Ann Strother Quotations

When you think back to our freshmen year, it was kind of like, if anyone got off the bench and got in, you wanted to see them do as much as they could. It's just awesome to see.

To play like that in front of so many people who have made the program what it is, you just want to go jump in a hole.

We want it. In the Stanford game last year, I was horrible, and I think we all played pretty bad. That is something we are determined not to let happen again, and I think we are good enough when we are focused not to let it happen again.

There is a sense of urgency. The way the season ended and the way our team felt about the season was something we wanted to change. It was on our minds constantly. Everyone is really excited about the season. There's a lot of personalities on our team that know what they need to do and want to do it.

We really have come so far just in this year. That sense is still among all of us that we really should be at the Final Four.

We really have come a long way and accomplished a lot. It's going to be hard for me to realize that and I'm not going to be in a Connecticut jersey any more. I don't think that's really set in and I don't want it to either.

We really have been through a lot and done a lot of different things and had two national championships. We really have done a lot.

There are only four of us that have played against them.

She?s unbelievably important. I think everyone has their little role that they play and she?s got a pretty big role and she?s doing a great job. She?s playing with the most confidence that she could ever have and I think that?s something that we all feed off.

She's a tough competitor, fun to be around. She's just a gym rat.

She?s definitely frustrated about not being able to play as many minutes in practice and in games as she would like to, but I think she?s handling it really well. As long as she just stays positive, like she is, and does as much as she can, that?s all we can ask for. Right now, we?re just going by how she feels day to day and hoping that her knee feels good for the end of the year.

She's more experienced. If you look back at some of the mistakes that she made earlier in the season, she's not making those kind of mistakes any more. Having played in the North Carolina game, having played in the Rutgers game, against a team like Georgia she's going to face some quick guards again and she's going to be ready this time I think.

Shots weren't falling. I felt like we had a lot of good looks and we couldn't get them to go down. It wasn't easy, and we made it harder on ourselves than we needed to. Defensively, we've been pretty consistent all year. It's something we could always rely on. Offensively, we have work to do.

She even makes sure we have panty hose on when we go to banquets. She just wants us to be our best and do our best and look our best all the time.

Monday's game means nothing if we hadn't won tonight. There were a lot of emotions coming out of the ceremony, but when it was time to play, everyone was ready to go.

Maybe it was them playing four days in a row and us playing three games in a row; I don't know. I guess it was just one of those nights.

Obviously, there's a certain amount of time you have to put in before you're even allowed to be nominated for something like that. Realistically, I think that it's something he should have and could have gotten a lot earlier if the time restrictions hadn't been put in. I think he's always acted like a Hall of Fame coach.

I was talking to Rebecca Lobo earlier and she was saying something about how she knew I wanted to play with some Connecticut players just because you know them and you know how they play.

I guess I never really look at it that way. I'm not, in a game, feeling like I should or shouldn't shoot. If I become open, I'm going to shoot.

I don't ever really feel like I get tired when I'm on the court. I just want to play and do whatever I can. As a senior you look at every game and you could see kind of an end coming and you want to be in there as much as you can and make the most of it.

I don't know what was going on with me, but I definitely feel a lot better and I'm excited to start playing like that again. It's kind like freshman year. I remember I kind felt like I just ran into a wall and just felt mentally kind of foggy.

I don't know what it is. I think we have to really focus a lot more and everyone has to pay attention to detail and really kind of buckle down and make sure we do everything.

Knowing that we were two points from being in Boston (is tough).

I think we?re all realizing that it?s the culmination of our last regular season. This is the time where every senior in the past had to step up and make things happen; (Will?s) been playing like crunch time for the past couple games.

I think we definitely have some things that we need to prove to ourselves, not to anybody else. That's obvious. Right now I feel like everyone's in a really good place and ready to go into postseason play.

I think we were still hoping for something to have happened, something to maybe give us another chance.

I think when something like that happens you just kind of have to play through other people. You kind of feed off of them and just hope to get back and find yourself somehow. So that's what I tried to do and finally I feel like I'm kind of coming back.

I think it was just a crucial play that we needed at a big point in the game. Either they were going to get the momentum back on their side and continue to kind of chip away at us and you could've seen something that happened the other night. It definitely was a big play. Coach called it up and Barbara set a great screen. I was wide open.

I think that's what makes it so frustrating. You look at a game like tonight and you see how good we can look and then you say the only reason we lost tonight is because we beat ourselves. We let another team come back into it and we mentally kind of got shaken. I think that's something that's going to be the biggest thing going into the (Big East and NCAA) tournaments.

I think that's the way that coach has always, kind of something he's always been know for. He knows how to prepare a team for this time of year.

Overall, it felt like we didn't come and play. We wanted to build off the LSU game and it felt like we took a step back. We were scatterbrained for whatever reason. We'll get it back. We all know what we have to do.

It feels good; it feels fine. This is more preventative stuff than anything.

