|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2017Jim FlanerySydney LambertyJaylyn GanewChicago, Illinois Marquette - 72, Creighton - 65. JIM FLANERY: You know, Marquette is a really good team. We knew that when we played up here two months ago. We played one of our best games of the year, and they probably didn't play very well, but we were fortunate to beat them at home. So we knew it was going to be the type of game that it was. You know, really impressed with King's development and her improvement. I probably shouldn't tell you, but I voted for her for most improved player because I think she's made a huge jump as a player. I think her development has made their team better, and she was really good today, and so was Wilborn. We have a tough time matching up with those guys, and then Blockton was Blockton. She's going to make some tough shots. But I thought we battled. You know, we played well enough to win. The number of three-point baskets that we had in the first half and in the game that went in and out were -- I think Audrey had at least four shots that were inside the rim, maybe five from the three-point line, and I told them at half, we were 4 for 20, and we probably had four or five go in and out. The difference between three of those going in that didn't go in is huge. But I thought we competed. Sydney was incredible. I thought easily -- I can't say easily, but it was the best game she's ever played. I loved her competitiveness, I loved her leadership, and that goes along with playing well, but you have to back that up. It starts with an attitude and a mentality to be able to play that well in that setting. So that was really cool to see. You know, Jaylyn has just really, I think, had a special freshman year, to the degree that when she's on the floor late in a game like that, you have every bit of confidence that she can make the plays that she did. So I thought we did a lot of good things. And I told the team, the great thing about the speech that I had to give about 20 minutes ago is that we're not going to the NIT next Monday. There's nothing wrong with the NIT, because we've been there enough to know, and they treat us fine, it's great, but we're going to the NCAA Tournament, and that's exciting. We knew that going in. Like I said, I'm proud of our team. Marquette has got a great team. They're a young team, so they're going to be good going forward, and I thought their guards, particularly Wilborn and King, were -- their ability to finish in the lane and with either hand going either direction was the difference in the game. Q. Sydney, a team you beat twice in the regular season; what would you point to as the difference tonight? SYDNEY LAMBERTY: I mean, as a team we just came in knowing that they're a tough team and that we've had close games with them and that we really need to buckle down on defense, and we had to really focus on offense, not a lot of one-on-one stuff, a lot of cutting and screening because they practice one-on-one all the time. We just came in knowing it was going to be a tough game, and we fought as much as we could. Q. What did it look like for you out there from an attacking standpoint, when you're making the reads and deciding when to go to the hoop, when to settle for a jumper, when to try to find someone coming off a flair screen? SYDNEY LAMBERTY: I don't know. I mean, I was getting really good screens for my teammates. Like Bree was hitting really great screens, ball screens. Audrey with her passes. I mean, just kind of taking whatever they gave me. Q. I know it's probably weird to talk about this in a loss, but over the course of your career it's been brought up how you don't really get rattled in these types of situations. Take me inside your mentality when you're facing a hostile environment and they're on a roll and then you have to make a play. How do you calm yourself enough to do that? SYDNEY LAMBERTY: I think I just trust my team, and I know that if I don't have an open shot, someone else is going to and that we can come back. I think it's all just trust at this point. Q. You talk about the trust in your team. Now, this is a group that you guys, your offense relies on multiple scorers. How much confidence does it give you, Jaylyn, when Sydney is putting up numbers like she is today to get the ball to her and having the confidence that she's going to hit the shots? JAYLYN AGNEW: Yeah, it's really huge. She played a great game today. I think, like she said, trust, and every once in a while her like going to the -- attacking, you're like, Sid has got this, and it's almost like a confidence booster. And then it just like keeps us going, I think. Her poise helps everyone else become poised, too. Q. Marquette did a really good job keeping you guys out of the paint. What's the biggest thing that you learned taking away from this heading into the NCAA Tournament? SYDNEY LAMBERTY: I think definitely on defense we can learn that we really have to take away people's strong hands. Their offensive boards towards the end, we kind of let them get a lot. I think we learned that we can fight with teams, though, and stay in games, too, so I think there's a lot of takeaways. JAYLYN AGNEW: Yeah, he said we were very resilient and we came together and we played hard, and I think even though we lost, we still played hard through adversity. Q. It sounds weird talking about this because you guys lost, but that was one of the best performances in the conference tournament from an individual standpoint. How do you put that into perspective what she did, trying to keep you guys in that game as much as possible? JIM FLANERY: I don't know. I mean, I think it says a lot about our team from the standpoint that we said, you know, four of our five starters got an award from the league. Lauren was sportsmanship, Bree was most improved, Marissa was second team and Audrey was first team, and the one kid who didn't get recognized was Syd, which is fine, but I think it speaks to the balance of our team. I've had a couple -- I had a coach ask me, well, how would you vote all-conference for your team, because I want to take that into account when I put in my all-conference ballots, what do you think. And I was like, uh, doing