George Washington University Athletics
Women's Basketball Hosts Media Day
11/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 10, 2009
Basketball Media Day Photo Gallery
WASHINGTON, DC - The George Washington women's basketball team hosted its annual media day Tuesday afternoon in the newly renovated Athletic Director's Club of Charles E. Smith Center.
GW Head Coach Mike Bozeman
"I think they [team] just have an understanding of how they want to play, and the best way for us to play is fast. We have a lot of good outside shooting, a lot good shooters and I think the camaraderie is much better. We had an incredible, emotional team bonding experience recently. It was a very emotional moment for this team and has made us a very tight group. I think that's going to add an element of excitement because we will be playing for one another."
On making his mark on the program:
"This is essentially my first year, last year was great for me as I was on a big learning curve. My time under Joe [McKeown] was a great opportunity to learn from a future Hall of Famer. The team last year, I sympathize with that senior class because you go three years and suddenly you don't have the guy you came to play for. This was a situation where people in the background had to step forward. It was challenging as they had to find their new role under a new coach and where they were working out with me every day, they suddenly had to work out under a new assistant coach they don't know. But yes, this does feel like my team, last year it was my team since we are all here at GW, but you can see a difference in the intensity that this group is going to play for me with. I've talked to all of the players' parents and convinced them that I was the coach for them and in them making the decision to play for me, they made that decision for me. That's a little different because last year those girls decided to come play for Joe. It's definitely a different feeling."
"I think one thing that might have gotten overlooked last year was it was my staff's first year together also. In going through what we went through last year has helped us in the fact that my assistant coaches now know my style better and how I want to play."
On this year's team leaders:
"No question it's Ivy Abiona. She's the leader. Tiana Myers has stepped up. Tara Booker, too. The whole sophomore class, I wanna call them upperclassmen, but the sophomore class is great. Sara Mostafa has got to be the biggest surprise in the pre-season. She is so aggressive. I knew she had the post moves, but I didn't know if she had the aggression to match. She had to play against the Adairs, got beat up by them for the last year, so that has helped in her aggression. She brings a different skill set than they do. The camaraderie among the team is encouraging. Even when we have a tough practice or tough scrimmage, I will go away from it and think here's what we have to change and I am confident we can make that change, just on the girls' attitudes.
On being picked to finish eighth in the A-10 preseason coaches' poll:
"When I was recruiting these guys, I was in battles to get them. So that's why I take it a bit more personal, because I know what it took to get them here. They came because we are GW, the reputation with of course the academics and with the basketball reputation, so with them to come in to be pre-seaosn ranked eighth in conference, yeah, if you have any competitive juices in you it motivates you. I can't say I blame the league, but we lost the Adair's, we lost Antelia Parrish, any resemblance of a senior class, so I would have thought they'd seeded us lower. We have some very good teams in our conference. I could see why they did that, but it doesn't mean I'm not going to use it for motivation. That's why I love this group. They want to compete. They are not settling for eighth."
