Coach Wendy Larry and the Lady Monarchs host Richmond on Friday.

If you missed any of Larry's chat, check out the edited transcript below. And make sure to check back next Tuesday for our next Women's Hoops Spotlight chat.

Wendy Larry: I'm happy to be a part of ESPN.com. Thanks to those that asked me to participate, and I'm hoping that I can shed some light on some of your inquiries. Let's get started.

Coach H: Hi Wendy, even though I'm a UConn women's basketball fan in all respects, I have always admired you for your professionalism. You conduct yourself on the court, handle the press and your players in a very positive and professional manner. I did expect UConn to beat Tennessee more than they did. What are your comments on that game?? Thank you.

Wendy Larry: I thought going into the game that both teams had played and improved progressively up to the contest in Knoxville. I'm impressed with not only the coaching jobs of Pat and Geno do, but also with both teams. I was certain that on any given day that anything can happen. But I felt strongly that the UConn bench had stepped up significantly, and ironically that ended up being the difference in the game.

Kevin Platte: Hi Wendy, I got excited about elite women's college basketball while as a student at ODU from 1978-1982. Those were very exciting times at ODU, and we were totally spoiled by the consistent quality. Because of that, I now enjoy watching only the high-caliber games that the top teams can deliver. My question is how would you characterize the differences in women's basketball over the last 20 years.

Wendy Larry: There's greater numbers of great players now. In the '90s we're seeing a greater quality of players, and therefore a larger number of great teams, which is making better competition outside of the Top 25.

WENDY'S WORLD

Larry has led the Lady Monarchs to a 9-3 start this season and 2-0 mark in the Colonial Athletic Association, but her work at Old Dominion over the past 20 years deserves the most recognition. After playing for and then graduating from ODU in 1977, Larry served as an assistant coach for the Lady Monarchs before taking over as head coach in 1987. In her first season, she was named the Sun Belt Coach of the Year. In 16 years of coaching, Larry has compiled a 338-129 all-time coaching record. Last year was one of her best. In 1998-99, Larry led the Lady Monarchs to a 28-4 record -- including two wins in the NCAA Tournament before the Lady Monarchs were eliminated by Duke in the Sweet 16 -- and also to their record-tying eighth consecutive Colonial Athletic Association title. Larry capped the season by winning CAA Coach of the Year honors. Larry, who also has coached at Arizona and Virginia Wesleyan, has won several national awards as well, including RCA Coach of the Year, Sporting News Coach of the Year and United States Women's Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) Coach of the Year.

Boo Boo: Coach, everyone's been saying all year that Tamika Catchings is the best player around? Do you agree, and who else do you see contending for player-of-the-year honors?

Wendy Larry: After you watch a showdown like UConn-Tennessee, you know that everybody is human. Certainly Tamika was pressed in that game, especially in the last 10 minutes. There are some outstanding players. Sue Bird showed what she is made of. And she's not technically being marketed as UConn's All-American, yet if you were to pick a player of the game she would have been it. The race for the best is wide open. Lynn Pride at Kansas is an outstanding player who is incredible. LaQuanda Barksdale at UNC is outstanding. They're both great players, as well as Edwina Brown of Texas. They're are just a lot of outstanding players across the nation that could make a legitimate run for player of the year.

Boo Boo: Coach Larry: Do you still keep in touch with Ticha and Mery? What do you think of their WNBA careers?

Wendy Larry: We've been blessed with not only some great players, but some great people. We hear regularly from Ticha (Penicheiro), Clarisse (Machanguana), Mery (Andrade) and Nyree Roberts ... we know that of late Ticha is playing in Poland, was injured in her first game after the New Year, possibly will not travel with her team because of stitches she had in her eyelid. We know that Mery just celebrated her birthday on Dec. 31st, and she's playing in Italy. Nyree was here over the holidays, spent some time in the Fieldhouse and then went back to Sweden. As a staff and as a team, we've kept up with all of their careers. Obviously Ticha has done very well, but we're looking for Mery and Clarisse and Nyree to get the opportunity to shine as well.

Booyah: Do you ever picture yourself coaching in the WNBA?

Wendy Larry: I think it's a wonderful opportunity that is very intriguing. I love to coach the collegiate athlete. I like the atmosphere at the college level. But I would never say never.

Booyah: What's your team's biggest strength this season?

Wendy Larry: I would say that we have great internal chemistry. And that as long as we continue to be unselfish, we'll be able to compete not only within our own conference, but on the regional level as well. I think we also have some good inside players and some good outside players, and I think quickness is one of our strong suits as well. We have good athleticism, which has helped us to compete.

chascole 1999: Which team will be the most difficult to beat this year and why?

