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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2015Anthony BozzellaTabatha Richardson-SmithDaisha SimmonsROSEMONT, ILLINOIS Seton Hall – 77 COACH BOZZELLA: First of all, I'd like to congratulate Marquette and their seniors, Apiew Ojulu, Chelsea Butler, Cristina Bigica, and Arlesia Morse. I thought these kids have really stayed together when Marquette was really struggling at the beginning of the year. It's about your seniors keeping you together and your upperclassmen, and they did, and they had a great run at the end of the year, and we were certainly very focused and very poised knowing that they would have a big challenge today. Our ladies were up to the challenge, and I'm proud of them. It's not easy to win any game in the tournament, certainly not the first game. It's an advantage to maybe sit and watch and rest your legs, but it's not an advantage at the beginning of the game when you have a shot on those rims or playing the court and have those nerves. Early on, we're trying to get our legs and figure it out. But these two ladies to the left and right of me never panicked, were very under control. The lady to the left of me is as poised a young woman as I've coached in many years, and the lady to the right of me is as driven as any person I've had in a long time. I'm blessed to have them. I'm very proud of them. Obviously 27 wins, which is a school record, means a lot to our program, but we know we have a lot of work to do and we're excited to play someone who's beaten us in the next game because both these teams have beaten us. So it will take nothing for us to focus. We will be focused and ready to go, and it should be a tremendous challenge for us. Q. Tab, you guys got off to a bit of a slow start. What was it that kicked in for you that got you rolling to a double‑double performance? TABATHA RICHARDSON‑SMITH: Just staying positive and knowing that we are the best team when we step on the court. Like he said from our leaders, Dee Dee and Daisha, just keeping the team together and playing as a team. Q. Daisha, with 17‑17 and then your press defense really starting to faze Marquette, how important was that? DAISHA SIMMONS: That was very important. That's how we got the turnaround in the game and that's when we started to pull away. Even when our offense is not working we've got to rely on our defense because that's what wins games. Q. This is the first time you guys have been to the Big East Semifinals since 1996. How does it feel to be making history? DAISHA SIMMONS: It feels good. We don't worry about making history. We just take it a game at a time. We just worry about that day and try to live in the moment. We have a goal for ourselves, and it's never just to make history. It's about taking care of that day and winning the game. TABATHA RICHARDSON‑SMITH: I agree 100 percent with Daisha. We try to go out knowing that‑‑ nobody wants to go home, and today we weren't outplayed as a team, and we knew we weren't only playing for ourselves, we were playing for our fans, the people in South Orange and the people watching the game, playing for our coach, and that's basically what we did, and if we keep playing like we're playing, we'll be fine and successful. Q. Tab, you got off to a slow start, you opened up shooting 3 for 10 from the field, and then you finished off the first half sho0ting 6 for 8 end. When are you finding your shots ending up with 20 at halftime? TABATHA RICHARDSON‑SMITH: I found‑‑ I'm always confident, but just staying confident. My two point guards giving me the ball every time down the floor, just knowing I'm open, and looking for me. It's not just all me. I give a lot of credit to them because without them, me going 6 for 8, 3 for 10, whatever, it wouldn't happen. So I think them just moving the ball and finding me and hitting open shots. Q. Daisha, you guys started forcing a turnover per minute and ended being the first half 6 in 6 minutes. What did you guys do finally with Marquette, were you pressing or zone switch that really helped force the transfers? DAISHA SIMMONS: Yeah, I think we just wanted to have an attack mentality on defense like on offense. When we come up with that mentality, a lot of teams can't handle it, so we just try to stay with that. Q. Coach, you take a look at this performance, and you really came out of the gates offensively and you said it, you were having trouble finding a way to get some sort of a rhythm, but you've talked about before playing complete defense for 40 minutes. How important was that today? COACH BOZZELLA: It was. I think we joked about it, we talked about it. Our defense hasn't been consistent lately, and that was a big thing we worked on. We worked on our defense a lot this week because we knew if we were going opportunity to win a championship, you have to play better defense than we've played, and we have not played good defense in a while. Certainly I think the kids took it to heart. We shot atrociously poorly to start the game. We were 5 for 25. Normally, we'd be down 10 or 12 points and we basically were tied because our defense and our rebounding kept us in it. We worked on that. So to the kids' credit, they slowly worked on it, and they did it and they accomplished the goals. And obviously we're a very high‑scoring team. We're going to start to score at some point, so if we can defend, you're going to get a score like you got today as opposed to a score when we lost to them 73‑70. I think the kids learned a valuable lesson, and I think as a coaching staff I learned a valuable lesson. I've got to focus more on defense, and we did. Q. And then just going back, you said it before on the conference call earlier this week, Tabatha Richardson‑Smith is an All Big East Tournament, second team player, but I could see a fire in her eyes today, Coach, and she wants to be on the All Big East Tournament team. COACH BOZZELLA: What I love about Tabatha is Tabatha was extremely disappointed she didn't make first team. She wasn't mad at Dee Dee, she wasn't mad at Daisha. She was made at the other coaches in the league because she felt, you know what, I'm a first team all conference player, and you didn't vote for me. So the best way for me to show you is to go out and play really well, and she did. That's maturity and that's where Tab has come such a long way. In the past she would have been sulking or upset or not taking it to‑‑ let me prove it to you. So you feel I'm not first team, so I'll pump in 31 and 11 tonight. That's a good second teamer right there. That's a good first teamer. Again, she went out and had the right mentality, and with today's youth and today's thing, it's hard to go, and I give our staff a lot of credit and I give her a lot of credit for just channeling her anger or upsetedness in the correct way, and she did. I was really impressed with Tab today. Her defense, but her rebounding. She was in the there rebounding the ball tremendously and that's a big difference. When I took over this program, Tab averaged a rebound a game. Q. In the first half the outside shooting really wasn't there. You went 12 percent from three. How big was it to have tab that come up big in the lane with 20 points? COACH BOZZELLA: Yeah, I think it's a great point. You would think Tab having 20 at half, she would have been made or four threes. She only made one, I think, if I'm not mistaken. In fact it was our only three. That's where she's come out as a complete player. She's rebounding the ball, driving to the basket, doing those things and I think that's where she's developing into a great player. I give her a lot of credit for it, and I give the staff a lot of credit for working with her, whether it's film or just shooting extra with her or just talking with her. She's come a long way. Q. Coach, Dee Dee broke her own record of single assists in a season. Once again today, 175 is what she finished with. What is it like to see her back‑to‑back seasons break the record twice? COACH BOZZELLA: Well, you know, I've had the honor and pleasure to coach some great players, and none better than her. She didn't even statistically play that great, but we won because we have Dee Dee Simmons on the floor. She's a remarkable young woman, a remarkable student‑athlete, a remarkable representative of Seton Hall. And it's great that she broke that assist record, but I think she's more thrilled that we're playing in the semifinals for the first time since 1996, and she's not satisfied with that, either. We want to win a Big East regular season championship which we did, and win a Big East championship tournament championship, and we want to advance into the NCAA Tournament, and we've accomplished one of those three goals, and we know we have a lot of work to do for the other two goals. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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