Divilbiss: "We don’t mean anything disrespectful to Amanda, but we may be better without Amanda Campbell. Amanda was a tremendous player, but we’re going to be a different team."

Divilbiss: "That’s the consummate question. How do we replace her? We’re retiring three jerseys this year; we’re not retiring numbers. You have to have the mentality that you can fill those spots. It’s dangerous to develop the mentality that you can’t replace somebody."

Divilbiss: "That experience factor; you can’t put a measurement on it. It’s so critical to being successful. Last year our players came in here and just kinda wondered about the path we were on, let alone what we wanted to achieve. This year we understand the path and we have a picture of what it takes to get there. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The learning takes place so much quicker; the things you have to guard against are the new players not getting enough information and getting taught things."

Divilbiss: "We’ll have all kinds of people stepping up and making plays. We’ll be harder to defend and we’ll be better defensively. We won’t be standing around waiting for Amanda to do things."

Divilbiss: "By far. That’s all there is to it. We’ve got 11 players on our roster, and I think all 11 are good enough to be on the floor at any time."

Divilbiss: "I think we’ll figure out what the strengths of our players are and find out what they do well. Everything we will do will continue to be in the framework of things we’ve done. We haven’t changed anything offensivley since Julie Stringer was a senior (1992-93). We make adjustments within our framework to fit people’s strengths but our overall ideas are the same. We want to run, but be under control. We want to have an attack mentality, but if we aren’t able to score in transition, we want to be able to execute in our half-court offense. Teams that win championships execute in half-court offense and have great half-court defensive teams."

Divilbiss: "We had a good half-court defense last year. We like to dictate what people will do offensively. That’s what we strive for. We’ve always liked the full-court pressure because it enhances what we do in our half-court defense. We’ve never relied on our full-court pressure as a real important part of our defense. I wouldn’t call it the cornerstone of what we’re doing, but it does enhance what we do."

Divilbiss: "I think the Frontier offers some new challenges, and I’m quite confident that we’ve done enough things through the years in our preseason schedules to prepare us. Our focus all along, and I’ve been saying this for 12 years, is on us. It doesn’t matter who we are playing, we need to be the best we can be. We’ve never approached one opponent like we’re trying to be better than someone else. We’re trying to be the best basketball team we can be. If you waste a lot of time trying to be better than someone else, you’re doing just that: You’re wasting time."

Divilbiss: "Nobody, nobody has ever played the schedule we played last year. Nobody. We’re not concerned about the travel; we’ll handle the travel. Last year’s league schedule (Pacific West Conference) was unbelievable. There are some good teams in the Frontier Conference. Montana State-Northern is a good club; they lost three of their top scorers. They are well-coached and they play hard. Carroll always plays hard. One thing is that league is always really physical. It’s a hard-nosed, smash-mouth type of play, which is fine with us. That’s the way we like to play. We’re a fairly physical basketball team ourselves."

Divilbiss: "It was real good. Was it the best? I don’t know. We have some kids who busted their rear ends and got way better in the off-season. We displayed this spring and summer that there is some fire in us."

Divilbiss: "That’s one of things I really saw last year coming back from the national tournament. It was a major disappointment losing to Oklahoma City the way we did. We didn’t compete as well as we could have. Our players know that and then when Oklahoma City won the national championship, it just about made us want to puke. It didn’t make me feel very good at all. In that game we let the outcome of one possession affect the next. We went away from the national tournament with some renewed hunger. We now believe that that’s a tournament we not only can win but should win."