Anne Donovan
Seattle Storm

Q: Is the league now at the level of the NFL in terms of parity, in that every team has a chance to win?
Donovan: I really do think that’s the case. You have the bottom teams that all got stronger, some of the top teams got stronger as well, like Sacramento. Minnesota and Detroit certainly got stronger, Phoenix is stronger. We’ve always said as coaches that on any given night you can win a game, but now more than ever that’s very, very true given the talent on every team.

Q: Is there an adjustment for you as far as being in a different time zone on the West Coast?
Donovan: It has been hard, most notably with the NBA Playoffs. I’m so used to being on the East Coast, and going home and watching games until all hours of the night. Here, by the time I get home, most game are over, so that’s been a little frustrating. I did see Jason Kidd’s shot at the buzzer the other night, which was great for this Jersey girl.

Q: What are some of your thoughts about this year’s team?
Donovan: I’m really excited about this group. We finally got Kamila Vodichkova to camp a couple of days ago, so we have all our personnel here. We’re still trying to play the system out and see who’s going to be good at what. But I still feel really good about, not just Lauren Jackson and Sue Bird, we all feel good about them, they’re two of the premiere players in the league no doubt, but what I’m seeing from some of the complimentary players we brought in like Sandy Brondello, Adia Barnes, who was a starter last year, who has stepped up her game this year. My hope is to get everyone around Lauren and Sue much more consistent and productive on a nightly basis, so it takes a little bit of the heat off of Lauren and Sue to win games.

Q: Do you see Kamila Vodichkova as the third consistent scorer for this team?
Donovan: I don’t think I’ve seen her enough to decide that yet. I know she’s stepped it up every year. Last year she had a very good year and seemed to be much more comfortable on the court and off in Seattle. I just don’t know yet if she’s going to be that third scorer. I see potential there, for sure. I like the combination of her and Lauren because they can both stretch defenses out. I like all that.

Q: What’s a requirement to make the Seattle Storm roster?
Donovan: Today, in the WNBA, you can’t have a deficiency. It’s so competitive to have a job in the WNBA. The players have all facets of the game. The players that make this roster are the ones who are efficient at both ends of the floor. I’m also big on maturity and experience. Our goal was to make our training camp extremely competitive at every position and I feel we’ve done that.

Q: How do you think the West shapes up this year?
Donovan: I look at our schedule, and I see that the first four teams that we play are the four toughest teams in the West for the moment. We open at Houston. We follow that up with San Antonio, Los Angeles and then Sacramento. I look at those teams as being the four best teams in the West. We’ve played Sacramento twice in preseason and they are mighty good. They’ve got most of their people back from last year and then they’ve added pieces. That’s a team that’s really going to challenge for the championship this year, and don’t count Seattle out.

Q: Can you talk about the progress of Amanda Lassiter?
Donovan: She’s still on the roster. She started to really make some progress during training camp and now she’s been out with an injury (hyperextended knee) for the last four or five days. We’re hoping that she’ll stay with us. The first thing any coach would say about Amanda is that she has great potential. She’s got all the athletic tools, she’s long and lanky. She’s stronger than she looks. She has quickness, she understands the game. Defensively, she’s a presence. She can guard any of the perimeter spots. Offensively, she’s a great shooter, not real consistent at the moment, but has the potential to be a great shooter. There’s a lot that I see there, but we need to develop it.

Q: Can you talk more about the challenges of the Western Conference?
Donovan: When you’re in the Eastern Conference, you always have the same mantra, which is the East is just as good as the West. When I got the schedule from the league and looked at it and saw the Western Conference teams four times each, my thoughts got more real. It is a very competitive conference. It’s a very different style from the East and mentally, you have to be ready every single night, or the hole you get in could get very big very quick.

Q: Have you approached your new job differently so far?
Donovan: The philosophy is the same, but how you present it is different, just based on experience. I had veteran players in Charlotte, but that’s not really the case, plus we’ve added many new players to the mix here, so it’s a different approach, but the big picture is the same, and that’s to win a championship.

Q: Why did you draft Sun-Min Jung, and what have you seen from her so far?
Donovan: Sun is player that I’ve watched closely in international competitions, and she’s intriguing to me. She’s 6-1, which is a big player by Korean standards but she has the footwork to make it in our league at the three or the four. As she gets more comfortable here on and off the court, she’s going to help us out quite a bit.

Q: Can Sandy Brondello be the third scorer for your team?
Donovan: That’s what we’re hoping. Sandy is a great scorer. The combination of her and Sue is great. It’s very nice having players who can play the one or the two and both are very lethal scorers.

Q: How has your reception in Seattle been so far?
Donovan: It’s been awesome. This has been a very good move for me in a lot of ways. Lin Dunn is a completely different personality from mine. But the bottom line is fans want us to win. Lynn had a great run here for three years, building this team into a playoff team in a very tough Western Conference. So, hopefully I can continue the winning ways.

