Wake Forest Athletics
Gold Rush Interview With Charlene Curtis
3/12/2001 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 12, 2001
The Wake Forest women's basketball team finished the 2000-01 season with an 11-17 record, 3-11 in the ACC. But that tells so little of the story of this team. Coming off a 7-21 campaign, coach Charlene Curtis put an emphasis on learning how to win early in the year, and the Deacons responded, opening 11-8 with three ACC wins through the first half of the league schedule. The team slumped through the second half of the ACC, but put it all together in the ACC Tournament, taking top-seeded and fourth-ranked Duke to overtime behind Olivia Dardy's 30 points before losing 75-68.
On March 6, the morning after Duke won the ACC championship, Gold Rush's Jay Reddick talked to Curtis about the ups and downs of the season. The following is their conversation:
Gold Rush:
What do you think of when you see the tape of the Duke game?
Curtis:
I look at what we have coming back and I smile. There are some little things that our young players did that I was really pleased with, and I've only watched the first half. I know Olivia Dardy had the game of her life, but what the young players did gives me hope, more than at this time last year. I think there are a lot more positives going into next season.
Gold Rush:
What are some of those positives?
Curtis:
First of all, we did accomplish some of our goals. We didn't win as many games as we wanted to, but we won games early, which was something I've been saying for three years now that we have to do. Our players now understand the importance of those early-season games, that we learn to win, learn what that feels like and find ways to win games. We did that, and we played well in the first round-robin of the ACC games. To go 3-5 after where we were the year before, that's tremendous improvement. And to play as well as we played at home was good. The second go-round was a different story. But when I think about that future for us, we have players coming back who got a lot of valuable playing time...Eafton Hill and Bianca Brown in particular. Even Tracey Alston, I thought, just got better and better as the season went along. And Tonia Brown didn't shoot the ball tremendously well but has a great head for the game and is a good shooter. She will shoot the ball better. We've got them in the freshman class, very knowledgable basketball players with good basketball IQs. Not that our other players don't. You throw Tiffani Listenbee into the mix. She had an excellent game against Duke and maybe should have played a few more minutes in that ballgame. But she had a very good year. She has the desire to get better and will put points on the board. Then I look at next year's senior class, LaChina Robinson, Val Klopfer and Adell Harris, and they should be really inspired to want to do more to have a positive senior year. I can see them working hard to come back and make a difference.
THIS QUESTION IS OPTIONAL TRIM
Gold Rush:
Those three probably learned a lot from this year's seniors.
Curtis:
It keeps getting passed down. This year's group learned from Alisha Mosley, who was our only senior last year. She worked really hard to try to help us have a positive season, but she didn't have enough support from the rest of her teammates. I thought this year, the underclassmen did a lot to support the seniors. We're starting to get a sense of that, stepping up games earlier and helping every senior class to finish on a strong note. People are starting to care more about team and less about individual.
Gold Rush:
After your early wins and making it through the first half of the ACC 3-5, you lost every game in the second half. Did teams just solve you guys toward the end, or did you lose something?
Curtis:
I think it was a combination of things. Kristen Shaffer had been shooting the ball really well, and the opponents started to put their best perimeter defender on her, quicker players, and it caused her some problems getting her shots off. That hurt. We made a change at point guard which set us back momentarily, but it was the direction we needed to go in Bianca Brown. It took our team a little while to be comfortable with her. That set us back a little bit. Losing some close games put some doubts in our minds. We were still coming to a realization that the level of effort we thought it took wasn't enough. I thought last year, this group learned how to compete, but we didn't learn to win. This year, we learned to win to a certain point. We learned to be ready for games, and be in ballgames, but we didn't learn to finish the close games. We have to change that, and our schedule next year will allow us to do that. We have the chance to win some games early, but we have some opponents ? we're going to UAB, we have Connecticut coming here, we have to go to Western Michigan, who beat us here ? who will challenge us, and let us figure ourselves out early.
Gold Rush:
To solve those problems in close games, was finding someone who wants the ball at crunch time a factor?
Curtis:
I think that's still somewhat of a missing link. There were games we went to Kristen Shaffer, to Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick, to Eafton Hill, and late in the season to Olivia Dardy, but there was no one person we went to. When we played Duke in our last game, Georgia Schweitzer is their leader, their All-ACC player, and she wanted the basketball. We're still looking for that player. Virginia has Schuye LaRue, North Carolina has LaQuanda Barksdale, N.C. State has Carisse Moody and Tynesha Lewis. They know who those people are. We're still searching for that, but I think that will evolve from this younger group, because there are people there who want that responsibility and don't mind the expectation of achievement.
Gold Rush:
Let's talk about the tournament. It had to have just been a crazy scene.