It feels really good to have this opportunity right now. But we still have things we want to get done. We're not just happy making it to the Elite Eight. That's not going to be a successful season if we end there. So I think we're taking that as an opportunity and we're ready to continue to build on it.

I think she?s really coming into who she can really be and I think that?s a big reason why coach has been so hard on her, he?s seen the talent in her. For her to play like this, she just took it all on her back tonight and got us a win.

I think he?s always acted like a Hall of Fame coach.

I think going into the tournament if it gets to that situation, that?s something that I would definitely look to try to do. Make sure everyone is calm and try to step up and get us out of that little drought.

I think I was fortunate. I came into a situation as a freshman where I had the opportunity to play right away. And a lot of freshmen don't have that opportunity.

I think this is a good win for us, but there's always something you can take from it. Obviously, tonight being up 19 and then letting them kind of come back and then having it down to the wire the last few minutes is something that we need to work on. And we need to develop some maturity if we want to be as good as we can be in the (NCAA) tournament.

I think this is a crucial time. I don't think it's something that you can just look past to just get through it. I think right now is a time when we really need to come together and figure out who we are and what we need to be to go into the second half of the season.

That's the reason you come to Connecticut every single year. You hope to be in that situation so everyone that came here and everyone that's here right now definitely thought we'd be here. I don't think there's anybody on our team right now that's lacking confidence. We have a lot of momentum. We have a lot of energy and we're ready to play.

That?s the one thing that Coach is really kind of harping on right now and frustrated with more than anything, the fact that we do get up and then let teams come back in. Then we force him to have a heart attack before we pull it out. I think it?s good to see (that we were able to close the deal Sunday); it?s a good win for us, but that?s something that we still need to work on.

We put it all on the line. We didn't need him to tell us what we had to do, but sometimes it adds a little boost.

We have some momentum on our side, definitely. I think the biggest thing is that we know we can kind of push through some things and come through a lot of adversity and count on each other. So I think that's something that's really important going into the tournament.

To have all of us go somewhere, to be all on the West Coast, too, it?s going to be really neat.

Winning on the road is one of the most important things. You have to have things going against you and show that you can overcome it.

When you play teams like that, they are more desperate. They're going to play with a sense of urgency.

We were experiencing a little lull at the time when they were going on a run. We needed to step up and make something happen.

We all came here because we wanted to be part of this program. It's about tradition, about the players who have been here.

We all left that meeting kind of feeling renewed. He just kind of laid it all out on the line. I think the most important thing that came out of it is that it's not too late for us to really make our mark and to make the postseason go the way we want it to. And I think we've all just made a conscious effort of being better leaders and doing whatever we need to do for our teammates.

You look at Barbara, Will, all of us, this is when Connecticut starts to play. When the tournaments come, this is when we always play our best.

Brittany's really the only true post that we have on this team, someone that's just a big force inside. So anytime we get her in the game it kind of adds another dimension.

There's just so many things going through your head as a freshman knowing the plays, knowing when to cut, knowing what to do. It really is tough to find that kind of balance as a freshman. I think it's something you have to kind of play through to find, too. It's just part of being a freshman.

It was a little frustrating, but I think for the most part we did a poor job defensively. We kind of slapped at them and let them go by us.

It was a little frustrating because it was unexpected. Nobody really felt that we were going to go into this game playing as poorly as we did. There's no way to explain it. It's just an off night.

Sometimes you're just going to have games like that for whatever reason. And just for us to be able to kind of push through it and tough it out, it's definitely a good sign. It's a sign of maturity for our team.

The most overwhelming feelings I have right now are being frustrated and angry. You replay things in your head that you let slip away and it makes you so mad. The hardest feeling for me personally is feeling that I didn't do what I needed to do to represent the program.

Definitely a lot is riding on this game. I think it?s definitely a big game for both teams.

Coach, we don't want you to give up on us.

That's just something we've been focused on doing, coming out, giving it our all. Just knowing that it's the end of four years, we want to make the most of every situation.

That's great. She is probably so happy. She's a homebody and close to her family.

This is one of the most important parts of the season no matter who we play because right now we just have to worry about us and what we need to do and try to get some sort of rhythm going in the second half of the season. Regardless of who we play right now, it's just a really important part of the season.

A lot is riding on this game, definitely. A conference title is behind it. Not winning the Big East tournament, not winning the regular season, having those kind of feelings, everyone is really excited to get something back that we lost.

There was a time where nothing was really going on and it was kind of stagnant. I think we needed to get something going if we were going to win. So this was the time.

There were a lot of different moments you wish you could have again. The feeling all night was the victory was right there. Defensively, we did all we could. We really wanted it. Falling two points short is so hard to deal with. I don't want to feel like this again.

This last stretch was good. Although we didn't play tougher teams, it was an important stretch. We could start to build some momentum going into the conference.

They're definitely not going to take any back steps right now. We have to be ready for them to come out and play with everything they have at this time of the year.

It?s just an unbelievable experience. To come into it and have no idea where you?re going to go and find out within minutes, I think it?s really exciting. I can?t wait.

