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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 18, 2014Bobbie KelseyTHE MODERATOR: The women's basketball team hosts Michigan State on Thursday at 8:00 p.m. at the Kohl Center. The game will be televised by BTN. The Badgers then travel to West Lafayette to take on Purdue on Sunday at 1:00 p.m., also on BTN. Head coach Bobbie Kelsey is here. We'll have opening comments and take questions. COACH KELSEY: We lost a tough one to Penn State this last week here. I was proud of the kids, the way they played. We were at some point up by 9, and then we kind of let the lead slip away from us. To play, I guess, the 11th ranked team in the country, we had an opportunity to do something really special, but we just couldn't close it out. Again, they're a very talented team and a good team. I was proud of us in a lot of areas, but our kids fought and just came up a bit short. Q. I think the last time we were here we spoke about Malayna Johnson. She's getting a little more time now, isn't she? COACH KELSEY: Yes, she is. She is. She grew really well in that game. She had a line that was strong to the basket. I think she forgets that she's‑‑ sometimes she forgets she's 6'4". And she's powerful. I always remind her: You're going to be a great player. When you figure out how good you are, it's going to be trouble for the other team, because she's long and she can catch the ball. She's got to work on finishing a little bit better around the basket. But now I have her taking the shots. One time she wouldn't even look at the basket. I'm like, Malayna. We don't double‑team her in practice. We just let her make a post move moving. I mean not let her, but we double‑team Nic because everybody else does. But she's come a long way. She's getting there. We need her. Q. With all the injuries you guys have dealt with over the last couple of years, what can you say about Morgan Paige, going to play her 100th straight game, and kind of her toughness? COACH KELSEY: Morgan's very tough. She's had injuries as well, but with hers, she's been able to kind of get through them. Some of the others, just with backs and things, you just don't want to jeopardize. But she's been banged up all those 100 games, straight starts. But Morgan's a warrior. She really is. She doesn't play perfect games, but I can always depend on her to play hard. She'll make mistakes here and there and try to do too much sometimes, but you can appreciate the passion that she plays with and the toughness that she plays with, because I'm sure there's times when she might want to rest her foot, but she can't. She knows we need her. And she steps up every time. I didn't realize she had 100 starts. That's pretty good. Q. You like the progress Nicole Bauman's been making? Not just the game she just played, but what you're seeing in her? COACH KELSEY: She looks a lot more confident up there. And without Nicole, she's the unsung hero. It's hard to run it by yourself. Nicole's had to become a point guard, and she's calling plays and getting people where they need to be. I don't like her up there, but this last game, I think she kind of saw where she can still score at the point guard position. You just have to look for your shots and take them. In this game, she took them and made them. I hope that continues, because, if we can get her going, then that's an extra scorer because she wasn't scoring for a little while. But I think she wasn't comfortable up there. Now that she knows she can do it‑‑ she knows, if people pick her up full court, we're going to screen for her, so she doesn't have to worry about bringing it up against a real good defender right on her in the back court. I think she's a lot more confident up there, she knows the plays, and she can give direction and she plays hard. She bruised her thigh two days before the game, and we didn't think she was going to be able to play. But Nicole's a warrior too. I love these kids. They fight. We just need to fight a little smarter in the game sometimes. But they do fight. They don't ever give up. Q. To that point, you've got quite a few players on the team shooting sub‑40 percent. I know sometimes the numbers don't tell the whole story. So is that a question of just struggling shooting or shot selection or both? COACH KELSEY: I think, for the most part, I've not had to say much about shot selection. I think we settle for shots sometimes when we can get closer to the basket. Sometimes we want to put up that 3 because that's what we're used to doing. But I'm encouraging them to go to the basket. We're trying to spread out more so that we have space to go in there and get some more shots in the paint. I know this last game, we had quite a few points in the paint. Points in the paint can be misleading because you think that's just a post player turning around and shooting a layup, but it's any shot in the paint, whether it be a jumper or a layup. Anytime you get in there and score, it counts. But I think it's also kids got to get in the gym more and shoot. There's a reason why certain kids in our league, you can't leave them, for no reason. Maggie Lucas you cannot leave. Bantum [phonetic] you cannot leave. There's certain ones that, if you leave them, they're going to put 2 up on the board. We need to have shooters like that as well. We're hot, we're streaky, but we have to be consistent. I think that's the message to them, to be more consistent. Q. You've almost knocked off each of the top three teams in the league, including Michigan State. COACH KELSEY: Almost. Q. Is it a matter of time, Bobbie? COACH KELSEY: I hope so. I'm always hopeful. I always believe that we can win. I tell them every game: We have enough to win. We have enough. But we kind of have to put it all together. I've kind of been saying that the whole year, and we haven't really done that yet. But I'm so hopeful. Because if we don't believe as a coaching staff, the kids don't. So you've always got to believe in them even when they don't believe in themselves. That's why we've always been able to be close. I know the last game against Michigan State, Nicole didn't even play and Taylor was sick. She had the flu. So she barely played. I had to limit her minutes. Those kids stepped up. Malayna stepped up, Tessa did, Annemarie did. So they're ready to play when their number is called. But the almost is killing me. The close and the right there, I can't even stand it. When you take over a program and you're trying to build it, that's what you're going to have, those almost games, you know. It's encouraging because we're not getting blown out by 44 points. We had a 44‑point loss last year. I didn't even know what that was. But you've got to give yourself an opportunity. When you're that close, you know, if I just box out, if I just make a free throw, if I just play a little better defense on that possession, throughout the course of the game, then you know you can knock somebody off. I'm still believing. Q. Kind of piggy‑backing off of that, it hasn't been the greatest season, but what could two wins against two of the top teams in the conference do for this program vaulting into next year? COACH KELSEY: It could do a lot. Every win is a big win for us, but when you're playing against the top of the league, you want to have that statement signature game that you can build upon. And I know we did that from last year to this year. It's exciting for us to be able to go in. The pressure's not really on us, so to speak; it's on the team that's ranked or has all these accolades and different things. I think the kids are itching for a win. We all are. And being close is nice, but you want to get ‑‑ you just got to turn the page and turn the corner and take it. You know, you've got to be assertive and aggressive. In this last game we gave up a couple of baskets when we weren't aggressive. It's a matter of everybody making up their individual mind and bringing together as a team. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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