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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: AUSTINMarch 16, 2017Karen AstonBrianna TaylorAustin, Texas Q. Do they remind you of anybody you've already played and what are the challenges you're facing against them? BRIANNA TAYLOR: I think we've seen a team such as theirs, like similar style of play last year in our first round game and I think that we're prepared to play them and we've watched a lot of film on them to prepare, and I think that any challenges that we're facing that we're not ready for, we're going to prepare for that today on the practice court. Q. Kelsey, some early losses, 19-game win streak, and I think four losses in the last six. Where is this team right now? Do you feel like you have any momentum heading into the postseason? KELSEY LANG: You know, I think for the past week or so, we've just been talking about how this is just a new slate for us and it's a new season, and everyone is starting off and when you lose a game, you're out, so everyone is on the same playing field. And so even though we did have some late losses towards the end of the season, I think we spent the last week really preparing and fixing some things that needed to be fixed, and so I think that that prepared us going into tomorrow. Q. You guys are familiar to this routine, such a long gap between the conference tournament and the NCAA Tournament. How did the team handle that downtime? What did you do to prepare and stay sharp, and also rest and relax? KELSEY LANG: I think the team handled that pretty well. We have four upperclassmen that have been through this for a couple years now, so we were able to tell the younger ones about how this goes and everything. The couple days that we had off, or we had between the tournament and now, we used to prepare. We used it to refocus and get back on the court and get back to being us. Q. What Chris (ph) was just asked, over this extended time off, I know the goal was to get back to the form that you guys were in during your 19-game winning streak. How close do you think you got? BRIANNA TAYLOR: I think we spent a lot of time preparing and preparation for the NCAA Tournament and I think those days that we were able to regroup and refocus and get back to our style of play, I think these days that we had to prepare were very vital and they were very good for our team. Q. Kelsey, just overall, what is this time of year like for a player? KELSEY LANG: You know, this tournament, where you're playing one game, you're guaranteed one game; you lose, you're out, is definitely different from the entire rest of the season where you know you have guaranteed games left. And so I think especially for this team, having so many young players and just players who haven't experienced this yet, the upperclassmen really had to get that point across to them that once you lose, you're out, and you go into the off-season -- for us, we're done. I think it was important to get the underclassmen to understand how important taking every single moment is. When we were able in the middle of the season to take each Game 1 game at a time is when we were playing our best. I think if we can get back to that, we'll be good. Q. Is there a sense that maybe at some point, some of those younger players kind of lost that perspective with the late losses? As things were going so well, things got confused? BRIANNA TAYLOR: I think our entire team wasn't taking one game at a time any more, and getting back to that is extremely important, especially right now in this tournament. And so practice over the past, you know, week and a half has really just been about taking each drill one drill at a time, and each possession, you just give all you can on that one possession and so I think that can -- if that can carry over to the game, then that will be great for us. Q. Kelsey, I don't think it's any secret why the two of you are up here, the two seniors. This is your last go-around, regardless of what happens. What are the emotions like for you as a senior going into your final NCAA Tournament? KELSEY LANG: You know, watching the selection show on Monday night was kind of -- it really I think hit me then that this is the last time I would watch a Selection Show, and see where we were going, and you know, who our opponent was going to be and so for me, just especially taking that one moment at a time, and just enjoying each moment I have with this team, and I love spending time with them and I think that that goes for everyone on the team. We like being around each other. We love playing with each other. And so just really enjoying each moment that we have, you know, one game at a time, is really important for us. BRIANNA TAYLOR: Kelsey pretty much covered it all. It's very exciting for both of us. I think she covered it by just saying we're trying to stay in the moment and take advantage of every opportunity that we have with this team, so we're excited to get to play. Q. Two years ago, Sweet 16 last year, there's a progression there. Can you talk about your goals? Start with Bri. BRIANNA TAYLOR: I think coming here to Texas, ultimately our goal has always been to get to the Final Four, and our goals have not changed since. Each year we have progressed and I think that just shows that this program is headed in the right direction and I think Coach and the coaching staff and the girls have done a great job of buying in and following the game plan and everything. So I think that we're definitely headed in the right direction. KELSEY LANG: Yeah, going off what Bri said, I think especially for us, too, when we were recruited here, we wanted to get Texas back on the national scale. And so our freshman year, being able to make the tournament again, and then each year progress further in the tournament, that was definitely a goal of ours, and like Bri said, it's still a goal to keep continuing to go further. I think everyone on our