Candace Parker (6'3'',
rising senior, Naperville, IL)

Johnny Goldfinger: Do you have a list of schools you're
considering?

Candace Parker: Not
officially. I have a five to seven list, but I feel it's best if I
tell the schools. I hope you don't mind.

No, of course not. What are you looking for in a school?

Someplace where I can excel
academically and athletically. [I want] a place that would be a cool
place to be if I didn't play basketball, if I didn't play sports.
Someplace where I'd have a good relationship with the coach. I've got
to have that gut feeling, that's going to be real important.

Have you decided when you're going to make a decision?

I haven't really set a date. I think
I want to visit Texas before I make my decision, and a few other
schools.

Do you know what you want to study?

It changes a lot. Right now it's
psychology, but that's liable to change in a few minutes. [Laughs] I
don't know what exactly I want to do in psychology because there's so
much you can do.

How would you describe you're game?

Right now? [Laughs and looks at her
bandaged knee; she has a torn ACL]

I don't even want to talk about that!

I'm just joking. How would I describe
my game? I think I'm a tall, lanky, perimeter player. I just try to
work hard. I think I'm good at defensive rebounds, but with
offensive rebounds I struggle a little bit. I think I need to work
on my jump shot a little bit.

What position do you see yourself playing?

The 3.

Are there any players that you model your game after or look up
to?

Tracy McGrady would be one. He's just
so cold. No matter what you do to him, no matter who you put on him
or anything, he's going to score forty. I try to be like him, I
guess. That would be the person I look up to.

How has the recruiting process been for you?

It's going good. It's allowed me to
see what [some of my friends went through]. I was friends with some
of the people in the '03 class that were going through this last
year. And I didn't quite understand why it was so hard for them. So
now I'm going through it and I'm starting to realize some of the
things they said were hard and some of the things [they said] I was
going to struggle with and stuff.

What are some of those things?

You know, just like telling people
"no." Trying to separate personal relationships from what
you really want. Just deciding when you do know [what you're feeling
is] that gut feeling. How do you know?

Have you taken any unofficial campus visits?

I've taken a million unofficial
visits.

How many years have you been to the Nike camp?

Three years.

What did you get out of it in the past?

It was a great experience. Hanging
out with the girls off the court. Getting to know a lot of people.
You read so much about them, their names and things. Getting to know
them as persons is the most important thing I feel. And then you
learn a lot here. You go to class. It puts you in a college
atmosphere. The teambuilding and games [in the Leadership
Development Program] are cool.