Wake Forest Athletics
Charlene Curtis Q And A
3/28/2000 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 28, 2000
Gold Rush Front Page
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - Charlene Curtis had hoped this would be the season to build on the foundation she had established during her first two years at Wake Forest. Unfortunately, circumstances kept that from happening, at least in terms of wins and losses. But a 7-21 season included Curtis' first win over a ranked opponent as a Deacon, the first player to average double-figure scoring under Curtis in Alisha Mosley, and a closing two weeks where the Deacs played most of the ACC leaders down to the wire. Gold Rush contributing writer Jay Reddick talked with Curtis after the season ended.
Gold Rush: Let's start at the end. You played Virginia close in the ACC Tournament. Did you learn anything from that game that carries you into next season?
Curtis: I thought we did a good job early of getting the ball inside, but we didn't make our shots. We got Schuye LaRue in foul trouble early, and we just never really capitalized. There's only so much you can do physically. But you make yourself better physically when your knowledge increases, and you understand better what you're doing.
For me, it's still that battle. You have to get more athletic, which means stronger and quicker, and you have to get better technique to become more skilled. As you improve on those things, you get better.
Gold Rush: A lot of the problems your team had, especially early in the season, were tied to shooting.
Curtis: You gotta knock down shots. We got good looks, but you gotta knock them down. That comes with confidence. I've watched some of the men's tournament, and I've learned. Your shooting technique has to be consistent, but you need confidence to make them. We have to score more points, and to do that, we have to make shots.
Gold Rush: The season as a whole certainly had its ups and downs.
Curtis: This was an interesting year. It started off rough because of Stacy's death (Stacy Cox, a former Wake Forest assistant coach, died in a car accident in November). That put kind of a kink in it. But once we got started, we missed our three seniors from last year more than I thought we would. The experience, the maturity and the confidence that they had was missing this year. We took a couple of steps backward because people weren't ready to step right into those shoes like I thought they would be. I thought we especially missed Heidi Coleman, her leadership and taking charge on the floor. She could be doing the wrong thing, but she was confident doing it, and we needed that. I thought we would be a little further along than we were at the beginning of the year
The other thing was, (injured) Olivia Dardy wasn't ready to play for us early, and I thought that was a huge factor.
As we progressed, we didn't win some games I thought we should win on paper. The nonconference schedule was huge. It was a workable one, and I thought we should have won at least seven or eight of those games. Some of that was, I don't think we respected every opportunity. You have to respect everybody from the jump.
Our practices were much better. We worked harder, we were competing more, but we didn't develop that gameday mentality until later.
We had some good games and some good wins, just not enough of them. We never put good games back to back, because we would win a game, and practice the next day was, "OK, we won a game. Shouldn't we get a day off?" instead of, "What can we do to get better?" In theory, we learned that as the season went on, but we weren't able to put it into practice.
Gold Rush: When do you think that came about?
Curtis: It was a constant battle. We had a good trip to New Orleans. We won at New Orleans, came back against a good LSU team, won against California on Dec. 28, but then we don't go to Liberty with any fire, and Liberty's a pretty good team, and they made us look bad. Then we regroup to beat a decent Florida State team here Jan. 3, and three days later, we play Georgia Tech, and we don't show up with any fire.
We go to Coastal Carolina (on Jan. 9), and we don't play well. I think it was a lack of respect. We played a really good Duke team, then beat a Carolina team that was struggling, but it was still a really good win for us. But then coming off that, we lost to Maryland, and here we go. So we're talking the middle of January, and we're still battling playing well every day. It was like a roller coaster, not consistent.
That goes back to leadership. And the leadership starts with me. I recognize that. I'm not saying it's the players' fault. I have to find a better way to reach them and get them to that point.
I think part of it is, sometimes we have to play at such a high level just to compete that we can't stay at that level. And that's why we have to get stronger, more athletic and more skilled. Right now, if we play an average day, we get blown out. Right now, we can't stay up there every day. Champions do, but we don't have that mindset yet.
Gold Rush: How do you take that into next year?
Curtis: It's going to be the same key for us again next year -- we have to play better in our nonconference schedule. It's not like we're playing a patsy schedule. We open at Appalachian State, we have LSU coming here, we go to Arizona State, and we're going to Connecticut next year. People say I'm crazy to schedule those teams, but you have to learn to play against them. To me, that's the standard.
Gold Rush: You mentioned scoring. Besides just shooting the ball, where did those struggles come from?
Curtis: I think a big part of that was not having Olivia for most of the season. Even when she did play, she wasn't healthy. We only shot 38 percent from the floor and the same in the league, and it wasn't just the conference games.
We didn't get to the free throw line enough. We don't get to the basket well enoughto draw fouls.