It's execution on our part. The fact we scored 12 points in the second half pretty much sums it up. We need to get back to working on executing and taking care of every little detail.

It was embarrassing to the program, to everyone that's played here, to the name on our jersey. They just came in and walked all over us and we didn't do anything about it.

It's gone on for a long enough period of time. They know what to expect. Things that we're going to have to come back here for and finish up, they're really understanding.

It's hard to put into words what Coach has meant to me and to all of us. He does more than just coach. The whole program at Connecticut is built on developing girls into women. With what he's done for the sport, all our players past and present, he deserves it. He's special.

It?s hard to explain the situation and how you?re feeling because there?s so many different emotions and you have no control over it. So you feel useless really, like there?s nothing you can do, but it?s exciting.

It's really frustrating, even more so as a friend, because you want to see her have success. But to her credit, everything she's done, she's done on her own. She's really grown and been able to forget about mistakes and play without those inhibitions.

It's pretty difficult to deal with, especially to feel that you had it right there and let it slip away. I think all of us really felt like we deserved to be in there, the Final Four, and we wanted it. It just didn't happen.

Connecticut fans are the best, especially here in Bridgeport. When we were here two years ago, we had unbelievable fan support and it's just the most unbelievable atmosphere to play as a college athlete. The fans are great.

You think you'd get sick of each other eventually. But it doesn't ever seem to get like that.

That's something that Coach was harping on (during the break) at practice. We didn't have a game for like 11 days, but those days at practice, that's all we were doing, just running and pushing the ball in transition and trying to get more points off transition.

It's so hard to feel that my college career is over. It will be hard to watch the Final Four on TV. The seniors have been through a lot. We won two NCAA titles but this isn't the way we wanted it to end.

It's definitely different having to go somewhere for the first time, not being at home for the first two games. But that's kind of exciting, too. No matter where you play, no matter who you're playing against, it's tournament time and that's always fun.

It's hard, because you're just coming off the season and having to move on. There's so many different emotions. I'm just going to do the most I can and do all the things I'm capable of, and at the same time have some fun with it.

It's being more mature and not kind of playing street ball or throwing it around or being careless with it. That's a good sign.

It was never a part of my mindset, thinking that we were ever going to lose. I never thought of it that way, but it was more like we have to go on a run right now. We have to make something go our way right now.

Oh, I'm planning on it. I'm playing. I mean, I just figure I would. I really don't think it's that big a deal. I don't feel it when I'm walking. Some days are better than others.

It's tough because we've never played them before. All we need to know is they're a good team.

They'll be ready to come out. They have had a great season so far.

Not playing wasn't going to happen. It's one of things that you have to take care of, but it's not a big deal.

Anytime you have a point guard who can get in there and draw a lot of defense and kick it, it makes it easy on the shooters. She?s really matured a lot from last year. I think she realizes now how important she is in our offense and what abilities she really has to make everything work.

I'm definitely fortunate to be in that situation and have that opportunity. I was really lucky to come in as a freshman and play right away. Probably sometimes I didn't deserve to be out there.

I'm really excited because I felt D made me a better player. When I played with her, I felt like I was playing at the best of my abilities. To get a chance to play with somebody who makes you better is going to be just a great, great opportunity for me.

I knew the momentum was either going to go their way or ours. Will Crockett and Barbara Turner set some awesome screens and I finally hit some shots. As a senior in this position, you want to leave everything out there.

If I were in Duke's position, I wouldn't think anything of it. The goals are still the same. You have to stay focused. And I think they'll be just as focused.

I had to get something going for us to win this.

If you asked us after the North Carolina game (loss in December) if we would get to this point, nobody would have believed it. But we all worked so hard to get here.

I just think we have all the things you need right now. I feel like if everybody does their piece and plays up to their potential, there is no team that can stop us. I honestly believe that. It's great to think about it like that. Being in the Final Four and having won the national championship twice, we have seen what it takes to win. I see that in us now.

Being in that position knowing that something needed to happen and wanting to really take over and be that person who made something happen was important. I think that is just something I felt like I needed to do before. I am trying to be that kind of steady person we need to have going into the (NCAA) tournament.

He's somebody who's going to tell you exactly what he thinks and when he thinks it with the goal in mind that he's trying to make you better. It's pretty much all straight forward, whatever he's thinking and whatever is on his mind. I think sometimes that there's probably things that he wants to say to us that he can't, too.

I don't really ever feel like I'm not feeling it. Even if you're in one of those slumps, I guess you just shoot your way out of it. Every time I'm open I'm going to shoot.

I feel like everyone knows what?s on the line. Everyone knows what we have to do to get it done.

All I've been doing recently is trying to figure it out with my teachers and get caught up and get ahead. Whatever I can do to make sure I'm not taking the finals without having any sort of knowledge of what they're on. I'm doing a lot of teacher meetings right now.

The meeting was significant. We were at a point in the season where we wanted the responsibility and needed to let coach know that, good or bad, we're making it our responsibility.