that, because I think we are so balanced. On a given night Sydney can be our best -- easily today. So I think that speaks to the balance that we have, and also speaks to the willingness of others to kind of just let somebody go when they're playing well and not force plays. There were a couple times where I thought Sydney had Audrey open on a lift, she shot the ball, but they went in, because I think that was what she was feeling. When you put the ball -- the thing about Sydney is when you put the ball in her hands you know she's going to make a good decision. She's been a really high assist-to-turnover ratio kid throughout her career, and then the other thing that's really pleasing is what she's done on the glass, 15 rebounds in that game, including four on the offensive end. I just thought she played -- for a kid who played 40 minutes yesterday, for her to come out and get 15 rebounds today says a lot about what kind of heart she played with, over and above her productivity from a scoring standpoint. Q. The game plan obviously was to give Danielle and Amani some space to plug up things for the other players. From their perspective, how did they exploit those things, and how much did that compromise what you were trying to do defensively? JIM FLANERY: Well, I thought -- as much as King was kind of -- King and Blockton kind of owned the first half, I thought Wilborn was more prominent in the second half. She's just creative with the ball. You know, we can play way off her, but she still can get to five feet and finish with her hand. Nothing against Lauren, but we don't have a great match-up with Lauren on their team. We tried her on Hiedeman some, and maybe in retrospect we should have played her on Hiedeman a little bit more, but even then, she finished not just over Lauren, she finished over Audrey, Jaylyn, Sydney. They're tough because, again, you look at their team and you've got -- their three leading scorers are Davenport, Hiedeman and Blockton, and you look and you say, what did Wilborn and King do, at least I think King is their fourth leading scorer, I don't think she's their third leading scorer. Great balance, and just -- again, I think -- Wilborn is super creative with the ball, but I like how attacking King is. Like she attacks. She makes you get back in transition, and then she's gotten better in the half court, too. Q. We talked about yesterday how your team -- they usually come out with a slower start. Today that was quite the opposite. Was that something that you guys talked about as a strategy heading into the game? JIM FLANERY: No, we didn't -- I've long since abandoned the idea that anything I say in pregame is going to affect our start either way because we've been -- you know, sometimes you try motivation, sometimes you try just matter of fact, comedy, whatever. It hasn't worked in a lot of cases. You know, but it does -- I did talk about just Jaylyn said, our resiliency. I said, I don't know how we're going to get it done, but we can get it done. And the idea that we started out the press conference yesterday with, we had won nine games trailing at half. You've got to be confident when you've won that many games trailing at half. So when I said at halftime today, we've got them right where we want them, we're down six. But yeah, our start was great. But I don't know what that -- I think part of it is you're more tired on day two so you're more relaxed. You're hyped on day one and you're not tired. You've got that win. But I was that way as a coach. I felt more relaxed, so I can't imagine -- Matt would tell you that I'm not always relaxed. And I'm sure that was the case. And offense is -- I say all the time, it's about relaxing but concentrating, and sometimes you put too much pressure on yourself, and I think that's where we were yesterday and where we are a lot of times early in games is we're not relaxed. So back-to-back I think can help that offensively. Q. A real postseason atmosphere in the gym today; how can you use a game like this as you head into more postseason play? JIM FLANERY: Yeah, that's great. That's a great comment because it was -- it was fun. I told them that -- I told them that throughout the game, enjoy this, because this is what you're going to experience. I like the fact that we chose a homesite, because I thought it was a great environment today. I don't know how many were in the building, but the building is small enough that it was rocking and our kids enjoyed that. And like you said, it's good prep for -- we played a good team in front of a good crowd, and we competed and battled, and every time it looked like we were dead we came back. So I think it's great preparation for whatever, a week and a half from now. Q. Even though it's a disappointing day, historic, too, as far as being ranked. It's an amazing accomplishment. Talk about the strides the program has made. JIM FLANERY: Yeah, I think it is from the standpoint that I think there's -- it's a little -- in my opinion, it's a little difficult to make headway on the women's side than the men's side because there are so many guys leaving on the men's side to go, so I think that takes away or that allows for parity, whereas Maya Moore and Brittney Griner and those guys stay for four years on the women's side, and that makes it -- if Maya Moore was leaving after one year, you kind of -- so I think it's a little bit harder to make the gains. I think what DePaul has done has been great, and I think we've hopefully been -- our profile has been elevated, I think, by admittance into the Big East, so we're excited about that. We're excited about where we were when we came into the league because we were coming off a year in the NCAA Tournament when we came in the league, but I think our program is in good shape going forward, and I told our team, we played 11 of our 20 conference games against teams in the top 65 of the RPI. Nothing against our old conference, but we didn't -- that wasn't the case. So we played -- there are five other teams in the top 65, and to get to play 10 regular season and today, it's a great challenge, and it's fun, and it's going to prepare us for the NCAA Tournament. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|