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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: AUSTINMarch 18, 2016Freda Freeman-JacksonJasmine PeeplesBritney WrightAustin, Texas COACH FREEMAN-JACKSON: It's a great pleasure to be here and have an opportunity to play in the first round of the NCAA tournament. As I told people early on that, that Texas -- actually in Austin, Texas, and Houston back-to-back won a tournament, a championship. So I'm hoping that we have a lot to say in this tournament, also. Q. When we asked the players to describe you, they talked about progressive defense, and your team, quote, knew how to win. Clearly they have seen what you have been able to do to this point. How would that compare to how you would describe yourselves? BRITNEY WRIGHT: Playing great defense, individually and also team D. That's something we work hard on in practice. Q. Britney, how would you say the SWAC has prepared you for the teams in front of you? BRITNEY WRIGHT: The SWAC has really prepared me for the teams in front of me. The SWAC is really like a guard league. SO it's taught me to be very aggressive and just play powerful, play hard. The teams in the SWAC, they play extremely hard, especially when they play us, though. It's taught me a lot and it brought me a long way, and it was great -- halfway. Q. Jasmine, you've had almost a week now to look at tape of Texas. What do you see as the biggest challenges of the team? JASMINE PEEPLES: Well, we match up with them pretty well. We played a lot of small guard this year, a lot of guards like to start transition break (ph), and we see that's something we'd like to focus on. The biggest, the main, obvious difference is that they are really big post. We've played some big post players this year, so we are definitely just going to do the things -- not let them get the ball deep, not let them get the ball easy, and it's pretty much just make it difficult for them. Q. I don't know how many, six, seven players have defended this year, but does Imani present a different type of challenge, just because she is that much taller than most people you play? JASMINE PEEPLES: The biggest player I defended this year would be at Southern. They had a 6-4, 6-5 player -- I know it's No. 34. She's actually way more slimmer, so I think that helped a lot, and at the same time she also has advantages. It's just going to be pretty much make it hard for her to score. Q. Do you feel it's a disadvantage, when you go and you get to play in the NCAAs, you travel all the way over here and you're playing on somebody else's home court. How do you rectify that? BRITNEY WRIGHT: I really don't feel like it's a disadvantage. I think that this is a really good opportunity. It's a blessing that we are able to come this far and get out of Alabama. Some of us haven't been to this part of Texas before. I don't think it's a disadvantage. I really think that it's a great opportunity and we're really grateful for it to be playing here in Texas. Even though we are playing in their gym and the atmosphere is going to be kind of crazy, but we're excited about this. This is the kind of atmosphere and moment that we live for. Q. The Texas coach talked about the hunger a team can bring back to an NCAA Tournament the year after -- does this team have that? BRITNEY WRIGHT: Yes, we really do have that. We've been hungry this entire season, even though we've been through some stuff, we've learned how to overcome everything as a team. I think that last year taught us a lot, and we're really hungry this year. I know everybody has been watching but there's been a lot of upsets going on, so we have that confidence and we're going to work extremely hard to do what we have to do to win. Q. Jasmine, you're one of the top shot-blockers in the country. Is that one way to use your defense against everybody else, get up like that? JASMINE PEEPLES: Well, I guess -- I know I thought that personally, I don't like when people take a penalty (indiscernible). So we are definitely -- shot block, let them, you know, not just put the ball between their hands. Definitely still going to be aggressive tomorrow with guarding. Q. How would each of you describe the challenge of the defending the tournament title throughout regular season? JASMINE PEEPLES: A lot of teams come back -- (indiscernible) the experience of injuries earlier in the year, and I know that means -- so basically, it's a dogfight every night this year. Fight back even when we're down, fight back even when we're tired, keep the tempo going. Act like you're prepared for now, and for us to come back -- after last year. Last year, we came in with our eyes wide open, none of us have been in the NCAA Tournament before. Now this year, our whole entire team, especially a lot of the great players. Tomorrow we have a lot more confidence than we did last year. BRITNEY WRIGHT: I'd have to agree with what she said. We know we always have a target on our back but we know that when we just, you know, trust in our coaches and trust in each other, they help us