Maura McHugh
Sacramento Monarchs

Q: Do you see parity as a good thing or is the league truly like the NFL where anybody can win on any night?
McHugh: Well, I think it’s getting more like that, that anybody can win on any given night. If you have a bad night, you could easily lose; whereas in the past, a good team could have a bad night and still eke out a win. I think it’s going to be a lot harder to do that right now.

Q: What’s the pressure this year with your team and what are your expectations?
McHugh: Well, I think any coach in this league, and any team in this league, always feels pressure. At this point in time everybody’s undefeated; nobody’s played a game yet. As people look at their training camps and evaluate their team, I think you see a lot of optimism throughout the league. It happens that way every year. At training camp everybody is very optimistic. They’re thinking their team is looking good and that sort of thing. And you expect that. As far as our team goes, we always feel some pressure because we think we have a great team. We have some seasoned veterans that have very high expectations of themselves and of the team. I think we’re one of those teams that has a legitimate shot at winning the championship. With that being said, it’s not going to be easy. And it has a lot to do with luck. We found that out last year. We had some very bad luck, having three starters out. And it really hurt us in the early going. The thing that I think really said a lot about our team is how we finished up. A team that really wasn’t playing for a playoff spot and every time I was being interviewed it was like, “Coach, you really have nothing to play for, how do you motivate your team?” We didn’t look at it that way; we did have something to play for. We have pride. We have seasoned veterans. They’re professional players. They love to play basketball. That’s their motivation; they wanted to be the best that they could be. I think the fact that the team showed so much character to have the best record in the league in the second half to go 12-4 after a dismal start said a lot about this team. And I think that attitude and desire carried over to this year.

Q: How are you going to work Chantelle Anderson and Kara Lawson into the rotation?
McHugh: Chantelle, the problem with her right now is her injury. She’s been practicing sporadically. She had surgery at the end of her college season; she had dislocated her toe and torn ligaments. They did surgery on it, so she’s kind of still having some problems with that. She’s getting some swelling and that sort of thing. Right now what we’re trying to do is just get her reps in practice and get her kind of game ready. So I think a lot, as far as she goes, will have to do with how well her injury comes along and how much experience we can get her.

As far as Kara Lawson goes, we’re looking at her as playing some backup point guard and some two guard. She’ll play both spots. Kara Lawson’s a very, very good three-point shooter and that’s something this team desperately needs. I think that alone will buy her some minutes. She’s a very confident player. She’s come from a great program with a great background. She’s used to big games. They played in many big games; they played for championships. So she’s got that mentality and doesn’t really play like a rookie at all. So I think that alone -- the fact that we need somebody to back up Ticha [Penicheiro], we don’t want to have to play her 40 minutes a game, we need some three-point shooting -- I think that’s going to buy her some time.

Q: It seems that you got a very good player in DeMya Walker in the Dispersal Draft, how do you see her fitting in with the team?
McHugh: I just love her game. She was a player that we liked last year. We played (Portland) a lot last year because we played them preseason games as well. So we got to see her play a lot. Before the Dispersal Draft, like every other team in the WNBA, we did a lot of research on all the players that could be available and she was one of the ones that we had a lot of interest in. We were really elated that she was there. We had a feeling that she might not make it to the fifth pick, but she was there. We felt that there were a couple things that we really like about her. One is, she’s got size and quickness and toughness to go along with that. That was something I felt that our team needed to be; a little bit more physical. Secondly, she solved some matchup problems for us. We’ve had problems in the past because we’ve gone small with our lineup, matching up with some of the big forwards, or small forward positions, the three players, the DeLisha Miltons, the Adrienne Goodsons, the Chamique Holdsclaw-type players. Going really with kind of a three-guard offense, that was always a matchup problem for us. And we’ve seen DeMya guard these people and she can handle that. She can handle some of the perimeter players and give us some size, so we feel like that will give us an option as far as how we match up with other teams, especially in the west.

Q: What type of physical shape are Edna Campbell, Ticha Penicheiro, and Yolanda Griffith in?
McHugh: They’re in great shape, all of them. Ticha had surgery on her shoulder after the season. Yolanda took off until mid-January and rehabbed with a physical therapist, she had the bulging disk in her neck and was having some problems with her knee as well. All those things look good. And Edna is just miraculous. It is hard to fathom that this is a woman who was undergoing chemotherapy at this time last year, who is extremely fit, who is playing great basketball right now, that’s out there every day going through the entire practice. It’s just amazing to me and she has been an inspiration to everybody – our staff and all of our players. The leadership that Edna brings to the team is very important. That’s something that people didn’t understand last year that we really missed from not having Edna on the court. She’s a very vocal player. She talks a lot. She communicates and that’s something our team was missing last year.

Q: How will Chantelle Anderson and Yolanda Griffith share the block down low?
McHugh: You know, Yolanda is truly not a center. The league wants to call her a center because we have to have a center on our team I guess in the starting lineup. Yolanda’s true position is forward and this will free her up to be what she is, a forward. Yolanda is a power forward, a four player. She is number four if you want to go by a numbering system. And she is very mobile, she goes to the basket well, she runs, she likes to get the ball on the move and cut. And this is going to allow her to do a lot of that. It will also allow her to guard forwards rather than always guarding the big center. We’ll be able to mix and match, and not have her worn down completely by guarding these really big low-block players all the time. She can play there sometimes defensively but we can also put her out at the forward spot.

