Harper Faces ACC Media

Oct. 26, 2010

NC State Picked to Finish 6th
Amber White's Q&A

NC State head coach Kellie Harper, entering her second season as head coach of the Wolfpack, participated in Tuesday ACC Women’s Basketball Media Day at the Greensboro Coliseum. Here are some of the questions she was asked and her answers about the Wolfpack’s upcoming season.

Question: What would a healthy Tia Bell bring to the program?
Kellie Harper: She would bring us size and athleticism on the court. She also brings some experience, some senior leadership. She's a very positive person and a good teammate.

Question: It took a while for the team to regroup from her loss last year. Do you think this year’s team is better equipped to handle such a loss?
Kellie Harper: I think anytime when you lose a key component on your team, it takes a little while to regroup. The time that it takes depends on the maturity of your team. Coaches also have to regroup. I think we have a group of resilient kids. They should be able to figure things out quicker.

Question: Do you plan on making any major adjustments in your offense and defense this year?
Kellie Harper: At this point, we have a few minor tweaks, but no major overhauls. I want to give our kids the chance to be good in our system and I think that's really hard to do in just one year. I think kids need time to understand our philosophy. At the same time, every team's different and I think it's very important that you find your strength each year and play to those strengths.

Question: Growing up in system that is defense first, what was it like trying to sell that to a new team?
Kellie Harper: It’s really easy to sell something you really believe in. Our staff believed in this defensive philosophy and the fact that we had to be good on defensive end. Our kids accepted that last year and continued to do so.

Question: You aren’t a very big team.
Kellie Harper: No, we're not. We'll continue to be a little small. Our depth will determine our size. Our depth's not determined yet.

Question: Is Amber White better at the point this year than last year, when you moved her over and had Marissa Kastanek play the point?
Kellie Harper: I do want Amber to move back over to the point this year. Right now, she's better at the point than she was at this time last year. I'm excited about her. Because Amber can play the wing, we have options in our backcourt.

Question: How comfortable are you with Marissa’s game going into the season?
Kellie Harper: I'm very comfortable. She learns very quickly and understands basketball. I'm trying to get Marissa and Emili Tasler on the wing.

Question: What is the biggest challenge this year for Marissa?
Kellie Harper: People always talk about the sophomore slump, and that’s okay. Marissa’s greatest strength is her work ethic, and that's not going to change. She's still going to be the person who works harder than everybody else when she steps on the court. I think she'll be fine.

Question: What has she advanced in her game?
Kellie Harper: She's so high energy. She can score off the dribble and from behind the 3-point line. She also worked on her midrange game over summer. I can see a noticeable improvement there.

Question: How is she like or dislike you?
Kellie Harper: I was an overachiever who stayed late in the gym. She's definitely stronger than I was. She scores better at the basket than I did. She's more aggressive offensively. I probably passed and handled the ball better than she does.

Question: Did you sense any resentment from her teammates?
Kellie Harper: I think they respected her from the get-go. They saw how hard she worked and her work ethic. You can’t fake that. She also has a likeable personality. Everybody likes her and wants to be around here. You can’t resent a kid like that. There's no doubt that her personality has rubbed off on her teammates, both the freshmen and upper classmen. In a positive way.

Question: How does Bonae Holston score from her position down in the post, being only about 5-11?
Kellie Harper: First off all, Bo's very strong. Secondly, she's very savvy. Some people just have a knack for scoring and rebounding. She has that. She's better now at this point than she was last year. You're not going to be intimidated when you see her, but the kid can play. She's in the best shape of her life right now. She's impressive.

Question: She used to wear down a lot in game. What did you tell her during the offseason about getting stronger and fitter?
Kellie Harper: Bo's motivated because she sees her potential. She took to heart Lucy Ellison graduating and knows she needs to step up and do some of the things that Lucy did for us. Right now, she's doing that for us.

Question: Who do you see stepping up to be the regular third scorer, after Marissa and Bonae?
Kellie Harper: I think Amber White can bring a lot of creative things to our offense. She's very good one-on-one. She can score on her own. I think Brittany Strachan will be a strong scorer for us, both behind the free-throw line and at the basket.

