So here you go, a couple of days late, and I apologize for that… but Minnesota basketball’s Zoe Harper and I had a nice conversation last week, and I’m going to post it today. I apologize for the Thanksgiving questions being a little late now… But on the bright side, we all get to learn a little about Australia through this one! On to the Bio:
 
Name: Zoe Harper
Year: Junior
Position: Center
Number: 20
Full Bio: Gophersports Bio
 
Mark Heise: So since you’re from Australia, and I’ve never even come close to being there, I want to know if you’ve ever petted a kangaroo.
 
Zoe Harper: I have. They have a lot of wildlife parks where you can go and pet the kangaroos. We used to go camping, and they used to have pet kangaroos. But if you see them in the wild, you probably shouldn’t go near them. They’re a little feisty.
 
MH: I didn’t know they were dangerous…
 
ZH: The male ones can be quite dangerous. Usually as long as you don’t go into their place they won’t hurt you.
 
MH: Ok… plans for Thanksgiving, our American holiday?
 
ZH: We’re actually going to Colorado for Thanksgiving, we’re having it with Emily (Fox’s) family. Thanksgiving is a great chance to take time off of school, get a holiday… I don’t really know the gist of what Thanksgiving is all about, but…
 
MH: I don’t think you have to worry about that too much…
 
ZH: Yeah. So I don’t know a whole lot about it but it’s always good to have a day off of school and go to places I’ve never been to before
 
MH: Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving food?
 
ZH: I’m not sure…
 
MH: Anything you don’t like?
 
ZH: No…
 
MH: Really? Even the cranberry stuff?
 

ZH: I don’t think I’ve really ever tried it.
 
MH: Ok… don’t. My advice to you.
 
ZH: Ok, I won’t.
 
MH: Ok, scenario for you. You’re driving down a road, not a lot of people on it, and you see an old lady on the side of the road with a flat tire. What do you do?
 
ZH: If it’s an old lady, I’d probably stop and help her… My dad did actually teach me how to change a flat tire. I was going on this road trip by myself and he wanted to make sure that I knew in case I was in that situation. So if it was an old lady I’d help her, I’d be a little nervous to help someone else, of course that depends on the situation too. If there’s someone else in the car, then I’d be a little less nervous.
 
MH: So you know how to change a tire. Ok, let’s go step by step here…
 
ZH: Let’s not… um, I’d have to be in the situation. Let’s see, first you have to get out the car jack and jack up the car, then you take the tire off, put the new one on, bolt it, put the car back down… something like that.
 
MH: That’s about it. Phones. Everyone has their phone, everyone depends on it. How out of place would you feel if you lost yours for a day?
 
ZH: If I lost my phone for a day… um, very? I would have said very last year, this year I don’t use it quite as much, but I was on it all the time last year. My teammates all live near me, and that’s usually who I need to get in touch with.
 
MH: So it’s not as big of a deal this year then…
 
ZH: Well if I wanted to call my family then I guess I’d feel a little more lost.
 
MH: Ok. Some kid asked me in class today if he could "borrow" a piece of paper. Obviously I gave him a sheet, but as a journalism student, the mis-use of the word kind of bothered me. When you need a sheet of paper, what do you say Borrow? steal? grab?
 
ZH: I’d say can I HAVE a piece of paper. Well it depends. I think I’d have to be in the situation to know for sure, but I’d like to think I’d say can I have a piece of paper. I hate it when people say "can I borrow a tissue?" I just say yeah… you can HAVE it…
 
MH: Yeah. Please don’t return that.
 
ZH: Exactly. I really don’t want that back.
 
MH: Favorite TV show?
 
AB: Well I like The Hills, but I don’t know I’m a bit of a CSI fan… I like those crime shows. Brittany (McCoy) and I always have those on.
 
MH: I think Christine Tan likes Law and Order like that.
 
ZH: Yeah, I’m not too big on Law and Order, I’m more of a CSI, NCIS type person.
 
MH: Ok… Have you seen Monk?

ZH: I’ve watched it maybe once or twice…
 
MH: Does watching Monk make you feel more Obsessive-Compulsive?
 
ZH: Um… yeah… maybe… I don’t know! You think about things a little more when you’re watching Monk.
 
MH: Exactly.
 
