Fresno State Athletics
Adrian Wiggins Media Day Quotes
10/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Oct. 12, 2005
Fresno State Head Coach Adrian Wiggins:
General:
"We return 12 players and four starters. Our team has played together for a full year and also has had some postseason experience, which should benefit us now as we play some high-quality teams. Our schedule this year has to be the toughest we have ever had. It's also nice that the nationally-ranked teams we play on the road (Stanford, Texas Tech) will be returning to the Save Mart Center the following year, giving our fans an opportunity to see great basketball. As far as players go, I'm excited about the leadership we have with players such as Amy Parrish, Jasmine Plummer and Chantella Perera. They have really done a great job of self-organizing our team. We are very strong and quick, which is what we want because we are more or less built off speed. I'm excited about some of the newcomers we have; our recruiting efforts have been solid."
"Louisiana Tech is at the top of the league right now. We are excited to be picked second in both polls but we want to obviously be where Louisiana Tech is right now and win a conference championship. That's our goal."
Commenting on last year's coaching change:
"Things like that can either tear you apart or keep you together. Our kids were already a pretty close group to begin with but now they are even closer. This is a great team to coach; they pretty much run themselves. I think sometimes young people are a little more likely to forgive than forget. As adults we hang onto things longer. This team has big goals and they are happy to be at Fresno State. All 12 of them had an opportunity to go somewhere else but they all came back, and that is a compliment to the university and to our program. They are a hard-working group and are taking initiative to improve."
On senior forward Amy Parrish:
"I'm very proud of her. She has really done a good job of continuing to balance school and perhaps taking on the ultimate responsibility in raising a child. That's not an easy thing to do. She had a 3.2 GPA last semester. She is an All-WAC performer and she is extremely skilled because she works so hard. Amy is a great example of what we want in a student-athlete and she definitely deserves all the attention."
On senior guard Mirenda Swearengin:
"We've taken some of her responsibilities away, in a verbal sense for basketball. Our two-guard, Chantella Perera, is responsible for communicating the play and talking out on the court. That is a little different compared to the normal stereotype of a point guard being your "quarterback". That really opens it up for us and allows Mirenda to just play and do whatever she wants to do. Mirenda is a very artistic person and expresses herself in her own way and usually that's with the ball in her hand. When she doesn't have to think too much out there, she is at her best. Taking away her verbal responsibilities has helped her grow. She has been a consistent shooter for us and played well down the stretch last year."