Question: Last year’s team kind of became successful with smoke and mirrors. How are you going to work that this year?
Kellie Harper: We still have those mirrors, so we have to do the little things. We have to be fundamentally sound. We have to do the little things. Our team knows that. They understand that those little things made us good.

Question: What kind of confidence did the success from last year give this year’s team?
Kellie Harper: The whole tournament experience for us was huge. Our players did have a lot of confidence from that experience. The attitude I consistently heard was that they know what they could do now and they want more. As a coach, you couldn’t have a better mindset coming from your players. They got a taste and they want it again.

Question: Are there games from last year you would like to go back and watch?
Kellie Harper: I'd go back to our very first ACC game against Maryland. We played about as well as we could play. That was fun.

Question: Now that you have been around this league once, how would you assess the ACC?
Kellie Harper: I think there are very, very good coaches in this league. No matter who they lose, they find ways to fill the gaps and put a good product on the floor. I think the strength is that everyone is playing within their system.

Question: How close are the players you have to the ideal players you want to run your system?
Kellie Harper: We have several players who fit, because, No. 1, you have to be overachievers. They have to play extremely hard and this group really gets after it. No. 2, I like people who can put the ball in the people on the floor that can score. I want to put five people on the floor that can score. We are getting there. No. 3, I want a team that buys into what we want to do defensively.

Question: In your second year, what do you hope to do differently with these players than you did in your first?
Kellie Harper: I think they feel more confident. They know what they're doing. Our upperclassmen are helping the freshmen. We're able to move quicker through our stuff this year than we were last year. I'm a teaching coach. I don’t like to move on until we get it. That is happening a lot faster this year than last. The upperclassmen understand that these kids are going to play. There's good chemistry. Sometimes when you have your first recruiting class come in there can be issues. You don’t see that with this group.

Question: You have four freshmen?
Kellie Harper: Three, really, right now. Devin Griffin is still out with some medical issues. She's still an unknown issue. She starts back into practice Wednesday. It’s been an issue since July. The other three kids are going to play substantial minutes for our program this year.

Question: Looking back on the whole thing, how good of an experience was last year?
Kellie Harper: I think in the season you get wrapped up in the experience. You lose a little sense of reality as a coach. You're in the moment. But if you'd asked me when I was hired in April if I'd be happy with that outcome, I'd have said absolutely. Our goal was to get to the NCAA Tournament. The fact that we were able to do it with a group that absolutely just willed them to win, I think it was a great accomplishment.

Question: Do you think you fulfilled fan expectations?
Kellie Harper: One of the unique strengths of NC State is our fans and how passionate they are about any program. I think we exceeded their expectations last year, so maybe that’s one place where they need to raise their expectations for us.

Question: You were picked to finish sixth and received one vote for first place in the preseason media poll. Is that about what you expected?
Kellie Harper: I think sometimes it's hard to make an assessment for some of these preseason polls. I don’t know what freshmen have looked good for other teams. I don’t know what injuries they may have. Right now, it’s just a guess. It’s fun and interesting to see it. A lot of it is determined on your returning players.

Question: How much impact can good freshmen make? More than good upperclassmen?
Kellie Harper: I think upperclassmen have the advantage because they have the experience. They've been in the system for a year. They understand what you as a coach want because of that. That doesn’t mean that freshmen can’t be game-changers. Just look at Marissa Kastanek. I think she probably had an advantage in that everyone on the team was new.

Question: Do you like having a preseason poll?
Kellie Harper: Oh, I like them. I don’t necessarily use them with our team. It gets people talking about women’s basketball. It gets people talking about the ACC. That’s great.

Question: Is this a fair expectation of where your players are?
Kellie Harper: I think it's fair, given the players we lost last year.

Question: Is the ACC about what you thought it would be?
Kellie Harper: Yes, about where I thought it would be. When I was coaching at Western Carolina, we played several ACC teams and we watched some of those games on televison. I think we're very familiar with the style.

Question: You have two long trips early in the season, to Reno, Nev., and Long Beach, Calif., early in the season. Was that done to help your freshmen acclimate to their teammates and college basketball?
Kellie Harper: I like going on trips because of the bonding your team does while you're on the road. And I like tournaments because let’s face it, we have a tournament sport. I like having that opportunity early in the season to let them know how quickly we have to turn things around when we get into the postseason.

North Carolina State University Athletics

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