Peter Koutroumpis (@pksport)
#NCAAW #NCAAWBB
RALEIGH, NC – Play in the First Round of the 2024 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament kicks off at Reynolds Coliseum at Noon on Saturday.
Game 1 – 12.p.m. Noon – Tennessee (19-12) vs Green Bay (27-6) (NCAA.com)
What they said:
Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper:
I’ve actually been kind of a fan of Green Bay the last several years. I’ve been able to watch them multiple times except for this year. This is the one year I didn’t get to watch them play throughout the season. But very familiar with their style of play, their brand of basketball, and how well they play together on the court and how tough they are. I’ve always enjoyed watching them play, and I understand what we’re facing. It’s a really tough team, a team that executes at an elite level. You can pull up stats and see that. And we know it’s a team that knows how to win. I think that’s also a big statement about that basketball club.
I think our level of focus has been really good. I think they’ve been on top of things. Just even observing body language in our film sessions, they’re pretty locked in. As a coach, you hope that translates to the game when it’s time to play because they really have done everything right this week.
Green Bay head coach Kevin Borseth:
We really don’t have a superstar. It’s good and bad. We don’t have the player to go to if we
need to get something. It’s the strength of the group. Really is. There is strength in numbers. We’re pretty balanced. I think we have four, maybe five players that average in double figures, maybe at the highest 12 or 13 points a game. Kind of run a system where there is an opening, you kind of find it. If you’re fast enough to get to that opening, you might get some points. If you’re not quick enough you may not get it. Pretty balanced for the most part. We’re not a one-player dominant system. All of our players have got some skill. As a result, we have a multitude of kids that are leaders in scoring and rebounding during the course of the year.First of all, I want to tell you a little bit of nostalgia you probably don’t know. The two winningest programs in NCAA women’s basketball college history are Green Bay and Tennessee. For the winningest seasons. Each one of us got 45 winning seasons. Tennessee is 1 and Green Bay a No. 2. Look that up. That’s kind of interesting. Carol Hammerly started that for Green Bay many years ago. We’ve been able to carry it through to this point right now.
Game 2 – 2:30 p.m. – #3 NC State (27-6) vs Chattanooga (28-4) (NCAA.com)
What they said:
NC State head coach Wes Moore:
Obviously you have to come out and play well. I knew in my mind about a week ago, at least, that they would probably send Chattanooga and Tennessee over here because they love a storyline. Again, tough, I spent 15 years at Chattanooga. Love the university. Love the town. Love the people. And then Tennessee, Kellie and Jon Harper are two of my dearest friends. So not excited about playing them. We’ve tried to avoid each other in the past, other than scrimmages. So it’s tough from that standpoint.
But we’ve got to take it one game at a time. I think one of the Twitter accounts or whatever, X accounts, 94 feet, I think they predicted this was the number one possible upset, us against Chattanooga. So we saw what happened last night on the men’s side. So you can’t take anything for granted. And you’ve got to make sure you’re playing at your best and hope you’re hitting shots and maybe they miss a few.
Chattanooga head coach Shawn Poppie:
Well, they’re really talented. You look all up and down the roster, they’re very talented. Really I think what I admire is the sense of Coach Moore, he’s been the same Wes Moore for as long as I’ve known him. Even the stuff that they run is not necessarily overly new. It’s just that they’ve got good players running it and he knows how to put them in position and call a game.
Yeah, they’re bigger at every position, I think, on the floor, especially the starting group. I think that you’ve got to try to take advantage on one end with our ability to space the floor. Offensively we led our conference in 3-point field goal percentage and we’ll have to shoot the ball well to really space them out. The more we get them in tighter spaces, their length becomes very, very effective. So that’s first and foremost.
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