ZH: I do notice, when I clean, well I can live a little messy, but when I clean it has to be perfect, otherwise there’s no point in cleaning.
 
MH: Makes sense to me… new topic. you play on a raised floor here at Williams. Have you ever fallen off?
 
ZH: Yes. We were doing a box-out, rebounding drill, and I was shooting the ball and Emily (Fox) was boxing me out. We were chasing for the ball and the ball happened to hit off the backboard and was heading off the court, but we were still chasing it. Emily ended up pushing me off. It was kind of a slow fall though, so it wasn’t so bad.
 
MH: Just to make sure… EMILY pushed you off…
 
ZH: Emily Fox. Yep. One of the guards
 
MH: Against one of the posts…
 
ZH: Yeah, we were going at it, you know…
 
MH: Ok… I didn’t know Emily was stronger to you…
 
ZH: Well there might have been more behind it… It was a cheap shot. (laughs)

MH: We’ll go with "Cheap shot"… Everyone seems to have a mo-ped. do you have one?
 
ZH: I don’t. But my roommate Brittany has one so I’ll get to use hers once in a while.
 
MH: There are plenty of good things about mo-peds… what are the downfalls?
 
ZH: I think the best part about them is parking, you can park anywhere… but in the winter, it’s so cold driving on one of those things… That’s definitely a big downfall.
 
MH: Ben Flattum from the athletic communications department crashed his earlier this week… any words of wisdom for him, safety-wise?
 
ZH: Well I want to know the scenario, like how it happened… was he speeding at the time?
 
MH: I don’t know…
 
 
ZH: They say for safety reasons, drive with one, but we always drive with two. The only advise I can give is be more careful next time…
 
MH: We’ll pass that along. Favorite movie shown in class?
 
ZH: Back home, we were all made to see the Rabbit Proof Fence. It’s about the lost generation. I don’t know if you know much about the lost generation, but it was about children who were taken away from their families and put in reform camps to basically become more white. It’s basically a movie about three little girls who were taken away from their mom to be put in a reform camp, and then they ran away, and the people tried to capture them as the girls tried to get home to their mom.
 
MH: The University’s Student ID needs a new nickname. What can we call it?
 
ZH: Um… Gopher ID? That’s real original. I’ll have to think about it a little longer…
 
MH: Question of the year: Travis Busch and Zach Eisendrath have an online TV blog called The What Else? Show, where they sit down and do a talk show, discussing anything they really feel like talking about that day. If you had an online TV blog, what would it be and what would you call it?
 
ZH: Um… Mine would be about gossip because I’m apparently a gossip queen… So I don’t know what I’d call it, but I’d do it with Ashley (Ellis-Milan) because she likes the celebrity gossip.
 
MH: So it would be celebrity gossip?
 
ZH: Yes. We’ll call it "Ash and Zoe’s Gossip…
 
MH: First guest on the show?
 
ZH: It would be a celebrity. Paris Hilton or Lindsey Lohan.
 
MH: Any sports or games you’re especially good at?
 
ZH: I’m actually good at Field Hockey. It’s not very popular in this area but I learned at home, both my parents played, my dad was goalie and my mom was… I don’t know what she played but I’m a pretty good hitter.
 
MH: We don’t have that here.
 
ZH: Some Big Ten schools have it, don’t they?
 
MH: Yes, some do, we don’t though. I’ve honestly never seen it played until I watched it on the Big Ten Network one day.
 
ZH: We probably don’t have it because of the weather.

MH: Kay Sylva nominated you for this, and she also picked out a question for you to answer. so from Kay: What is your biggest dream?

ZH: Win the lottery… no. I’d love to go to Greece and bring my mom and dad and maybe my brother. I’d love to pay for them to go and just have a vacation. It’s beautiful there and I’d like to give back to my family since they’ve given so much to me over the last 20, almost 21 years.
 
MH: Zoe, thanks for the interview. It’s your turn to pick who will go next week, and what question you would like them to answer.
 
ZH: Brittany McCoy, my roommate. I want you to ask what the best thing about living with me is.

MH: Keep in mind, we’ll also then have to ask what the worst thing is…

ZH: I don’t think so!
 
 
Thanks for reading everyone, sorry again for it being late. This week: Jessica Granquist from women’s volleyball, and Brittany McCoy from women’s basketball. Have a good week!