. Those kids have gotten better and that is a credit to their coaching to develop players. Obviously, Arielle [Roberson] is a phenomenal player. We recruited her and thought she would be a great player in our program. Certainly she has done everything that we thought she would be capable of. She plays both the three and the four. She shoots the three and she can put it on the floor. She is a tough kid. Rachel Hargis too, she was long and lanky and that hasn’t changed. From a fitness standpoint her body looks different on film then it did a couple years ago from our game over in Kansas City. The new players since we last played them are really impressive.”

On making the NCAA Tournament:

“We had quality wins over Creighton, Oklahoma and West Virginia and certainly stubbed our toe against Texas Tech. We were disappointed with a couple of our performances down the stretch but felt like we had six wins against the RPI top 60. Like the Pac-12 there are no off-nights in our league. The challenge is to be consistent every night and we knew that we hadn’t done that. We let a couple go at the end of the year. I knew it would be close when I looked at it. I thought there were 14 teams for six spots. I felt that our six wins against the top 60 RPI would speak for itself. At the very end you are splitting hairs. The committee starts to look at it and for us there were some wins that we had to have to get in certainly.”

On familiarity with the venue:

“We have never been to Little Rock and played pretty well there. From a confidence standpoint I see what you are saying. For me I said ‘Bus driver take a left here’ and I knew where we were. We went to dinner last night and I knew were we were. From a familiarity stand point between the two programs it is a wash. They know us and we know them. Chucky [Jeffery] knows our kids that were here. Our kids know her and both sets of twins. They are excited and they should be.”

On Carolyn Davis before and after her injury:

“In the beginning of the year her mobility and lateral movement wasn’t where it had been. Her rim to rim wasn’t where it had been. She is as good as she has been since the injury. Confidence wise she is as good as she has been. She has been more aggressive. She has attacked more with the ball in her hands. The thing she has done so well from the beginning at Kansas is how good she is without the ball early. She works hard and that never really changed. She has never been a real bouncy kid. She still has great hands and catches everything. If she can’t catch it, it is a really bad ball. She certainly is close to who she was last year.”

PLAYERS

Carolyn Davis, Kansas forward

On being nervous before getting into the NCAA Tournament:

“We’re not in there with the committee, so we don’t know what exactly got us in. We played out the season the best we could. We know there were a few games we lost, so we watched the selection show like everybody else, hoping we got in.”

 On defending Colorado forward Arielle Roberson:

“She’s a great post player. She got Pac-12 Freshman of the Year. That’s a great honor for her. Luckily for us, we played against a lot of great, versatile post players in the Big 12 so we’ve been challenged with that. I think if we’re able to stay down and contain her on her penetration and guard the three, we’ll be okay.”

Angel Goodrich, Kansas Guard:

On scouting the matchup with Colorado:

“We played them two years ago, so we know some of the players, like Chucky Jeffery, and the two pairs of twins. They’ve grown their game a lot. They were good then, and they’ve gotten better. We just want to play together as a team, and do what we have to do to get the win.”

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