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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: AUSTINMarch 20, 2016Karen AstonCelina RodrigoImani BoyetteAustin, Texas COACH ASTON: Obviously excited to be playing another day, and excited to be in Austin and having an opportunity to play at home tomorrow night, I think is a thrill for our coaching staff and our team. In looking back and thinking about last night's game, I think after we got through halftime, I was extremely pleased with the thought of how energetic and together that our team played last night. I think at this point, we have a lot of work to do today, and Missouri is going to be an extremely tough challenge for us tomorrow evening. But again, it's one at a time and we are absolutely thrilled to be playing in Austin tomorrow night. Q. Celina, by chance have you seen any film or have you seen Missouri yesterday at all to know what kind of matchups that you're getting into? CELINA RODRIGO: Yeah, we were able to watch some of their game yesterday. They are a very well-coached team. They have a great offense and they move the ball around well, so need to be prepared to make sure we're playing solid on defense and also make sure that we're taking care of the ball. Q. Does it matter to you that their guards will be taller than all of your guards? CELINA RODRIGO: I think we've had a lot of experience in the Big 12 with that, and I think our guards are prepared to handle situations like that. So I think our coaches will help us out and we'll be able to matchup with them, as well. Q. About matchups with Missouri, anything strike you about them, Sophie Cunningham in particular and the matchup problems? CELINA RODRIGO: She's a great player, but I think our defense, we like to start on defense. As long as our defense is solid, we get a lot of energy from that. I think our bench, as well, feeds off of our defense, so I think that's one thing that we need to focus on for the next game. Q. Imani, you're a senior now and you had a game last night, and now you know for sure this is your last game here at the Erwin Center. What are your thoughts? IMANI BOYETTE: I don't even have time to think about it. I'll think about it after we play. I think I've enjoyed my four years here. I love Austin, I love the family we've created here and the Longhorn fan base. But we have a tall task in front of us, so we just want make sure we are focusing on the task at hand, and we feel that nostalgia after hopefully we come out with the win. Q. How do you see this Missouri team? What do you see from them? IMANI BOYETTE: Just to feed off what Celina said, they are a well-coached team. But mainly they play really, really hard, regardless of whether their shots are falling or not. They are going to go get the rebound, they are going to box out and they are going to do the little things and play really hard till the buzzer beats. And they can score from all positions. They have a lot of versatile players, particularly with Sophie, she's really versatile and she'll probably -- we'll have to work really hard and stay down on defense. But they are a great team, so we are excited. Q. Coach had mentioned she was pleased after halftime the way you came out. The first half, what's your opinion on what she might not have been happy with? Was it a matter of not playing in a game for eight or nine days or however long it had been, jitters or what do you think it was? IMANI BOYETTE: I think it was a mixture of everything. It was definitely a little bit of jitters from us not playing for so long, but that's not really a good excuse because no one's played for a really long time. We just weren't playing together and we mainly were playing really bad defense. We weren't working on the details, boxing out. We were doing a lot of things because we could, but not necessarily preparing ourselves to go long. We were playing like this is too big (ph) you know what I mean, and we weren't preparing by doing the little things, boxing out, talking on defense, making sure we were paying attention to scouts. We weren't really focused enough. Q. Did you guys get together before the season as a group, players only maybe, and discuss goals for the season? And how much further do you have to go and what those goals were? IMANI BOYETTE: I think us as seniors we already knew what we wanted to do and what we wanted to accomplish this season. And we always have a meeting with the coaches before like preseason starts on like what we want our goals to be and we kind of tell the team as a senior class what we think we want our goals to be. And it's just kind of been a reiteration throughout the season in the locker room from different players. Really not even by class, just by everybody being on the same page and wanting to make sure that we competed as hard as we can. The Big 12 championship was one of our goals. Unfortunately we didn't get that, but we have a lot more games to play hopefully and we have more goals to accomplish. Q. You pretty much were courtside for their entire game last night. What were the biggest impressions you took from watching them? COACH ASTON: I think Imani hit it on the head about the fact that Missouri plays hard all the time. It was noticeable to me, especially being right there courtside, that their players have a sense of purpose with the way they play, and Robin has done a terrific job at Missouri there. I think she now has those players playing probably in her system and her way of thinking. They execute really well, but again, the most noticeable thing to me is that a lot of their players, they play and you don't know whether they are ahead or down and I think that's a great quality of a team and an individual player if you can't really tell what's going on. They just seem to play from play to play, and that's a team that has the capability of beating you because they just don't take a lot of plays off. That was the most noticeable thing. Q. How do you handle the quick turnaround preparation getting