FSP's Kori Ellis: With over 15,000 in attendance on opening night, obviously you have a lot of fan support here. What's the biggest difference between Utah and San Antonio as far as getting fans in the seats?
Coach Candi Harvey: (Laughing) At times about 10,000 people. Our opening home game in Utah, we had about 4,000 in there. It's a huge difference to be in San Antonio.
KE: Is it unfathomable to think you could sell out SBC Center later in the season?
Coach: I don't think anything is unfathomable, especially if we continue to put a good product on the floor. I can't say enough about our marketing department, our game ops., our ticket sales department, who have worked their tails off, not just over the course of the last eight months but for two or three years in preparation for this. And they pulled off a great event on Saturday night. We helped by getting a W and it was a truly great night. Our players are proud, not just excited, but proud to be playing here.
KE: In the second half against the Storm, you played incredible pick-and-roll defense on Lauren Jackson. Are you of the coaching philosophy that good defense breeds good offense? Is it defense first for you?
Coach: Oh absolutely. Defense is going to be ahead of offense for us right now with training camp shortened and people coming in late. What we talked about before the game was that offense can be fickle and defense should be constant. We fed off our defensive intensity in the second half and got better looks at the basket.
KE: In the first half you cam out tentative an a little jittery, what did you tell the team at half time to get them back on track?
Coach: Just relax. We were a little tight. Their spacing wasn't good. Everything had closed in on them because of the nervousness. But I told them we didn't play a good half and we were only down by three. They relaxed and had fun in the second half and played better basketball. We have improving to do, but I some great things in them in the second half.
KE: Do you attribute the poor free throw shooting to just an off night?
Coach: We aren't going to get mental about that. We will practice our freethrows when we are tired and fatigued, but there's nothing with this team regarding free throw shooting. We are a good free-throwing club. We need to just into SBC Center and get used to it. Get used to the rims. We've only been in there four times and that includes two games. We just need to get more reps in there.
KE: You ran a lot during the second half. With this team's athleticism is that something we'll see a lot of this season?
Coach: We don't want to be totally a half-court team. We have great speed and skill players at all positions that can play at a fast pace. We love to push the basketball, but we need to have a feel for when to pull it back and pound the ball down inside to the big girl and establish a low post presence.
KE: Marie (Ferdinand) had a great game Saturday, not just her 20 points, but her aggressiveness - her seven rebounds and her ability to get to the line.
Coach: When you talk about Jen (Azzi), Marie and Goodie (Goodson), they are all very aggressive, attacking, slashing type players. Getting the three of them in that mode we are very hard to defend.
KE: What are the keys to beating Phoenix on Wednesday?
Coach: They are very perimeter-oriented. They are a fast-paced team. They don't have any conscience in their outside shooting and we need to anticipate that. They have a very different philosophy than us. Our transition "D" will be very important. We need to turn it into a half-court game. We need to go to our strengths, which will always be an inside-out mentality.