Curtis:
There were about 6,000 people there, and my guess is, about 4,000 were cheering for us. That's what it sounded like. People were just stunned, expecting a blowout, but when they watched us, they realized we were the best team on the floor in the first half. We were the team that was putting the ball in the basket and defending and rebounding and playing with a lot of energy. So the fans got on the bandwagon with us. In the second half, Duke makes its run. They tie the game, and then they go up by seven. But our players didn't quit, and they truly believed the whole time they could win that ballgame. A couple of things didn't go our way, and Georgia Schweitzer decided she wanted the ball. Fortunately for us, Bianca Brown made a great play right at the end of regulation, and we made a great stop to force overtime. I was able to call, during timeout situations, for two straight stops. We need them, right here, right now, and we'd go out and get three. People were patting me on the back for the game I coached, but I told them I coached that way all year. The team was very focused, very ready to listen and do things. We were all on the same page. It was artistic, it was aesthetically pleasing and all of that. The synergy we talk about in our program kicked in and took us to another level. Unfortunately, in the overtime, we got in some foul trouble. Bianca Brown went out of the game, and Olivia too, hurt us. But it was a great experience. If you're going to lose one, that's the way to not win. To play your best and take it to overtime. We were the one team that gave Duke a game in the tournament, and we can be proud of that, but the biggest thing is that we need to build on that, to take that energy into the next year. Two years ago, we had a tremendous run in the tournament. We were seeded eighth and played a tremendous game against Maryland. Janae Whiteside shot the ball extremely well, and Heidi Coleman and Emon McMillian provided great leadership for our program. We played Virginia, the second seed, the next night, and played a tremendous game with an opportunity to win. What happened that year which I hope will be different is that the leadership graduated, and we didn't carry all that momentum over into last year. So here we are in a similar situation, and we've got to find a way to maintain that drive upward. We tend to respond best when we've been really low, and I want us to respond better to success. I don't want us to have to lose eight straight games to play our best. We need to start from where we are, somewhere in the middle.
Gold Rush:
What was your game plan coming into that night?
Curtis:
The players decided they wanted it. All I asked them to do in this game was give consistent effort. We needed to sprint the floor both ways, talk and communicate on defense and rebound the ball. We did those things. Offensively, we wanted to go inside, because our low post play is our strength against them. Tiffani and Olivia were a great combination down low. We held Duke without a field goal for four minutes, which was amazing. We did all we could to win that game. We talked a lot about bottling the good stuff from the season. When the Georgia Tech game was over, we watched tape on our transition and how slow we were getting up and down. But I told them the regular season was over, and all I wanted them to remember was the good stuff. (With that, Curtis produced a 24-ounce bottle with Wake Forest--Driven by Victory stickers all over it.) So we filled the bottle up to a certain point. Then we practiced on Tuesday, and it was a great practice, so we added some to the bottle. Then I told them, "Tomorrow's practice, we have to add to this." The players told me Wednesday's practice wasn't as good, so we only added a little bit, but we understood why the practice wasn't as good and worked on that Thursday. By Friday's shootaround, I was able to fill the bottle all the way to the top. We had enough good stuff to fill it. We have to learn to bottle the good stuff and keep it with us, close to our hearts, and get ready for next year. The players want me to get a bigger bottle for next year. I think we have a bright future. We have some good players graduating, but so does the whole league.
Gold Rush:
What has this senior class brought to Wake Forest?
Curtis:
Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick, from day one, brought a never-die attitude: It's never over, we can get better. As a class, I think that describes them. It would have been easy to fold, but they did stick with it. They have a lot to be proud of in the glimpses of goodness they showed us, and they showed us how good we could be.
Gold Rush:
Go through the rotation for next year.
Curtis:
What's going to be interesting is how we work the point-guard situation for next year. We played most of this year with three point guards, rotating them. I do believe we'll have to settle next year on two point guards out of those three: Bianca Brown, Adell Harris and Val Klopfer. Val didn't even play against Duke, because once we got into the flow of the game, Bianca and Adell handled things so well that I never subbed Val in. But Val has given us a lot this year, and she'll be in that mix to choose from. I think you have to add Tonia Brown to that list, too. We need a little bit more size at that position against some teams, and I think she could be a better point than a two-guard. Bianca would have the early lead, but how it shakes out will depend on how people respond and work, Our only returning two-guard would be Tonia Brown, but I believe Tracey Alston will play some two next year, and against certain teams, Heather Miller may also play some two. We have a freshman coming in in Meredith Bell who will challenge for some time. At the three, you have Eafton Hill returning, but there's also Jennifer Johnson, a freshman who is a finalist for Miss Tennessee basketball. She's 6-1 and can handle the ball very well. She can play post defense, can run forever and has good fundamental skills. She could play the four, though she's a little thin for that, and she could play two. I really believe she'll challenge Eafton, but I also look forward to seeing them on the floor together. If both of them are on the perimeter, we could have tremendous size, but one could play the four. Tiffani Listenbee is very ready to replace Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick. She's a different player, but she rebounds well, blocks shots, is getting stronger, can handle, and was 4-for-4 the other night from the floor. We have three post players returning in LaChina Robinson, Johanna Bjorklund, who struggled a little bit this year but will get back into the mix, and LaTisha Pearson, who gave me good solid minutes. Between them, we have to find a center. Erin Ferrell is also a four. When you think about Tiffani and Erin at the four, we'll have depth again. But there's a lot on that point guard spot.
Gold Rush:
It seems like improvements are happening all over the place.
Curtis:
This freshman class next year in some ways is better than last year's. But we've done better with each class. LaChina's class brought size to the program and improved us. Then you go with Johanna and Heather and Tiffani Listenbee, and that class was even better. This year topped that. The challenge is for our upperclassmen to get better. If they get stagnant, the younger players will pass them. Hopefully we'll be able to move forward quicker with this group than we have. I made a statement when Duke was cutting down the nets, I told Tonia Brown, "That's going to be us before you graduate." And LaTisha Pearson said, "That's going to be next year." We can speak those words, but we have to put those into action. I think this team is now committed to doing that.