Q: It seems Anderson couldn’t have a better tutor that Yolanda. Could you talk about what she can teach her?
McHugh: There’s a funny story with that. Chantelle Anderson’s favorite player in the league is Yolanda Griffith. She kind of idolized her. It’s was kind of cute when she came to practice because she was almost nervous meeting Yolanda, and playing against Yolanda. She sits in awe a lot. She’ll sit on the sideline with an icepack on her foot going, “Gosh, I just can’t believe the things she can do.” And Yolanda’s kind of taken her under her wing and really helped her out, talking her through a lot of things. It’s kind of funny. She’s over that point where she’s in awe now. Obviously now she’s one of her teammates, but she just sees it as a great opportunity to play against one of the best players in the world and to get better and to add to her game. I think that’s really going to help her.

Q: How did Tangela Smith come in and how’s she looking?
McHugh: Yeah, Tangela Smith is just looking very good. Tangela is a very smart player. She remembers everything. If we ran a play last year, she remembers it. Anything we’ve changed, she picks up right away. Some of the things we’re running are similar to last year but there are new wrinkles in them, we’re doing things a little differently. She remembers what it was last year and what the changes are. Basically we took her through a paper session and went through our plays on paper. She walked out the first day of practice and was able to do them. She’s really a quick study and is in great shape from playing overseas. She’s been playing the whole offseason and I think she’ll be able to step right in.

Michael Cooper
Los Angeles Sparks

Q: Can you talk about some of the additions in camp and how they fit in?
Cooper: I think the two big ones are Jennifer Gillom, we were able to pick her up through free agency from the Phoenix Mercury. She’s going to be a big addition for us. She gives us another veteran. That’s always nice to have. She’s a player we can go to in the low post that can be productive. When Lisa Leslie comes out of the game, we can replace her with someone that can get something going on in the post, not that our other players can’t, but that’s her spot down there. That’s her position. She plays it well. Plus, she has some versatility in being able to pop out on the perimeter and make that shot. She’s another big body and she’s fit in well so far. In the Dispersal Draft, we were able to get Jackie Stiles, who’s still going through some health issues. She’s trying to find out what’s bothering her, but still another fine addition that will push Tamecka Dixon at the two spot, another player that can get her shot on her own. So far, everything is going well for us.

Q: How closely did you watch the Lakers in their quest for a four-peat, and were there lessons learned for your team, which will try for a three-peat?
Cooper: I think the ladies definitely watched the Lakers’ season progress as it did, and the unhappy ending. The thing I’m stressing is to really work hard in training camp and be ready to go when the season starts. Our season, we don’t have the luxury of going 82 games, and somewhere along the way you can find a turn-it-on period. We have to get going from the start. I think we’ve had some great practices, some good scrimmages. We’re able to get up and down the floor, and I think we have a little more cohesiveness at this point than we’ve had at any other point. Looking at the Lakers, we don’t want to have what they had during the first 12 games, where they’re struggling and trying to get people healthy. Obviously, Shaq wasn’t ready to go. That’s one thing we tell our players at the end of every season. The next season begins now, starting with your conditioning.

Q: How are you going about motivating your team for a three-peat?
Cooper: This year is different than any other year. Last year, the battle cry was to win every game, and that got us jumpstarted and ready to play, because we didn’t want any lulls. This year, we just have to come ready to play. This league has definitely gotten better. There are no easy games anymore. We have to be prepared to play every game. If we take it one game at a time, hopefully we’ll get to where we want to be, which is the WNBA Finals and the chance for a third ring.

Q: Which teams do you think are the most improved?
Cooper: I think Minnesota really helped itself by getting Teresa Edwards. I think the sleeper of the draft might be the player they got from New Mexico, Jordan Adams. Those are some nice pieces to go with what they already have in Svetlana Abrosimova and Katie Smith. They’re one of the most improved teams. I think Sacramento is much improved. I think a lot of teams have gotten better, and I’ve said the team that wins this championship this year, it will be one of the most cherished championship, because this league is no joke right now. If you don’t come to play from the start, you could be in trouble.

Q: Why does stability translate into success in the WNBA?
Cooper: It takes people being around a long period of time for them to understand the coach’s concepts, understand what we have to do as a team and what it takes to win a championship. You can’t do that when you bring in new players all the time. You’re always like a new team. If you look at New York, they usually have the same people. That’s the key to winning championships. You have to have the foundation started, so you can build to it as the years go on. Then you add a special piece here and there, and let the younger players learn from the veterans.

Q: Is it more important to have the same coach in place or the same players?
Cooper: I think greatness starts from the top, and obviously the general manager and the president of your team is important, but the coach is also extremely important. You can’t keep changing coaches, because each coach has a different philosophy and style of play. I think it’s important to keep the same coach and he can put together the pieces that best fit his style and give the team the best chance to win a championship.

