Wake Forest Athletics
Conversation With Coach Curtis
4/8/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 8, 2002
Charlene Curtis has shown improvement in each of her five years at Wake Forest. That improvement showed itself a little more this season, with a 12-15 overall record, and 5-11 in the ACC, moving out of the bottom two spots in the league standings for the first time in six years. More than that, though, the team was competitive in nearly every game, staying within 19 points of all but one unranked opponent. Four of the team's ACC losses were by nine points or less. All that gives Curtis plenty to build on. She spoke to Gold Rush's Jay Reddick shortly after the season's end. The following is their conversation:
Gold Rush: This season brought the team its most wins in five years, most ACC wins in six years. Do you come out of it pleased? Satisfied?
Curtis: Not satisfied. Pleased that we made progress but definitely not satisfied because we didn't make enough. I really thought we could get above .500 this year, and it's interesting - I thought we could win six games in the league. We won five, but when I look back on it, we actually could have won eight. We look at five minutes here, five minutes there. Our Virginia game here was an overtime game. At Florida State was a game that was very winnable, and at Maryland was very winnable. So we were right there and just didn't win those games.
If you think about it, we started from so far down five years ago. I didn't realize how far down we were until we started recruiting, and trying to get people interested in our program, come to school and get a great education, play in a great program and in the ACC. But people want to play for teams that are already winning. So we've had to change some mindsets out there, and in time, we've done that. We've brought in players who are a better fit for the ACC as well as the university. We're still recruiting student-athletes, but they're more skilled and more talented on the basketball side. That has made us a better team.
So this year, we were in most games, but we still were a little bit up and down. We want to be consistent and have that consistent effort every game. You're always going to have lulls in games, but those lulls can't be because of lack of focus. We had too many lack-of-focus lulls, and we had some total games with that situation as well.
I was happy that the players continued to work hard. We won games in the second half of the league but did not finish well against Maryland.
Gold Rush: You had some seniors there for experience, but were some of the lulls the result of some of the younger players adjusting to ACC play?
Curtis: I think we had senior experience, but only two seniors played a lot, in Adell Harris and LaChina Robinson. And neither of them - they've been here four years, and neither of them have won. So it's almost like someone else has to come fill that in.
Probably mygreatest disappointment of all was our point-guard play. I thought we were still very inconsistent with how we ran the show from the point. A lot of that goes back - your team starts and ends with your point guard. I just feel like that is a spot on the floor that has to get better next year in order for us to get over the hump.
Gold Rush: Who does that improvement start with?
Curtis: The only returning one is Bianca Brown. It will start with her, but she'll have to make some real positive strides. At the end of her freshman year, she had gotten better, but she didn't really make the progress from her freshman year to her sophomore year that I thought she would make in terms of running the team and being the floor general. A sophomore is still young, but she has to make those strides next year.
We have two freshmen coming next year in Porsche Jones, a local player (from Carver High) who has taken her team to two state championship games and one title. She is very much a leader, a floor general. The other is Cotelia Bond-Young. She's a tremendous talent, a scoring point guard who can also play two. Bianca will have the early edge, but she has to get better or she'll be pushed for time.
Gold Rush: So it will come from those three? No other returnees moving to the point?
Curtis: I don't think so. But what we are going to do is more people are going to be able to run the offense than just the point. We're trying to take some of that responsibility away, but you still have to have that one person who can get everybody organized.
Tonia Brown has shown she can really score some points for us. I like her at the two-guard spot. She took on some more ballhandling responsibilities for us but also more scoring, especially after Eafton got hurt. Hopefully, her game will improve. She's got to be able to score more off the dribble and be under control. She likes to float when she drives to the bucket. She got to the free-throw line, but she has to shoot a better percentage.
Overall, our shooting percentages have to get better. Part of that is that we have to shoot better in the paint. That's one of our biggest areas of concern.
Gold Rush: What about the other freshmen you have coming in?
Curtis: Liz Strunk is a 6-2 player out of Tennessee. I'm not sure where she'll play. She's a four, maybe a three.
Our team may change that way next year, where we may have a point guard, but after that, it could be anybody. We could play with four guards and a post, anything. Liz will fit well into that. She can face up or post up, similar to Jennifer Johnson.
Keila Evans, out of Baltimore, a 6-3 player who likes to face up but knows how to post up. She'll get a lot of rebounds for us.