to play better as a team no matter what. Q. Can you just address the idea that you're playing Texas on their home court and what kind of challenge that is? COACH FREEMAN-JACKSON: Yeah, that's a challenge for us, any time you face somebody on their own floor and you're talking about an NCAA Tournament, that's a disadvantage, but it gives us an opportunity to knock off the No. 2 seed in their gym. But it's going to be an uphill battle for us, but I think my young ladies are ready for the task at hand. Q. Is it added motivation to pull off the upset on the other team's home court? COACH FREEMAN-JACKSON: Yes, it's extra motivation. We played other tough teams. We had an opportunity in the SWAC to beat the No. 1 team, Texas Southern, at their gym, so they are used to going into a situation knowing that they have to win against an opponent that might have more (ph) than they do. Q. You've had now five days to look at Texas tape. From the time I talked to you the other day, are there any more challenges talk see on film, we're going to have to stop that, we're going to have to stop that? COACH FREEMAN-JACKSON: There's plenty of things that we're going to have to stop. One of the things that we're definitely going to have to do, we have to make sure we don't get too many easy baskets on transition. They like to get up-and-down. Also on the halfcourt, when they play the two bigs together, they remind me of South Carolina with their two bigs, as far as the high, low. That's going to cause a major problem because those two young ladies get really fast, and so we're going to have to make sure that we defend them and we be able to double down on the bigs, especially in the low post. Q. Did you play South Carolina? COACH FREEMAN-JACKSON: No, I had an opportunity to watch them live and also I've watched them on TV. Q. Early in the season, you had a lot of losses. How do you kind of keep the team stitched together to know that you still have the conference and you still have -- somewhere out there was going to be a chance? COACH FREEMAN-JACKSON: Yes, I think about us winning last year in the tournament, it gave us momentum after we got off to a slow start, and I think it was an eye-opener when we lost our first two conference games. We went back to work. I had a little talk to the young ladies and let them know nothing is going to be given to us. They made up in their minds that they are going to get back to working hard and doing the things in order to help us have a successful season. After that, we ran off ten games in a row, we ended up winning our last 15 out of 17 games, I believe. Q. Do you feel like you're playing your best basketball right now because of that streak? COACH FREEMAN-JACKSON: Without a doubt. Without a doubt. Our girls are confident, they are going to come in tomorrow real confident. They are going to play hard and do the things that they need to do. They get an opportunity to win a lot of tough balls games this year, so I think we're prepared to continue to do the things that we've done throughout the year. It's too late in the game to try and reinvent the wheel. It's just a matter of doing the things that we know how to do and one of the things that I think we pride ourselves upon is great defense and also trying to make sure that we do a much better job of running our offense. I think if we don't turn the ball over, make great defense, we're going to be in a position hopefully to win a ballgame. Q. How do you think your community would react if you beat Texas? COACH FREEMAN-JACKSON: Oh, words cannot describe how the community would react if we pulled out this upset. I'm pretty sure they are going to be proud of the young ladies. They are going to be elated. They are going to be just so thrilled about the opportunity that Alabama State university women's basketball team was able to upset the University of Texas. I'm pretty sure everybody will be extremely grateful to the young ladies and I'm pretty sure they are going to be the king of the hill when they get back if they pull off this upset. Q. You made the change, you tweaked the lineup -- talk about the character of everyone on your team accepting a role that you may play two minutes in this game, but you may go to 15 the next contest, and everyone really buying into their role. COACH FREEMAN-JACKSON: Yeah, that's one of the things that's difficult with all coaches. Sometimes, especially if you're a role player on a team, and then if you try to matchup with different teams, you might play big, you might play small. But Durriya (ph), she's one of the players that came midseason and after she graduated she joined the team. The other girls knew that there was a possibility that she would actually comeback to the team. So we have not had any negative talk about her joining the team. She has earned a starting 2-guard position. She also plays 1, so the girls have really accepted her coming back on the team without any major problem. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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