Q: Can you talk about the return of Cynthia Cooper?
Cooper: I think Cynthia coming back is not only great for Houston, but great for the league. It’s the ala Michael Jordan/Magic Johnson type of thing. It can be good and bad. Good from the sense that everybody loved her and she knows what winning is about, she knows how to entertain the people. But it can be bad because that team is trying to find itself, Sheryl Swoops feels it could be her team and now Cooper is coming back. You have to see how it plays out. The key with her coming back, the last time she left after beating the Sparks, we were a team trying to find our identity, and now that she’s back, we’ve done that. She’s not going to see the same team she saw as a player. We’re a different team.

Q: Is there one team you’re worried about?
Cooper: We fear no one, and we respect everyone. That’s a team (Houston) we’re looking forward to competing against, obviously some old feelings are coming up and people want to see the old rivalry. The only team that we have a real hard time with is Minnesota, which has a lot of little people that can get it done, and they’re really good in terms of team defense. I don’t fear them, but I respect them. That’s a team that presents some problems.

Q: Can you talk a little more about Jennifer Gillom?
Cooper: Her teams haven’t been as successful as other teams in the league, but she’s had some very good high points. Her role with our team will be of a supporting nature, and so far she’s really fit in well. She’s been pushing pretty hard. She likes it here and we’re very happy to have her. She can offer some wisdom, having been around awhile. She may know some things we don’t know. Her knowledge of the game can only help. The great thing about Jennifer is that she may not be as fast as some of our players, but we love her trailing the break and that will lead to some open shots.

Q: Do you see parity as a good thing?
Cooper: In the ‘80s, that’s what made (NBA) basketball so good. There were good teams throughout the whole league on both sides. Here, the formation of the league has been a little slower, but the talent base is really developing. Whoever wins the championship this year, and we’re hoping it’s going to be us, is really going to earn it. The days of the 28-4 record may be gone, but that’s something we’re going to shoot for. If you’re playing good basketball and together basketball, things are going to work out for you, and it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win a championship if you have a 29-3 record.

John Shumate
Phoenix Mercury

Q: People are saying there is much more balance this year in the league. Do you like that best to start out your career or would you have liked to have those three or four great teams to try and take down?
Shumate: I think you always have to think what’s in the best interest of the league and not look at it personally. And I think generally speaking it’s in the best interest of the league to have balance because the more quality teams you have, in theory, the more interest you’ll have from fans because then fans from all over will feel that their teams have an opportunity to be extremely competitive as opposed to saying that every year, “Oh, what the heck, so-and-so is going to win the league so I don’t even have to show up to watch my non-competitive team.” So I’m in the interest of what’s best for the league and that’s to have balance and a number of quality teams. Then I look around at our division out here and we have nothing but great teams. So I say that and then you look around and it’s like running into a brick wall.

Q: Before coaching the Mercury, how much women’s basketball were you able to follow? Were you able to jump into coaching with both feet, so to speak?
Shumate: Well, I was a color analyst for the Mercury before I became a college scout for the Phoenix Suns organization. As a matter of fact, I was in community relations for the Suns and then I went and did the color commentary for the Mercury. When I became a college scout, I didn’t have the time because I was on the road scouting, so I didn’t do the color analyst job, but I attended all the games. It was like being there and always trying to figure out what was best for the team and so I had a personal vested interest in the team. As well, I developed a rapport and relationships with some of the players there because I worked with them individually on their games.

Q: How do you see the conference shaping up and where you see Phoenix within the pecking order?
Shumate: Well the conference, speaking specifically of where we are, when you look at Sacramento you see nothing but greatness and talent. You look at L.A., nothing but greatness and talent. You look at Houston, nothing but greatness and talent. You look at Seattle, nothing but an outstanding basketball team. This specific division is basically like the NBA in that there are so many great teams out here.

But I do feel that when you go back east with Indiana, New York, just to mention a couple of the teams, teams back east that also, I think, are very, very talented. But when I specifically looked at Houston, Sacramento, L.A., and then you also look at San Antonio, it’s nothing but talent. It’s obviously going to be very difficult. It’s going to be very challenging and very hard. Our team will be a very competitive team. It’s been a work in progress trying to take … I think we may have two old faces from last year’s team on the roster and everybody else is new. We have a new offensive, defensive system, a new coach and basically all new players. We’re working very hard to get ourselves in a position to where we can be, and will be, competitive, not just in the short-run but also for the long-run. So obviously you have a number of teams where you have to realistically make a list and I guess you would have to start with L.A. But, I don’t know, if you look at L.A., Houston and Sacramento, I don’t know if I could pick one over the other because they’re all great teams. And then with Seattle and San Antonio, you could close your eyes and put the pen on any one of those teams and I think you’d be in pretty good shape to say that any one of those teams will be there to compete for a championship. Our team will be very competitive. I don’t want to downplay what these ladies are doing. They’re working extremely hard and they will be a very good team with time.

