PC: Leslie, Rogers Talk Sweet 16, Iowa

NC State seniors DD Rogers and Kiara Leslie met with the media to discuss the Wolfpack's upcoming Sweet 16 matchup with Iowa.

For both of y'all. I just wanted to ask, you guys obviously have suffered quite a few injuries this season, but somehow, you know, still beat your preseason projections. Still finished third in the conference. It's just been unbelievable watching this team just keep reloading and keep kind of changing to fit the new personnel as they come in.

What has that been like for y'all as far as adjusting to different people and changing your games, and how has things in the locker room kind of helped that process along?
KIARA LESLIE: I think that just we knew once we started losing the players that we all had to come together and contribute a little bit more in different areas. I think that we have all done well, especially the freshmen, Elissa and Kai, playing major roles and coming in and starting late in the season, and I think they did a really good job of that.

DD ROGERS: Yeah, I'd agree with Kiara. I think it's just a matter of people stepping up in the roles that we lost, and I think that everyone needed to, did a very good job of doing so.

DD had a long conversations about this in the locker room, so I'll ask your opinion. Is this team loose? Who is the person keeping you guys laughing in the locker room away from the court?
KIARA LESLIE: Well, I would say Grace Hunter used to do that, now, it's hard to say. I mean, we all joke around when we want to, but no one was as really a big goofball as much as she was.

After the adversity you suffered at the start of your college career, how much more does a season like this mean?
KIARA LESLIE: It means a lot. Coming from where I came from, not a lot of people know my entire story. So just conquering and every coming what I've been through has been a blessing. This senior year has been going great, but we're not finished yet.

Several questions. In your time at Maryland, the year after the final four, your freshman year, your sophomore year, you played Iowa a couple times the regular season. Gustafson was a freshman then. I know your roles were different then but do you have any recollections of her as she moved from the bench to a starter, and did you have any visions that she would become the player that she is today?
KIARA LESLIE: Over the years, she definitely has improved a lot. I didn't know she was going to be this great in her senior year and we were going to be facing her. It's definitely going to be a great challenge. I think we're up for it and we'll see how it turns out tomorrow morning.

Can you talk about how Kai has stepped up the last two or three games for you guys?
DD ROGERS: I think Kai has done a great job. She shot really well in the last couple of games. I think she shot well in the ACC Tournament, as well. She's just, you know, accepting the role that she's in and doing all that she can to help the team, and it's definitely showing.

You're likely to be matched up against Stewart a lot tomorrow in N.C. State's man offense, man defense. What have you seen from her as far as her skills as they pertain to you?
DD ROGERS: She's really good 15 feet and in, so I just need to get to her from there, yeah.

Obviously Iowa runs a lot of man-to-man defense, 2-3 zones, triangles-and-two that we've seen in the tournament so far. How much of the emphasis in practice these last few days has been on the zone offense, on the junk offense, if they throw those at you tomorrow?
KIARA LESLIE: We've definitely seen a lot of this throughout ACC play. So I think Coach prepared us way back then. I think that we're going to run through a little bit of that today to freshen up, but I think that we have some things for all the defenses that they might throw at us.

DD ROGERS: Yeah, what Kiara said (laughing).

Last year, the same level, the same part of the tournament, you faced a team with a very dominant center. What lessons can you take from the Mississippi State game into this game tomorrow?
KIARA LESLIE: They are both similar and different in many ways. They both have a dominant post player that we need to try to take away, and they also have outside threats, as well. I think that Coach has definitely prepared us for what we might see tomorrow, and we have to work together to get this win.

DD ROGERS: Yeah, like Kiara said, they run most of their offenses through their post player, but we can't just rely strictly on trying to shut her down completely, because like she said, they can easily kick it out and have shooters outside the perimeter.

The overtime game against Virginia Tech earlier this season seemed like a moment for this team in terms of being able to take a good couple punches and come back and really persevere and gut out a win. I was wondering if that felt like kind of a turning point to y'all, and if not, can you point to a game where you really felt like everything was clicking?
KIARA LESLIE: Definitely that game was tough. We went into overtime. But I think that the way we pushed through overtime and the way the game ended showed our toughness, and that we are capable of competing against a lot of people.