Nov. 2, 2010
Aztec Athletics Center
Head Coach Beth Burns
Opening Statement:
"It's really a big week for us. We have a lot of new faces we're trying to integrate into our team this year and we're not really where I want us to be right now. We aren't where we should be and we need to improve that. We've have two great opportunities - UCSD is the seventh ranked team in Division II and UCLA is the 12th-ranked team in Division I. I'm really familiar with the head coach of UCSD (Charity Elliott). She used to be one of my assistants (at SDSU) and I know they're going to bring it. So we have a lot of work to do to get ready and see where we are."
On if it is harder to build a program or maintain a program at a high level:
"You could argue that neither is easy. Sustaining excellence is a challenge. Think of any constructions project you've ever had and not seeing orange cones and flags because of construction delays. We had two ACL injuries last year that are really impactful now. Seven of our 12 players did not play college basketball last year. We're inexperienced in a competitive setting. Our skills are good, our condition is good but we're inexperienced in a competitive setting. Every little part of a game that you come to have a comfort zone with in an experienced group is an adventure with a new group. Our level of inexperience for a myriad of different reasons has us in a situation where all we can do is compete and learn from competing."
On importance of players knowing their role last season:
"With seven new people, 18 practices and no games, roles are defined as you go on through the season. We don't have a starting five yet. Five will start Thursday and then five will start against UCLA. I don't know if that will be our starting five. We haven't earned five spots yet. We haven't figured out a rotation yet. We're still in that process and it's going to take games for that to happen."
On the importance of the post players playing well with such an inexperienced team this year:
"Last year, if our interior was average we could still win a game. If our interior was good to great we played great. If our interior doesn't lead us in scoring, rebounding and defending (this year) it's going to be very difficult for us. But that's the juniors and seniors. They're all juniors and seniors, three-fifths of our team is returning from a very successful run. I think the challenge is the players that are returning have different roles. Paris' (Johnson) role is different, Coco's (Davis) role is different. So they're returning, but they have different leadership and productivity expectations than they have had in the past. I'm confident with our team."
On her coaching philosophy going into this season:
"Without question, you knew going into this year it was going to be about teaching. Teaching is always a two-way street. Our challenge right now is we have a lot of people who are use to deferring to someone else. Everything about Aztec basketball is to be proactive rather than reactive. It's to be aggressive rather than defer. We need to pick up our competitive level in practice and be more aggressive. "