CHRISTY TITCHENAL: READY TO HELP

Interview by Bob Iacopi Photos by Don Anderson

Sophomore Christy Titchenal has not seen much playing time for the Cardinal this year, buthathasn’t kept this cheerful young lady from continuing to practice hard, play hard when she gets a chance, and study the game diligently from the bench. “My job is try to get better, and to help make the other players better, to make the practice drills as competitive as possible. My main assets are my shooting and my size (6’1”). I’m most comfortable taking the medium jumper, but I’m really working hard on improving my three-point shooting. I do special drills with Amy (Tucker) about once a week, and then really concentrate on the shot during practice. And even though I’m not playing much in games, I stay in shape with extra workouts on the bike or on the treadmill.”

What’s impressed you most about this year’s team? “I think we started out as a really inexperienced team. But now, we’re really coming into our own and showing a lot of grit. Ezi (Okafor) has been really well lately. When she goes into the game, she goes right to the offensive boards, which is something we desperately need. I’m a decent rebounder, but not like Ezi. She is so strong, so she can go right up after that ball against anybody.

Health problems have been an issue for Christy, and one solution to her illnesses was a bit of a surprise. “Last year was such a tough year. First, I suffered a stress fracture in my foot in January. It took a long time to rehab from that, and it was really hard getting back in shape.

“Then I had to have my tonsils taken out in March. I had been getting sick all during the last half the season, and it turned out that my tonsils were infected. Getting rid of the infection was really important. I have been a whole lot healthier ever since.”

So after you got healthy again, how did you spend your summer? “Early on, I took a vacation trip to London, with a side trip over to Paris on the Eurostar train through the Chunnel. I had never been to Europe before, and I really enjoyed the experience. Then I came back on campus, and worked out with Kelly (Conditioning Coach Kelly Clark), and worked at three of Tara’s basketball camps.

When we talked, the Cal game was still very fresh on everyone’s mind. “It was a tough game, big crowd and everything. And actually, we didn’t play that well on offense. We didn’t shoot very well. But we played a lot better defense than in the first game earlier in the year. So they didn’t shoot very well, either, especially early in the game. We held Alexis Gray-Lawson to eight points, and she made only three out of 18 shots. Their freshmen as a group generally couldn’t do too much against our defense.”

I reminded Christy that Cal center Devanei Hampton complained after the game about Stanford’s zone defense, and challenged the Cardinal to play player-to-player. Christy laughed about that. “It was really funny to hear that. I mean, this is a team game, not a bunch of people playing one-on-one. Our coaches get us ready to win the game, not the individual matchups.

“We played ‘zone on the make, man on the miss,’ which means that we went back into our zone defense after we scored, but played man-to-man after we missed a shot and Cal got the rebound. And we missed a lot of shots, so we were in our man defense about two-thirds of the time.”

I was curious about life on the road, especially on the upcoming crucial trip to play the Arizona schools. “We leave Wednesday after practice and get down to Tempe late in the evening. On Thursday morning, we have a shoot-around to get a feel of the court at Arizona State. Mostly, we work on our individual shots, but we’ll also run a little bit of the ASU offense, to get our defense ready for what’s coming. In the afternoon, we’ll have our pre-game meal at the hotel and then get ready for the game.

“On Friday morning, we pack up and drive down to Tucson. We’ll have a full practice that day. Generally, it’s not as intense as our regular practices at home, but we’ll be on the floor for a couple of hours. The Arizona game is at 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday, so we’ll be back at the hotel early in the evening. Then we have a very early flight on Sunday. We’ll be up at 4:30 in the morning. The coaches want us to have as much of a free Sunday at home as possible.”

So what has been the emphasis in practice this week? “We’ve really been working hard on refining our triangle offense. What makes the triangle offense work? “Usually, Brooke takes the position on the inside and Kristen plays the high post, because she is a good outside shooter. But that’s not the most important thing. To make the offense really work, we all have to pass really well, we have to set good screens, recognize whether the defensive players are switching, and take advantage of whatever they are giving us.”

So what can we expect from Arizona State? “I think they will try to double down on Brooke and just try to smother her. They always play a very aggressive defense. They’re in our faces, putting pressure on our shooters. They’re really pumped to play us on their home court.”

I finished up our interview by asking Christy about her high school career in Santa Rosa. “We had a pretty good team at Ursuline High School. The highlight was probably my sophomore year when we went really deep into the playoffs. Along the way, we even beat Brooke Smith’s Marin Catholic team when we were a huge underdog. But they wound up beating us later in the playoffs. “ Do you ever give Brooke a hard time about beating her team back then? “No, we never discuss it” (this was said with a big smile).

And what about life after Stanford basketball? “I’m thinking about going to law school. There is no pre-law major at Stanford, but I’m majoring in Psychology and my main focus is on courses that will get me ready for law school. I do well with the academics, but time management is always an issue. But overall, I’m doing just fine.”

It sounds like the life a true student-athlete.