team, especially the underclassmen, understands that is our expectation and our goal is to continue to go further within the tournament. Q. Bri, how much pride do you guys take in the fact that you guys are leaving the program in a better state than it was when you got here? BRIANNA TAYLOR: I think that we can say that we definitely accomplished one of the goals that we had coming into this program, and I think that Coach has covered it by saying that this is going to be our legacy when we leave here and knowing we were a big part of that and we were a part of it, it's just amazing to think about; that we were actually at contribution here and we're going to have something that everyone can remember us by. Q. Kelsey, just looking at the roster, you guys would seem to have a significant size advantage over your first-round opponent. Talk about that and how you hope to be able to exploit that? KELSEY LANG: Yeah, you know, we definitely saw on film the past few days, I mean, obviously just looking at the roster, you do have a size advantage and so we have been talking about how we definitely need to throw it inside and we need to expect double teams and we need to expect to have to kick it out, our guards cutting off of us. We just need really to focus on what the coaches have been telling us, which is we do have a size advantage and we're going to need to be able to throw it inside and kick it back out in order to be successful in this game. Q. Did people toward the end of the season adjust their defenses to your personnel? What can you do to counter them? KAREN ASTON: I think that we saw about every defense we could possibly see, and I wouldn't say that it was towards the end of the season. I mean, you play each other twice in the league, and the first time, the first time we saw K-State, for example, and Iowa State both, they manned Brooke. So I wouldn't say that anything Iowa State did to us the second time when we lost was any different. We just didn't play as good. And they played better. So sometimes you have to give credit to opponents when they play better than you do. And as now, I think our players have talked about, we've tried to use this week that we've had off to sort of reenergize our batteries a little bit. I think that down the stretch, we just didn't play as good of basketball for a few reasons, and they would all be deemed as excuses because that's what they are. We just didn't play as good of basketball, period. It wasn't anything that we saw different. I actually think we did some better things against some of the junk that we saw late in the year, as opposed to when we saw it the first time. Some of the games, the ball just didn't go in and some things didn't happen for us that happened at other times in the year. Q. How do you feel like this team is responding to that re-energizing period? KAREN ASTON: I think they have been good. It was hard to get a few of them to sort of get out of the disappointment, because we have good kids and we have kids who really want to do well and expect a lot out of themselves and expect a lot out of our team, including their coach. And so there was this first moment of a few days of disappointment and probably being mad. A lot of things combined, a lot of emotions that we needed to sort of work through. We worked through those and I think the period of time was long enough to get through those and get through the mad and get through the part that we needed to to get back to, we're excited to be in the tournament, and it's a new season and to get re-energized. So it was probably just enough time. I'm not sure a couple of days would have been good, so we were fortunate in some ways that we had enough time to kind of sink a little bit and then comeback up. Q. You mentioned all the positives that come with the big gap between the end of the conference tournament and the start of this tournament. Any negatives that come with that that you have to overcome? KAREN ASTON: No, I really can't think of any negatives, at all. It was just one of those periods of time -- I mean, last year, I would have worried that we were kind of on an up swing. I think any time you can get, in particular, I say this because of the grind of the Big 12, I think any time that you can let them breathe a little bit is probably a good thing, and I mean, it all boils down to the fact that it is a one-game season at this point, and do teams really want to keep playing. And sometimes that's what some of this boils down to when you get into tournament play: Are you ready for this to be over; are you tired of the grind of it, or do you have a little bit more left in you. I think our team definitely has that. Speak to the break; I think what it was probably good for was the young kids that it's been a long season for. Q. I know you're modest by nature, but how much does it mean to you to be in the Final Four for the Coach of the Year honors? KAREN ASTON: I think any time that you're recognized as a player or a coach, that it's a reflection of everyone that's involved in what you're trying to get accomplished. So I would say that I'm proud just from the standpoint that it's a reflection on our players and our staff. I mean, everybody does a great job every day, and it's a privilege to be acknowledged. It's humbling to be acknowledged, for sure. Q. Brianna and Kelsey were talking about how the program is in a better state now than it was when they were freshmen, and before they were freshmen, that was the one year you didn't go. How proud are you of their effort to help lead this team back into an elite program? KAREN ASTON: As I said, we talked a lot about this on senior day, and it is fun to watch as now I've been here long enough, I've seen players come in as freshmen and leave, and you get to see the impact and you get to see the maturity and what they have turned into as young women and what this university does for student athletes here at Texas. It's understated