Q and A with women’s basketball co-captain Jamie Capra

I talked to co-captain guard Jamie Capra ‘08 on the phone this afternoon about UAA play. Below you’ll find most of the conversation, with some contextual information that I added:

Me: Brandeis was ahead by as many as 8 points against then-No. 21 Univ. of Rochester this weekend and 10 points against then-No. 4 NYU, but in both cases Brandeis was unable to hold on at the end of the second period and wound up falling to the opponent. What was the reason(s) for this?

Jaime Capra: I think really what it comes down to is other teams, when they fall behind, they’ve been making adjustments to stop whatever’s working for us. If our inside game is working, they make adjustments to play more on the defensive post inside. I don’t think we’ve been reacting to their adjustments very well. I think that teams are making adjustments and we’re trying to play the same way and then it ends up not working out for us anymore, which is why we would end up falling behind again.

JG: Looking ahead to this weekend, the Judges will be facing two more UAA teams– the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis. While Chicago and Wash U. are not currently ranked in the D3hoops Top 25 poll, both teams received votes (16 and 30, respectively), both teams hold 11-3 records (and winning records in the UAA), and both teams are currently on winning streaks. That is to say, both are certainly challenging opponents. How important is it for the Judges to play a full 40 minutes, particularly during the last 5 minutes or so?

JC: This weekend is a huge weekend for us. [Whether they're ranked or not,] they’re both very good teams. I think we just need to really work on playing for a full 40 minutes. We can’t have any lapses where the other team goes on like an 11-0 run. We’ve been preparing for a week, and I think we’re all ready to go. It’s getting to the point where we just need to win games, so we’re just going to take it one at a time, and hopefully we’ll beat Chicago Friday.

JG: You guys have played the first 3 UAA games on the road and have posted a 1-2 record over that stretch. Is there any advantage in this weekend’s games, considering they’ll be played at home?

JC: Yeah, definitely, I think traveling is hard. By the time Sunday comes around, you’re tired, you’ve been flying all weekend or taking a bus. There is an advantage to being on your home court because you don’t have to go from a game Friday night to flying Saturday to going right to the gym for practice. It’s really just a hectic schedule. I think it’ll be good for us to be back on our home court. We haven’t played here in a while [since January 9], so we’re looking forward to it.

JG: What is the most difficult part of playing in a conference like the UAA, with so many competitive teams?

JC: I think that’s really the most difficult part, is that every team is so competitive, and on any given day, any team, whether they’re last place in the conference or not, they can still come out and play a great game and beat the first-place team. It happened with Rochester and NYU. Rochester beat NYU. I think that’s just the toughest thing. You can’t get tired because if you let up, the [lower-ranked team] will beat you.

JG: On a different note, I hear you’re a NY Giants fan.

JC: Yeah, yeah! Big time!

JG: What was your reaction to their Sunday night victory over the Green Bay Packers?

JC: I don’t think any Giants fan would have thought they would have made it this far. At this point, I think it’s like, well, they made it to the Super Bowl, it doesn’t even matter if they win any more, but of course we’re all pulling for them, and I just think it’s a great story. They started out 0-2, and now they’re in the Super Bowl. So hopefully we can try and emulate the Giants a little bit [laughing].

Unfortunately, as Capra added, the Judges won’t get to watch the Feb. 3 Super Bowl, as they’ll be on the plane home from Atlanta after they play Emory, but as we both agreed, hopefully there’ll be great highlights for her to watch!

Finally, I’ll leave you with the women’s schedule for the weekend:

Fri (tomorrow), 1/25, 6 p.m.: University of Chicago at Brandeis

Sun, 1/27, 2 p.m.: Wash U. at Brandeis