SAN JOSE, Calif. - One brazen reporter felt compelled to mention to Duke coach Gail Goestenkors after Duke's win against Georgia that her team probably has the least talented team at the Final Four, and asked her to explain the Blue Devils' success.
Fifteen minutes later in the Georgia press conference, the same reporter took it one step further and asked Georgia coach Andy Landers, "I wouldn't say this around Gail, but she probably has one player that could start on your team, VanGorp. Yet her team beat your team. How does that happen?"
An obviously unamused Landers shot back, "Well, you obviously aren't as good a judge of talent as some other people, because those players are pretty damned good players."
The opinion here is that a combined Duke-Georgia team would start the Miller twins and three Duke players, and be quite formidable.
More Landers
Landers left more than one reporter feeling uncomfortable during the week. In the Thursday press conference, the following exchange was heard on the subject of four of the top male coaches in the game all winding up in the Mideast Region.
Reporter: How the four male coaches ended up in one bracket and two in the other. Can you talk about that?
Landers: It's one of those phenomenon that occurs.
Reporter: Does is bother you?
Landers: I don't know if it bothers me, does it bother you?
Reporter: I'm curious.
Landers: I'm curious as to why you're asking. You're obviously concerned about it.
Yes, we were at Purdue. No, we can't comment
After answering a slew of questions concerning the team's Purdue connections, Goestenkors put a gag order on VanGorp and Erickson on the subject of their transfer from Purdue Saturday.
Goestenkors felt the line of questioning shifted the attention away from the game itself and the job done by Purdue coach Carolyn Peck. Peck didn't even wait for a reporter's question to issue the gag order. She asked all reporters to refrain from the Duke-Purdue connection questions in her opening statement.
Spartan connections
Georgia center Tawana McDonald and reserve sparkplug Deana Nolan both attended Flint Northern High School. Ironically, so did Michigan State men's players Antonio Smith and Mateen Cleaves.
Needless to say, McDonald, who's actually Smith's cousin, rooted for Michigan State and saw her weekend ruined by Duke.
Visa, Visa, Mastercard
Apparently, Duke's relative lack of athleticism became quite the hot topic. The local papers compared both Howard and Erickson to UConn's pudgy men's guard Khalid El-Amin and noted that Howard looked like she belonged in a sorority, which she does, more than a basketball team.
One reporter brought that up at Saturday's press conference, and immediately brought out the laughter. Amid the good-natured jabs, Howard blushed and shook her head. VanGorp quipped, "Yes, she does belong in a sorority we like to refer to as 'Visa, Visa, Mastercard.'"
Small world
Adding to the intrigue surrounding the finals matchup was that both Figgs and White-McCarty were recruited by Goestenkors out of high school to play for Duke.
"I tried to recruit her so hard," Goestenkors said. "We actually thought we were going to get [Figgs]. She came on a campus visit. We thought she was coming to Duke. We were surprised when she did not. That was a heartbreaker for us."
-Compiled by Victor Zhao and Nick Tylwalk
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.