Melanie Balcomb Quotations

North Carolina works their butt off, and they happen to be athletic and talented and that's a combination I think is very tough. That's why I think they have a great chance to win it. They didn't let us outwork them. We worked hard, but they did too.

We're a better team than the first time we played North Carolina. We have better confidence in what we are doing.

That's what we've been doing. Moving the ball around and sharing the ball. Tonight we had 32 assists on 35 baskets, and that's really nice. It shows me that we're really starting to develop as a team.

And I hope the rims are familiar when we shoot.

I didn't grow up with the rivalry, either. In this conference, every game is a big game. You can't make it any bigger than any other game.

The big thing was that we broke down defensively at the start of the second half. Checking out was a huge problem. On offense, we didn't execute. LSU had some steals and stripped us a couple of times. They got some easy transition buckets off steals.

What's really nice about having freshman is that you don't expect much of them. So when they do good, it's an added bonus.

It's people like her why you grow up wanting to be a coach and get to this level.

I like that. It's been three games where we really depend on those two juniors. We have a lot of new people on the floor in key situations and we have to count on Dee and Carla. I like how they've played in the first three (SEC) games.

We had to be mentally tough. We were down, and they were playing well. We changed our defense and got some stops. Finishing with a 13-0 run, it is the zero I like. I like the effort on defense.