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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: IOWA CITYMarch 19, 2015Jazmine DavisMike NeighborsKelsey PlumIOWA CITY, IOWA COACH NEIGHBORS: Very honored to be here. Really excited about our bid to play in the NCAA Tournament. Proud for Jaz as a senior who came four years ago when our program was not really considering be played in the NCAA Tournament, and she's led us here along with Aminah Williams, another senior. Talia Walton came in with that class. With the infusion of some young kids, Kelsey included, very excited to be part of this tournament and we know we have a tremendous opponent in Miami in the first round and we are excited to be in Iowa City. Q. Wonder if you can discuss the impact Kelsey has had on your program in two years. COACH NEIGHBORS: She came in freshman‑ready to make an impact. She didn't come in expecting to get her feet wet and kind of get acclimated. She came in ready to play and we needed that, because we had this class I just mentioned, with Jaz, Aminah and Talia sitting there waiting; and we needed the infusion of a player that came in confident, that came in ready to compete. And she gave us just that. These kids that I mentioned first, welcomed here with open arms and really blended in to a cohesive group over a very, very short period of time. And that's really hard to do, and it really says a lot about the kid to my immediate right who is our school's all‑time leading scorer and at that point in time had been taking the bulk of the offensive load on her shoulder. For her to come in and mentor a young player, develop her into the leader that Jaz had been for us, was tremendous. And as a result, I think Jaz has had her best two seasons, as well. Her leadership, her distribution, command of the offense, and making everybody else on the floor better has just really continued to grow. You can see that in the growth of Talia Walton, another player that has had a tremendous season for us, a very consistent season. But Kelsey's insurgence into a team of kids that had developed a pretty good identity was the difference in us playing in the NIT Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. THE MODERATOR: What can fans expect to see on the floor tomorrow from the Huskies? COACH NEIGHBORS: If we play like we're capable of, we're very efficient. We don't turn the all over a lot. We are one of the top teams in the country in turnover rate. We don't normally turn it over a lot but we are playing a team that tries to turn you over a bunch. So you should see a team that's very hard to guard. Everybody I talked to when they prepare for us say that we are really difficult to defend because we can really space the floor. We have got a lot of weapons. We are not just one‑ or two‑dimensional. We have a lot of kids that can really score, and we play pretty fast. That's a little unexpected kind of when you look at our team pictures. You don't really expect that. So I think we are a little bit‑‑ it's kind of a surprise. It's fun. I think that makes it fun. That's the reaction I get from a lot of people who see us for the first time, and hopefully you'll see that tomorrow. Q. Jazmine, what does it mean to you to be back in the NCAA Tournament as a senior? JAZMINE DAVIS: It means a lot. I would say it just means, one, it's our motto. It's something that we stand by. And we put a lot of hard work into this and we stuck together through a lot of adversity as a team, especially with the coaching changes. We just got together and we are one. Q. Kelsey, what's your reaction to being in Iowa City and participating in the NCAA Tournament? KELSEY PLUM: Just to add on to Jaz, this team's been through a lot the last couple years, and I just think it shows the resilience of our team. We've had some ups and downs, but we've been able to stick together and we're really excited to be here. Q. What kind of team do you think see at your opponent? What can we expect? COACH NEIGHBORS: I purposely said I'm going to stay away from the term athletic, because I think that sometimes it doesn't accurately label this team. They are very, very skilled. They make shots. They create shots. And they do it at a really fast pace. I accused our video girl of showing me the film and speeding it halftime because I thought it was not accurate, but that was realtime. So it took me a minute to adjust to that. They are very, very skilled and they do it with a pace that can be uncomfortable if you allow it to be. So we know that we have got to use our momentum and our craftiness to use that against them, but it's a tremendous challenge. We have a few teams in our conference that play that way but it's not really the way our conference is set up. We tried to schedule a couple non‑conference games in Texas A&M and Florida State that play that way and we had good success against those two teams, so hopefully we can carry that over. I want to echo what these two guys said and just briefly hit on, I think this group right here is a real good example for a lot of people out there to stick together when times of tough. Jaz's group, particularly, had four different coaches impact them at the college level, some recruiting, some coaching. And in our climate of college athletics right now, a lot of kids would have left and none of those kids did. Jaz, Aminah, Talia, they stuck together and they embraced this group that came in. There were many opportunities for them to not stand up and face adversity, and I think in our climate of our athletics situation today, that's too easy to do and I'm really proud of this group to be able to have stuck together and be up here representing the NCAA Tournament. Q. New arena, new environment, I know in talking with players it takes maybe a shoot around or two to get a feel for the court, the shooter's eye, things like that. How long does it take or is there more made of that from the player's perspective? JAZMINE DAVIS: For us, I think we got well‑adjusted to the court yesterday. We are fine. We are used to being in different environments. It's a court; we play on basketball courts every day, so it doesn't really matter. We're fine. COACH NEIGHBORS: Jaz, we're not playing in the practice gym tomorrow. JAZMINE DAVIS: We're in Iowa, it doesn't matter. (Laughter) doesn't matter. KELSEY PLUM: As long as the rim is ten feet, I think we're okay. The ball is round, we're fine. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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