Q: Who do you think will take up most of the bulk of your scoring now that Jennifer Gillom is gone?
Shumate: To be honest with you, I really can’t answer that. We’ve worked so much on putting in a system both defensively and offensively and it’s kind of been a struggle for everybody to kind of learn in a shortened period of time. I wish we had a month to work together, to get to know each other better. So I don’t know. Will it be Lisa Harrison? Will it be Adrian [Williams]? Will it be Edwina Brown? Will it be T.J. [Tamicha Jackson]? I don’t know. But I know that they’re all working extremely hard to be the best that they can be.

Q: Do you have all your players in camp?
Shumate: No, we still have a couple of people that haven’t been able to get here yet because of some of visa issues, but hopefully they’ll be here soon. We have about three new ones as of a couple days ago and we still have about two more that are waiting to come. So it’s still a work in progress.

Q: Looking at what you’ve done in the preseason so far, how exactly do you see everybody fitting into your starting five and what are your expectations for this season?
Shumate: We’ve had a number of injuries and a number of absentee bodies. Adrian Williams and Lisa Harrison have not played yet and they have had very, very limited practice time. As a matter of fact, Lisa has just practiced some for the first time yesterday and that was limited. And Adrian was even more limited. So Plenette (Pierson) has had an opportunity and luck is where opportunity and effort meet. She’s definitely taken advantage of it. I think she’s going to be a heck of a fine professional basketball player. She learns very quickly. She has great intensity, great tenacity. I have a lot of expectations for Plenette. Once we can get Adrian and Lisa back in the fold and get some of our other absent people in, we’ll be very competitive. As far as the starters, it depends on who’s healthy. Like right now, Kayte Christensen, she’s out with a bad back and some illness. Lisa and Adrian have been out. So we’ve been undermanned so far. But once we get our group together, get everybody in and everybody on the same page, we’ll be a very competitive basketball team.

Q: What are your two or three year plans? How soon until they’re really a contender in your conference?
Shumate: I guess you have to distinguish what you call competitive? Does competitive mean that you’re in every game and you’re right there or is it based strictly on won-lost records? In terms of the way I view it, I think that this team eventually will be a very competitive basketball team. Will that matriculate into wins and losses? I don’t know. We’re in an outstanding division, a very tough division with some great, great, great basketball teams and some great, great, great individual talent. But these ladies have a lot of pride and they’re very competitive. If we’re healthy and once we get everybody in, we will be a very competitive basketball team. And again, will that matriculate into wins and losses? I can’t answer that at this point in time. And yes, you do have a three-year goal, a two-year goal and a one. But most importantly, it starts today and we’re working everyday both on and off the court to see how we can improve our basketball team and on the court to see how we can continue to improve as individuals as well as a basketball team as a whole.

Q: Anna DeForge scored 25 points May 17 against Indiana. Where did you find her and what are your plans for her this year?
Shumate: Well, you have to talk to my general manager; he found her. Anna is a great person. She’s a basketball rat, meaning a gym rat I should say, not a rat, but a gym rat, sort of a figure of speech. I enjoy Anna. When you have a player that knows how to play and they’re good people – and that’s one of the great things about the WNBA. When you come in contact with people, they’re professional athletes but they have great passion and character for the most part and that definitely fits Anna. I don’t know if Anna will be scoring that level of points every night but I think she does have talent.

Seth Sulka our GM, I have to give him credit for Anna. He brought her in and said, “We have to take a real close look at her.” Whether she scores 25 or not, before the 25 we liked her and after the 25 we still like her. So we do have a place for Anna and I just hope that she will continue to get better. She’s one of these people that I don’t have any question that she will continue to get better because she, like so many women in the WNBA, has great passion for the game and works extremely hard. I hope as time goes on that their hard work and passion will definitely be rewarded and recognized by our society and our communities.

Q: Is Gordana Grubin coming back this year and is the Brandy Reed experiment over for good?
Shumate: Again, I have to defer those two questions to Seth Sulka, the GM. Grubin, I don’t know. Reed, I don’t know. We’ve had European players that have had visa problems and issues and they’ve not been able to get them straightened out yet at the embassies. And Grubin, I don’t know if she’s one of them or not. I’m just worrying about the people that are here. The people that are here are the people that I’m focusing on and I’m just letting Seth take care of all those issues.

Van Chancellor
Houston Comets

Q: Is it important to name a starter at the point?
Chancellor: I don’t think that’s important, what we are going to do is take Ukari Figgs and Janeth Arcain and let them play there. If we were playing tonight we’d probably start Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Arcain at the perimeter. Figgs would be in first. We’d probably play a little small ball. Dominique Canty looks so well, we’ll play Dominique Canty, Figgs and Arcain all three at the point and that’s how we’ll go.

Q: Are you worried about your bigs at all, all your talent seems to be on the perimeter, your top talent?
Chancellor: I would think Tina Thompson was a pretty good talent. She’s a four player playing inside. We won four championships and never ran a post-up play. Now do we need to be bigger and better inside? Yeah. But, my wife would want to be married to a better looking man than I am. So there we are.