what I think our university does to grow up people and grow people into what I deem as leaders in society and what they will be able to do in their next so-called life. So as much as I'm proud of what they have done on the court, and I am, really proud of how they have gotten Texas back into a place that we need to be in, but I'm also probably more proud of how much they have grown up as young women. Q. Part of getting Texas back each year is making a run in the NCAA tournament; do you talk about that? KAREN ASTON: Well, obviously it's one of our goals, and it should be. It should be at Texas. And we talked about it early in the year, the hashtag, all that stuff, is part of what our ultimate goal is for this season. But I will say that part of this process and this last week or ten days, to try to get our team back to the competitive level that we were at for quite some time, was to really start talking about the one day at a time thing, because that approach worked with this particular team. Just to talk about what are we doing in this moment, how can we be the best we can be in this moment, in this game. We don't care what's ahead. Let's just talk about today, and for whatever reason, I think this particular team is better when they stay in the moment. So we haven't talked about anything but Central Arkansas. Q. Are there certain things, when you get into a game, signal that you know, all right, we're playing well -- KAREN ASTON: You know, it's funny that you say that, because I was sort of thinking about the games. You do reflect back on the year when you have to some time to do that and you think about games that you felt really good. I think that the old saying, that guards, most teams go as their guards go; I would probably say that I feel strongly about that with this particular team. And it's not necessarily whether Brooke is making shots or Aerial is making shots or Lashann is making plays. It's how our guards play and when our guards are full of energy and they are really on task defensively, and they are really pushing the ball and they seem very connected, there's an energy in the building. There's an energy on the bench. There's an energy with our team. And sometimes guards don't have it. Sometimes players don't have it. And sometimes coaches don't have it. But when -- that feel comes from our guards, that I think we're a better basketball team, if that answers your question. Q. Kelsey mentioned to us a little bit ago that upperclassmen had to grind into the lower freshmens' heads that it's a one-and-done tournament. Do you feel they have really embraced that in-moment feeling, and going into this, how do you think they are going to perform under the NCAA pressure of one-and-done? KAREN ASTON: Well, you never know what under pressure they are going to do. They are a question mark a day most of the time. But I will say that if I based it on, which I usually do, base everything on what our preparation looks like, then I would say that they have sort of taken another step of maturity. That's really important. They are talented players. Our young players are very talented and I would include the sophomores in that because they just didn't get enough minutes last year to really understand all of this. But I do think that the last few days, I've seen them kind of -- they seem like they are, I don't want to say reenergized all the time because that's not necessarily -- they just seem refocused. That's a better word. They lost their focus a little bit, maybe from fatigue of the season, overwhelmed by whatever; sometimes just being a freshman is overwhelming for most of them, but it does seem like they are refocused right now. Q. Situations sometimes where two or three of your players, the other team doesn't really guard them. They are daring them to shoot. What are they supposed to do in those situation if the clock is not running out? KAREN ASTON: Well, I think that's -- the statement about the clock running out does make a considerable difference. But where I think we get bogged down sometimes is when we don't move the basketball. It's not necessarily who is shooting it and who is not shooting and who is open and who is not open. It's when we don't move it, and the last couple of games, we got stagnant offensively and we stopped -- the ball kind of got stuck. And I thought we did a better job at K-State, which was our last conference game. I thought we made some changes and we did some things that were very positive. And I mean, it was a different game against West Virginia, so I hate to say we didn't carry it over, because West Virginia just outplayed us. I mean, we didn't play great. Shots didn't go in but they played really good and they played really good in the whole tournament. You kind of have to give the credit to them in that situation and not beat your kids down and say, oh, well, we were terrible. We got out played for sure but they out played everybody in the tournament. So the sense of urgency, we didn't have, so I was more interested in getting back home and finding a sense of urgency that we don't go to Oklahoma City with, rather than worry about who was shooting. Q. In trying to refocus that, do you have a special speech? Do you change up routine? Do you give them extra time off or drill down harder? How do you as a coach approach that? KAREN ASTON: It was the week before spring break, and at Texas, going to class and being a student is pretty important, so I had planned on that regardless, so that they could catch up a little bit academically before spring break. So I would say the only thing we probably, or I did maybe differently, was the practices that we had kind of in between were, for a lack of better words, my patience wasn't very good in those practices. We kind of got back to some things that I felt like we were getting away from. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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