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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: IOWA CITYMarch 20, 2015Lisa BluderMelissa DixonSamantha LogicIOWA CITY, IOWA IOWA – 75 COACH BLUDER: Just want to congratulate American on a great year. I thought they played very, very well. I think coach has done a tremendous job in two years getting that program to the NCAA Tournament. They came here on an 11‑game win streak. I thought they played outstanding, did just a great job, so congratulations to Megan and American on a fabulous year. Proud of our team's efforts, five people in double figures, I love that. We shot the ball well, especially from three‑point range and from the free throw line. Hit our free throws down crunch time when we needed to. I also want to thank the crowd that came out today. I thought they were just instrumental. You get down to crunch time and you have a great crowd behind you; I thought we used the home‑court advantage today, and that was really nice to see. Hopefully we'll get a great crowd at 11 o'clock on Sunday. Q. What happened there at the beginning of the second half where you finally took control of the game? SAM LOGIC: I think we got a couple more defensive stops. We want to push out in transition, and you know, really attack the paint so we can get some threes, and I think Al shot the ball really well today for us, which really spreads the floor. So we had to get those rebounds, though, and get some stops so that we can push, and we were getting stops on defense in order to get that so they weren't getting their points. But we just turned them into ours. Q. Melissa, they came out in the first half and were shooting‑‑ set the place on fire. Did you realize with them shooting from the outside that you guys might need you to equal that? MELISSA DIXON: Yeah, we knew that American was going to be a really good team and they have a lot of great players. But shooting is something that is a strong point for us every game, and we did really well at that tonight. Q. Everybody always said they take it one game at a time and don't look at the seedings or whatnot, but was there a point where you thought, we're in an actual battle here; was there a point to say, okay, we need to focus even more than we already are? SAM LOGIC: Yeah, I don't think we ever overlooked them. I thought we did a really good job in practice, knowing that they run their stuff well; they will run the shot clock down as much as they can, and they will be disciplined throughout that. I think they hit a couple more threes than we originally probably scouted for. They got some open looks towards the end being patient. That was just something we had to fight through. So in that sense maybe you had to focus a little bit more but it wasn't anything that we didn't expect. But they just did a really good job of hitting some threes, especially in the first half. MELISSA DIXON: We knew once the game started, seeds didn't matter anymore. Everyone is going to play their best game in this tournament, do‑or‑die. So we were prepared for them to play their best game and we knew that from the start. Q. Defensively in the second half, your zone seemed to really bother them, even though they had shot the ball well from the outside in the first half. What were you doing that was causing them such problems? SAM LOGIC: We moved on the pass a little bit better. I think when you can contest shots and contest the ball, just so it slows down a little bit from moving so quickly, and getting not open shots or being able to reverse the ball really fast; we did a good job of that, and I think we did a little bit better boxing out in the second half, too. Sometimes they get an offensive rebound and will run it again so you're on defense for about 50 seconds and then hit a three in the first half. I think we limited that in the second half, too. MELISSA DIXON: We were really aggressive in the zone. We were getting some deflections which were leading to steals and stops. Our zone has been good for us all year and we are good playing zone. Q. What would you say was the biggest surprise playing against American? SAM LOGIC: I don't think anything they really did surprised us. I think our coaches did a really good job on scout. Like I said before, I think they probably hit a couple more threes than we probably thought. But credit to them, they are a good shooting team and we didn't think they are not going to hit any. But they hit a couple more than we anticipated, and we gutted it out and we are going to take everyone's best shot in this tournament and we are going to take any kind of win right now. Q. Do you have any specific examples being the fifth seed today, 14th seed coming into your building? What was your message to the girls about the ballgame today, and was there any motivation from the downfalls of some other teams that have been in this situation? COACH BLUDER: Absolutely not. I did not want to bring that up one little bit; that there had been so many upsets in the men's side of things. So we didn't talk about that whatsoever. Q. Bad time to be a three seed, but at least you survived with that. Don't want to be negative but is there anything that you think your team needs to do better? I know maybe it's too early to scout Miami, but that you need to sharpen up for Sunday? COACH BLUDER: Absolutely. We need to do a better job on the boards than we did tonight. We need to do a better job in transition defense than we did tonight. You know, I always find things we need to work on, but definitely those things we need to do a better job with. Q. What do you think changed the second half around? COACH BLUDER: Melissa got open for some threes and I think that is just great momentum for us when we can get those threes going. I think that was a big deal for us. You know, in the first half, I thought Booth really kept them in the game. I think‑‑ you ask somebody, what's the surprise, that would be the sun surprise for me. I thought she overplayed what she usually does, and so to me she really kept them in the game. But she had 14 in the half and only three in the second half. So our players did a much better job identifying her in the second half. And I'll take credit for the first half, letting her loose, because I didn't have them prepared for her enough. Q. Third consecutive season round of 32, is there a different feeling in Iowa City heading into this year's tournament than the last year here? COACH BLUDER: You know, it feels good to be‑‑ I think there's less than 20 teams that have accomplished that in the country. Been to the third round three years in a row. So we are very proud of that. Does it feel differently? I think it does because of the senior leadership, because of the experience we have in our team and because they have been around so much. Today was their eighth NCAA Tournament game and Sunday will be their ninth NCAA Tournament game. I think that experience really helps. Again, I can't say enough about our crowd today. I thought they were outstanding. I thought they were loud. I thought they helped us. It really felt like a home court and we are really going to need that Sunday. So I thought they were outstanding, and I think that's one thing different in the NCAA Tournament, you don't always get a home court. Certainly nice to have that three years in a row. But this year I think our expectations are just a little different. We know Miami is a great team. They have the upset today. They have played extremely well. We'll probably talk about them a lot more tomorrow. Q. How big was Whitney Jennings today? COACH BLUDER: I thought Whitney played very well. She came back‑‑ we gave them a little time off, and I thought she came back with a kind of different attitude. I think our little Logansport girl went back to the berry bowl (ph) and got a feel back for what it feels like to put the ball in the hole. She was so successful as Miss Indiana Basketball, and I thought she all week has played very, very well and tonight I thought she did, too. Again, five players in double figures, I love that. Q. What do you know about Miami so far; 86 points today. How do you slow them down? COACH BLUDER: Again, I don't know a whole lot about them, and again tomorrow at our press conference, I'll be able to talk a lot more about them. Again, upset today, great for them. I know that they have beat a No.1 seed, Notre Dame. They beat a No.2 seed, Florida State. Obviously they are a great team from a really good conference. And so we know we are going to have our work cut out for us on Sunday. Hopefully again home court is going to help us out a little bit. Q. Sam alluded to the fact that they ran the clock down quite a bit. They seemed to have an uncanny ability to hit shots at that point. Was that something you were ready for? COACH BLUDER: We felt they were going to be patient: Push when it was there; patient when it wasn't there. And that's good basketball. That's excellent basketball. And they had a good game plan, and they stuck to it and those are kids you like to coach that really believe in your game plan and go out and perform it. You know, I thought they were very confident, especially Jen with the ball in her hands as the clock was going off, going down there at the end. Yeah, they hit probably more end‑of‑shot‑clock shots on us than I've seen all year. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Lisa. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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