March 12, 2007

Maryland Head Coach Brenda Frese

On being a two seed for the second consecutive year:
"We're very happy about it. We know what we were able to do last year. Twice would be nice. We understand how difficult it is going to be, but I'm confident. I believe in this team, and I know that in any match-up that we have, we're going to go out and give it our best shot."

On the Dayton region:
"Any of these regions would be tough. Every team that makes the NCAA Tournament is going to come out ready to play. We saw that last year with Utah, who had a chance to go to the Final Four. We just have to come out ready to play forty minutes."

On the team going into the tournament:
"I feel like this year has been an evolution for our team. I like where we are. Defensively, I think that we have made tremendous strides, and that is where we have to be at this point in the season."

On the youth the team still has:
"You have to be able to have perspective. What we did last year was obviously a year or so away from any of our expectations. Still now we only have two seniors on our roster, so we're a young team, and we're just going to continue to get better."

On the star power of the Dayton region:
"Obviously you have Courtney Paris of Oklahoma and Candace Parker of Tennessee, not to mention Jessica Davenport of Ohio State as players that are up for player of the year. These teams are all well-coached, and we're just going to have to come out and execute our game plan."

On first-round opponent Harvard:
"Harvard is always well-coached and extremely disciplined. I'm going to track some tape down tonight and start to really look at them."

Maryland Junior Crystal Langhorne

On the excitement of the Selection Show:
"I think it is really exciting. Just watching highlights from the game, I know we are going to be fired up right now."

On winning another NCAA championship:
"I definitely think we can. Right now we just had a real hard week of practice. We are just really focused on getting better game by game right now."

Maryland Junior Ashleigh Newman

On the commentary for Maryland:
"You have to like everything they said. You have to take it in and use some of it as motivation."

On what motivates the team going into the tournament:
"Our bracket. They said we have the toughest bracket and that is definitely a challenge to the team to step up and play hard."

Maryland Guard Kristi Toliver

On playing in the NCAA tournament:
"It's not going to be easy; it's going to be a battle. I like our bracket a lot."

On playing in another NCAA tournament and trying to make another Final Four:
"I'm excited. I'm glad we're going, and I'm glad we're in the toughest bracket. This team is full of talent and we're just looking forward to being back to back National Champs."

On why teams should Fear the Turtle:
"We have a lot of talent and the determination and experience we need to get the job done."

Maryland Guard Marissa Coleman

On the commentators comment on the team's lack of quality wins:
"We all agree with them. We all agree that we don't have that big win like we did last year. We weren't able to beat Duke or North Carolina, but that doesn't mean anything. It's a new season and it's tournament time. We've been practicing hard and we're ready to get back on the court."

On the difficulty of defending a title:
"I think it's very hard. I think it's why we suffered the losses we did and don't have any big, quality wins. We're putting so much pressure on ourselves trying to have that perfect season as defending National Champions, but we're back to playing loose and playing Maryland basketball. You'll see the Maryland team you saw last year that won the championship."

On differences between this year and last year heading into the tournament:
"Last year is behind us, now it's time to try and win another one."

Maryland Guard Shay Doron:

On the Dayton region:
"I think we've got a great bracket. Like the commentators said we are the best No. 2 seed. No 2 seeds won it the last two years, so we're hoping that will happen again."

On being the last tournament seed announced:
"I feel like we're the last team every year. It doesn't matter, except that it's out and we know who we're playing."

On being a two seed again:
"We feel like we can beat any team, honestly. When we go out on the court and play we feel like we match up well with anybody, it doesn't matter who you are."

On repeating as national champions:
"This team can definitely repeat. The way we're looking in practice right now is really encouraging. Like Coach Frese said, we've had the best two weeks of practice that we've had all year."