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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: IOWA CITYMarch 20, 2015Jazmine DavisMike NeighborsTalia WaltonAminah WilliamsIOWA CITY, IOWA MIAMI – 86 COACH NEIGHBORS: Really want to thank the University of Iowa and the NCAA for treating us first class. Our message to these three kids here when she showed up at Washington four years ago was that the NCAA Tournament is a very special thing. It took us four years to get here. But I can tell you that they have been treated in a first‑class manner; that it was everything we had built it up to be and even more. So thanks to Iowa for hosting, they are doing a great job and NCAA for treating us tremendously. Congratulations to Miami. They were tremendous this afternoon. I thought their players did exactly what their players have been doing all year long. I thought Michelle Woods really led her team, and Motley did the scoring and they all just rebounded and really played a good game. All the credit goes to them. We were just standing back there in the media room thinking that that was one ever our better games that we played. They got us at our best and they beat us and our congratulations go to them. Q. Talia, looked be like down the stretch you needed one more bucket to get over the hump. Was that the case‑‑ you had some good looks, if one of those shots would have gone. TALIA WALTON:  Through the course of the game, coach always said you don't know what play it is that's going to be a determining factor from flip to buzzer. I think a lot of shots in the first half we missed, we normally make, the whole team. But I think we fought really hard, and it was nice at the end of the stretch for a couple of those to go down. Q. Maybe a little hard now but can you sum up your Washington career and being able to end it in the NCAA Tournament, and just all you've gone through? JAZMINE DAVIS: To sum it up, I would say I'm really proud of us. I'm really proud of how we played tonight and I'm just glad that I have the opportunity to play with such great women on this team. It made me a better person on and off the court, and those are the moments and memories that I'll cherish and take on with me. AMINAH WILLIAMS: It's been just an amazing ride starting from my freshman year and ending at my senior year by going to the NCAA Tournament. I'm just really thankful for the opportunity. Q. There was a lot of talk coming in about the pace in which Miami played and in Coach said it looked like the video was faster, had been speeded up. What was your thoughts going through it how quickly they can play and how quickly they can move up and down the court? TALIA WALTON: Coach didn't exaggerate. They are extremely fast. They have a lot of good players, good guards that can push the ball and keep the tempo going the entire game and that works to their favor. They executed very well tonight. So they were extremely fast, I would say that, as opposed to going back and forth, back and forth with them, it was tiring. But you just fight through it and big credit to them. COACH NEIGHBORS: You know, those three kids there‑‑ Talia is a redshirt freshman, so she came in with those kids did. Their first day on campus was one of my first days on campus. I was an assistant coach then. Y'all cover this game enough to know that in today's society, when things get tough, sometimes a lot of kids don't stick it out. They transfer; they look for the easy road. This group had about three or four chances to change and break apart. They went through two coaching changes while they were there. One on their way to campus. We had ups and downs and they could have at any point in time taken that easy road and done what a lot of student athletes over the last four years have done and they did not, in fact, they stuck together and they raised the level of play at the University of Washington and expectations at the University of Washington, and they will leave a legacy that's going to take a long time to really supplant. Q. You talked about this being the best game you played all year. What would have been the thing that would have made it a victory? COACH NEIGHBORS: Yeah, I think we could have made a few more plays. The first half, we got some really good shots. At halftime maybe Kelsey and Jazz were one‑for‑seven. Those numbers may be a little off, but I think that's pretty close. I think we were a little nervous, and it's to be expected. Again, when we built this up for four years like we have, we were all nervous mand it took some of us a little bit longer to get over it. If we could have shaken the jitters off a bit earlier, that could have been the difference. It was a one‑possession game down there so with he had to start fouling. Really proud of our kids for fighting back when we got down double‑digits to go back and take the lead. We probably could have made a play or two more, and maybe come up with a tough rebound. There was a couple times we got stops and instead of being a rebound to go in transition, it turned into a jumped ball and we had to defend on the out‑of‑bounds play. So I don't know that we were‑‑ that we executed the best that we have all year but it was really, really close and they certainly took our best effort and were able to win. Q. After they missed a couple free throws and the freshmen came in and got the rebound‑‑ COACH NEIGHBORS: That was the one I was really specifically talking about. Still a one‑possession game at that point. We could have gone down three. Instead, she gets that rebound and it changes the complexion of the game. We work on that an awful lot, and you know, you can have the best technique in the world and sometimes the ball just doesn't bounce your way. So I can live with a couple of those but that rebound was a huge play for them. And I thought it kind of turned the momentum. It maybe took a little bit of fire out of our kids. I think our kids still thought until that rebound there was plenty of time and a chance; but you could see the difference in their eyes when you brought them out. We were having to go offense, defense at the end and when that offensive group came out, there was a little bit of look in our eye like, that was our chance, and you nailed it right on the head. That was a good observation. Q. Their early shooting, were you comfortable with the shots that Plum had, maybe just didn't go down? COACH NEIGHBORS: Absolutely. We need to play fast. You hear it talked about a lot in the Tournament, it's all about match‑ups. I would have preferred a team that wasn't used to playing at the pace that we are. I think they probably were really excited about the draw because they knew we wanted to play fast. I'm okay with it. And I think 99 times out of a hundred, a lot of those shots go down. Just a general statement, too. Anybody that over the last few years says women's basketball is not entertaining to watch, they didn't watch that game. There were only ten turnovers combined by the two teams. Had to be a 90 possession game, up‑tempo, very athletic. I thought it was very well played. And I hope a lot of people got to watch it and we'll continue to support women's basketball because it's a great game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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