Q: From your perspective is parity a good thing?
Chancellor: I don’t know that there’d be that much parity. Los Angeles got Jennifer Gillom and Sacramento got everyone in the world from these two drafts. If that’s parity I don’t want to be a part of it. And I don’t mean that bad or disrespectful towards anybody. Sacramento got a lot of players and then LA got the second leading scorer in the history of the WNBA.

Q: Can any team on a given night win?
Chancellor: I don’t think there’s any doubt. Yeah I don’t think there is any doubt. I tell you who has gotten a lot better in my personal opinion is over there in the east. Indiana got better with Natalie Williams. I think Connecticut got a lot better and if Elena Baranova ever gets over in New York they’re going to be a lot better. I do agree with this: I don’t see any bad teams in the league and I don’t see those big horses got a lot weaker.

Q: How did Cynthia Cooper return?
Chancellor: She called me and said “What would y’all think if I returned?” I said if you’re ready, it’s good. We met. She wanted to workout, see if she could. We talked about it and its fine.

Q: How is she fitting in?
Chancellor: I told them to run (a certain) play from out of bounds. Cooper hadn’t been here for two years and Canty hadn’t seen it. Cooper ran it like she’s been running it all her life, she remembering all our plays. Cynthia Cooper is the least of my problems. Right now (the team’s) not healthy. Stephanie Johnson’s hurt. Tina Thompson’s not practicing. That’s what concerns me more than any other single thing we have not put our starting five together not one time yet. We haven’t put our first six together.

Q: Is she offering you suggestions from a coaching standpoint?
Chancellor: Cynthia Cooper’s never been short of suggestions but that isn’t a big deal. She coached. I never remember that’s she been a coach. She’s been a model person. She is a player. I’m sure there will be a lot of excitement out there Saturday but I’ll worry about that when Saturday comes. Right now I’ve got the Seattle Storm coming in here.

Q: Have there been any conditioning issues with Cooper?
Chancellor: I think there’s a little bit at this point but I think in time that she’ll be fine, she’ll work it out. That’s the least of my worries.

Q: Why is stability so important to being successful?
Chancellor: We got people practicing on the first unit I thought might not make this team. When you stay together and play together I think right now that’s the biggest advantage New York, Sacramento and L.A. have. When Michael Cooper went to practice he knew who his starting five would be, it was just a question of where he was going to put Jennifer Gillom. Richie Adubato knew automatically who his starting five was. I bet I could pick the starting five in Sacramento. They know the offense they know the coach they just play.

Q: Which is more important, stability with coach or roster?
Chancellor: The perfect world is to get great players, keep them together and let them play. If you don’t have very good players I don’t care how much you keep the core together. Having the same coach there, all it boils down is having a good coach and I don’t know what the definition of a good coach is. Keeping the same system, the same players, and the same group I just think is very good.

Q: What is your biggest concern?
Chancellor: We could not out-rebound my grandson. I got a five-year old grand boy and right now we could not out-rebound him. If we don’t get better in rebounding we’ll have a long long year.

Q: Last year you went out in the first round...
Chancellor: That’s no big deal; we just got in the wrong bracket. Utah was a tough tough match-up. Going out in the first round … We’ve just got to play. I got to get us healthy at the right time.

Q: Are you putting the onus on Tina or Sheryl to rebound in the absence of higher quality bigs?
Chancellor: I don’t know about them individually, I’d rather the rebounding come from Michelle Snow

Q: Are you happy with her development?
Chancellor: Well, naturally, I’d wish she was coming along a lot quicker, but if I’m realistic I'm hoping she’s coming along a little bit at a time.

Suzie McConnell Serio
Minnesota Lynx

Q: Have expectations have changed because of the Dispersal Draft?
McConnell Serio: Well, we have the addition of Sheri Sam to our team right now and I think she has been a great addition, especially offensively. What she has done is make us look at our five best players and actually go smaller, but with more offensive weapons. She’s also given us depth at the perimeter position. Knowing that, it’s ironic that we go deeper at the guard position because the West is always so strong with the post presence, but we feel confident with the post players that we have with another year of experience. They’ve been overseas playing. They’re working very, very hard.

Q: Is there a feeling, because of the apparent parity in the league, that you have a legitimate shot at the playoffs?
McConnell Serio: I don’t think the West is so top heavy. I think Sacramento has gotten better, I think L.A is just as strong. With (Cynthia) Cooper coming back I think you look at Houston being strong again. But I think we’re better. Obviously Phoenix has beaten Indiana twice, they’ve gotten better. I think on any given night, anything can happen because I think teams have gotten more depth with the Dispersal Draft. I think with the way the college draft went, there were a lot of good players that were still on teams’ rosters. I think a lot of teams have just gotten deeper more than anything.

Q: Is Jordan Adams your starting center right now? What does she bring to your team?
McConnell Serio: She is not our starting center right now, but Jordan has come in and had a great camp. I think one of the things I really like about her game is her versatility. She’s a post player who can post up inside and is effective around the basket, but can also step out and hit the three-pointer, which will make teams extend their defense. She’s been able to knock that down on a consistent basis, so I really appreciate her versatility.

