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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2017Kurt GodlevskeMichelle WeaverTori SchickelChicago, Illinois Butler - 68, Xavier - 66 KURT GODLEVSKE: First I'd like to say that I have so much respect for all of our coaches in the Big East and all of our players in the Big East, and especially the job that Brian does with Xavier. That was two teams in the Big East that just went toe-to-toe, possession-by-possession. We had a difficult time stopping them, and they had a tough time stopping us, and thankfully, we had two great execution possessions down the stretch that I thought were huge. Sydney Buck three out of the time-out, what I thought was a fantastic execution by our kids, and then Michele Weaver's pull-up jumper. But I can't say enough about how mentally tough our kids are with the type of season that we've had, and then to come up here and really for the last 10 games just continued to battle, and I couldn't be prouder of them as a coach. What can I say about Tori? She's done that all year, and that's why she doesn't sit down in timeouts, because if she does, her knees start getting locked up and tired with all the minutes that she's logged, so she's been a warrior for us. Super proud of all our girls, though. It's been fun, and what a way to start the Big East Tournament for us. Q. Michele, when you were dribbling down the last 20 seconds, what was going through your mind as the clock was ticking? MICHELLE WEAVER: Just Coach needed us to get the ball with like nine seconds left and just go off of a screen and try to get to the basket, and I couldn't get to the basket, so I decided on a pull-up jumper, shot it, hoped it went in, and it did. Q. Michele, Coach talked about it a little bit, but you guys have been through quite a bit as a team throughout the season. To get a dramatic Big East Tournament win, what does that mean to this team? MICHELLE WEAVER: I think it shows truly who we are as a team, to win, what, two Big East games and then to come here and not give up at the very end and not cave in when we were down by some points. So I think it shows who we really are, that we're able to overcome adversity, what we've been through this whole season, and still pull out through the very end and get a win in this tournament. Q. Tori, this is an automatic for you, but can you tell me what it was that the working so well for you today? TORI SCHICKEL: My teammates did a really nice job of getting me the ball, and I think that's something we've done all season. We kind of found our offense good inside, and it's been really key for me to just take a breath sometimes and just be able to relax and understand when people are coming to double-team, when to get the ball out to my teammates, but also at the same time to look to be a scorer as much as possible. Q. I watched you play, and it seems like sometimes you don't even have to say anything to Michelle or your guards, just by looking at each other you guys know what's about to happen, that entry pass to you. TORI SCHICKEL: Yeah, for sure. Like I said, Coach has done a nice job in preparing us to run our offense through the post play, and then our guards do an amazing job just to get the ball down inside when they can. That's their first look. Q. Xavier gets the ball after that big-time shot, what's going through your mind as a player, that final sequence? TORI SCHICKEL: Yeah, we've had issues stopping them all game, and so coming down, we knew this was a huge stop for us, and we knew they were going to come at us, try to get a foul or try to get to the basket and shoot a lay-up, so that was really key for us to get that big stop, just to get a hand on the ball that was passed and then get the loose ball. That's been something that we've been working on, just diving after balls and getting on the floor and being the first person to every ball. Q. Why hasn't this team -- it could be easy for them to just enter the postseason with your win total to say, we're done. But why didn't this team do that today? KURT GODLEVSKE: I think it's our youth. I think it's our excitement within our locker room for the future. We started back in -- really when we lost Kristen back in January, we started talking about what do we need to do not to get to the end of March, but what do we need to do to get to beyond March. That's really been their focus, and I think that they've really taken it day by day. Really to me it defines their character of how they are as people and why they got to this level, just because they are competitive kids. Q. Defensively I think Dion Gaffney went 5 for 11. You really made the players around her really work for everything they got. What was behind that? KURT GODLEVSKE: That was our game plan coming into this. We new with their ability to penetrate and with the type of style that Brian runs offensively, we struggled with it at our place, he really did a fantastic job of changing up things from Game 1 to Game 2, and so it was our strategy coming into this to mix things up as much as possible. We stayed on some possessions, we switched 1 through 3 on some possessions, we switched 1 through 4 on some possessions, went some zone, went some different presses because we wanted to try to keep him and his penetrating guards off balance as much as possible. Q. Last weekend you guys got off to a good start even though you guys lost. Did that play a factor in building confidence for today's game? KURT GODLEVSKE: We've actually had two really good games with them. It was a four-point game at some point midway through the fourth quarter at their place, and they're a team that we match up very well with. His -- the job that he's done with those kids is scary because they are really good. But thankfully we match up really well with them, and I don't think our kids are going to go to sleep tonight worrying about whether or not we can compete with them. I think they're probably going to go to sleep worrying about whether or not they can get the baskets because Jim does a fantastic job of defending himself. Q. Obviously the game just finished; is it déjà-vu kind of like last year in Chicago, you guys knocking off Xavier? KURT GODLEVSKE: Yeah, like I said, we've had, over the last six games with Xavier, they've been fantastic games, and they've been fun to watch. I'm just happy that we're in a different side of the bracket than DePaul this year. That's the one thing that's different about this year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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