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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 2, 2017Gary BlairDanni WilliamsKhaalia HillsmanGreenville, South Carolina Texas A&M - 67, Florida - 48 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Texas A&M. Coach, an opening statement. COACH BLAIR: First, I'd like to commend Florida for what Amanda has gone through this year, losing two starters in Westbrook and the point guard who decided to quit on her teammates and transfer to Maryland. That was tough. She was one of the top 10 players in the league. The other player was one of the top five defensive players in the year. I think Amanda did as good as she could. Ronni Williams, it's more than the stat line about Ronni Williams, it's who she is. There's not a coach in America that wouldn't like to coach that young lady, and what she's meant to Florida's program. I was back there when DeLisha Milton played and Murriel Page, all those great players. This one ranks right up. She needs to have her jersey retired. She gave everything she could on the court. Defensively we did a good job with the three different zones that we ran against them because we were always trying to identify where Williams was and make it a little bit harder. When you can play a zone and have them shoot 0-10 from the three, you know you're doing something right. The strength of their game is paint points, not necessarily with their five players, but with their drives. We kept them away from getting transition baskets. We made them work. In the first half, set basketball back a little while. I think everybody watched Scandal and Grey's Anatomy. If they stayed for the second half, we played as well as Alabama did against Tennessee. When you can shoot 57 percent and then 66 percent after that horrific first half of shooting, you've got to do something. Where we nervous in the first half? I think the team that has the bye is always nervous when the first game starts because the other team has been into the flow because they played the night before. They started off a little bit better than us, even though we were up 11-7. We just had to find our way. Give a lot of credit to Hillsman. She took a little bit of tough love at halftime about catching the ball. She was complaining there was two people on her. I said there's not two people on you when you first catch the ball. Score in a hurry before the double-team can come. All of a sudden, she went 7-7 in the first half. A lot of that is because we share the ball pretty good with my wings and my point guard. Then Danni was 3-11. She went 3-5, 3-4 from the free-throw line. Those two played like they belong on the all-SEC second team along with Curtyce Knox. The adjustments we made at halftime, we started running some different sets. Unfortunately my team always plays better when my offense is in front of me because I'm doing a lot of verbal coaching out there and they're listening, moving the ball. My point guard is right there. They're doing a heck of a job on that. All four games today, the team that won the boards was going to win the game. It was close. We barely won it. They were getting a lot of offensive rebounds, 11 in the second half, I believe, a lot of them in the fourth quarter. We were dead tired playing with six. You win the boards, nine out of ten times you're going to win the ballgame. Q. Going back to the Mississippi game. After that performance here, then the first half of this game, scoring 18 points, what changed at halftime in this game? What switched to make y'all become the team y'all know you can be? COACH BLAIR: I think we were a little bit embarrassed on the shots that we had. I'm not taking anything away from Florida, but we had great shots. We didn't catch the ball. Danni was missing some wide-open shots. Curtyce was 0-6. But we hung around. That's what good teams do. When you cannot play your best, can you still win a ballgame? We won a ballgame on halfcourt execution, not turning the ball over. 10 turnovers, I think only two in the second half. Here is another key thing. We only fouled them seven times in the whole ballgame. Sometimes that's what a zone will do. Give Coach Starkey a lot of credit for the three different zones that we ran at them today. Q. Khaalia, what is the difference in your game, what you can do, the freedom you have to do it, when you can stay out of foul trouble? Only one foul in the game today. KHAALIA HILLSMAN: Well, it definitely keeps me aggressive. If I'm not getting fouls, I'm doing something right. I just try to stay in that zone where I can play defense without fouling. I know the last game I didn't play defense without fouling. I tried to play better with my feet rather than my hands. I think I did a better job of that today. Q. I know you give credits to your guards, everybody who feeds you the ball. Did you just feel it? Coach said before you came up here that you got a little tough love at halftime. Talk a little bit about that tough love, how it inspired you. KHAALIA HILLSMAN: In the first half, I give Florida a lot of credit, I got frustrated, two people on me. When I did get the ball, I was frustrated, drop it or miss the shot. When we got in the locker room, Coach Blair told me I basically needed to get it together. My teammates told me they were going to keep giving me the ball, finish over smaller defenders. They got confidence in me. That helps me, gives me confidence in myself. Q. Talk a little bit about the mindset of this team since you beat Tennessee back on February 12th, Danni, the troubles you all have been through on the court, how you stuck together from then until now. DANNI WILLIAMS: I think the past two weeks we just didn't finish. We were right there in several of those ballgames. We weren't mentally tough in those games. Coming in here with a fresh start, knowing we played Florida twice, we weren't going to get beat tonight. That was the mindset we had throughout the whole game. Even the first half, when our shots weren't dropping, we were down three at half, we just kept saying, We're going to keep pushing. We all believe in each other and knew what we could do in the second half. Q. Three-point defense hasn't been a strong suit for your game. Bottom of the SEC stats in defense against the three-pointer, tonight they went 0-10. How much of that is them not shooting it well? How much is what y'all are able to do to alter their shots? DANNI WILLIAMS: I think it's a little bit of both. We were focused on Ronni Williams. We really packed the paint. They were open on several of their shots. I think we were recovering fast enough where their shooters had to put it on the floor, which they weren't comfortable doing it. Q. Missouri tomorrow. Overtime game in Columbia, a game you felt you had, you should have had. Khaalia? KHAALIA HILLSMAN: We're very much aware of how good Missouri is. They have a bunch of really good players. But they got away with one at their place. We really don't want them to get away with one here. We're trying to get onto the next day. They're another team sitting in our way. We have to come out and have a way better start than we did today because they're a much -- they're really smart defensively, good offensively. We definitely need to have a better start than we did today. But I'm excited to play this team. Q. Gary, talk about Missouri, an early scouting report. COACH BLAIR: We go from Ronni Williams to Sophie Cunningham. That's like me going from Julia Roberts to Jennifer Aniston, my gosh. They're two of the best players in the league. You and I can dream. At the same time I really respect both of those players. They're both six foot tall. They can put it on the floor. They can do everything. Basically we held Cunningham to 36 against us the first time, so give them a lot of credit. But here's the thing, not taking anything away from them, they're the best three-point shooting team in the league. They're not going to shoot 0-10. We're going to have to get out and cover them. At the same time, they penetrate. They have a little bit more balance than what Florida has. They have more people that can score. Her sister is having a great senior year, Porter and Michaelis. Michaelis, we slowed down when we played them. She's just very good. They have tremendous balance, a good point guard. A couple kids come off the bench. That's why she's Coach of the Year. She's had a heck of a year. But we've got to worry about A&M. We cannot get off to the slow start and expect to come back. Even when Missouri loses, they shoot over 45% from the field. As many threes as they shoot off of transition, set plays... They're just a good team. We're going to sleep a little bit later in the morning. We're going to watch a little game film, the, coaches tonight. We got one more time to dance. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. The best day in basketball in the SEC is always on Friday 'cause all the teams are generally going to the NCAA tournament. It doesn't get any better. You'll have all the WNBA scouts. They were there today watching. That's the best day in the SEC, Friday of the SEC tournament. All right. I'm past your deadline. Let's go. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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