And then there's a 6-6 player Sandra James. Right now, we'll say she'll be a project, but in time, she'll be a good player.
It's a good group. It's all five positions, really. And they'll all have good leaders to follow.
Gold Rush: Though you lose four seniors, many of the top contributors you have coming back are sophomores, giving you two years to build with that group, and the freshmen gave you good minutes.
Curtis: They did give us good minutes, and the freshman class we have coming in will give us good minutes. I feel good about what we have coming back. I really feel that though we're losing experience with China, Tish (LaTisha Pearson), Adell and Val (Klopfer), we're gaining skill with the freshman class coming in.
And we'll still have a lot of experience. Tiffani Listenbee has played a lot of games for us. Heather Miller, though she's been injured, she's still a leader for us. And Johanna (Bjorklund) is a basketball person who has been around the sport a long time. Those three will provide solid leadership for us. But in terms of production, our sophomores do bring a lot to the table.
Gold Rush: Is Heather ever going to get healthy?
Curtis: I hope so. We're really going to have her continue rehabbing this spring and the early part of summer before she gets back out on the court. She hasn't gone a week without issues with her back, and she needs to go a month without those issues before she gets back out there. She doesn't have as much pain, but she still has a lot of discomfort.
Gold Rush: Tell me about the freshmen that gave you a spark.
Curtis: Erin (Ferrell) was probably our most consistent freshman. She's a coach's daughter, so she understands what it is to work hard and she understood roles. She understood where she fit into the picture. She'll always give you 100 percent effort. She'll get on the floor, get that rebound, make that defensive stop, and she'll knock down a shot when you least expect it.
Jennifer Johnson probably has the most potential. She had a yo-yo year, up and down. I won't say we didn't need her, but when Eafton was healthy, JJ didn't play as much. When Eafton was hurt, JJ played more. We have to find ways to get her in the game more. She brings an element we don't have. She has good court vision, she's a good passer, good size and strength, and she shot the ball really well against Maryland to bring us back into that game at the tournament. She's having a minor foot surgery, so won't be with us for a lot of the spring, but she's the type of player who will work hard to get herself back.
Meredith Bell, we look for her to be a better ballhandler. Our two-guard has to be able to run the point for us, and Meredith couldn't do that this year. That's why her time was limited. We have to have two ballhandlers, maybe three, who can run those sets on the floor at the same time. She never got comfortable with that. As she matures, that'll improve.
Gold Rush: So now, it seems like you have the players, and things continue to get better. What next?
Curtis: We now have players of the caliber of the ACC. Our skills have gotten better. There were only two teams this year in the league that we didn't match up with, Duke and N.C. State. Nobody beat Duke, and we have a mental block against N.C. State. We got past the Clemson block this year, and we'll get past some more next year.
Gold Rush: How is the team's mindset?
Curtis: Very positive. The group that's coming back, they have fun, they enjoy one another, and they're fun to be around. I'm looking forward to next year, because we'll be able to challenge the team, they'll appreciate it, welcome the challenge, and laugh at things when things get light. The personality of the team will change.
We have players who obviously believe this is the right place to be for them. We truly believe we can win. Sometimes it takes big wins to get that, but this team is crazy enough that they don't realize they're not supposed to win.
What we have to establish is that killer instinct. We got off to good starts, but we had lulls, almost like our counterparts on the men's side. But next year's team has to say, we know how to start games, and have the ability to sustain it.
SIDEBAR
Curtis honored for contributions to African American community
The Winston-Salem Chronicle honored Charlene Curtis during its 19th annual Community Service Awards banquet on March 14, presenting her with a Special Recognition Award.
Curtis "has paved the path for African American women in the basketball coaching profession," according to the plaque she was given at the banquet.
Curtis, who became a Division I head coach at Radford in 1984, is the first black women's basketball coach in the ACC.
"As an African American woman, I've opened doors at this level," Curtis said. "I've excelled to a level that someone like me can be in a place that in the past we weren't...we didn't have those opportunities.
"I just feel a responsibility to do well so that door stays open. I think that's happened on the men's side, where you look at the NCAA tournament, and see African American coaches, and go, 'Who's he? Who's he?' You used to could name them all. I think that's good, because our culture is very diverse. On the women's side right now, you can still name them all.
"For me, it was good to be a part of that early at Radford, and now here at Wake Forest, it's good to leave a positive footprint."