Q: Do you plan to keep the motion offense that has been in Minnesota the last few years?
McConnell Serio: No I am not. I know it was an adjustment for the players, where anybody brings the ball of the floor, and I’ve gone to the traditional point guard system where there is a leader on the floor and the ball is in their hands in transition. So that was an adjustment for them, but I don’t know what his system was exactly, but I know what we are doing is a little different.

Q: Do you think Shaunzinski Gortman will have a break out year?
McConnell Serio: She has been a pleasant surprise to me in training camp. I did not know what to expect coming in from her. She has come in and she has earned playing time. She has come in and just dominated defensively, has been shooting the ball very well, she’s very athletic, she just makes things happen when she’s on the floor. I thought she had a tremendous training camp.

Q: And Teresa Edwards?
McConnell Serio: T has come in and done exactly what I hoped she would do and that’s be a great leader from the point guard position. The players obviously had an immediate respect for her because of the type of player she was and what she has accomplished in this game. But I think they have an appreciation for what she does because she is so smart and knows the game. They enjoy playing with her but she is someone who has taken this team under her wing and has come in and been a leader. She has not lost any of her game. She’s still the scorer and passer that she was. She’s obviously a little older, so she’s smarter defensively. But she is such a competitor that I have to keep telling her to limit herself and that I don’t want you hurt in the beginning of the season because you haven’t played in awhile. And I’ve been in her shoes before, making a comeback, but she’s such a competitor and she comes to practice and works hard and she has high expectations of her teammates and she lets them know that. And she’s also a teacher on the floor. You see her out there directing traffic and telling them exactly what to do.

Q: Do you think she is taking this as a final challenge for her?
McConnell Serio: I think that’s a good way of looking at it. I think she realized that if she was going to play in this league, the time was now. But I had spoken to her, that she wasn’t coming back just to play anywhere. I think she looked at this as a great opportunity, as a good fit for her, and a great situation having known each other; having played on the Olympic team with Katie Smith and she is aware of the players that we have. She’s ready for a challenge and T has always been someone who has accepted. a challenge and it brings out the best in her and keeps her motivated.

Q: There’s a perception the team has underachieved in the past.
McConnell Serio: That’s the wrap that the Minnesota Lynx have gotten in the past. They’ve always underachieved. I feel very confident that we will be very successful on the floor. I think we have the talent, I think we have the chemistry. I think if we play the way we are capable of playing we have a chance to be successful.

Q: Is there an update on Lynn Pride?
McConnell Serio: My first experience with working with her was the first day of practice and I was very impressed with her athleticism, her work ethic. She was very vocal. In the second day of practice, she pulled her hamstring. She missed probably an entire week. She missed our first two exhibition games. I think in the past few days, she has come on strong and been the player that I hoped she would be. Because she brings something that rest of our post players do not and that is the athleticism. She can create her own shot, she can elevate over defense. She’s a great defender, can block shots and she can disrupt other teams’ offenses. So once she has been healthy from her hamstring injury, she has been playing very, very well.

Q: Is she comfortable in a more traditional offense?
McConnell Serio: I think she seems very comfortable. One of the things that all of these players talk about is how different things are than they were in the past, but she seems very comfortable. She has expressed to other players how happy she is and she’s working very hard. We’re winning. We seem to be very successful on the floor, winning two out of three exhibition games. So she seems to be very content with the sets that we are running. Once she has picked them up and has run them and she’s getting even more comfortable. I see good things from her.

Q: Are you thinking about putting Svetlana Abrosimova at the four and playing her down on the block, and, if so, how is she adjusting to that?
McConnell Serio: Actually, she was our leading scorer in our last game with Detroit at the four spot. I had talked to her prior to that game that these are my five best players, but I do not want players playing out of position if they are not content playing there. But she had a great game. We have counters to different things and with her at the four offensively, it brings defenses out and extended, which will help us get the ball inside. Obviously we will have to shoot the ball well going with four guards, but if she was being the four defensively, it may depend on who that player is. Katie Smith is someone that has defended all of the post players. She’s been on the Olympic team with these players and has played with and against the best. She’s a smart player. So defensively it may depend on the matchups of who defends on the four, but we’re looking at Svet to offensively be our four.

Candi Harvey
San Antonio Silver Stars

Q: How do you perceive the parity in this league?
Harvey: Well, I definitely think the gap has been bridged with the Dispersal Draft and some of the college picks that some of the teams got, especially when you talk about teams like Sacramento and Cleveland and Detroit. You can’t leave any of these teams out. I think on any given night, if you’re not ready to play, then you’re not going to be pleased when you walk out of the building, whether you are at home or you’re on the road.

Q: The Natalie Williams-Sylvia Crawley trade, are you happy with it, or still adjusting?
Harvey: We are very pleased with the trade. We feel like we got two very solid post players in Sylvia Crawley and Gwen Jackson and both of them bring different things that we needed. Sylvia is a great passer from the post, great length, a tremendous defender. Gwen is a young player that is going to develop into a great power forward and we have the luxury either behind Sylvia or alongside Sylvia to develop her. We don’t have to throw her to the wolves. Then, also, we have the addition of Tausha Mills on our team that we picked up after she was released from Washington. That’s a banger, just a tough physical player that gives us a fourth different look to complement Margo (Dydek).

