After a second-round appearance in the 2002 NCAA tournament, last season was a rebuilding year for the Arizona State Sun Devils. Injuries sidelined two of the team's top upperclassmen, forcing some freshman players into leading roles.

One of those first-year players was 5-10 shooting guard Jill Noe, who led the team in scoring with 12.6 points per game. A graduate of Wilsonville (Ore.) High School, where she took her team to two consecutive state titles, Noe also provided speed and athleticism to the Sun Devils.

Arizona State finished the 2002-03 season with a 16-14 record, and there's plenty of hope for the future. The team's second and third-leading scorers -- Amy Denson and Kristen Kovesdy -- were also freshmen, and with etsy Boardman and Alexis Tate returning to action from injury, the Sun Devils should be much stronger in 2003-04.

In the following interview, Noe talks about her decision to attend ASU, what it's like to play for Head Coach Charli Turner Thorne, and her twin sister.

Gball: What position did you play in high school? Did you play any other sports at Wilsonville?
Noe: I played the one, two, or three spots in high school. But here, I play offguard or two. I also ran track and played soccer at Wilsonville. Soccer helped me with my footwork, and track helped my speed and overall agility. Both sports played a big part in making me the basketball player I am.

Did you play AAU ball, too?
I did the whole AAU deal, traveled and everything. I loved playing year-round. Even when we weren't in season, I'd be out in my neighbor's yard, hooping it up all hours of the night.

Why did you decide to attend Arizona State rather than staying in-state in Oregon?
I didn't wanted to stay in state -- I wanted something new and change of scenery. I knew this program was on the rise and knew I could part of helping to create something. I took my visit down here, and the team and my coaches were just about everything I wanted in a program. I felt right at home my first weekend, and I knew on on the plane home that I wanted to come here.

Coach Turner Thorne got a lot of attention when she had her second child during the 2001 season. Does she try to promote a family atmosphere around the team?
She's always inviting us over for dinner and coordinating team events. She's a great coach and a great person. Overall, she's not too hard on us, but she knows when to crack down on us to get us working hard.

Was it hard to transition to playing at the college level, especially in the Pac-10?
My high school coach and Charli helped me a lot with the transition and made it a lot easier than I expected. But it was still difficult. The thing that really got to me was the length of the season and having to battle through injuries. In high school, if I got hurt, I would just take a couple of days off and then be ready to go. But in college, you have to learn how to fight through that. The main injury that stayed with me all season was a torn hip flexor--I had to have it wrapped and go to physical therapy twice a day. It was really hard to cope with, since you feel it with everything you do. So this offseason, I've been trying to get it stronger, and it's been getting better.

What's ASU's new weight room like?
It's awesome and our strength coach, Rich Wenner, is great. The facility offers you so many aspects of lifting, and it's really big so you can do whatever you want.

Did you strength train much before you got to college?
No, not at all. The team sent me a program to do the summer before I got to college, and that's when I first started getting into it. So I've bulked up a lot since then. You've got to be strong to play Division I basketball. I know I got tossed around a few times this year.

Who were some of the toughest players to play against?
I try not to think of it that way. Usually Carrie Buckner would guard the other team's best offensive player. There are a lot of great players, but I never thought about how hard it would be to guard them, I just try a little harder to defend them. I never had to guard Nicole Powell, but Nikki Blue and Michele Greco of UCLA stand out, and there are a lot of other great players in the Pac-10.

Are you staying in Arizona over the summer?
I'll be here during June to do summer school to get ahead on credits, and also to keep strength training and getting mentally tougher in basketball.

What's your major?
I'm shooting for broadcast journalism, so I'm taking journalism and mass communication courses. It was awesome to see Stacy Dales-Schuman on television doing commentary during the NCAA tournament.

In the ASU media guide, you're shown holding a pool cue. Do you play pool at all?
Not really. We have this whole new facility at ASU, and I was promoting the student lounge, which has pool tables. I do shoot some pool, but I'm not that good.

What do you do for fun?
I probably don't have as much time as I'd like, just because we're juggling basketball practice, weights, and studying. But when we do have time to get out, I hang out with the girls on the team. You'd think I'd want to hang out with other people, but I love the girls on the team, and we've established some really good relationships. I just hang with them, and usually we go see movies or go to this place to ride go-carts and play miniature golf. It's lots of fun.

Do you do community projects as a team?
Yes, we do some work in the community. We did Race for the Cure, and our whole team went out for that. It was pretty fun, we handed out beads and promoted basketball as well as supporting AIDS victims

You have a twin sister -- is she anything like you?
My sister is my best friend. We used to play basketball together all the way up until high school, when I made varsity and she was on the j.v. team She was more of a girly-girl, hanging out with the girls and playing with Barbies, while I would hang out with the boys out at recess and play basketball.

But then she was diagnosed with a disease that causes benign tumors in her body. She's had three brain surgeries, and that limited her from playing basketball since she had severe headaches. So she exercises when she can, but keeps it to a minimum, and that's where we kind of separated basketball-wise. She's a huge supporter of me, and would come to all my games. It was really tough this year because she couldn't see all of the ASU games, so my mom would tune in on the computer and call her to give her updates. It was the best they could do, and it helped her a lot.

What part of your game would you like to improve?
I definitely want to get a lot stronger, so I'm focusing on that right now. I want to work on my pull-up jumper and become a stronger defender. I could list so many things, because I'm just starting to scratch the surface of what I'm capable of doing. And we've got a great staff to help me accomplish that.

Interview conducted by Gball Editor Jim Catalano.


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