Press Conference Audio
DURHAM, NC--All of the Winthrop women's basketball players with the exception of freshman Zoe Vernon got their first look inside Cameron Indoor Stadium on Friday afternoon as they met their mandatory practice day and media day interview obligations in preparation for Saturday's NCAA Championship game with No. 2 seed Duke.
Vernon played at nearby Carolina Friends High School just 10 minutes away from the Duke campus in Chapel Hill, but for the other 13 members of the team Friday's practice was another first. Dequesha McClanahan said she was somewhat surprised at how tight everything was in terms of space in the 9,000-seat facility.
Surprisingly, head coach Kevin Cook didn't try to replay the scene from the movie "Hoosiers" when fictitious coach Norman Dale took out a tape measure to show the distance from the free throw line to the goal was 15 feet and the floor to the rim is still 10 feet.
Winthrop will meet Duke at 11 a.m. in its first ever NCAA tournament appearance and the players expect the historical facility to be rocking, but the experience has not seemed to phase them.
"We know we have nothing to lose," said McClanahan, Winthrop's three-time Big South Conference Player of the Year and 2014 Mid-Major All-American. "We're going to come out, play hard and leave it all out there. Whatever happens, happens."
Cook has great respect for Duke, but he has strong faith in his team that captured its first Big South Conference title in school history and enters the tournament with a 24-8 record.
"We're very happy to be here and represent Winthrop University and the Big South Conference. I'm proud of the whole team. We deserve to be here and we're looking forward to tomorrow," said Cook. "Duke is one of the elite programs in the country. We're going to come in with no fear. If we can survive the first five minutes of the game I think we're going to be golden. That's what happened to us at South Carolina. We dug ourselves a 14-0 hole, but we learned from that game, we've matured since then and in a nutshell, this is a one game series. You don't have to win four out of seven, three out of five. We have to win one game and we are really looking forward to it."
Tiffany Charles, Winthrop's only other senior, agrees with her coach's philosophy. "Basically, from that game (South Carolina) we learned that we can play with anyone. We have the talent. Once we're able to work and play our brand of basketball, we can hang with any team."
As far as playing in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Coach K Court, Eagle freshman forward Erica Williams said, "It's great opportunity. Playing here at Duke is a big deal for us, but we're out here to play basketball, so that's what we are going to do."
McClanahan, who is completing a record-setting career in which she has become the career scoring and assist leader in school and Big South Conference history, reflected back over her four years in response to a reporter's question.
"I think a lot has changed for myself, as well as my teammates, especially Tiffany Charles and Samiya Wright, who have been at Winthrop with me for the last four years. We came in with the mentality that we wanted to get something out of our senior year. We've all had the same mentality, and I could just tell that from our freshman year to now, a lot has changed and we've matured."
Cook told the media that his team is playing its best when it is playing up-tempo. "As you saw in the finals of the Big South Tournament, we put it in overdrive. Like Duke, we have five players that average over 30 minutes a game. When we can get some contributions from our bench, that's icing and we're going to need to hit some 3-balls tomorrow, no doubt about it. We've got some capable players to do so. We're looking forward to them getting in there and making a couple. One being Zoe Vernon who only lives 10 minutes from here. So we're excited."
The second game of Saturday's doubleheader in Durham will pit No. 7 Depaul against No. 10 Oklahoma. The winners of the two games will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday to decide who marches on to the Sweet Sixteen in Lincoln., NE.