And we were only 25 percent from the 3-point line. I thought we would be a much better 3-point shooting team. Alisha Mosley was the only one over 33 percent for the year.
I still think we have to be a good 3-point shooting team no matter what else we do. That's something of an equalizer.
They say if you shoot 3s, you won't go to the line. Well, I say we have to have both. We have players now in Johanna Bjorklund and LaChina Robinson that should give us something down low, but they have to become more power players. Then, we have to be better rebounders. If we get better offensive rebounds, we'll get to the line more.
Gold Rush: What were the high points of the season for you?
Curtis: Alisha Mosley's improvement. She became more of a total player this year. She handled the ball better, got more confidence, she played better defense, and she balanced her scoring by shooting the outside shot and putting the ball on the floor. Before, if she wasn't hitting her shot, she didn't have much of a game. She would make a great three-player if she was six feet tall, because she hits the boards.
We never found a true three-player. Kristen Shaffer is more of a jump shooter, Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick is better suited down low. Heather Miller is a spot-up shooter, not a slasher, and Tiffani Listenbee has to develop her skills. She can catch it on the wing and go by you, but she has to get stronger. I knew we would struggle. That was a position I was concerned about.
Brenda Mock is that second high point. She did so much more than I ever thought she could do. I knew she worked hard, but because of that, she would accomplish a lot. She had some great games for us. She played 30 minutes a game for us, the most of anybody. She's steady for us, and they took to her to be that.
Gold Rush: Individually, what do you need from the returning players to make the team better?
Curtis: Let's start with the guards. Adell Harris and Val Klopfer. Both will be juniors, and what I need from them is to be better leaders on the floor. They need to take charge with enthusiasm. Adell is our best ballhandler against presses, but she needs to become a better passer. They're both very good defensively at times. I'd like to see those two become better at changing the pace of their dribble, darting in and out, to create space so they can see over taller players. Val has to shoot the ball more consistently.
I'd like to see Janae Whiteside get back to the form she had at the end of last year. She tried to be too much of a point guard. She needs to come down in transition play, come off screens and get open shots. She has to be more consistent with her technique to get that back.
Kristen Shaffer has to become a better ballhandler so she can play the two-guard spot. With Afton Hill, a 6-foot-1 three-player, coming in as a freshman and hopefully with Olivia back to help out at the three, giving us size and athleticism, Kristen needs to be at the two-guard.
Heather Miller has to continue to grow and develop, get better at lateral movement. Perhaps we'll post her up a little bit more.
In the post, we're real pleased with LaChina Robinson's development. The biggest thing for her is to get stronger. She was better conditioned in the last three weeks of the season, and she has to build on that. She also has to become one of our go-to people on offense, both inside and out to 15 feet.
When you put Johanna Bjorklund in the mix with her, the growth of our team is to have those two on the floor at the same time. Johanna's such a good passer. She has to continue to work on her conditioning and really develop that little hook shot.
LaTisha Pearson is starting to reap some of the benefits of her labor. I'm not going to say next year will be a coming-out for her, but we're going to see a little bit more from her, depending on her opportunities. It would be nice if she could play the four. LaChina or Johanna could be the four, and LaTisha's more the five right now. She's one of our better rebounders, and she's getting stronger and more versatile.
Gold Rush: So there's plenty of options to choose from.
Curtis: We've got depth, and we've got depth with experience. Everybody's got to get better next year. Olivia's time on the sidelines, she realized when she didn't have it, how much she enjoyed it. We look forward to her coming back.
Gold Rush: How about the freshman class?
Curtis: We've got Bianca Brown coming in, another small guard. She's probably a little quicker than Alisha, which is good. We've got Afton Hill, who's 6-1 and a three player. We'll sign one more, and maybe two.
Gold Rush: Alisha Mosley finally gave you a double-figure scorer this year, for the first time in three seasons. Now that she's gone, where do you turn?
Curtis: Who's going to want to step up and say, "Coach, I want to be a go-to person"? Is it a matter of us picking that person or letting it evolve? It should evolve. Your go-to person, the cream rises to the top. This year, I didn't feel like that happened. Alisha might have been the closest one to that. She had some really good games.
Here's what I hope for: Somebody, whether it's Olivia or a new player, comes in and averages 15 points a game. Then you take the other people and step them up a notch, then we're at 65 or 70 points a game. That's where we have to be. We can't beat anybody scoring 57 points a game like we did this season.
Gold Rush: So there are good times on the horizon for the program.
Curtis: I get excited about next year, because I know we're going to continue to get better. We've got to take bigger steps. We're playing pretty good defense. Teams are shooting 39 percent against us.
This was a hard year. We didn't make the progress I thought we'd make in terms of wins and losses, but we played a lot closer games. We were in more ballgames. Had we been able to score, it would have made a huge difference. We have to score more points. That's why they took the bottom off that peach basket.
