BATON ROUGE — Prior to departing to Gainesville for Thursday’s 6 p.m. matchup with Florida, LSU head women’s basketball coach Sue Gunter spoke about the Lady Gators, DeTrina White’s injury and the Lady Tigers’ first loss against Arkansas.
Quoting Head coach Sue Gunter — Jan. 21, 2003
On Jan. 23 match up at Florida:
“Any team in the SEC is dangerous. There is no doubt about that. The thing you don’t want to get caught in the situation where — Florida is 0-4 (in the conference) — you don’t want to be that first win. And they’re good enough. (Bernice Mosby) is an outstanding player. They have (Vanessa) Hayden back. Courtney Cooper is outstanding. They are a very, very good team and a very hungry team. The thing we’ve got to do is realize this is a game where we have to go on the road and dig in. We just took it on the chin (in our last game). It’s going to be a very competitive game. I am glad we got to play a game quickly. This is a terrifically important game for us, particularly when you look at who we have coming up on Sunday (Vanderbilt).”
On playing without injured DeTrina White:
“There is really no way to replace DeTrina (White). But one of the things about having depth is someone else has to step up. But it’s not a matter of somebody stepping up, not any one person. It’s a team thing. Everybody has to step up and elevate their game. That goes for the other four starters and whoever comes off the bench. What we have to do is make up a lot of boards on defense and a lot of intangible things that you can’t put down on a stat sheet. The intensity that DeTrina brings to the team is terrific. But this team has to rally. If there is one thing we’ve had plenty of its adversity. DeTrina is a very special player but that is the way it goes. We have to pick up and go on for her.”
On rebounding from the loss to Arkansas:
“Every loss hurts. I don’t care which one it is, what time of the season it is or when it occurs. But the thing you have got to do is learn from it, learn why it happened. Arkansas played extremely well. Arkansas played better than we did. If you go back and look at the film clips, look at the tape it’s very understandable. The biggest difference in the game was the turnovers, you just can’t do that. I think the thing for us to do is go back and realize if you turn it over (23) times you are going to lose. I think that’s one of the things the kids realize. We have to do a better of attacking the zone, but that’s not the first time I have said that this year. I think that’s part of the emphasis we have going into the Florida game. It’s just a matter of us learning from a loss.”