Gary Blair on upcoming roadtrip, progress of freshmen

Notes from Gary Blair interview

* The team is looking forward to their upcoming trip to California and Las Vegas.They plan on mixing in a lot of good basketball with a lot of fun and entertainment as well.

* USC has a great history in women's basketball and the game should be a good one. The kids have been practicing all week to prepare for the Trojans.The team will get to go to Disneyland after the game and it should be a good reward for working hard on the court and in the classroom this semester.

* When men's teams go on road trips, they don't do as much off the court stuff as women's teams do. While a lot of teams give each player a certain monetary allotment for each meal, he has his team always eat together in order to bond and grow as a team as much as possible. He also tries to get the local A&M club to meet with the team while they are in town.

* This is the only time of the year where they don't have to take an extra assistant on the road to monitor study hall. However, there are four kids who are taking a minimester to get ahead, so there will still be some studying going on.

* Over the next four games, they will play four teams that will likely be in some sort of postseason play at the end of the year. USC has struggled a little lately, but every game has been close, Kansas State is undefeated, Old Dominion is 6-1 on the year and Notre Dame is sitting at number four or five in the country. The team has their work cut out for them and is looking to get even better overall.

* There are four freshman in the first nine players that see action in each game. All four of them are getting plenty of playing time. Redshirt freshman Rachel Mitchell is healthy this year and is getting six to eight minutes per game to get her ready for SEC play. When Mitchell is on her game, it's hard to stop her and she gives Kelsey Bone and Karla Gilbert plenty to work with during practice each day.

* This team has been a fun one to work with, but he has had to do a lot of teaching. Gradually the players are picking things up and its evident in their play the last few games.

* Getting back into the rankings is nice. They were in the coaches polls for 125 straight weeks before spending the last two weeks out of it. The team definitely likes the notoriety and being in the rankings is free advertisement for the university.