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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2015Anthony BozzellaKa-Deidre SimmonsROSEMONT, ILLINOIS DePaul – 78 COACH BOZZELLA: First of all, obviously want to congratulate DePaul, the Big East Tournament champions. Obviously very good team. They showed their experience today. I think DePaul is known for their offense and they're one of the best offensive teams in the country, but their defense won the game today, clearly. They came out, they defended better than I've seen them play in all the games I've watched, and their experience showed. You have a kid like Centrese McGee, who`s not a good three‑point shooter at all make three for three to start the game and I give her credit. She's a senior, she stepped up, she knew the importance, shot the ball with confidence and I give her a lot of credit. And certainly the environment did us no favors, but we've played in difficult environments in the past. It`s hard to play on the road, especially as a No.1 seed in a conference tournament. But clearly they outplayed us today. This was their day. The last two times we played them, it was our day. So I give them credit. Hopefully they'll do well in the NCAA Tournament, and I know we will do well because we deserve to be a top six or seven seed in the country, there's no doubt in my mind. We're 28‑5. We have played, I think, 14 top‑100 teams, and we've proven that we're not only a very good basketball team in the Big East, but one of the best in the country. We've played teams such as Georgia, Illinois at full strength and handled them easily. We've beaten DePaul twice, St.John's twice, Villanova twice. Anyone we've played we've beaten. We've gone on the road and played tough games teams, and this clearly is a team that deserves a high seed in the NCAA Tournament and a team that deserves respect for the 38 games we`ve played throughout the year, not the one game that we've played in the Big East Finals on the road. But again, I congratulate DePaul, and hopefully they'll do well in the NCAA Tournament, as well. Q. Dee Dee, this isn't the result you wanted. What kept your offense from really getting into rhythm tonight? KA‑DEIDRE SIMMONS: Like Coach said, DePaul played really good defense. I think our guards just didn't do a good job of getting open. We couldn't really start our offense. But credit to DePaul. They played really good defense, and we just have to come out a little bit more aggressive and just play better. Q. It seemed like at times tonight when you drove to the lane, you were looking for somebody to throw the ball to. You were looking and looking and looking and that's something that you do so well. Why weren't you able to figure out a way to get that pass in? It seemed like DePaul was everywhere. KA‑DEIDRE SIMMONS: I don't know, that's a good question. Every time I drove, I seen blue shirts, and I looked for my teammates and I didn't see them open, either. I know, it was tough. It was tough. COACH BOZZELLA: Like we've talked about in the locker room, the problem is, it falls on my shoulders. They play as hard as they can. They do what they're supposed to. He made a great adjustment. We talk about it's all about points in the paint. We outscored 96‑32 in the first to games. At one point in the game it was 34‑30. They scored 30 points in the paint. They only had 32 in the first two rounds; we scored 34. We averaged 48 in the first two games. They made an adjustment, I didn't handle it well, I didn't adjust properly, and it falls on my shoulders.  Don't blame the kids for this. This is on me at the end of the day. Q. Dee Dee, at the same time, you look at this season and you still have a lot of basketball to be played. I talked to Coach before, and he said he's proud of you either way. How important is it now to put this away and look to Selection Monday and get ready for the NCAA Tournament? KA‑DEIDRE SIMMONS: Before we put it away, we have to figure out what we did wrong and just do better and make sure when we're in this position again‑‑ well, we won't be in this position again. Just look at film and watch our mistakes and then once we realize the mistakes we made, we move on. But we can't just move on right now. We have to go back and watch film and look at our mistakes and things we could have done better. Look at the good, also, and move on. Q. When DePaul jumped out to that early lead, 15‑3, what did that do to your mindset now having to play from behind? KA‑DEIDRE SIMMONS: It's not something that we're not used to. We've come back a thousand times. COACH BOZZELLA: Including twice against DePaul. We were down 10 in our gym, we were down 18 in their gym. That meant absolutely nothing to be brutally honest with you. I was like, whatever. Go ahead, you can finish. KA‑DEIDRE SIMMONS: Like Coach said, it didn't rattle us, not one bit. They're a great team. They jumped out on us like they did the first two times we played them, but that didn't rattle us at all. COACH BOZZELLA: That wasn't a problem at all. That really wasn't. Listen, this team, we've been down double digits all year. That's irrelevant. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I apologize. Q. Were you struggling to get Tabatha the ball? Uncharacteristic for her to finish with six points in the game. KA‑DEIDRE SIMMONS: Yeah, they were denying ‑‑ they were face guarding her. It just goes to show what type of player Tab is and what type of effect she has on the court. It kind of helped us a little bit, but we have to just do better at making sure she gets open because we do need Tab to step up and dig deep and get open for us. COACH BOZZELLA: That's twofold. I did a stinky job of getting her opened, and she did a bad job of adjusting to it. She's adjusted to it a lot better in the past. She had no offensive rebounds. She had six in the first half against Marquette, she had a bunch against St.John's. She's got to do a better job, but ultimately I, as the boss of the program, have to do a better job of getting her better looks, and I didn't. Q. Dee Dee, did the foul trouble affect you throughout this game? KA‑DEIDRE SIMMONS: No, I still played aggressive. This is the championship game. I don't really care about fouls. It`s do or die at this moment. COACH BOZZELLA: I didn't even know she had four fouls. I'll be honest with you. KA‑DEIDRE SIMMONS: It's the championship game. Leave it all out on the court, and that's exactly what I did. COACH BOZZELLA: Exactly. Q. Do you think this tournament should be held somewhere else besides‑‑ COACH BOZZELLA: No. I