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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2015Jazmine DavisMike NeighborsKelsey PlumSEATTLE, WASHINGTON Cal – 69 THE MODERATOR: We have the Washington Huskies, Coach Mike Neighbors, Kelsey Plum, and Jazmine Davis. Coach, I'll have you open and take questions. COACH NEIGHBORS: I thought Cal was really good tonight. I thought they were playing great basketball for the right time of the year. Boyd really had them focused. I think they really executed it. Took us out of what we wanted to do a little bit. We got off to a great start. We took advantage of having played yesterday, and then they got settled in and made a big run. Then we did the same thing to start the second half. So I think our kids have had a great year. I think we had a bad day today. Q. Kelsey, at the end there fouling out, it seemed to be able to calm you down. Can you talk about that last minute on the court. KELSEY PLUM: I was just frustrated at the call. It wasn't a foul. I think just frustrated in the flow of the game. If that's a foul at the end of the game, it should have been a foul at the beginning of the game. But I think it was just a frustrating game in general. Me personally I didn't play the way I needed to play, and I think everything just got to me for a second. But thank God for Jaz to calm me down. That's all I have to say about that. Q. Mike, what makes that zone‑press defense so hard to beat? COACH NEIGHBORS: Their length. They're really long and they're active. They can really cover a lot of territory, and it makes us passive, and we're not normally a passive team, but it's hard. We can work on it. We try to simulate it all we want. It's just hard to do that, because they have such good length and they really cover a lot of ground. It makes us play far away from the basket, and it's worked against us. They're confident. So when they get into it‑‑ for us to have 18 turnovers, that's too many. But that's really a reflection of how hard they played in it and how many balls they tipped, and just how many times they literally took it from us, live ball turnovers. Q. After Colorado you guys watched the end of Colorado knocking off OSU. Did you take anything from that in terms of maybe being upset minded? The team that played last night having some momentum going into today, did you feel like that could give you any kind of a lift? JAZMINE DAVIS: Yeah, yeah. We saw Colorado upset Oregon State, and it was just the first thing that came to our minds was, wow, the team that wants it the most is going to get that win, and Colorado was a perfect example of doing that. They came in, and like Neighbors said, they had the advantage of playing the day before, and they gave it to OSU. So first thing we thought about was, okay, this is a great opportunity, but we had to focus on Cal and we couldn't think about Colorado's next. So we did try to motivate ourselves from that, but we couldn't really sit on their win. Q. Coach and for Jaz, what did Cal's defense do in terms of maybe speeding you guys up a little bit? Seemed like you were playing a little fast? COACH NEIGHBORS: I really don't mind us playing fast. In fact, the faster, the better. I thought they slowed us down, to be honest with you. We weren't able to attack the basket like they normally do. They normally crowd it and they get to us before we get to the paint. Then they can affect our shots without fouling. Again, with the length we were talking about on the defense. We get to the foul line 15 times, but a lot of those were late in the game when the contest was kind of decided and officials tend to call a bunch of them then. I think they slowed us down, to be honest with you. For us to score 53 points; we averaged 73 or 74. I'm going to say we played 65 or 66 possessions. That's normally a Utah pace. Not like we normally play. Q. As far as the experience here in these two games, what can you take from those to prepare for the next tournament? COACH NEIGHBORS: At the NCAA Tournaments, you get to play a day and rest a day. I've said all along, I don't know that we have a team that's built to win four games in four days. It's not the style we play. There's only one time a year you have to do that. The NCAA Tournament you play a day, you rest a day; I think we're more built for that. We've played a lot of different styles here the last few weeks. We played Utah, who does play it slow. We played some fast‑paced games. If we can get invited to the NCAA Tournament, we'll be ready. The Pac‑12 has had a great year. All the teams prepared us for whoever we might draw in the Tournament, if we get invited. Q. Every game seems like Boyd and Gray are going to get theirs. How touch is Cal to beat when they get contributions like 16 from Jefflo and Courtney Range with 11? COACH NEIGHBORS: Jefflo has been all world against us. She has played really well. We kinda made it our game plan to do that. To hold Reshanda to 13 points and 3 out of 11, that's a win. She played 35 minutes at 13 and 9. Boyd 20 and 10. That's her number. Four assists. We tried to make her into a scorer more than a passer. I think they're really dangerous. But I think they're one of the best teams in the country when they get contributions and she starts spreading it around. I think they can beat anybody. With the right draw, this is a team that can go deep. They're really good. Q. The past two tournaments haven't been exactly the way you'd want them to be, but you've had a good season this year. So how long does it take maybe to reflect a little bit on the season and what are your thoughts maybe on leading up to this point? KELSEY PLUM: I think our team's done really well. We've handled our business. We beat the teams we've needed to beat and we've had some upsets. So I don't think one game can take that away. It is a little bit disappointing just for me personally how I played tonight. But we've got a good, significant time off, and that's a little time just to rejuvenate, get back in the gym, get yourself set up and hopefully get in the Tournament and see what happens. But I think overall our team has done a really good job this year, and I'm really proud of what we've accomplished. Q. Do you think you guys are going to go to the NCAA? Do you think they'll take you? COACH NEIGHBORS: I do. Yeah, I think so. I study it pretty closely. I've been doing it for about 15 years. Gary Blair and I have had a standing contest to see who can predict the most teams and I'm 2‑0 the last two years. I think we'd break precedent if we did not get an invite. With our RPI where it's at, and the number of top‑10 wins we have, and top‑25 wins. We had 11 wins in a conference that's really deep this year. That number normally gets you an invite. I also think the bubble is really soft this year. I think if you look across the country there are teams that they're talking about getting into the Tournament who our resume is much, much better than. So it's going be to a long ten days waiting to find out. But I will rest pretty easily thinking that it should happen. Q. (No microphone). KELSEY PLUM: It better be. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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