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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2015Jacki GulczynskiBobbie KelseyCassie RochelHOFFMAN ESTATES, ILLINOIS Purdue – 58 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by Wisconsin head coach Bobbie Kelsey and students Cassie Rochel and Jacki Gulczynski. Opening statement, Coach. COACH KELSEY: Obviously disappointed in not being able to win the game. I'm proud of the kids. They worked hard. It wasn't our best game. We missed a lot of easy shots and Purdue was aggressive. When you lose a lot the last couple of games like they have, I told our kids they're going to be hungry to get this win. They came out and they scratched and clawed and we did too. But just kind of came up short. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Do you know if you got it off before the light went on? JACKI GULCZYNSKI: When I felt it come off my hands, I didn't think I got it off. So my teammates came and ran at me. I was kind of like taken back because I didn't think I got it on time. And then when they took so long to deliberate, all right, maybe I did. But, you know, it's upsetting. It's a tough way to lose. But, you know, we take a lot out of our career we've had here and couldn't be more happy to say I've played for this university. Q. What was that moment like when you're waiting, could be the biggest moment of your career or your career could be over and it just seemed like it dragged on and on. JACKI GULCZYNSKI: It took forever. You know, you think they would have been able to figure it out within a couple of minutes. But Coach was telling me to relax and in that moment you don't know what's going to happen. Like you said our season is just hanging there. So we're all disappointed. But I know that this team can go far next year.  And I'll be right there to cheer them on. Q. Cassie, it seemed like you had things going. You had a nine‑point lead and then it frittered away down the stretch. Could you tell what happened? CASSIE ROCHEL: It's all kind of a blur when you're in the moment and you just take every possession one at a time. I think they kind of broke down and started hitting shots. We were kind of not taking the best shots. We were getting kind of a little too upbeat and like I said I think they were just hitting shots and we weren't taking advantage of the open looks we were getting. So just came down to that. Q. As you're watching, did you know that shot was going in? CASSIE ROCHEL: I was praying and, like Jacki said, at that moment all you could do, you're just sitting there, we just prayed. We asked God. But it wasn't in his plan, like Jacki said, we're looking forward to next year to cheer these girls on. Coach Bobbie's going to do great things with them. Q. Cassie, you're probably not aware you set a Big Ten record with seven blocks tonight. Single game record. What was working for you, there especially on defense? CASSIE ROCHEL: I've been in foul trouble a lot lately within these last few games in the first half and had to sit. So I think it was more just me telling myself I need to be patient. And Coach always tells us great shot blockers they jump late. They're patient. They don't jump early and let the offense get into them get those fouls. So I didn't want to sit on the bench any longer than I had to this game. Every game counts. And so I was really paying attention to my timing and stuff on defense and I think that really helped. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Did you have any sense of the timing whether it was going to go your way or not? COACH KELSEY: I'm like Jacki, my first thought was it looked a little late, but I've been in this game before with another institution. It was right off the fingertips. It was literally off the fingertips in our favor. So we had to wait, too. And it's like oh my God, did it go in, did it not. Would have ended a season not going to a Final Four. It can go either way. And at least you get a shot off. I thought we went too soon on our initial play. It was 26 on the game clock and on the shot clock. When Dakota started going late, no, wait, you want to get the last shot. Once you start going, you gotta go now. You can't pull it back because then they get skittish and get all crazy. And then at the end there, where we kind of picked up a little bit, not to let them just go clear down the court, I was hoping everybody else would get back and Nicole would just be right on the ball. But kind of got spread out a little bit and I think Wilson went right to the basket. But again these kids are learning how to win. And I can call all the plays I want to, but they've got to execute them. And we didn't have very good execution. We just didn't. I mean, Purdue got all kinds of tips and every loose ball they got. It's part of being aggressive. You gotta be aggressive. This game is not for non‑aggressive people. You're not going to be very successful. Q. This is the second straight game that you've had a really good shooting first half, kind of struggled in the second half. Unfortunately, you didn't have the cushion, I guess, like you had at Penn State? COACH KELSEY: Yeah, they have some shooters that you gotta pay attention to. I know they hit a big 3 later in the game. And our shots just weren't falling. We had some nice looks to people, just off their hands and butter fingers. And other than calling the play and they've got to execute it and‑‑ Nicole had a nice pass to Cassie. She finished that shot. She had a nice reverse layup but they're going to key in on her. Jacki struggled on offense. I don't think Jacki scored at all. That would have been a big 3 for her, not able to score the whole game and hit the game winner. It just wasn't meant to be. But we're proud of them. They worked hard. And we had a rough season. But at the end, you can see why we were in every game, because these kids play hard. And the more we can get some more shooters, some more people that can create off the dribble, that would open it up a little more for others to get nice open looks. And Dakota struggled, too. She just struggled the whole night with decision‑making but she hit a big shot. Her shot was the go‑ahead shot. So it just wasn't meant to be for us. Q. You referred to it after, if she hits that shot, Wilson goes length for the court, you were never able to stop her. Was that just the defense breakdown on your end, do you think? COACH KELSEY: Probably. I mean, when you hit a shot, people tend to relax. You gotta be on it. And if one person relaxes or three people relax and two others are on it, then I can't really remember where Wilson was and who was on her, but I tried to just get up a little bit just to keep them from getting a full head of steam. You can slow them down just a little bit. But, again, you can stop that 100 times, do it one time and they score. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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