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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: SIOUX FALLSMarch 24, 2016Kevin McGuffAlexa HartAmeryst AlstonKelsey MitchellSioux Falls, South Dakota THE MODERATOR: Joining us in his third season at the Ohio State University, head coach Kevin McGuff. This is the Buckeyes 10th Sweet 16 appearance and first since 2011. We'll open it up for questions. Q. You got 24 minutes out of Ameryst Alston in that last game with a sprained wrist. I wonder about her availability for this game and the general overall health of your team. COACH McGUFF: Am has continued to make progress. I thought her minutes against West Virginia were extremely valuable. She's felt better this week. I anticipate she'll feel even better tomorrow evening when we play than she did on Sunday. My expectation is she'll be able to play even more minutes and even be more effective. Q. Kevin, in regard to opponents playing Mitchell, have you seen just about every defense imaginable against her this year? COACH McGUFF: We have. Obviously Kelsey is a special player. She's had a fantastic season. We've seen a variety of defenses in terms of trying to slow her down or stop her. When you get to March, you've probably seen it all. We should be able to handle whatever gets thrown our way. Q. Speaking of seeing it all, you opened up with South Carolina. There's a lot of familiarity. How familiar are you with this field? COACH McGUFF: I think this regional is the toughest one, in my opinion. There's a lot of talent. There's great coaches. I think the thing that makes this one especially hard is it seems that all the teams here have played their best basketball here down the stretch, starting with Tennessee who we play tomorrow night. They were really good in the SEC tournament, they were fantastic at Arizona State I thought in both games. That's what I think makes this regional especially difficult. Q. Are you six deep, seven to eight? COACH McGUFF: We'll see (laughter). That's something we're dealing with on a daily basis. Q. Coming off of the game where you go really hard against Texas A&M, how difficult is it for the legs to come back? COACH McGUFF: You know, we're used to playing that style of play. The West Virginia game was a fast-paced game, it was extremely physical for both teams. We certainly expended a lot of energy. We've done that quite a few times this year. That's who we are. That's how we play. I expect our kids will be able to respond tomorrow night. We're going to need to. I mean, Tennessee has a great team, very talented. It's going to be a big challenge for us. Q. They are big. They don't like your pace. They tend to have lower-scoring games. When a team is bigger than you and want to slow you down, what do they do? COACH McGUFF: I don't know. I don't know what they'll do exactly. But I don't think they have to do much outside of who they are and what they've been doing. They've played extremely well recently. They're a big, physical, athletic team who has a lot of talent. They're playing really well right now. It seems like their chemistry's excellent. Most teams this year, at this point in the season, tend to stick to who they are. I expect Tennessee will be no different. They have a great basketball team. They don't have to change a whole lot. Q. Kevin, has Mitchell always had this kind of stamina? I'm amazed at the minutes she's played, the overtime games. Was she this way when she first showed up? COACH McGUFF: She's very unique. She certainly has put a lot into physically being able to handle this pace, this type of pounding. I think, more importantly, she's a very mentally tough kid who can really push through when she's a little bit tired and still be effective, which is somewhat rare these days. I think that's what really makes her special. Q. Kevin, your style of play, where does it create the most challenge for your opponents? COACH McGUFF: I think in general, obviously to play to our strengths, we try to get the game going as fast as we can. We use our defense to do that with some full court pressure to try to speed the game up. We're hopeful we can play games in the 70s, 80s. That's what we're used to. But specifically regarding Tennessee, they've got a lot of great athletes. I don't really anticipate we're going to wear them down with the pace, necessarily. It's more of us just trying to get in a game that's comfortable for us more than anything. Q. Their guards are big. Have you played a team that's physically as big as they are? COACH McGUFF: Yeah, I don't know. They're long everywhere. They're big around the basket. You're right, on the perimeter they're extremely long. Diamond and Jaime, those kids are really long and athletic. That gives us problems on both ends of the floor. They could potentially shoot over us. Then also on the other end of the floor, if they can keep us in front, they can contest a lot of shots. They did a great job of that against Arizona State. Arizona State has a really good team. They really struggled to score over Tennessee. That's something that we're going to certainly have to be aware of. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. Good luck tomorrow. COACH McGUFF: Thank you. Appreciate it. THE MODERATOR: We're joined by the Ohio State University student-athletes. We'll begin with questions for the student-athletes. Q. Kelsey, how tired were you after that game where you played 55 minutes? How do you manage such stamina? KELSEY MITCHELL: In the West Virginia game? Q. (No microphone.) KELSEY MITCHELL: Sorry, I didn't hear you. I was really, really tired, exhausted. But I was more upset with us losing, so... I was really upset that we lost. Q. What about your stamina? KELSEY MITCHELL: I was pretty tired, but I try to keep my stamina at a stable pace (smiling). Q. Am, how did you come out of the 24 minutes in West Virginia and the practices since then? What do you think you'll be able to do tomorrow night versus Tennessee? AMERYST ALSTON: I'm making progress every day. Feeling a lot better. Getting better day by day. I'm feeling pretty good. I don't know. I'm just taking it day by day. Q. How do you guys pick each other up when one of your fellow players gets injured? ALEXA HART: I think we just, you know, try to keep our hopes up, just to make sure that they're okay, go from there. Just making sure that we keep the intensity up and just go for it from there. KELSEY MITCHELL: You just try to focus on the team, making sure that, of course, everybody is okay. But as I say, make sure you focus on what the team need. Try to move on, turn the page, try to just play hard, go out as hard as you can regardless of the situation. Q. Alexa, the West Virginia game, how physical was that? Was that as physical of a game as you played in this season? ALEXA HART: I think it's kind of a tie as far as like the physicality that was going on. I just had to really just work hard and just try to help my teammates as far as on the defensive end, just keep working, yeah. Q. Have you had a chance to watch much of Tennessee? If you have, are they going to be one of the bigger teams you faced this year? AMERYST ALSTON: Yes, I've watched a couple games. As you said, they are pretty tall. They have some tall post players as well as some tall guards. I think the key for us will be to just keep a body on them as far as defense goes for rebounding purposes. KELSEY MITCHELL: Pretty much what she said. I haven't seen them play honestly. Coach puts an emphasis these last couple practices, defense, putting a body on them because of how big they are. I think we just got to buckle down on that. ALEXA HART: I haven't really watched either. But as far as, like, what we've been doing in practice, we have to keep moving the ball, boxing out and keep the tempo up. Q. Kelsey, have teams tried all kinds of different players on you, tall, quick players? What kind of defenses have you seen? KELSEY MITCHELL: I've seen multiple. A lot of everything you just said. It's fine. We get our teammates involved. We try to focus on what the team needs, focus on how we can get everybody to ball and actually score. On the defensive end, make sure we buckle down on that, too, because it will help on the offensive end what other teams do defensively. Q. Am, you're playing one of the brand names in women's basketball in Tennessee. They haven't had the season they're accustomed to having. Do you have to throw that out the window, it's 40 minutes, let's go play? AMERYST ALSTON: I mean, not necessarily. I still think you have to respect that name. They're still a great program, history for theirself. I don't know. I say we approach every game the same. You can't take any team lightly regardless of their circumstances, if they haven't been winning in the past or not. It's tournament time, they're here for a reason. Everybody is going to give us their best game. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you very much. Best of luck tomorrow night. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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