Wendy Larry: On our schedule, by the fact we've already played No. 1 UConn and No. Tennessee on their home floors, those were pretty incredible challenges, especially for our team, which is very young. We have only two seniors on our roster and no juniors. One senior is a returning starter and one was just a minimal role player for us last season. So with a very young team, we challenged our team on the road, which is even more difficult. But sometimes you coach not only for tomorrow, but for down the road as well. Our schedule next year -- because of the teams we played on the road this season -- will bring some of the country's best teams to the Fieldhouse next year when our team is a little bit older and experienced.

Mike Sanderson: Many teams seem to be getting the message of the value of recruiting players from other countries (see ODU and UConn as two of many examples). As overseas and home recruiting for women's basketball becomes more and more competitive, how will ODU compete with larger universities, who probably have more resources, to maintain its level of excellence that it has achieved over the past few years?

Wendy Larry: One of our strengths is our location, and by that I mean we have NATO headquarters located not even a mile from ODU. We also have a huge delegation of foreign students who attend the university. Our president is an advocate of foreign student attendance. We have great international relations department right on campus. And we have more than 600 countries represented in our student body here. So there's quite a movement at ODU for recruiting the foreign student, not just for athletic purposes. We also have the World Trade Center here, which affords us a great pool of the different foreign entities that might aide in our recruitment. So there are certain countries we can go to with the thought that there are supportive people in this area that will help us make those individuals feel comfortable.

Bob Valvano: Wendy: When are you coming on ESPN Radio with me? As a former assistant at Virginia Wesleyan, we need to have two former VWC coaches on together. Congrats on your success ... Bob Valvano, ESPN Radio 10pm-2am ET

Wendy Larry: You name the time and I'll make the time for you, Bob.

George Templeton: Because of only having nine players this season, have you had to go away from ODU's typical style of tough aggressive swarming defense, because of how much energy it takes to play that kind of defense?

Wendy Larry: I would like to think it hasn't affected the way we play, but perhaps it has affected the number of minutes we can do it. We have to more selective now, but I would like to think that our style is very similar.

Matt: Wendy, why does your distribution of minutes seem to vary so much game to game? It seems that a few of your players have a great fluctuation in their minutes one game to the next. Why is that?

Wendy Larry: We have nine players who are consistently playing in double-figure minutes, with the exception of maybe one player. Most of time is determined in practice the week before ... so in our rotation, if our first post sub had a horrible week of practice, it's more likely our second post sub would get more minutes based on her production in practice. It has a lot to do with consistency in practice prior to that scheduled game. In other words, you can't get something for nothing.

BJ: Who do you think will win the National Championship this year?

Wendy Larry: If I knew I'd be making lots of money right now. I just think it's anybody's to win. I say that realizing that from a coaching perspective, certainly UConn has tremendous depth, probably more so than anybody in the country. But we all know there are an awful lot of intangibles that come into play in March ... injuries, for one, and discrepancies among players, as well as the way the ball bounces. You've got to have some lady luck, too.

Scott H: Coach Larry -- Glad to see you continue to bring ODU some national recognition. I'm writing from Hampton Roads and I go to many games. I am looking forward to next season when we bring in some of the big names. Looking at the rest of the schedule, Rutgers appears to be the big challenge. Given the struggle our young team had against UConn and UT, how can we keep the game close versus Rutgers? Best wishes in continued success, we'll see you at the Fieldhouse. GO BIG BLUE!

Wendy Larry: I'd like to think our greatest challenges will come from our conference. Many people think the games that matter most are our games against ranked teams, but the ones against our conference, and perhaps unranked teams, are the toughest and most important games. We have always afforded our teams very difficult out-of-conference challenges, but it's unfortunate that the Colonial conference has not been given some of the respect that it rightfully deserves.

In conference, there are several teams this year that could challenge Old Dominion. Certainly East Carolina emotionally has incentive, George Mason has everyone returning from last year, Virginia Commonwealth is very strong. James Madison is very strong, and Thatcher does a great job at American University.

Jeff: Wendy, any thoughts from the athletic dept. there at ODU about making a switch in conferences? Since the women's team at ODU has dominated the past several years and the men's team can't get into the NCAA Tourney w/o winning the conference championship, as an alum I believe consideration should be given in this area. Your thoughts?

Wendy Larry: Well, we're committed to the Colonial conference at the present time, but I think we're all very much aware of the minimal numbers in conference for the automatic bid to be retained. So we're keeping a close eye to see what's going on nationally to maintain a conference affiliation to maintain an automatic bid.

You want to put yourself in a conference that will afford great rivalries, and we're in the middle of several conferences that could do that for ODU. And so I would say at this point and time that we're all keeping a close eye on what's happening with the movement, especially in the state of Virginia and in the immediate regional areas.

That's all the time I have for now. Thanks for the time that we've spent together. I hope that ESPN.com will ask me back again so I can answer all of the questions I didn't get to today.

Go Blue.