Post-Game Q&A With Shantrell Sneed, Lauren Greif and Natasha Vital

During the open locker room period following the victory over Virginia, I had a chance to talk with senior Shantrell Sneed, juniors Lauren Greif and Natasha Vital about their thoughts on the game and setting Cal records.

CalBears.com: The first Sweet 16 appearance in California program history…what’s on your mind right now?
Lauren Greif: This is just exciting for the team. We had such high goals this year, and we get to keep going after them.
Natasha Vital: We’re excited. Especially to get over that hump of losing in the second round. We finally got there to the Sweet 16.
Shantrell Sneed: We’re still dancing for the first time in Cal history. We are just continuing to write our own history. We’re playing some of our best basketball at the perfect time.

CalBears.com: L.G, you had nine assists, which was a new career high. Were you aware of how many you were dishing out during the game?
LG: I was just trying to move the ball. We’ve been doing a lot better with ball movement. If someone had told me that I have nine, I would have passed to someone for a double-double.

CalBears.com: What was the key in stopping Virginia?
LG: Their transition. The first five plays of the game we didn’t do a good job of it. But then we really hunkered down.
NV: We had to stop their scorers. I think we did a pretty good job on No. 1 and No. 33. Monica Wright is a great player and she was really hard to guard.
SS: We were able to contain their big three players. They made their little run, but we came back and played great defense.

CalBears.com: What was the key for the Bears?
NV: Running our plays. Putting the ball in transition. Early in the game, we got a lot of give-me baskets. We moved the ball really well. We’ve been working on that in practice. We were also looking for the open man.
SS: Just staying poised and composed, and sharing the basketball. We found the open person. Despite them making a run, we never lost our poise or composure.
To see the Q&A on CalBears.com, click here.

Staff Feature: It's the Shoes

The California women’s basketball team has been stirring a lot of buzz recently, but it’s not just about their game and the best season in program history. It’s about their shoes.

During the regular-season Pac-10 trip to Oregon in February, a Nike representative approached the Golden Bears about designing their own shoes. The Nike rep selected just four schools in the entire nation to have the opportunity to have one-of-a-kind kicks for the NCAA Tournament, an honor that the Bears do not take lightly.

“She thought we were one of the four that were going to last the longest into the NCAA Tournament,” freshman Casey Morris said. “It meant a lot because of all the respect that went along with it. It also gave us confidence.”

This year’s large bid to the NCAA Tournament is the seventh overall and fourth straight trip for the first time in school history. Monday evening’s 99-73 win over No. 5 seed Virginia was the first second-round victory ever for Cal women’s hoops. For the seniors, getting to design their own shoes was further proof that their four years of building the program had not gone unnoticed.

“I think it means that we came into our own,” redshirt junior Alexis Gray-Lawson, who has been at Cal for four years, noted. “People are definitely starting to recognize what Cal basketball is all about.”

To design the shoes, the Cal team of 11 student-athletes were split into two groups and each set used a Nike program to select the features for the sneakers. Although, the coaches selected the final winner, the two groups created shoes that were remarkably similar.

The tongues of the shoes are individualized for each player with Cal and the number on the one and a moniker on the other foot. Some went with their last names while Lexi chose AGL instead.

“We wanted to make it look like our own style,” senior Shantrell Sneed said. “We also wanted to make a statement about Cal basketball.”

The shoes and the Bears made a statement about Cal basketball at the Galen Center last weekend, earning a trip to the Sweet 16 for the first time ever at Cal. Now the team will pack its bags, and shoes, for Trenton, N.J. with hopes of a Final Four trip in their minds.

Here's the rest of my Q&A with several of the players about the shoes:
CalBears.com: What does it mean to you to be one of only four schools in the entire country with personally designed shoes?
Alexis Gray-Lawson: I think that it means that we came into our own. It means a lot because of all of the work that you put in over the years. People are definitely starting to recognize what Cal basketball is all about. It’s a high honor to be able to make our own shoes. We worked together as a team and coaching staff. The shoes are cool! Some of us will play professionally after college, and I feel like these shoes set us up for the future.
Shantrell Sneed: Personally, I feel like it’s a testament to the hard work that we’ve put in, day in and day out, since our last tournament game and in the off-season. It’s nice to receive that kind of national recognition.
Casey Morris: When we first found out that we were going to get to design the shoes, the woman who selected the teams picked the four teams that she thought were going to last the longest into the NCAA Tournament. It meant a lot because of all the respect that went along with it. It also gave us confidence.

CalBears.com: How did the design process work?
AGL: We were in two separate groups and we kind of had a race to see who could come up with the best shoe. It was me, Devanei, Casey, Tasha and Ashley and Kevin and everybody else in the other group. We wanted to come up with something that showed our personalities. We wanted to go bright. We wanted to make sure that nobody could touch them.
CM: We wanted to make sure that the shoe wouldn’t be something that you would find in a store, but that it would be an original. We wanted it to the stand out.
SS: We wanted to make it look like our own style, and to make a statement about Cal basketball. We were split into two groups, and they two sat down at a computer and went online to a Nike Web site to see what parts we like. At the end, the coaches decided on which shoe they wanted to go with. Casey, Nei Ash Lei and Tasha.

