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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2015Kenisha BellCarolyn KiegerArlesia MorseROSEMONT, ILLINOIS Seton Hall – 77 COACH KIEGER: First of all, we want to say our congratulations to Seton Hall. Obviously Tony has done a fantastic job with the program and it's headed in a fantastic direction. Obviously tonight they showed that they can really get up in the passing lanes and disrupt defensively, as well. So look for bright things for them down this NCAA Tournament for their run. For our team, obviously very proud of the progress we made this year. We had our ups and downs, but we never stopped fighting and we never stopped improving, and I just told the kids in the locker room right now that I'm really proud as a coach that a lot of teams would have folded in those moments of adversity, but we kept getting better, and I thought we played our best basketball in February and some in March here, so we look for great things in the future, and we've got to keep building on it. Q. Kenisha, what have you learned from a player like Arlesia? KENISHA BELL: I learned how to play more as a team and be a leader on the court just like the seniors. They always taught us, you know, just because you're a freshman doesn't mean you can't be a leader on the court, and I had to basically talk to my team and bring them up when they're down, too. Q. Arlesia, to me you left it all out on the floor. What's it like to know that in your final Big East Tournament that you really put everything out there? ARLESIA MORSE: I'll just say it's a wonderful opportunity to play. I knew coming in Seton Hall was a great team and they wanted to get back at us, and win, lose, or draw, I was just happy that everybody played hard, and we left it all out there. No regrets. That's what we said in the locker room, and I just continued to play hard because once I seen the clock go to zero, I was like, there's nothing we can do about it now. Q. To those followers of your program and this conference, if you could leave some words, as well, to some of the younger players, Arlesia, what would it be about your time at Marquette? ARLESIA MORSE: Just no regrets. Play every game like it's your last because you never know when it'll end. Q. You talked about how the team played your best basketball in February and a little bit in March. As a first‑year coach, how does that feel to know you guys improved throughout the season and were able to finish strong? COACH KIEGER: Well, I think it means a lot, especially for our young kids. We have‑‑ we decided about halfway through the year that we were going to really keep it simple and get back to the basics and work on our fundamentals and on the discipline of things, instead of game planning as much. So we really focused every single day on getting each individual kid better, and I think that really showed up as a team, and we worked on our skill work, we worked on our shooting, we worked on defensive principles, and so for our players returning, that's going to be huge coming in for next year. Q. You talked about it yesterday that you were able to get something going in your front court. Chelsea was able to give you that. Seton Hall was around the glass from the get‑go. Was that legs today, tired? What do you see on that? COACH KIEGER: Well, we said it at halftime, I thought Seton Hall was tougher than us in the paint and showed up with their offensive rebounds in the first half. I thought we closed the gap there in the second half and responded a little bit there in the paint, but they got their hands on every loose ball there in the first half, and it showed up. Q. You take a look at this upcoming off‑season and you look at the senior class, you have to replace the senior class. What exactly is your mindset here? COACH KIEGER: We've got to get to work. We have a lot to do this off‑season, and we've got to get our freshman better. We have a class of seven or eight coming in next year that we're really, really excited about. The future is very bright at Marquette, and it's going to happen as soon as they get back from Spring Break. It starts day one of training, and we've just got to get to the point where we know this program can be at. Q. Looking at the rest of the bracket and how it lays out, how competitive is this conference exactly? What is this conference like this year? COACH KIEGER: It was fun this year. I thought it was very competitive, very deep. There's going to be some great games here the remaining of this conference tournament. It's wide open. Obviously DePaul and Seton Hall are up there, but Creighton's been able to knock them down. We were able to get Seton Hall one game. There's a lot more disparity now, which is great for the league and, hopefully as the years progress, that we're able to get three or four teams into the NCAA Tournament. Q. Coach Bozzella opened up his presser talking about your seniors. What do you have to say about them and what they meant for this program this season? COACH KIEGER: As a first year coach it was great to have a group of four that bought in from day one, and they really helped us out with our freshmen and they helped us, which is everyday little discipline stuff, what it means to be an elite level athlete, what it means to be great every day in the classroom or whatever it is. They helped us out with trying to have our young kids be the best versions of themselves every day. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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