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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: TEMPEMarch 17, 2016Kevin BorsethMehryn KrakerKaili LukanJessica LindstromTempe, Arizona COACH BORSETH: It's a very exciting time of year for college basketball, and we are very excited to be participating in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Q. Can each of you players just talk about playing Tennessee, you've played a lot of great programs over the years. What's just your thoughts about playing Tennessee? JESSICA LINDSTROM: We're very excited. We've never played them before and we know that they are a really good program. They are a big school. We're just happy to be here and hopefully give them a really good game. KAILI LUKAN: I have to agree with Jess. We have a great program, and we are just here to come out and play our hardest, and we're very excited for that. Like she said, we're just very excited to be here. MEHRYN KRAKER: Basically the same thing the last two said. Q. Jessica, could you talk about the team's three-point shooting and what an asset that is for you guys? JESSICA LINDSTROM: Well, it's a very important part of the game as well as layups, as well as everything else. Yeah, well, it seems to be a lot easier when you can make a lot of threes, but at the same time, if you can't, we like to get inside and whatever, just like any other team that's not making it from the outside. Yeah, our three-point shooting is pretty important, as well as every other aspect. Q. Can you just sum it up a little bit, no matter what happens, this is going to be your last NCAA tournament. Can you sum up the feelings going into this experience, and really what this team means and really your guys' mind-set going into this tournament? KAILI LUKAN: Well, this is a very emotional and exciting experience for all of us. For my last time, I'm just grateful to be here. It's such a great opportunity and to be able to do it with these group of girls and the coaching staff that we do have, I'm very thankful for that, and I hope we can do our best and work our hardest and hopefully we'll see what happens I guess. Q. Can each of you talk about what do you think are going to be the key things to winning this game? MEHRYN KRAKER: Key aspects of this game come down to us being prepared and just coming out with a lot of energy and fight. We know if we give them our best shot, we're going to have a good shot at this game. KAILI LUKAN: I think that like she said, we just have to come out and play our hardest. I think that's one of our -- we take pride in that. We like to work very hard and if we can do that, I think it will be a really good game. JESSICA LINDSTROM: Because I'm the last one, it's basically what those two just said (laughing). Q. The Tennessee people were talking about this game being kind of a contrast in styles. How would you describe your style of play and the challenges of playing an athletic team like them? MEHRYN KRAKER: That's a good question. I think we just pride ourselves on working hard and you know that they are going to come out and that they are going to work hard. We like -- I just think that if we stick to our game plan and just as long as we are prepared knowing theirs, we're going to be okay. KAILI LUKAN: Yeah, I think we do what we do, and as long as we can do that to the best of our ability, I think we're going to be okay. They are a good team but I think as long as we do our best and work hard, we'll be fine. JESSICA LINDSTROM: Yeah, our styles of play may vary, but at the same time, we both want the same thing. We both play our hardest and hopefully the outcome lies in our favor. Q. Tennessee has been up and down but they seem to be up right now their last three, four games. Can you sort of describe what you're seeing in them right now? COACH BORSETH: I think we look closely at their schedule for the year, they lost two or three over time games, two or three other games where they lost by one point, so they could very easily have won 26 games this year and been a 3- or 4-seed. Q. When your players are talking about being prepared and working hard and the pride they take in that, is that reflected by the defense your team plays, do you think? COACH BORSETH: It's like we're always fight to see another day, one of those kind of teams. We do that with every practice that we attend, with every game that we play, with every -- just kind of that's our MO. We just try to fight every possession if we can. Somebody asked the question about athleticism, and there's no question in my mind that there's a major contrast in athleticism between these two teams. But yeah, we try to grind as best we possibly can. It's just a toughness factor that we have that enables us to be able to participate in the Tournament. Q. Where does three-point shooting fit in your style? How crucial is three-point shooting to your style? COACH BORSETH: Well, yeah, we don't -- somebody asked me at the beginning, I think we started, we were shooting, what, 30 threes a game when we started the year, and that's come down quite a bit. We have the ability to. Are we looking to shoot threes every time we go down the court? No. We would like to put it right next to the basket and dunk it. That's what we would like to do. Unfortunately we don't have the same size, as maybe some other teams have. As a result, we have to, I don't want to say smoke and mirror, but we use all of our players to post. We use all of our players to drive. We use all of our players to shoot. So I think because of that, we have a tendency to shoot threes from a lot of different spots. So it's an important element for us obviously because of our size. Q. You've played a lot of great programs over the years, but is there something extra special about playing Tennessee? COACH BORSETH: Yeah, I think the girls, I'm kind of disappointed they didn't allude to that. This is Tennessee. I mean, they are what, eight-time National Champions? It's just a privilege to be able to play these type of programs. We've got a chance to play Connecticut before in the national tournament. We got a chance to play Connecticut last year down in the Florida Gulf Coast Tournament at the beginning, and it's just a really cool experience for our players. They are going to graduate from college and will have played Connecticut and will have played Tennessee. Irregardless, I mean, it's a great -- they are noted for women's basketball. Pat Summitt has elevated -- that is women's basketball. That's really where it started, with Tennessee obviously. I think it's just really neat that we get to play them. I don't know if we'll like it after the fact. We're going to try to hopefully can. We're going to try to make it as best we can. It's a legendary program obviously, and it's something our kids are going to be able to talk about for the rest of their life. Q. Particularly DeShields, can you just talk about the challenge about trying to defend against her? COACH BORSETH: We really haven't seen her live yet. I saw her on videotape, and everything -- the videotape could barely keep up with her. She's just a flash, really athletic, really explosive, just a dynamic athlete. And I don't know exactly how we deal with that. We don't know until we get on the court to probably -- to see that at this point. But obviously a very good athlete, very dynamic, very explosive. We don't see that. She will be the best athlete that we've seen all year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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