CalBears.com: What’s your favorite part about the shoes?
SS: We like the fact that we have black in our shoes. We also really liked that we got to put our names and numbers on our shoes.
CM: I like how the bright yellow stands out.
AGL: My favorite part of the shoe is on the side with the stripes. I also really like that we have Cal and our number on the tongue. I got AGL on the other shoe tongue.

Player Journal Entry: Shantrell Sneed

To read all of Trell's blog entry's from this season, click here to see her blog on CalBears.com

Anytime you win, it’s exactly what you’re looking for. We knew that they were going to present us with some problems because of their size. We did have some mismatches of posts on guards. We knew that we were capable of beating them and we came out with the W.

I think there are a lot of combination of feelings and thoughts right now. I am a senior so having been in this position before, I know what it felt like to lose in the second round last year. I’m paying more attention to detail this year. I’m more focused. I know how important practice and shootaround before the game are. I’m putting a lot of attention to detail in everything from shootaround to scouting reports to hone in on the details. At this point in the season, everyone wants it. Attention to detail is hopefully going to give us the advantage over everyone else.

For the game against Fresno State, our coaches put a lot of emphasis on the fact that if we could take away their three-point shot, we could win the game. The three is where roughly 30 points of their game come from and they were leading the nation in three-pointers made. We knew that it was going to be a big key because that’s how they like to score. You always want to take something away from your opponent, and make them beat you with the next best thing. We definitely did a great job at taking away the three-point shot. I feel like that’s the type of defense that Cal plays.

Against Virginia, we need to shut down its big three players and take away the transition, because that’s the way that they like to score. The transition definitely gets them going. If we can shut down their big three and just make other people score, then we can hopefully be successful.

Go Bears!
~Trell

Player Journal: Shantrell Sneed

Senior forward Shantrell Sneed has been writing a blog for CalBears.com throughout the 2008-09 season. If you’d like to see all of Trell’s blog entries, you can find her blog on CalBears.com by clicking here. Below is an entry that was posted earlier today.

Since I never touched upon this earlier in my blog, I’d like to take this chance to tell you what senior day was like for me. I knew that I was going to be announced first out of the three seniors, but it came a little sooner than I had expected. I didn’t have a lot of time to compose myself. I had told myself that I wasn’t going to cry, but as soon as I looked up at my mom, who was bawling, my tears started coming down. Those are the type of moments that you look forward to as a freshman. You always know that your time is going to come but you can never prepare yourself for what it’s going to feel like when you walk out on the court and you realize that it is really going to be your last game on that floor. There were so many emotions going through me that day. I was just glad that I got the opportunity to play in front of our home crowd for four years and especially on senior day. It was great that our friends, family and fans came out to support us on our last game.

Although our finishes at the end of the regular season and the Pac-10 Tournament were disappointing, we get to play again in the NCAA Tournament. But, from here on out, it’s one and done. There are no more guarantees. Coach says that we have to earn every game from here on out. That’s the type of thought that motivated me. There are no games tomorrow unless we earn it. We don’t get to practice again unless we take care of business.

On Selection Monday, we kind of knew what was going to happen. Our coaches had told us ahead of time that we were either going to get a four or five seed, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. We were nervous about who were going to play. We have some familiarity with Fresno State after playing them last year. We were all happy with the seed that we got and our first-round opponent. We just need to take care of business now.

Last year, we got the opportunity to play down at Stanford and this year, we’re at the Galen Center. It feels like we’ve been playing here for the past two weeks so it feels like a home-court advantage, even though Fresno State is a little bit closer to L.A. than we are in Berkeley. We’re going to have a great fan base to come our and support us. We know the gyms, we know the locker rooms, we know the rims so we feel like we’re at home a little bit. With this being my fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament, I now know the type of dedication and focus that it takes to stay in the tournament. As a senior, this is my last tournament so I want to make that push so that we can go as far as we can and hopefully make it to Saint Louis for the Final Four.

Go Bears
~Shantrell Sneed

Photo Update: Pictures From the Road

Our team photographer, Mollie McClure, has provided us with some great shots from the trip to Los Angeles.

Freshman guard Casey Morris waits at the Oakland Airport to board the flight to Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon.

Junior guard Lauren Greif listens to some music on the bus ride from Los Angeles airport to the team hotel on Thursday evening.

Freshman guard Angelei Aguirre shares a laugh on the team bus.

Senior forward Shantrell Sneed catches up with someone on the phone during the bus ride to the hotel on Thursday evening.

Junior forward/center Rama N’diaye smiles for the camera.

All photos courtesy Mollie McClure of McClure Photography.