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

March 21, 2016

College Station, Texas

Florida State - 74, Texas A&M - 56

GARY BLAIR: Give Florida State a lot of kudos. Veteran guards. Adut dominated the game inside. Her defense, her free-throw shooting. I don't know if she made a three or not, but she looked good attempting them.

But my team did not give up at half. We took a pretty good butt chewing and we came back and responded like Aggies do and like these seniors do. I thought we really fought hard, we got it down to 15, and I think if we could have kept it 15 to 13 to 12 going into the fourth quarter we had a great chance, but they got it right back to 21 if I'm not mistaken.

The last quarter we held them for 2 for 15, and we were scoring a few baskets, but you've got to score on every possession on the way back.

Last night I took my wife to see the movie Miracle in Heaven, and I kept thinking of the men's game, what they were able to do in such a -- we cut it down to 10 and we still had two minutes to go, and I was trying to tell our kids that it can be done. But the difference is their veteran guards at the end of the game knew how to take care of the ball, and we couldn't get the steal or the trap. They made a couple of lay-ups. But this is going to be a team that has a chance to go a long way in Florida State.

Obama was right for once, and give Florida State a lot of credit. That's a good basketball team, a well-coached team, and give this little kid here credit; she took five charges, two more questionable ones, but she laid it out there on the line. You just don't realize how important it is to have the head of your team be able to throw her body around like that after she'd come off concussions and say, I'm going to do whatever this team needs.

Go ahead.

Q. What about that start, they come out, grab control. What were they able to do or what were you not able to do do you feel?
JORDAN JONES: We were really trying to switch defenses up on them a little bit, but I felt like they scouted very well. They came out and they attacked us inside, and they really had great spacing, so it really opened up the floor for them, and they really just made good passes and good cuts and they got everything they wanted to do. I felt like we weren't disrupting their offense and they were able to flow into every set that they ran. Ultimately if you let a team throw into an offensive set, they're a Division I basketball team as well, and like Coach said, they are very well coached so they came, out-executed us on offense and our defense wasn't executing, either, so they just really got the baskets that they wanted.

Q. Jordan, I know it's right after the loss. What has your time at A&M meant to you, the last four years here?
JORDAN JONES: It's meant a lot. It's meant a lot on the court and off the court. A&M is a special place, just the people here, the staff, the fans, the friends, the family, the teammates, the coaches. Everybody has just been great for the four years that I've been here. In life you're going to go through things, but at the end of the day, I'm glad that I didn't quit on this program no matter what was thrown my way. I'm glad that Coach Blair just stayed with me through my good days and my bad days, and that's one thing that I can say about Texas A&M and this basketball staff that they don't give up on you. No matter how much you want to give up on yourself at any point in life, and that's meant the most to me, just them pushing me and encouraging me, but the thing that I'm going to miss the most is probably playing with Chelsea and C-Walk, Rachel, Carly, Anriel, Jas, Danni, Taylor, Shlonte and Tyce. It's been more than just basketball. It's a family. It's a friendship. I don't know about many other teams, but this team, we're going to be lifelong friends and lifelong family. I can't wait to see what the future holds for the seniors in this class.

I just thank everybody at A&M for the opportunity to be able to wear this jersey and wear No. 24 for this program. It's been an honor.

Q. Courtney, you guys had stretches there where you were trying to make a comeback, you missed some lay-ups, there was about four or five lay-ups you missed as a team within three or four minutes, couldn't grab some offensive rebounds. Do you think maybe you were trying a little too hard for not having the other Courtney or what do you think about that stretch where you just couldn't make shots you normally make and couldn't get that rebound?
COURTNEY WALKER: I mean, we just got to win the loose balls, finish the lay-ups. That's the thing that would have kept us in the game. Those are shots we normally knock down at home. We'd be down by 10 going into the second half as opposed to 20 or whatever it was. And then that run we made would have brought it down to the wire.

Just being able to finish, and like you said, it was everybody, I think. You mentioned C-Will. Missing C-Will, we need those shots even more. That's just on us to finish.

Q. Jordan, what were your thoughts when you come back from 21 down and you're down by 10 with 2:30 to go?
JORDAN JONES: My only thought was belief, and it's possible. Probably everybody on our team watched our men come back from 12 down yesterday against UNI with about 38 seconds left in the game. There probably wasn't a time that we thought that it was over. We just always had hope and we always believed, every time we came to the huddle Coach did a great job of just telling us just fight, fight, you're not going to get it back in one possession. The question you asked earlier, we couldn't get our shots to fall down, couldn't make our lay-ups, and that was probably our Achilles heel all year, finishing the easy shots instead of taking the tougher shots. So I felt like if we would've had converted on that a little bit better then we would have put ourselves in a position later on, late in the game possibly be down five or three or four or something like that. I felt like the team played hard, we didn't quit. That's what Aggies are all about. You don't quit. I was proud of the team and the effort that they gave us, that they gave the seniors.

