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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 18, 2016

Bobbie Kelsey

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: Women's Basketball Head Coach, Bobbie Kelsey is here. We'll have some opening comments, then take questions.

COACH KELSEY: We dropped two, the last two, unfortunate that we had a little scoring drought in both of those games where we kinda weren't able to stay in our rhythm and put the game away, but I'm proud of the kids for fighting back in each of those games.

Our fourth quarter if we could play like that in the first, second and third quarters, we will be on our way. Iowa had two good looks at the end, and then Illinois, we had some open shots, just didn't hit 'em. Dakota had an open three, Nicole had a couple, Michala had a couple. Micah did a good job in the game.

In the spirit of Martin Luther King, obviously we're celebrating his birthday today and the legacy that he left for us. He had a quote that said: "If you can't fly, run; if you can't run, walk; if you can't walk, crawl, but by all means keep moving forward."

So in the spirit of M.L. King, we're going to keep moving forward, and in practice today we're going to get back to fundamental things, boxing out, screen setting, executing our offense. Things that we have control over, and if we do, we should be able to give ourselves a good chance to come out victorious in these games.

We have a big test in Maryland. Obviously they're a top team and one that's going to be a very tough opponent, hard to beat, but anybody can beat anybody on any given day; that's going to be our approach. And obviously Minnesota, being a rival school, we need to make sure we give ourselves an opportunity in each of those games to show what we can do when we are playin' our best ball.

Q. What is the biggest challenge that Maryland presents to you in containing them? They hit you, seems like, inside, outside, what do you have to do?
COACH KELSEY: They're a Final Four team. Obviously their team has been in the Final Four a couple times, and anytime you have a team of that caliber, you have to have a solid game plan, because they do have some bigs on the inside. We all know about Brionna Jones, but they also Malina Howard, who is really solid, strong built, like Chatrice White that we saw last night, and a lot of other players in the conference. You can name Hines at Michigan State. She is a big, solid girl.

We're going to have to do different schemes against them to try to keep the ball out of there. It's hard to do but you've gotta have some different plans against a player like that, but they have some guards that are really good. They have some shooters, and they're a top team, and there is a reason why they have gone to the Final Four and competed at that level for a long time.

Once you get those kind of kids in the program, you just roll, and you continue to get them. So we're working hard every day to get those kind of players in our program, but in the meantime, you have to hit shots.

Big part of it is hitting the shots that you get and then getting stops on the other end. So they don't play perfect by any means, I'm sure Brenda would say the same thing, but they are solid in a lot of areas, and we have to make sure we make them take a contested shot every possession, if not a shot at all.

Q. Were you attacking the rim as much as you would have liked yesterday against Illinois?
COACH KELSEY: We did late in the game, we got to the free-throw line 23 times, made 18 of them. We probably should have done that a little bit earlier. Sometimes we settle them for long two's, contested three's. When you have a lot of space, go attack that space. I thin Kayla can do that more. When she does goes to the basket she usually makes it or gets fouled. Dakota got fouled yesterday, several times, going to the rim, Nicole did, too. And she doesn't normally go all the way to the basket, but she did yesterday.

And Mich had some "and ones" so we really gotta focus on getting to that free throw line. Those are extra points that without any defense, you just go up there and try to make 'em, and we're a pretty decent free-throw-shooting team, so we've got to generate some offense that way as well.

Q. Michala has played better the last two or three games than she was earlier. What are you seeing? Growing confidence? Getting healthier? A combination?
COACH KELSEY: All of that, yeah, a combination. I think once you remember what you did before, then you do it a couple of times, and you have that confidence to know you can continue to do it.

I think a game or two ago I thought I saw the old Mich come back, and yesterday she scored on the block, several -- she did a nice job for us. I know she wanted that last shot she had, if she could get that one back -- she missed a left-hand bunny up underneath the basket, would have probably put us down, I think at that time, 4 points.

You're not going to make 'em all, you want to, everybody wants to shoot 100%, but she's got to make the ones that really in those moments count. She probably thought about it watched it, and she'll make sure she makes that shot the next time.

Q. Good to have Tessa Cichy back?
COACH KELSEY: Yes. Tessa adds a lot of glue to what we are doing. She doesn't score a whole lot, but she got a couple of steals yesterday. She was guarding the best -- one of the bigger kids on their team and taking -- making sure she didn't get around the basket. Tessa just does a lot of things that you can't teach, because she is smart. She knows the game. She has instincts. She is not the tallest, she is not the fastest, but she believes in herself, and she is not afraid, so she does a lot of things that really put us in a good position to go forward, and I think she got a deflection, hit the ball from somebody, got a steal. She does all the little things that don't show up on the stat sheet.

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

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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