Gail Goestenkors
Gail Goestenkors
Gail Ann Goestenkors, is an American basketball coach who was most recently an assistant coach with the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association. Previously, she was an assistant coach of the Los Angeles Sparks. Indiana Fever,...
battle bitter came certainly determine fight final game
It was certainly a battle to get here. We all had at least one game that we really had to fight through that came right down to the bitter end to determine who would get to the Final Four.
character felt finish great history necessary pressure ugly win
It was the most ugly win in the history of our program. We felt the pressure a bit. But we did what was necessary . . . We showed great character to finish the job.
battle loose war work
It was a war out there. It was a battle for every rebound, for every loose ball, for every play they made us work and I think we did the same for them as well.
decided game half inside left played second wide
They decided to try and take away our inside game and played a zone, particularly in the first half, and that left our shooters wide open. Then in the second half we got our inside game going.
avoid conflict explode situations stressful tie
They avoid conflict as long as possible. Then they explode in stressful situations like when it's a tie game, when you need a cohesive unit.
crowd environment fed several
We've been in this environment several times. Now we use it to our advantage. We fed off the crowd, and the crowd fed off us.
available bench definitely impact major minutes players playing possible sit start willing work
Years ago, players were willing to come in and sit on the bench for one or two years and work their way into the lineup. And now so many players come in and they want to start right away. They definitely want to make an impact right away. When you have 15 available scholarships it's not possible to have 15 players playing major minutes right away.
recognize tapes watched
We've watched enough tapes of them to recognize they are scrappy.
against ball convert decisions easy good half pay teams turn turning
When you turn the ball over, they're going to make you pay for it. Let me put it that way. Against some teams you can get away with turning the ball over 23 times. Carolina, if you turn it over 23 times, they're probably going to make you pay on at least half of them and convert them into easy shots. We just didn't make good decisions with the basketball.
basically depth ended experience five game great last luxury shows starting
When you think about it, we ended the game basically with our starting five from last year. So that's a great luxury to have. That just shows the depth of the team, the experience of the team.
floor hustle matter night score throughout
Throughout the game, we had a lot of hustle plays, no matter what the score was. We got on the floor all night long, and that's what need to do.
change good knew opportunity win
We knew win or lose, it was just one game. It doesn't change anything. It was an opportunity to find out how good we were. Today, we were pretty good.
against coming defense extremely felt great knew pleased second strong team
We knew we were coming up against a strong team with a great tradition. I'm extremely pleased with our effort, especially with our defense in the second half, which I felt was the difference.
anyone beaten chip country fact freedom great playing possibly respect seem shoulder talking team twice
The fact that they are playing with great freedom -- they seem to have a chip on their shoulder while they've been here, talking about respect. I don't think that anyone now could possibly not respect them. It would be interesting to see if they can still say that because, in my mind, they've beaten the No. 1 team (North Carolina) in the country twice so I see them right now as the No. 1 team in the country.