Q. Gary, you talked yesterday about the turnovers. It seemed you didn't have as many as you did yesterday, but it seemed they were all crucial. Florida State was able to turn them into points. Is that your team maybe trying a little too hard for someone missing?
GARY BLAIR: There was a couple. We had a couple crucial ones with Walker, right before half that cost us a possession, Jordan trying to go behind her back on another transition, and they were crucial. We had to be letter perfect to be able to beat this team, and we were not. We had to keep our turnovers down under 10. We did not. We had to rebound as a committee instead of a one-person team of Anriel. Walker gave me her normal seven, but other kids, they don't follow their shot. They've got to rebound. I don't care if you're a guard, a post, whatever. We had to go small. We were overmatched inside, but that's where your team has to do whatever it takes.

I had to go small to try to go for the steals, and it killed us on the boards, gave them a couple extra. But turnovers, the crucial ones hurt, and the bunnies. When we missed the bunnies underneath, that hurts, and we didn't respond. Every time Jordan would take a charge, we didn't make a run, and I thought that was crucial. We'd take the charge and then get up, Jennings took one or somebody else did, but we never could get two baskets in a row to get into the flow of the game.

They ran their offense very well, and we made a lot of mistakes on the defensive end.

Q. How much did it change things for y'all or make it more difficult that you were having to play from behind from almost the very beginning?
GARY BLAIR: I think it hurt big-time, because we've been doing a pretty good job lately of getting out to an early lead, 10-1 against Kentucky or something, 6-0 against Tennessee. We were into the flow. I think Walker only hitting 3 out of 11, they were paying a lot of attention to her. In the second half that's the only looks we could get her, and I think she was 5 out of 6 or 5 out of 5 in the second half. But you've got to have balance scoring. When you look at Jennings and Walker, 7 out of 13, 8 out of 16 or something, they did their part, but their part has got to be increased. That's with rebounding, that's with good defense, that's with causing turnovers. We cannot just be a jump shot team. When we did get it inside, we got a little scared. We saw size coming, and we bricked a few lay-ups.

Q. Can you just give us some final thoughts on this senior class and what they've meant to you and the program?
GARY BLAIR: Each year there's a different class that walks the stage twice, their last game here and then when they walk the stage to get that diploma. It's pretty special, this class. We have four of them that are going to graduate already in May. Jordan is already through. Chelsea is going to have to come back for a fifth year in architecture. That's a five-year program. And Walker might need the summer. But she's going to be playing pro ball because they're not fools. They're going to go after Walker, and she'll be a first-round draft choice, mark my words on that.

The senior class, the expectations, when you have to come in and live up to a national championship team, it's hard to live up to that, okay, and they also had to play sometimes a little bit short-handed. We've been real spoiled having All-Americans like Adams and Bone and even Carla inside. We're still in the developmental stage with our post players, and then that put added pressure on all these guards up here. We've got to have more balance. We're going to work on that all summer and spring and get ready for Europe to try to get better because of it.

But each year, baby, it hurts when they graduate and they leave, particularly at the point guard position, because the point guard position, that's everything to me. This kid laid it on the line out here today, and give her a lot of credit, she's a great leader. Walker is the best mid-range shooter in America, and she cares. She wants it so bad. Chelsea averaged two points a game as a freshman, played six minutes only in 16 or 17 games, not much more as a sophomore, a little bit more as a junior, and look at her senior year. That's special. Even Rachel got a whole lot better.

So give those kids kudos. They're all special. We're going to miss them.

Q. You talked about how they opened the game shooting the ball outside and how difficult that made the inside game for you.
GARY BLAIR: Well, we gave up two threes on a simple inbounds play that we didn't get across the screen. We run the same thing, okay, and I think it was Brown and Romero. I think those were the same two, two different plays. To tell you the truth, I think it was Jordan that was supposed to get around. I know at least on one of them. You've just got to get around the screen. They hit those threes early, 6 out of 20 for the day, but the first four that they hit really hurt us. Every time we'd make something happen, we were just playing behind and behind and behind. And how many easy baskets did we get in the game versus their easy baskets? I'm sure it was about 16-4 just on just easy lay-up baskets. It's hard to keep playing catch-up.

I'd like to thank all of y'all for the whole year. The press has been very good to us, the media, the television. I'd like to thank my administration for putting on another great show. We hold championships very well. I'd like to give, again, a lot of kudos to the men's team for giving us a blueprint. We weren't able to finish that blueprint tonight, but we're going to work hard. The coaches aren't graduating; we'll be back. Thank y'all.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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

March 21, 2016

Gary Blair

Jordan Jones

Courtney Walker