think DePaul has done a great job. I think their athletic director stepped up and saved our tournament because when because, when we divided in the Big East, no one wanted to host it, and she stepped up, and that's why she's one of the best athletic directors in the country. She did a great job of stepping up and getting us this facility and getting the people here to support us and everything. Ultimately, yes, I do think it needs to be moved off, but I think for these two years the Big East has chosen a great site with great people to host this tournament. Yeah, does it stink that we had to play there? Absolutely. But it stinks to ‑‑ as opposed to not playing here, I`d rather do that do that. It`s our fault. We've played around the world many times. Do I think it needs to be moved? Of course, eventually, but I give Jeanie and her staff and the people in the Big East so much credit to get us a great facility like this in a great area, I can't thank the Big East enough and DePaul. They're a first‑class school and University. Q. Is there any structure to this tournament you think needs to be altered? COACH BOZZELLA: Yeah, we need to score more points in the championship game. No, the tournament is fine. They've done it professionally. The Big East people are tremendous. Pam, who's been our point person, couldn't be any better. I couldn't be more pleased with the staff of the Big East and how we've won everything here. The thing that stinks is we did not win, and that stinks. I'm not happy about it and neither are the players. But ultimately I have to take responsibility for that, and I will. Q. Your team led the Big East in field goal percentage defense at 37 percent this year. DePaul shot almost 20 percent more than that. Do you have any explanation for that? COACH BOZZELLA: That's a great point. I do, and that's a great question. I think our offense really dictated the way we played defense. We were like down and depressed and frustrated and annoyed, and we hadn't done that. Against Marquette we couldn't score a basket forever. Against St. John`s they played great defense. We struggled to score, but our defense set us up. And today our offense dictated our defense, and that stinks. We said in the game plan, keep them out of the lane. They scored 30 points in the lane. They had scored 32 in the first two games. Unacceptable. And again, because on the offensive end we were out of our mind. But again, you have to understand, I took over a program 27 wins in the combined three years. We have 28 this year. This is not a group of kids that have played at a high level like this under the high pressure that we have. Again, we're all new to this. I know we have grad students and this, but none of them played in this game, and there certainly was no success before I took over this program. These kids, they were nervous, and I didn't help them at all, and that's my fault. But at the end of the day, they're 28‑5 and I'm proud of them more than any team I've ever coached in my life because they left everything on the floor. They won a Big East regular season championship. They got to the Big East Finals beating a tremendous St.John's team in the semifinals, and you know what, we're going to learn from this, and when we play next weekend, we're going to be ready to play that team. Q. When the game is all done, did you want your team to hang out on the court and remember that feeling of losing? COACH BOZZELLA: No, and I'm sorry we left the court, but we didn't understand, do we stay, do we go. That wasn't explained properly. If you ask one thing, I would like to have been told: The game ends, both teams stay on the floor, this is what happens. No one told me that. I'll take responsibility that we walked off the floor. It stinks. No, I didn't want them to see it, but if that's the rule, then we have to see it. It's fine. Listen, we don't need to rub it in. These kids are hurting. That's fine. But again, that's what we do and that's how to do it, then we should have stayed, but I needed that explained to me, I did. If you ask one thing I`m upset about, I wish someone had said to me before the game this is what we do at the end of the game. That's all. That's okay. Next year when we win, then we'll know what we're doing. And it would have been easier. If we won, we wouldn't have to worry. Q. I know you've talked about this before but just one last look at your team's résumé overall, I feel like you've been disrespected at times. Do you feel that way? COACH BOZZELLA: No. I mean, I think the only thing that bothers me a little bit is I get up here and I talk about how great all the teams are that we play. Very few coaches have said to us, you know what, that's some rebuilding job Seton Hall has done, that's some group of players they've put together. That's some program they have that's representing the Big East. But I will tell you this, I think we have nine other great teams in this conference. I think it's a tremendous conference that deserves a lot more than two teams in the NCAA Tournament. Unfortunately, we're only going to get two teams because Villanova had people injured and St.John's played a little inconsistent at points. But St. John`s and Villanova are as good as any of the 64 teams that are going to play in the NCAA Tournament, I`ll tell you that right now. Creighton would beat a lot of teams, as well. So no, it's not‑‑ we'll get respect from the right people. Certainly our administration has respected us more than anything, and certainly, I think DePaul and St.John's showed a lot of respect because they played their butts off against us. I've said this many times. I know Kathy is back here, but I want to build our program to have the success that St.John's has had year in and year out. You know what, we're starting to get that way. But you know what, we've got to continue to understand how difficult it is to win and the higher the level is, the more frustrating it is, the better you have to play, and St.John's has done that. St.John's last year lost in this game, they did, and then went and won an NCAA game. We need to do that. That's what we need to do. I give them a lot of credit for it, and if we want to be a high level program and be talked about like the DePauls and the St. Johns and the Villanovas, we need to make the next step and win a game. Hopefully more. But that`s why I do feel we do deserve a good seed, because this is a good basketball program, and we've proved it all year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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