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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: COLLEGE STATION

March 18, 2016

College Station, Texas

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Missouri State. At the far end of the table senior Kenzie Williams, senior Tyonna Snow, sophomore Audrey Holt, and the head coach for the Bears is Kellie Harper. Questions for student-athletes?

Q. Tyonna, can you talk about just being an underdog in March, and if there is any advantage to going in being an underdog?
TYONNA SNOW: It's March, and I think we all know anything can happen out there playing. We don't really care what anyone thinks about us, we're just here to play and have fun playing.

Q. Audrey, talk about your team's defense as of late and how it helped get you guys here?
AUDREY HOLT: Earlier in the season, at one point we said we really need to step up our defense and start winning more games. So we started making it a big focus, and that's helped us. I think it's that's been a big key in the games that we've won here recently. We definitely need our defense to help set up our offense, so we're going to continue to make that a focal point.

Q. Audrey, can you talk about senior leadership and what it means to your team particularly at this time of year? Is that something that's kind of held you guys together throughout the season? Have you noticed it's helped you guys later in the year? Talk about the senior leadership on your team.
AUDREY HOLT: Our seniors are incredible leaders. They lead by example, but they're also very vocal. From the first day they just took us under their wing and they help not only in just coaching us and helping us on the court, but also just as people and building bonds and being able to communicate with each other is a huge thing that we do.

Just our seniors are incredible. They lead us in every aspect of being a team.

Q. Looking at the tape, No. 23, Rachel Mitchell, 6'7", down low, what have you seen from her? How does that affect your game? And I guess a follow-up for Kenzie, what you have also seen from this Aggies team?
TYONNA SNOW: They're a great team. I think everybody in the tournament right now is a great team and we all deserve to be here. They're going to bring out their best game as are we, so we're just going to go head to head and whoever comes out on top, best of luck to them.

KENZIE WILLIAMS: Yeah, we got to see some film on them today, so just kind of getting to see what they like to do and knowing we have to step it up on our defensive end and being ready when we come to play.

Q. How beneficial is it that you guys have three SEC games under your belt so far this season, Kenzie?
KENZIE WILLIAMS: It was a good experience for us to play those games in the non-conference and play them on the road because we're going to come here into a big atmosphere, I think, and playing another good, physical SEC team. So I think it was good that we got to experience that before coming in tomorrow.

Q. Kenzie, you were here as a youngster watching the Lady Bears playing at this time of year. What does it mean to you now being a player that's led this team back to the NCAA Tournament?
KENZIE WILLIAMS: It's been an awesome experience so far. We're so grateful that we get the chance to play in this tournament again and get back to that tradition that so many fans around the country know of the Lady Bears. It's just been amazing to go through this whole process.

From day one, with this coaching staff stepping on campus, they knew that was our goal as players and their goals as coaches. So to be here is just great.

Q. Audrey, could you talk about defense and their guard, point guard Jones and shooting guard Walker?
AUDREY HOLT: Their guards are very good scorers, so we've started working a little bit on just how we're going to make adjustments to defend them and be prepared for things like that.

Defensively, we're a very strong team. We've been doing really well lately, so I think we're just going to stick to our usual keys that we've been focusing on and try to keep them from scoring.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Harper, please.

Q. If you look at the averages for scoring and holding their opponents to, you guys are pretty similar in the numbers. Can you talk about this match-up and if you think this is a benefit for you guys?
COACH HARPER: Well, statistically we have some similarities. Obviously we've been playing in a couple different leagues in the last couple months. I think more the strong similarities, they're led by their senior guards as are we. I think strong guard play is what got -- it's what really propelled A&M throughout their season as well as our team.

Q. This is your third school now that you've led to the NCAA Tournament. How do those other teams, the other schools and appearances help you in this?
COACH HARPER: Well, the unique thing is there are not very many people in our locker room that have experienced this. As a coach, Jon and I have and as a coach and player you can add Jackie Stiles to that list.

So I think just having the understanding of what this is all about and some of the formalities with the NCAA Tournament, I think it's beneficial to your team to be able to understand what it needs to look like when you go to the tournament.

Q. Coach talked earlier today about his experiences with you at Tennessee, about Jackie at SMF, what goes behind coaching now that you're on the other side and what do you expect Coach Blair's come tomorrow?
COACH HARPER: I have a lot of respect for Coach Blair. I have some really fond memories of him, even when he coached against me at Tennessee, he was a very personable coach, and you don't always see that as players. For him, I know that he's focused in on us and on what his team needs to do to beat us. And you know, they're well coached, and they're going to play great defense, and he's going to get the ball to the guards that can score.

So I think I really like Coach Blair a lot, and it will be fun getting to visit with him.

Q. Being a 13 seed going up against a 4 seed, can you talk about the challenges that brings and obviously playing them at home as well?
COACH HARPER: Yeah, I think really when you get into the NCAA Tournament, I think the match-ups are actually the more important thing than the numbers. I think the match-ups will be really important whether or not you can play with them size-wise, speed-wise. We don't know that yet.

Obviously, I think there are a lot of question marks on what we're going to be able to do with this basketball team. But our players feel confident. They feel good about how they've been playing and hopefully we can carry that to the court.

Q. You mentioned the formalities and some of the things that you have to do when you're in this tournament. What are some of the things you've had to tell them for the first time? Like last week you had to teach them how to cut down a net. Has there been anything like that this time?
COACH HARPER: We talk to them a lot about the curtains. There are a lot of curtains at the NCAA Tournament, and carpet and curtains and how formal that looks. I think just some of the things that you see. There is NCAA everywhere, and it's so cool. They get some gear. I mean, it's just really neat. A lot of different things happen that don't happen when you're not playing in the tournament.

Q. Coach, how critical are those first 10, 15 minutes since your girls haven't been in the NCAA Tournament recently?
COACH HARPER: I think that's really going to set the tone. I've got a feeling that they're going to want to come out and make a statement early, and we're going to have to handle that. There is no doubt the first few minutes of this game is going to be very important. You know, I think for us, we understand that. We understand what the game needs to look like for us to be able to handle that first surge, and then compete. We think if we can do that, we can compete.

Q. We'd like to talk about rust or rest with the media. With A&M, they haven't played since the 4th, y'all just played earlier this week. In your experience, is this downtime going to be beneficial or is it going to get A&M a little out of sorts?
COACH HARPER: Actually, this is the first time coming into the NCAA Tournament for me that we played on the weekend prior to, so sometimes it's hard to get good practices in when you're sitting around for a week and a half trying to -- you don't know who you're playing so the entire duration of that period your players are ready to play, they're in game mode, they're playing, they're playing, they're playing and all of a sudden you say, oh, we're going to take almost two weeks off. So I think that's tricky at times.

Obviously, they'll be well-rested and ripping and raring to go. We were able to get some rest this week. We had a couple days off, and hopefully we can stay in the groove how we've been playing.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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