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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: WACOMarch 19, 2016Terri Williams-FlournoyTra'Cee TannerKatie FrerkingWaco, Texas THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll get started with questions for the student-athletes. Q. Katie and Tra'Cee, I know you girls don't have anything to do with the game that happened here 13 years ago, but what does it means to come into a building where you know that the No. 1 seed your playing, the last home loss they had was to an unranked team was to your team? KATIE FRERKING: I actually didn't know that. But that's really cool. Like I said the first day, we love playing for Auburn, and it's really special to come out here and have a chance to do something that hasn't been done in a long time and to be another Auburn team to do that. So that's really exciting. That's real cool. Q. You probably answered this somewhat last night. Talk about the contribution, especially of Jazmine Jones and Janiah McKay, in last night's game. TRA'CEE TANNER: Just having the whole team play together is definitely a great sign that it's going to be great night. When we have production from everybody it makes it a lot easier for our team, especially when we can get bench points. But just having contributions from everybody on the team just makes it a lot easier for us to go out there and get things done. It doesn't have to fall on just a couple people if everybody gets a little bit of it. It makes it more fun and it's a lot easier. KATIE FRERKING: Yeah, I think one of the things that we, that has been good all year is getting production from our whole team and knowing that our wins are going to be from a team effort. We're not a team full of superstars, we're a team. So when we can get numbers like that from a freshman point guard and from Jazz, she plays so hard every single night, so to see her hard work throughout the year to be paying off for her late in the season like it is, that's really big for us. If they can both continue to play like that, we're going to be really good. Q. What's it like to be at the same school where your brother's at and what's that back and forth been like? KATIE FRERKING: It's sort of weird being here and not actually cheering for a Baylor team. I loved Baylor when he was here, but now to be here and playing against them, obviously, it's not that same feeling, because we want to win. So, it's cool to be back, but definitely I'm here with a different goal and a different mindset. Q. Do you give him a hard time? KATIE FRERKING: A little bit. But he's a huge Auburn fan, too. He loves Auburn. So he's all Tigers. For the time being. Q. Katie and Tra'Cee, talk about your press and what you try to do with that. TRA'CEE TANNER: Our press is designed to give up long contested threes. But above all, it's forced to try to get steals and go in transition. We score best in transition. So if we can get that, and we're aggressive on offense when we're setting our press all night, it makes it an easier night for us instead of having to go and set up and run plays in the half court. But it's designed to get teams rattled. We're going at teams to get traps and just be aggressive the whole time. We have worked hard on it, and we're in shape to play for 40 minutes. So it makes it at lot easier when we're playing aggressive, and we're doing what we're supposed to do to get steals and go in transition and get easy buckets. We would rather get easy buckets rather than try to set up in the half court and try to score in 20 seconds. KATIE FRERKING: I think also it's just a different look for teams. We're probably about the only team in the country who plays like we do. So for teams who are especially having to play us for the first time like Baylor, they haven't seen this before. So, we use that to our advantage and try to turn them over and wear them out and just do what we do. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, ladies. Questions for coach, please. Q. You know what's coming. You come into a building like this and, obviously, Baylor, the last team they lost to, they were unranked. Was your team -- and I know it was a long time ago, but does that add anything special to this game and knowing that they probably have that in the back of their minds, too, even though their players aren't even familiar with it? COACH WILLIAMS-FLOURNOY: I doubt anybody knew until you told us. I didn't know, the players didn't know. No, when you said it, it rings a little bell to you. But other than that, it's so different. The teams are different, the coaches are different, the players are different, so it really doesn't make that much of a difference, really. Q. Going back to 2016, as far as your team last night, coming out and having the kind of performance they had and getting that experience, just what do you see the mode of this team having -- I know it's only been a few hours, but guiding through that game and knowing what they face now? COACH WILLIAMS-FLOURNOY: I think it goes back to them just really understanding, and now seeing it again when they in what our defense can do. It just gives them more confidence. Right away you look at the first thing, when we get a box score, the first thing we look at is how many turnovers we forced, how many steals did we have. The girls they know that's the first thing that they want to ask, how many steals did we get? So, when they really, truly understand, as they do and have bought into what we do, that's their main goal. You heard from our girls, they understand what we want out of the press. Like we said, we have a goal sheet up in the locker room, and we have about 10 goals that we want to get on the defensive end. And about five of those comes from out of our press. Q. Could you talk just about the lift, especially early, that Janiah gave you from the offensive standpoint last night? COACH WILLIAMS-FLOURNOY: Yeah, so funny. The play was not designed for her, but I wanted to see how St. Joe's would play an our ball screen, so we ran our high offense first with Tra'Cee coming off, because I wanted to see how they would guard the ball screens and how they would guard Tra'Cee coming off of a ball screen. But then Janiah came off the ball screen wide open and shot it. And I think that right there gave her the confidence that she needs. When you look at a freshman point guard, playing their first year in the NCAA Tournament, this is a big stage for her to be on. It was already huge being that freshman in the SEC, one of the toughest conferences, and now coming to the NCAA Tournament for the first year it's like, oh, my gosh. So when she knocked that first shot down, I was really happy. Because the last thing you need is for your point guard to be shaky. Q. You guys are an underdog in a game like this -- COACH WILLIAMS-FLOURNOY: We are? (Laughs.) Q. Well, when you look at all the upsets and stuff that have happened in the men and stuff that happened and even in some of the women's tournament, do you use that for your girls to say, hey, listen, anything's possible? COACH WILLIAMS-FLOURNOY: My assistant coach said that this morning, when we were in our meeting, going over the scouting report. And it is, it's March Madness. It's called March Madness for a reason, you really just don't know what's going to happen. And the best team that comes to play and -- I think you always got to have a little luck, at this point in the season, and for us, we have always depended on our defense and playing hard. It doesn't really matter who we play. At this point you're going to do what you do. You don't have time to change anything. So you have to believe in how you play and our young ladies do and that right there just speaks to, we're going to have an upset, but we're going to have an upset doing what we do. Q. The Idaho coach talked about you almost have to pick your poison when you play Baylor. Talk about that defensive matchup of trying -- because they have the three-point shooters and the big girls inside, how do you try to do that? COACH WILLIAMS-FLOURNOY: We don't really pick and choose one person over the other. We really don't look at that, because I think that you don't want to give any advantage one way or the other. And by the time you get to this point right now, they're Division I college basketball players, you don't want to leave anybody open. You want to make sure that everybody's guarded. But we're still going to just do what we do. Some people say, even last night against Saint Johns, they said, well, their guards are really quick, I don't know if you should really trap them. That's what we do, so we're going to go ahead and trap them and just go from there. THE MODERATOR: All right. Good luck tomorrow. COACH WILLIAMS-FLOURNOY: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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