Gold Rush: Curtis Postseason 2003
4/16/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
April 16, 2003
The Wake Forest women's basketball team took another step toward respectability this season, finishing with a 13-15 record that left it just short of qualifying for the Women's NIT. Senior Tiffani Listenbee led the ACC in field-goal percentage and earned All-ACC third-team mention, and Cotelia Bond-Young was a member of the league's All-Freshman team. Coach Charlene Curtis discussed the season with Gold Rush's Jay Reddick. The following is their conversation:
Gold Rush: There were some rough spots this year, but if you had beaten Georgia Tech in the regular-season finale, you would have been eligible for a postseason bid.
Curtis: We needed two wins out of the last three games, we got one. If you look back, we were up by one at N.C. State with 21 seconds left, and we didn't get it done. We didn't play well at Georgia Tech. They're probably a little better team than us this year. We struggled to defend their inside game, and they had balance from the outside.
But you don't want to be in that position where you have to count on those last games. We had a nine-game losing streak that really hurt us, but our players never quit. I could always walk into practice and find optimism. This year, I always felt like we could win the next game, and I hadn't always felt that way. You always hope for it, but I had a true belief that we could win every game this year. We gave a good effort, but we fell short.
Gold Rush: The season started well, with only one loss outside the ACC.
Curtis: You have to win the non-conference games. And we beat some teams we had lost to the year before, like UAB and Western Carolina. Even when we played High Point, we had played them close, and we just went out and dominated them. We won the games we were supposed to win. SMU was a tough loss, at SMU, a solid team, in an overtime game. We felt good about how we played our non-conference schedule, but there was a difference in talent in the conference.
We started off (the ACC schedule) well, a two-point loss to Florida State, and then turned right around and beat Virginia. We felt good about where we were, but we didn't make progress from there. As soon as we lost, we didn't handle it well. But we still didn't quit.
We were a better team this year. We won only one more game (than last year), but we were more competitive. That's what our administration sees is that progress. Everybody wants us to get over the hump, and we see it coming.
We're losing a really good player in Tiffani Listenbee. I was so proud of her. She did a better job of staying out of foul trouble, and she shot the ball better. She probably has one of the highest shooting percentages we've had in a long while.
Gold Rush: What about the talent you have coming back?
Curtis: I feel good about it. We're adding lots of new players. Keila Evans played for us a little bit, but she didn't participate in a lot of skill workouts. She's almost like a new player with experience.
Porsche Jones was injured all year but was always there watching. She should be at 100 percent this spring, and then it will just be a matter of conditioning. I think she's a leader, a pure point guard, and a winner.
And then we'll add Sandi James, who redshirted. She made tremendous improvements during the year. The one signee to this point is Melissa Washington, a low-post player.
I think we've got some players on the team who haven't yet given us what they're capable of. I'm hoping Jennifer Johnson will blossom for us. Liz Strunk had a real good freshman year, and Cotelia Bond-Young had a real good freshman year. I think we'll get more out of both of them.
Gold Rush: Bond-Young, in particular, became a big part of your team down the stretch.
Curtis: And nobody talked about her in preseason. I said to people, "I know you don't know anything about her right now, but you will." And she finished second on the (ACC) All-Freshman team. She was very deserving, and she knows she needs to get better. She needs to shoot better, and become a better leader at the point guard spot. She never played point guard, she was a two-guard in high school. She'll play both for us again next year - we'll have to see how things break down with Porsche and with Bianca Brown. We played with only three guards for a lot of the season, which I think made it difficult at times.
Gold Rush: Some other players bring plenty of experience back next year.
Curtis: I liked Tonia Brown's growth. She wasn't just a 3-point shooter, she put the ball on the floor more. She played some point guard for us, and she was able to adapt to the situations we put her in. She led us in assists and had a positive assist-to-turnover ratio. She didn't score as many points, but she shot the ball better as she went along. Relatively speaking, she played a better floor game.
Erin Ferrell stepped up really well down the stretch. Bianca was challenged a little bit by Cotelia, and she had some big games. She provided a lot of leadership, shot the 3-pointer better than she had in the past. She's a gutsy player who will always play hard. It was good to have Tracy Alston back in the second semester. She worked out the whole time she was out and brought us good energy when she came back.
Gold Rush: It sounds like you come out of this season disappointed but optimistic.
Curtis: In the past we talked about moral victories. Now, competing is a given. It's about winning. Other people are praising us for how we played in games, but we didn't win. Playing Duke close in the ACC Tournament felt good two years ago, it didn't feel good this year.