Q: The thinking behind the Natalie Williams trade?
Harvey: We’re so appreciative of everything that Natalie did for the Utah Starzz. She was a great player and still a great player. But the bottom line is you can say whatever you want to say, but Natalie Williams is a five. She is better with her back to the basket. She is tremendous at that. She’s a power post. Yes she has good range, but I still think she is more comfortable on the low block. And Margo, when you are 7-2, and she’s out away from the basket, that’s not necessarily where we want her to play. We want her close to the basket and being able to develop her into more of a low block player. So, we just felt that the time was right for this, especially when you look at a situation like Sylvia and Gwen, and you can almost get a two-for-one situation. We’re just very pleased. We think it’s a win-win situation for both teams. Natalie obviously provides something that Indiana needed and Sylvia and Gwen provided something that we needed. A large part of our success has a large part to do with what Natalie did with the Utah Starzz and we appreciate that very much.

Q: Do you think this team gets overlooked and who will back up Jennifer Azzi?
Harvey: It’s always been that way. No one has ever talked about the Utah Starzz or now the San Antonio Silver Stars until we get into the playoffs or if we go on an eight-game win streak or until we make it to the Western Conference Finals. I guess we’ve always been kind of the Rodney Dangerfield of the West and I guess it will continue to be. You know what? I like it that way. We’re underdogs and we’ve done quite well in that roll and I don’t think anything is going to change about that.

As far as Jennifer Azzi is concerned, she’s still playing at an incredibly high level. We feel very comfortable with Semeka Randall backing her up at the one in certain match-ups. She did a great job in both preseason games against L.A. and Nikki Teasley. And then we’re also very high on Tai Dillard, a young guard that played at the University of Texas and has incredible quickness and vision and is a defensive stopper and can score. We feel like we are in the perfect position with Semeka, who is somewhat of a veteran, a third-year player and Jennifer and then Tai. We kind of have the veteran, we kind of have the mid-vet and then we kind of have the rookie. So we’re very pleased with that position.

Q: What has the reception in San Antonio been like?
Harvey: We walked out the other night, our first time in the SBC Center, our preseason game against L.A., and there were between 7,000 and 9,000 people there. As most of you know that have been to a game in Utah, that was probably a record-breaking crowd during the regular season. So our players were just thrilled. They were thrilled with the environment, with the atmosphere. Everything that has been done here has been done in a first-class manner. San Antonio is a festive town. They love their Spurs, and if we continue to be as successful as we have been, which I have no reason to believe that we won’t be, I think this city, not just this city, but South Texas and this area is going to just fall in love with this team and it’s going to be a very difficult place to come and play.

Q: Do you think the moves to San Antonio and Connecticut good for league?
Harvey: I do. We’re so appreciative of everything that has happened in Utah. It provided a home for us, and change is sometimes scary, but this is a necessary change from both sides. I can’t speak for the Connecticut move, but I do know that without a shadow of a doubt, that this was the right move for our league and for our team to put this team in San Antonio.

Q: Who do you think improved the most in the offseason?
Harvey: We’re all so impressed with the finish that Sacramento had. We all know the deal. We all know that they were beat up and banged up and Edna Campbell and all the adversities that they faced. At the end of the year, I thought they were one of the league’s best. Then through the draft they pick up a Chantelle Anderson, a great young five that they can develop. So I really think they helped themselves. I think Cleveland helped themselves, when you talk about Betty Lennox and some of the players that they added; and then Detroit and all of those great players. So I think it’s hard to say. There can be a lot of guessed and what ifs until people get on the floor and things starting playing out, I don’t think any of us will know any impact any of the situations have had. But I know that Sacramento is under a lot of tension on the West and it’s deservedly so.

Q: Did you know you were going to move to San Antonio?
Harvey: We really did not have a lot of communication from them at all until the morning that they called us to tell us the team had been sold. Up until that point, we had heard that everything was fine. We would be coming back to Utah and people were selling tickets and working and everything was as is until I got a call about seven o’clock in the morning and was told that the team had been sold to San Antonio. So, of course, mixed emotions -- loyalty to the people out there and to the people who were without jobs that had done such a great job for us; and loyalty to our fans, that even thought it took them awhile, the last two years, as we started winning more and more, they really got passionate. But once we all got down here and met the Spurs organization and saw the facility … and I’m very familiar with San Antonio, so to me on a personal level, this has been like coming home. It’s been a great move.

Q: Is Sylvia Crawley moving in as the starting forward right away?
Harvey: We’re still kind of up in the air. Sylvia and Gwen are both starters as far as I’m concerned. I think that will depend on defensive matchups. Offensively, they bring two different styles of games, but they complement each other very well. There might even be situations where we start Gwen at the four and Sylvia at the five and bring Margot off the bench. So I literally see all three of those players as starters and that will probably be a game-time decision.