them ready scouting for Missouri and does Missouri have a comparison team-wise in the Big 12? COACH ASTON: That's a good question, because always, when you get into tournament play, you hope that you can give your team some reflection back to a team that you might have seen in the Big 12. As far as the quick turnaround, I mean, we are all in the same boat with that, so I don't think anybody has any sort of advantage or disadvantage with that. We've had to do it a few times. You look at the fact that we advanced in the Big 12 tournament; we've had some situations where we've had one-day turnarounds during the season just because of the timing of the conference games. I feel pretty confident about that. Our players are pretty mature. They understand how to hone in on scouts. As far as the comparison, I wouldn't say there's necessarily a team, but I think when we start talking about personnel and our scout, there will be some comparisons with certain players and maybe a little bit of some playing style similarities. But they are a little bit more physical than some of the teams in our league that maybe shoot the three really well, which is something I think Missouri does a great job of also, but they also have some physicality about them, which is a mix. Q. Second half last night, is that pretty much a blueprint for how you want this team to look throughout the tournament? COACH ASTON: Well, I think they were more focused. Imani is playing in the moment and probably sometimes doesn't have that coach's eye of exactly what we thought we were seeing. But I really thought most of it, and I said this last night, I think most of it was they were a little too jacked up. And their energy level was good but they weren't exactly playing smart. I think once they took a breath at halftime, they started executing game plans better and taking a little bit more time on offense instead of shooting so quickly. I think that was more of just we haven't played in a while we were really excited to play more than not want to go play well or lack of focus. Q. I know you have seen opponents with size this season, but Missouri brings an awful lot of it with their starting five. Does that cause any difficulty? COACH ASTON: Yeah, it's a concerned because they have the offensive concept of knowing how to mismatch you. Some players or some teams might have an advantage but not necessarily know how to take advantage of that advantage, and I think that they do. I think they understand how to mismatch you. So I am concerned with some of our size disadvantages. But I think, you know, when you look at that also, we've played a lot of different teams this year, so we do have some things to fall back on and some memories of different games that we can talk about how we defended this or how we defended that. I think the one thing that's getting a little bit lost is that I think they are a complete team, and I think they have a lot of balance. When you look across the board, you don't really look at someone that you necessarily can't play solid on. You know, there's some teams that you can help off of certain people, and I don't think this is really one of those teams. We can start talking about Sophie Cunningham and get lost on the Frericks kid, and I think she is terrific. And then we can talk about the point guard play from the other Cunningham and then you forget to talk about the shooter, or the shooters. So I think our biggest challenge is that they have a lot of balance. Q. Is there any need to remind this group to not take playing at home for granted, because right around this time last year, you were knocking off Cal -- COACH ASTON: I don't think they will. You know, they have a lot of respect for Missouri. They watched enough to see that they are a really good basketball team, and we have some students of the game, so I'm sure that they have watched several SEC games that they have been involved in. It doesn't take long to look at their scores and look at how they have played against top teams in the country to know that they are an extremely competitive basketball team. I don't think we'll look ahead at all. Q. A couple of their players were saying that the SEC had prepared them for their situation and they both said the physicality of that league from top to bottom is pretty good. What from the Big 12 has prepared you for this type of postseason? COACH ASTON: The thing I love about the Big 12 and why I think it is the best conference is because you see such different styles. So when you get into NCAA Tournament play, there's not a lot that you haven't seen, because we might play one team that really shoots the three well, and runs a lot of motion, but then you get into another team like West Virginia that's going to play extremely physical and try to pound you. I think that we're not caught off guard by anything, most certainly. I think the Big 12 prepares you for the best in the country. Q. You've got four seasoned seniors, and they all contribute. How much do they add to the team in situations like this where experience really does mean something? COACH ASTON: Well, their conversations I'm sure in the locker room are productive and that's always important as to what they are focusing on in the locker room and how honed in on the game plan are they, and I think that's one thing our seniors have done a terrific job. But I also think it's the maturation of our other players that has helped this team, because we are not just completely dependent on one or two people to carry us in any area. We've really matured as a basketball team, and you know, I think as much as I've said that I think Missouri has balance, I think that's the positive thing about our team, too. We sort of mirror each other quite a bit in the fact that we have some balance. I think the most glaring thing that is different among the teams is that they have so much size at the guard position. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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