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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2015Ameryst AlstonKevin McGuffKelsey MitchellHOFFMAN ESTATES, ILLINOIS Maryland – 77 THE MODERATOR: We're joined by head coach Kevin McGuff and student‑athletes Kelsey Mitchell and Ameryst Alston.  Questions for student‑athletes. Q. Kelsey, I know you guys are both disappointed. Can you speak‑‑ can I ask you about the entire experience of this tournament and how much your team grew from the start to the finish? KELSEY MITCHELL: I think my team grew tremendously from the standpoint of us and the adversity, going through the things we went through and coming here and doing something like this with a great team like that, that's all we could ask for. Q. Ameryst, basically you guys are down 50‑35. What clicked in? What allowed you to get that back, give yourselves a chance, an opportunity to win? AMERYST ALSTON: We came here to win a championship. That was the goal. And I thought we fought really hard. We dug ourselves in a hole, dug ourselves back out. And I'm just proud of our team. Q. Kelsey, I was blocked on the traveling call. Were you trying to split the two to get in the middle and did you feel like you traveled? KELSEY MITCHELL: I'm not sure. My goal is to try to get it inside and do something with it. Due to the time and due to how things are going, my goal is to try to get inside as much as possible. Q. Can I add, the last‑ditch shot, do you think that had an opportunity to go? KELSEY MITCHELL: Basketball, anything goes. 50/50 chance on anything. So it was a try. Just didn't work. Q. Ameryst, was this a difficult game basically to gauge in terms of how it was being called? AMERYST ALSTON: We can't blame the refs at all. Like I said before, I mean, there was some calls that we thought we should have got, but can't blame the refs. Q. For you two, the amount of growth, could you feel the amount of growth you guys made in the three days here? KELSEY MITCHELL: Absolutely. I think we're capable of beating any team. We've grown so much with the things that happened to us. And like I said, I'm just proud. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. I was screened on the traveling call. How did you see it? Do you want to talk about it? COACH MCGUFF: No. Q. Essentially, again, you're down 50‑35. I mean, you're unhappy enough, you got a technical called on you. But what kicked in? COACH MCGUFF: I think when we started pressing. We kind of got them out of rhythm ‑‑ they were in a really good rhythm offensively, and then when started to bring some full‑court pressure, I thought that got them out of an offensive rhythm and we started to get us some stops which allowed us to get in transition and allowed us to get back in the game. Q. This group has a lot of times this year come back from kind of the large deficits, but can you feel the growth in these three games heading towards the tournament? COACH MCGUFF: Yes. Where we were ‑‑ we started in November ‑‑ where we are now, we've come a long way. And our chemistry is really developed. Our kids really like playing together, like being around each other. We played really, really hard here in this tournament. We competed for 40 minutes and three straight games. I think we have just a lot of confidence. We didn't have the confidence earlier in the year. It's taken a while. A tough schedule, a tough Big Ten schedule for our kids to believe that we can compete with anybody. Q. Again, last year, over the loss in the semifinals was the end of your season. You have more coming. You think your kids will be eager to get back in the gym and get back to it? COACH MCGUFF: No question, I think this experience will only fuel that even more. We played three really good teams. We played really well in three games. We certainly had a great chance and an opportunity tonight, didn't go our way. But I think we played well enough that we'll have a lot of confidence moving on to the NCAA Tournament. Q. Obviously another big performance from Mitchell. Just how instrumental was she tonight? COACH MCGUFF: She's a great player. She's really a special kid. And she competes as hard as anybody I've seen and probably more importantly she shows up every single day at practice and gets better. That's why she is who she is. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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