Feb. 4, 2004
ATLANTA – Freshmen Kentrina Wilson and Stephanie Higgs sat down with Sports Information intern Keight Vincent to talk about Georgia Tech, basketball and the transition from high school to college life. Both Yellow Jackets were high school standouts. Wilson, a two-time all state selection and nominee for the Wendy’s High School Heisman award, led Deerfield Beach to its first 6A Florida State championship her senior year, and Higgs was the 2003 Atlanta Metro player of the year and preseason all-American her senior year. She helped Central Gwinnett High School win the Georgia 4A State championship title in her sophomore season. Preseason camp at Georgia Tech was not the first time the two had played together; the rookies competed for the West in the L’adidas Roundball Classic, an all-star game featuring the nation’s top seniors.
Here’s what the two freshmen had to say:
Keight Vincent: What is one thing off the court that you wish you were better at?
Kentrina Wilson: I wish I was more involved in other activities, I really don’t do anything besides basketball.
Stephanie Higgs: Playing pool, I don’t play a lot, but would really like to know how to be very good.
KV: What is the best thing about being at Georgia Tech?
KW: The city. I like being in Atlanta because I have a lot of family here, so I don’t have to be stuck on campus all the time, I can get away for a little bit.
KV: What is the worst thing?
Both: The academics, because they’re so hard.
KV: If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why?
KW: Reading minds, because I know people don’t always say what they’re thinking.
SH: To see things in the future so that I could prevent anything bad from happening to people I care about or myself.
KV: What is your major?
KW: Industrial Engineering. I came in as a computer engineer, but after attending Challenge* I decided it wasn’t for me. I talked to some industrial engineering majors and decided that it was more of what I wanted to do.
SH: Right now, it is industrial engineering, I wanted to do something involving business and I was told that it was the easiest engineering major available.
KV: If you couldn’t play basketball for a living what would your dream career be?
KW: I always wanted to be an accountant, but that’s changing. I used to also want to be a model, so that’s probably more of a dream career.
SH: To be a housewife, I don’t want to work. If I had a choice I would never work. Ever.
KV: Do you have any hidden talents or abilities?
KW: Sleeping is my best off the court talent, I sleep between classes, I sleep when I don’t have study hall. Typically I go to bed at 7 or 8 and wake up for morning practice at 5:45.
SH: I can always tell when something is going to happen before it does, it’s kind of weird, it’s not that I’m psychic, but when something happens I feel like I always had a feeling it would.
KV: Is there anyone in particular on your team that you look up to?
KW: Alex Stewart, not even so much on the court, but off the court she’s so much of a leader and I look up to her a lot. There’s just so much I could learn from her. Even though you don’t need anyone to tell you what to do, she always makes sure you’re in the right spot or doing the right thing and if you ever have problems you can always talk to her.
SH: All the seniors, but Alex Stewart specifically because we play the same position, and I am a freshman and she’s a red shirt senior, and she’s pretty much everything a leader should be.
KV: If you could have a part of any one of your teammate’s game whose and what would you choose?
KW: I would shoot like Megan Isom, penetrate like Fallon Stokes, block shots like Kasha Terry and rebound like Jessica Williams.
SH: It would probably be Kasha Terry because she’s 6’4 and averaging about 5 blocks per game and I wish I could block opponents shots like she can.
KV: If you could have a part of one of the men’s player’s game what would it be?
Both: dunk like Ish. (Isma’il Muhammad of the Georgia Tech men’s team)
KV: What is the best thing about being a college athlete?
KW: You get treated well, and you get so much nice equipment and clothes for practices and games and weights. Also, it keeps you busy so you always have something to do.
SH: The food. We when go out to eat on road trips we get to eat really really good.
KV: What is the worst thing about being a college athlete?
KW: Practice. Long practice.
SH: Practicing, we have morning practice every day from 7-10am and then we have to go to class.
KV: What was the biggest adjustment you’ve had to make from high school basketball to college basketball?
KW: Being consistent. In high school, well I wouldn’t say it was easy, but your talent gets you by. Here, you have to practice constantly to be able to do what you need to do.
SH: The fast pace, it’s definitely about ten times faster than high school basketball.
KV: Is there any basketball record you’d like to break or set while you’re here?
SH: I’d like to get the most points in a game and I’d like to be the first female to score 2000 points in her career. (Marielle Walker scored a Tech-record 43 points against Iona in 1987 and Kisha Ford recorded 1,955 points as a Yellow Jacket from 1994-97 to set the current record for most points in a career)
KV: Is there anything about college basketball that was a lot different from your expectations?
KW: To be honest with you it’s pretty much what I expected.
SH: Being a team. In high school it doesn’t really matter in some ways, everyone has other sports and activities they do, but now you’re here on a scholarship to play basketball, and it’s so important to be a team person because if you’re not a team you’re not going to win, and I have had to learn that since I’ve been here.
KV: Are there any freshman initiations or traditions that the upperclassmen have put you through this year?
KW: The night before the first day of practice we had to cook a dinner for the whole team, Stephanie cooked shrimp and I made rice, beans, corn…the easy stuff. Every liked everything except for my beans, they were pretty bad and nobody wanted to eat them, I burnt them pretty bad.
SH: Well, there aren’t any formal initiations, but we have to make the water every day before practice, and bring all the balls down to practice and when we travel we have to clean all the trash all the bus and get people’s bags from baggage claim at the airport, so yeah a lot of hard labor.
KV: Kentrina, I read that you scored on your own goal twice in middle school basketball. How did that happen?
KW: It was definitely my most embarrassing moment, it was my first time playing basketball, I was in 7th grade and I got turned around on the court somehow, and I could hear everyone yelling, “No, no,” but I still went and scored on our team’s basket. No one was mad, it was funny. The second time was in a totally different game and we laughed about it even more because we were young.
Going into this weekend’s game at Duke, Wilson is averaging 2.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 13.6 minutes per game. She has also notched 7 blocks, 9 assists, and 13 steals in 21 games. Higgs’ has also made an impact for the Yellow Jackets, averaging 3.3 points, 0.9 rebounds, and 6.8 minutes per game, and boasts a .533 three-point percentage (8-15) and 7 steals in 17 games.
Following the Duke game, Georgia Tech returns to action Thursday February 12 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum when they take on Virginia at 7pm. Georgia Tech will be giving out free T-shirts to the first 250 fans as well as vouchers for $1 hot dogs at the concession stand.
