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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 16, 2015

Bobbie Kelsey

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: We have Women's Basketball Head Coach Bobbie Kelsey to give an opening statement, and then we will take questions.

COACH KELSEY: Had a nice game the other day versus LA Tech, a tough, LA Tech team, the amount of experience on the bench with the coaches, and the pedigree; it was a good game for us to start out.

We got good production from everybody that played, and we were pleased with the outcome of the game. Obviously there are always things to work on, and we will address those things, but all in all I was very pleased with the production that we got from our players.

We have more to come with our games coming up versus Drake, tough team that beat us last year. They have some good players, stretch forward that can really shoot the three, a post player that, unfortunately, I think tore an ACL, one of their post players, but, again, next player up, next woman up, as they say, and they will be ready.

Then we face a tough Dayton team that obviously did really well last year in the NCAA Tournament. So the next two games are going to be very important for us, as all of them are, but we're going to take it game by game. I will take questions.

Q. Obviously good start. Can you sense the excitement among your young ladies on the team, coaching staff and the fans that, hey, if we can stay healthy, knock on wood, we could be pretty decent?
COACH KELSEY: I think so. I hope fans saw that with the players when they made their run, we weathered the storm and had the bodies and the talent to do so, so that was nice to see, because they did make a run. Most teams are, as we do -- you're trying to win the game, you're trying to push and fight till the end, and fortunately for us we were able to get some key baskets when they went to that zone.

Avy and Michala Johnson worked together. They were pairing off and running their own stuff, and I was like, good, that looks good! Keep doing that! But it's nice to see the kids kind of adjust on the fly and make those adjustments without me having to call a timeout. I can't call a timeout every time to tell them -- spoon feed them instructions. They have to know what's going on and make those adjustments as they see fit, and as they're smart enough to do it. I trust them to do it, and they did a nice job with that.

Q. What is the approach with Michala being a sixth year player, what she has gone through? Is her biggest challenge physical or mental to come back and be sure of herself again?
COACH KELSEY: I think she is fine; everybody else is mental. I'm mental. I'm like, don't get near her, my God, they're too close, get her out! But, you know, I mean, she is fine. She said she was fine. She feels fine. We tried to really stick to the 20 minutes. I think with, like, eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter, one of the assistants said, "Get her in," and I'm like, "No. She is at 18 minutes. She'll not be going in." I think for her it was good; she didn't get too tired. And when they get tired, most of the time that's when they are going to step wrong, maybe not as sharp, as crisp as they can be, so we wanted to make sure no one got so fatigued that they were doing stuff they wouldn't normally do.

So, for her, I think it was a good outing. She got her jitters out, her nervousness out. It's just -- she is a veteran player, obviously, but she hasn't played in a year, and she is a little apprehensive. When you have 3 ACLs, who wouldn't be? But, again, I think she is confident to know that the knee has healed. Our training staff did a great job of getting her back and slowly progressing her back into things. We tried to really hold our excitement back and make sure we are not putting her into situations where she could possibly hurt herself again, but with anybody that's coming back from that kind of injury, you're just nervous, period.

They could be fine, everything is 100%, you're just scared. But she is not. She's fine, and that's all that matters because she's got to play, and she knows her own body, so we're excited for her and the girls are as well.

Q. Twenty-minute limit, is that an early season thing or season-long guideline?
COACH KELSEY: It's definitely an early season thing because she hadn't been out there. Like I said, we are trying to slowly increase her minutes. We don't want anybody really playing 30-plus minutes. We have enough to spread it all around, and we want to do that, but sometimes it's a situation that calls for you to have your more veteran players out there. Obviously the young ones don't know what to do in those situations, and they have to prove that, more so than the older ones that you have seen do big things and get big stops, because just by virtue that they have been here longer.

So we are trying to get the younger ones to understand that, your time will come, but if I'm pickin', I'm going to go with what I know, and I'm guessing about what you might or may not do, and by default this game it was more the veteran players out there.

But it could be anybody's team to shine. We don't have a preference as coaches. We just want the job to get done.

Q. Where do you think the strength of your team lies?
COACH KELSEY: You know, we've been really building our chemistry, our togetherness, the little things. I think the strength of this team is obviously we have talented players. Ones that weren't out there last year. I know you saw Rosie Gambino get in the game. She had a broken foot last year. She game in and gave us really solid minutes. Cayla McMorris was always out there. We are looking for her to do big things. I thought Chelle Marble did a really nice job.

So it's not the quantity of your time; it's the quality. Some people get stuck on the minutes and the points and that -- we won the game. That's the number one thing. Nobody got hurt; that's high on my list.

Then, did you have quality minutes? What did you give us in the time that you did get? That's what people need to be focused on.

So we want our kids to be focused on that. I think they are. But, you know, individuals do want to play a lot but you got to earn it; you can't be given it, you know, you have to earn it.

So our strength is maybe yet to be determined as far as on the court and the chemistry between those five that are going to start the game, but we have a veteran group, and I think that's one of our strengths, too, that the ladies -- the women that are out there that have the most experience have been in situations where we've either pulled it out or been close so they understand what to do in those moments.

We don't want too many of those, but, you know, they're going to come and we have to be ready for that.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? Thanks, Bobbie.

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