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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 16, 2015Bobbie KelseyTHE MODERATOR: The Women's Basketball Head Coach, Bobbie Kelsey, is here and will take questions. COACH KELSEY: A little disappointed that we could not get these last two games. We were very close in both of these games, had multiple players in double figures but a couple of baskets did not go our way and we dropped both. Proud of the kids that are playing hard and clawing and scratching trying to get these last couple of games and finish strong. Have some positives in that, Nicole is ranked 4th nationally in shooting. And we do have more people scoring this year which has not been the case in the past. We need to shore up our defense better and we need to get some wins going down the stretch here heading into the Big Ten tournament. Q. I know you're concentrating on the rest of the regular season but oftentimes when All‑Conference teams are announced, the players are with the teams up top get all the accolades. Does Nicole deserve to be in that conversation? COACH KELSEY: I think so, definitely. She has worked hard on her game, she is one of the most improved scorers, we had three of the most improved scorers in the Big Ten, most of any team and they say one of those three so I think she is deserving of that. Nicole just wants us to win, and right now that's what we're concentrating on and she is doing everything she can to help our team and her ability to shoot helps get other kids open. They have to pay so much attention to her and maybe devote a couple of people to stopping her that it allows our kids to get open shots that they may not have had otherwise. Fourth in the country in shooting, you should be on somebody's list somewhere. Q. What do these last two games mean to you as you head into the Big Ten tournament? Can this change the way this season has went? COACH KELSEY: You know, with the injuries that we had and I look down the bench and you got four people in street clothes doesn't always make you feel too good. But with the players that we do have that are playing they've done a really food job of trying to step up instead of the others that are out and trying to do more for the team. Going down the stretch here we do need more, if that's possible. I think it is, and we've seen it. Malayna had 14 points in that Minnesota game, and she can definitely bring that back; struggled a little yesterday, but she is definitely capable. Cassie had a double‑double, she is capable, so we just need more balanced scoring and a lot of people playing defense as a unit. We have some good defensive stops but then one person gets confused or lost and that's when it goes south. We are going to watch it and make sure that we take care of those areas that need to be shored up. Q. You're going to be honoring your seniors, these are young ladies you've been with since you got here and I suppose hard work is one way to characterize these four? COACH KELSEY: Definitely. I Mean, Jacki Gulczynski, Cassie and AnnMarie and Mic, but she is obviously not playing. Those three were here when I got here. They were coming in. They're the last of the group that I did not actually recruit, but they've done a great job for us and we're sad to see them go, but as they go, they come, and can't stay forever. Some of 'em want to but they cannot, and those three have obviously done a great job in making their careers. Obviously not what they wanted. You want to win more games, but out of those three Jacki has been‑‑ other than her hip injury her freshman year, she has maximized her time here, no doubt about it, so we're looking for those three to finish strong. Go out on a high note; they are working hard to do that, and we're going to make sure we do everything we can to help. Q. Forgive me if this information has come out, is Michala going to get an extra year? COACH KELSEY: We're hoping. We don't make that decision. Obviously we have to submit her paperwork and all the things that we feel like she should get it. She has a lot of things that happened for her that was not in her control. I know transferring, they list that as something that the stat controls but this ACL ended her junior year in high school, her senior year in high school. Now her‑‑ potentially her college career, and she has only played six games of her senior year this year, so she is under the 30% for the redshirt, I guess, in that sense. She is a graduate student‑‑ she has a lot to make a case for her to get the sixth year, but I told her nothing is guaranteed, and we have to just appeal to their sensibilities to see that she is not just someone asking for athletic purposes. She can finish her graduate degree, which not many stats get a chance to do that, and also finish her career on the court, which she has not been able to do. In high school most kids get a chance to go out on the court, but she hasn't had the opportunity to do that, so she hasn't played but one full year. And not to criticize the previous school but maybe she wasn't ready to play her freshman year coming off two ACLs, but it's not Connecticut's philosophy to redshirt, but that was out of her control. She didn't have an opportunity to say, hey can I get another year to make sure my knee is really strong? And considering they get All‑Americans and all these great players, it's hard to crack that system. So we're going to submit the paperwork and see what they say. If they say no, that's what it is but we're definitely going to try because I think she deserves that. Q. Obviously it takes time to build a winning program. Over the last few years how have you felt about this program's progression in terms of where it was when you got here and where you want to take it and how close do you think you are to maybe getting over whatever it is that you came here to accomplish? How close do you think you are to doing that? COACH KELSEY: Considering where it was, if it was great I would not have been here, so that's a decision that Coach Alvarez made, along with Terry Darlington, to make that change and bring someone in that has been at the level that the program wants to, Final Fours and Championships. It takes a while to get there. I mean, I just saw a documentary of Geno and they showed old pictures and I'm like, huh‑uh, they were nowhere near what they are now, but he's been at Connecticut almost 30 years. So four years and 30 years, that's not the same, but we have those aspirations with the program. I think it can be there. We wouldn't be here if we didn't believe that, but it's hard. It really is a difficult job and those who are on the outside looking in, who have never coached, it's not an easy thing. We're working every day toward that goal, to make it a national program in the perception of women's basketball, because we are a Top‑Five, Power Five university, and we have everything here. We've lost a lot of kids because we don't have that basketball tradition, so we lose 'em to Notre Dame and these different schools that have the tradition, which we are trying to build, so you just need one person to say "yes" a couple of folks every year to say "yes" and you can get that going. But, again, that's the challenge of coming to a program like Wisconsin and trying to build it. I like the academic standards. Again, that's something else you gotta deal with. Some of the kids I see at other schools I'm like, they definitely couldn't have gotten in here because we've seen their transcripts. So not to make excuses but you got a lot of things against you, trying to make it what you know it can be and what you came here to make it to be, but it's a challenge. Again, that's what life is about, the challenges and trying to build something. I would much rather do this than sometimes walking into something that is not yours. You can't say I built that or helped do that because it was already done when you got there. So we hope to do that soon, sooner rather than later. You like to think if you didn't have the injuries it might be a different story because you can't play who you don't have and when you are sitting 17 points and potentially 10 points here and 8 points there; it makes a difference when you're losing the game by 7 points. So those things are a factor. We're excited about the direction we're headed. We're scoring a lot more even now than we were before. Every year we have the most improved players in the conference, despite the injuries and things that you can't‑‑ everybody has injuries, you can't control that kind of stuff. Academically we have All‑Big‑Ten academic performers, and Dakota White is on the Dean's list, and the her first year here she was on probation. So you go from probation to the Dean's list! So we have turned the program around, and it's going to take time, and we have the trust and support of our administration so we're fine with that. Q. What kind challenge will you get Thursday against Maryland? COACH KELSEY: Anybody that's seen Maryland knows that they're a great team. They're a Final Four caliber team. They have some great players in Lexi Brown and a couple other folks out there that are doing a great job for them. I always tell our kids, you can beat anybody on any day. If you played 'em ten times that might be a different story but you only play 'em once that day and if you play 'em well and you're playing together anything can happen. We go into every game with that mind‑set and I think that's why we have been able to improve even though we haven't won the games. You see the improvement as far as the scores and the differential in the scores. To go back to the previous question, when I have fans coming up to me saying, I know you're losing coach but it looks so much better. I wasn't here before, I don't know what it looked like before. 11,000 people in the stands the other night tells that you we hopefully have the support of the community and they can see that the kids are playing hard and they believe in themselves and in what they're doing and it's just a matter of time before we do get those wins on the board. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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