|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN VOLLEYBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 1, 2014Kelly SheffieldTHE MODERATOR: Head Coach Kelly Sheffield is here with an opening comment and questions. COACH SHEFFIELD: We're obviously very excited to still be playing. This is an unbelievable time of year, 64 teams still playing for their season. It's a gift with how hard our players have worked to get to this point. Last night, the Selection Show was very exciting and we'll get back on the court and practice today and we've got our hands full with three really good teams coming in. Western Michigan from a good Mid‑American Conference; they're tournament tested. The last two matches they squeaked out in five, so they're definitely battle tested, really good setter, really, really nice opposite. Then Marquette and Illinois State, the other side of the bracket, and Illinois State very, very experienced team, went undefeated in a really good Missouri Valley Conference. They've got seniors up and down their lineup, and Marquette we saw them twice in the spring, did a couple spring scrimmages with them, and they're not as old or as experienced as Illinois State, but boy are they talented. They gave us a handful and it should be a great Thursday and Friday match, and we're excited to be hosting it. Q. Knowing your body of work throughout the whole season was there any surprise or disappointment with where you were placed with the region and the overall seeding? COACH SHEFFIELD: I don't know if there was surprise or disappointment. The economy, they get together for three days. They've got way more information than I do. They spend 48 hours; we spend forty minutes thinking about it. So to sit there at the end and say ‑‑ that group of people getting together for two or three days and having the information they do, having the information they do, to sit there and say I could have done it better, that would be arrogant on my part. I think the surprises probably were, you know, the Big Ten Conference by far leads the nation in attendance, and we had ‑‑ one of the four regionals, is in a Big Ten city, Minneapolis, so I think it's a little surprising that there is not a single Big Ten team in that regional. I think that's an error. I think there was quite a few teams that were within driving distance of there that would fans would have loved to have gone there. But I'm sure they looked at that and looked at a lot of other things and probably tried to keep the integrity of the bracket together, but from this rookie's eyes, that seemed to be odd. From where we're at, we're not in the business of judging. It just doesn't do us any good. It's this is what we've got in front of us, let's find a way to get our work in. Q. A lot is made in all sports about peaking at the right time. You guys have won 19 in a row. Do you think you've peaked? COACH SHEFFIELD: Uh‑huh. I liked your quotes! I just wanted to ‑‑ (Laughter.) We're getting better. You know ‑‑ I think that's important. I think your players have to be fresh, they've got to excited, they've got to be passionate. The teams with the players that are marking the days off on the calendar, those are always the ones that take the ship down with them. Our kids are as energetic as they have been all year. We're trying to stay healthy, find ways to get better. Peaking? Yeah, I mean, I was a runner; that's what I did, so that word means a lot to me, because you're trying to‑‑ this is the time of year that you want to be playing your best. I think we are. Q. You mentioned expectations. Setting a bar as high as you did last year and trying to meet maybe the same or higher expectations. There is another team in your bracket at the end of this that you could be facing once again in Penn State. I know fans are looking forward to that already but how hard is that to keep you in the moment and your players in the moment to even get to that point? COACH SHEFFIELD: Well, there are cemeteries filled with people that were looking ahead. That would be foolish on our part to do that and that would be so out of character of our group to do that. This isn't Major League Baseball or the NBA where it's the best of seven. You've got one shot at a night, and that shot might last about two hours, and you better be able to play your game during those two hours. You know, if we're fortunate enough to make it to that point, then we'll certainly be excited no matter who we're playing. I know it's a cop‑out, but it's what you're going to get from me because it's how we preach. They're a really, really good team that we've got a lot of respect for, and they're not the only one that we think is really good that we've got a lot of respect for. You've got the top two teams in the Big Ten Conference that are in the same region. Interesting. I'm sure there is a reason for it. I can't figure it out, but I'm sure there is a reason for it, and if we both get to that point, then bring it, you know? We're worried about this weekend. Q. In your twelve hours or so of research, what jumps out at you most about Western Michigan? COACH SHEFFIELD: They made a change at the end of the year. They brought one of their left sides over to the right and it seems to make a world of difference. The change in their record and the results since they made that change is pretty dramatic. They've got a lefty over there that's giving people fits. They're very young but talented in the middle. They've got a crafty center that I've watched play since she was a freshman in high school; she is very good, a coaching staff that's been around a long time; we've gone against them in the NCAA Tournament, a staff that's stuck together. As I'm watching them ‑‑ just started watching them this morning, obviously, they're well coached. They don't give you a lot of points. They're not as physical as the top teams in this league, but you can tell they're very well skilled. They serve and pass very well, they give you difficulties with the lefty. You've got to earn your points against them. It's a solid, solid team. Q. Tempted to ask you about the potential for Kentucky to be in Louisville as well, but I figured that was probably the same response as State being there. It's a ways away yet. Your players, did they learn from last year something that can applied to this year as far as that approach that you want them to take? Is part of your message to them remembering the small step you took to get to the big one last year? COACH SHEFFIELD: Yeah, we won't put it that way. We will talk about one step at a time. Who is in front of you. We don't bring last year into that discussion. We'll probably give 'em a bracket of four teams and that's our bracket. It's four teams and two matches. It's back‑to‑back days, and we haven't had to do that in a long time.  The history of this conference has been playing two games in two nights, and I don't remember the last time we did that here. So that will be a little bit of a challenge, but to me when you get into the NCAA Tournament, you got a four‑team bracket. You win that mini tournament, and you go into another team bracket, which will be at Louisville, Kentucky, if they make it through, that's a really good team. One of my best friends coaches there. But they've also got other people they've got to get through, one of them being Ohio State, who‑‑ they're a bear. So we will worry about anybody else when we get to that point. Q. Kelly, given the fact that you've won a Big Ten title and given your winning streak, now that you've reached this point is it possible to underachieve? COACH SHEFFIELD: What a bummer of a question? (Laughter.) I don't know. I guess. I mean, I guess some people‑‑ you know, what you do isn't good enough, I guess. We don't think about that. We think about‑‑ dream big, let's go for it, let's put it all out there and let's risk everything, let's try to get healthy, let's play together and if you do everything that you can possibly do, if you're willing to put it all out there, and you've made the sacrifices and, I don't know, you want to win, so badly do you want to win that you're willing to risk it all. The results are‑‑ you live with that if you put everything else out there. So underachieving, I don't know, that would be bringing negativity into the equation and we just don't do that. We try to think of what is possible and we're going to put every ounce of our energy into trying to attain what we think is possible. At the end of the day if it's not good enough, it's not good enough, and if it's labeled "underachieving" I don't know, we'll deal with it. Q. Thinking positively, is this team good enough to win a National Championship? COACH SHEFFIELD: Now we're talkin'! (Laughter.) I think this team‑‑ yes, it's possible, absolutely it's possible. It would be insane for a Big Ten Championship and a No. 1 seed to not be thinking that's possible. It's absolutely possible! It's doable. That gives you no guarantees, obviously, and that's what everybody in our program is shooting for and we're probably one of 20 schools thinking the same thing. You gotta play it out and not rush it. This is the best time of the year, not just for us, but in any sport when you get to this, you're marching coaches through here today and what a great time for Badger athletics right now! It's awesome! I don't want our players to be thinking that far ahead, because these are some of the best days of their entire life, what you're feeling right before practice, when you're in practice, and everything is heightened. It would be a bummer if they started thinking three weeks ahead, because they would be missing unbelievably fun stuff that's going on right now. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|