North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Pack Women Open ACC Play Vs. Maryland
1/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
RALEIGH, N.C. – From her playing days in high school basketball and church league softball to the unprecedented success of her college career to the successful early days of her coaching career, first-year NC State women's basketball coach Kellie Harper has always looked to surround herself with players who want to win as much as she does.
It's not necessarily something she can teach or evaluate during the recruiting process. Certainly, she had no control over it with the players she inherited when she was hired last May.
But what she has learned as the Wolfpack heads into its first Atlantic Coast Conference game – against Maryland at 7 p.m. today at Reynolds Coliseum – is that her team is beginning to absorb her desire to be the best in college basketball.
That's not an overnight transition, but it is the goal. And there's no better way to get there than by succeeding in ACC play.
"I want to be the best," Harper said. "In order to be the best, you have to beat the best. And we will always have the chance to get there by playing in this conference. I like the challenge. I am not intimidated.
"I hope people don't perceive me as being cocky. You just have to have the confidence in what you are doing."
Harper found plenty of success in high school and in college. As a point guard at Tennessee, she helped the Volunteers win an unprecedented three consecutive national championships. And much of that success came simply because Harper hated to lose.
"I have often thought about how many people have the desire to win that I have," Harper said. "Growing up, every teammate I had had the desire to win. My high school team was very talented, and we hated losing. Our team was miserable when we lost. I have always been surrounded by people like that.
"We are trying our darnedest to get everyone in this program to feel the same way."
The coach said it's not hard to make players hate to lose. But they don't yet take it as hard as she does.
"I would say there have been a couple of games that certain kids have taken it pretty hard," Harper said. "I don't know if anyone takes it as consistently hard as I do. There is a fine line: you have to hurt after a loss. But you also have to bounce back."
And that's why, says freshman Marissa Kastanek, Harper emphasizes doing all the little things right.
"What she mainly tries to make sure we do is get all the fundamentals right, to do all the little things, and if we do the things she teaches us to do, then our team will be successful," Kastanek said. "She doesn't just preach winning a game, as much as she preaches doing every little thing the right way."
The Wolfpack is 10-5 following Monday's two-point win over Columbia, a game in which the team hardly did every little thing perfectly. But it found a way to win, even on a night when it did not shoot the ball well or play great defense.
"The team is improving," Harper said. "We are doing some little things better than we did in November. We are playing more physical now. We are playing with more energy. We grasp the concepts of what we want to do.
"But they are not habits yet."
Harper admits that the team is not exactly where she wants it to be. But, considering what most of the players have been through over the course of the last 12 months, including the death last January of Hall of Fame coach Kay Yow, the introduction of Harper as her replacement and the installation of a whole new style of play, Harper has few complaints.
"I would like to be a little further ahead," she said. "The kids are willing to try and very coachable."
And, really, that's a winning combination.
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
