Wake Forest Athletics
Women's Hoops Quotes From ACC Media Day
10/30/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Oct. 30, 2002
Question from Cathi Kennings (Fayetteville, NC) for Wake Forest coach Charlene Curtis: With the talent coming within the freshman class, do you feel that Wake will display hidden talents and advance further within the conference?
Curtis' answer: "Yes. I am very excited about our freshman class. We're really looking at three freshmen (Porsche' Jones is out, probably until January). Cotelia Bond-Young should make an immediate impact. She gives us another weapon on the perimeter, allows us to pick up our tempo defensively. She really likes to get after it and plays a lot Bianca Brown. The two of them might be on the court together a lot. Liz Strunk is another freshman that's a really good shooter. She gives us a little bit more size, and we can play her in the post some, but she's really more comfortable facing the basket."
Question from Brandi Listenbee (Clinton Township, Michigan) for Wake Forest coach Charlene Curtis: What Progress has Tiffani made in her offseason?
Curtis' answer: "Tiffani has become a much better shooter. In the past, she liked to put the ball on the floor and take it to the basket. Now she's able to pull up and shoot the short jumpshot. She's got a lot more confidence in her shooting ability from the perimeter and her ballhandling skills are better. There could be times this year when Tiffani grabs the ball off the rebound and starts the break with the dribble, and she was not able to do that in the past. And hopefully her mindset has improved to allow her to stay in games and not get quick fouls, which has been somewhat of a negative for her in the past."
More Curtis:
"It's going to be difficult to fill LaChina Robinson's void. She started for four years, so we lose a lot of experience there. We're going to have to sort of replace her by committee and also changing a little bit our style of play. Johanna Bjorkland has worked very hard, and, right now, if I were to pick a starting lineup, she probably would be in it to anchor us down low. What we'll do after that is go to a smaller lineup, which is what we did last year when LaChina wasn't in."
"If you were to define the ACC, you would define us more as a league that plays an open style game. We've always been a finesse, athletic kind of league, and that's where Wake Forest didn't really fit into that mold at all until recently. I think we better fit into that mold now. I'm not sure about our depth right now because we only have 11 healthy players as we speak, so how much we press or trap or push the ball could be determined by our staying healthy, but we have at least 10 players that will be getting playing time out of that 11."
"We will be a better basketball team when Tracy Alston rejoins us in December."
Question from Andrew Kwietenewski (Clinton TWP, MI) for Wake Forest's Tiffani Listenbee: As a senior do you feel your role has changed at all? Do you feel you need to be more of a vocal leader or do you think your actions on the court are enough?
Listenbee's answer: "Your role does change as a senior as far as leadership goes, because you have younger players looking up to you and they do what they see you do. As far as vocally, that comes by leading by example. If you do what you're supposed to be doing, than you can vocalize with the rest of the team what they should be doing."
More Listenbee:
"Our number one goal is to make postseason play."
Quote from Tonia Brown:
Mostly this summer I've been working on taking the ball to the basket and being strong when I go to hopefully get that 3-point play and just continue working on my shot.
