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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 1, 2017Stephanie WhiteMinta SpearsRachel BellGreenville, South Carolina Alabama - 77, Vanderbilt - 57 THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome Vanderbilt. Coach, if you would start us out with an opening statement, please. COACH WHITE: Well, obviously disappointed with how we performed today. But you got to give Alabama a lot of credit. They took it to us on both ends of the floor. They were really aggressive defensively. They were really aggressive attacking the paint as well. You just can't show up at tournament time and expect to turn on the lights. For whatever reason, we weren't ready. But Alabama played really well. You got to give them a lot of credit. Balanced scoring, which we knew they had, a lot of balance, aggressive, shared the basketball. So congratulations to them and best of luck to them as they continue their journey. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Rachel, obviously a big day for you offensively. Seemed like you were hunting shots early. It was working. What did you see out there that was helping you find a groove? RACHEL BELL: I want to start off by saying congrats to Alabama. They played their hearts out. It was a good game. I mean, honestly just coming in the game, I mean, I got to give it all to my teammates. Great passes, great screens. I was just finding the open areas, trying to get us baskets when the defense allowed it, so... Just thank them. Q. Minta, obviously it's a tough day to see it come to an end. When you see what Coach White is building here, you've been here a couple years now, the freshmen are playing well, what do you see for the future of this program going forward? MINTA SPEARS: Yeah, you'll have to excuse me. I'm an ugly cryer. Yeah, we were talking in the locker room. I obviously have had a lot of experience with different coaches. This coaching staff is so great. I believe in what they're doing wholeheartedly. We also talked about that, you know, whenever these freshmen, Rachel next year, whenever they play their last game, you don't want to feel like this. I believe in them so much. We just talked about that we've got to go back to work, put in work for this off-season, make steps for the future. The future is bright. I definitely believe in everything they're doing here at Vanderbilt. Q. Rachel, turnovers were an issue today. They were turning those turnovers into points. Were they just being overly aggressive or you making mistakes? RACHEL BELL: I know that's something we've been trying to get better at all year, is just taking care of the ball. Alabama, they did turn up the pressure a little bit with their press a little bit. That's mainly on us. We throw, like, soft, loopy passes. We just have to be smarter, make smarter passes and get in the open area a little better. That's something we have to work on in the off-season and get better at for next year. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. You are excused to return to the locker room. We'll continue with questions for Coach White. Q. Coach, Seawright is a local player. I am with the local paper. While she didn't play today, can you tell us anything about how she's contributed to your team? COACH WHITE: Miyia has come in and she's been a defensive stopper for us. She helps us every day in practice with the way that she contributes. She's been an energy player for us at points this season. Obviously when we change the system, we're looking for certain things, not everybody is going to get a look every single night. But the fact that she's continued to work and continued to challenge us every day has been a credit to her. Q. As I asked Rachel, turnovers today dictated a lot of the offense, what Alabama did. Been kind of an issue all year. Did Alabama do anything particularly different or was this more maybe just issues on Vanderbilt's own offense? COACH WHITE: I don't know that they did anything different, but I think we have continued to have problems with length and athleticism when it comes to our passing, our decision making, our ball handling. At times it seems like we're about two seconds too late in making our decisions. Our picking and choosing went to attack and went to retreat. It's been a little bit late as well. I think when you're playing teams who are quick in the passing lanes, are long, you can't pass over top of them, you need to be able to find angles. We weren't cutting with urgency today. A lot of times when you're cutting with urgency, you force rotations that give you open looks. We weren't doing that. But like Rachel said, it's something we have to be better at, be better ball handlers, passers, be better decision makers. Q. You entered this game third in the country at a three-point percentage. That part today was a slower day on the offense. Was that anything in particular that they were doing? COACH WHITE: I'm not sure that I've ever seen Erin Whalen go over, not that I can recall. But I think a couple things, when they turned us over early like they did, we get rushed in offense. We rush our shots. We were a little helter-skelter in terms of our ball movement. When we shoot our best percentages, we get it off of drive and kick, get it off of ball movement and player movement, not just off of transition threes or one-pass shot offense. I felt like we were doing a lot of that today. So some of that goes to them just putting the pressure on us and forcing us into quick shots. Sometimes you have those nights, as well. I didn't like that we settled for a lot of jump shots early as opposed to attacking and getting to the free-throw line or getting to the rim. I think we have to have more of an aggressive mindset offensively. That might have contributed, as well. Q. Can you talk about Marqu'es and Minta, two seniors, what have they meant to this program even at your short time being at Vanderbilt? COACH WHITE: Yeah, those two are just special. They're really good leaders. They lead by example in how they play every single day because they leave it all on the floor. They never take a play off. They never take a practice play off. They're always very intentional with the things they do. They communicate with their teammates in the right way at the right time. They're warriors. Marqu'es is just probably second to Tamika Catchings, the toughest player I've ever been around. I've been around some tough players. I really do think she is one of the toughest kids I've ever seen. To do the things that she does with being undersized, with not being as fast as everybody else, it's just incredible. Minta is a coach in the making. She's got one of the best basketball minds of any young person I've ever been around. She gets it. She understands. She understands her strengths and weaknesses. It's really hard to step outside yourself as a player when you're still playing. She's able to do that, step outside herself and see the greater good. That's special. That's special. From day one, when Minta wasn't participating because of her surgery, she was leading. She was calling me. We were talking about different things she could do to be a better leader. And that hasn't changed. Regardless of good times, bad times, good games, bad games, the sign of true leaders is being steady the entire time. These two have been two of the best leaders I've been around. Q. As any new coach at a new place has to do, you've been installing your culture, your expectations. When you look forward, five freshmen that played significantly this year, what do you expect from everybody going forward? How do you look at the off-season, the future of this program? COACH WHITE: In the off-season, we have to become better ball handlers. We have to work on our skill set. We got to get tougher. I think everything that we do needs to be about being stronger physically, mentally and emotionally. Everything that we do has to be about paying attention to the details, the minutia. I think a lot of times, as young players, whether it be freshmen or some of our returners, they don't always value the little things. In this game, there really are no little things. I think getting back to the basics, continuing to work on skill development, getting stronger, getting faster, getting tougher, are going to be things we look for over the summer. In terms of the future, we have a great foundation with that freshman class. There's no doubt about it. They all got a lot of experience, not only physically, but I think mentally as well, seeing the things we've gone through all season long. We have to get healthy first. We have some injuries we need to deal with, get everybody healthy. But I hope they learned some valuable lessons from our two seniors. I think the biggest question moving forward is leadership. Who is going to step up and be that leader, those leaders, do it collectively? As we continue to move forward, we'll figure out who that is. We'll continue to build our system, continue to bring in players that sort of fit our system. Our freshmen have gotten a lot of experience in trial by fire. That's going to do us a heck of a lot of good going into the summer and heading into next year. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. COACH WHITE: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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