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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: AUSTINMarch 18, 2017Karen AstonBrooke McCartyJoyner HolmesAustin, Texas THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Texas student-athletes, Brooke McCarty and Joyner Holmes. We will open with questions. Q. Brooke, I'm sure you got to see some of their game yesterday. It looked like guards were the strength of their team. Talk about challenges of their North Carolina State guards. BROOKE McCARTY: I think they can score in all positions. You said the guards are leading their team, but I think they can all score in every position on their team and we just have to stay disciplined on defense. Q. Brooke, (No microphone.) BROOKE McCARTY: It's great to get past the first round. UCA was a tough team, and it's March Madness. There are a lot of upsets, so we can only be celebrating for a few minutes then we have to be focused on the next game. So we are focused and getting ready for NC State tomorrow. Q. Joyner, Coach said you have been practicing well the past few days, between the tournament and now. What kind of a change have you had? JOYNER HOLMES: I know going into the tournament we have to have a different mindset than we came out of the Pac-12 tournament with. So going in, practicing hard and everybody keeping everybody accountable for any layoffs and stuff that we have in practice. Everyone is going to keep each other accountable, and keep each other lifted up. So I knew we had to have a different mindset going into the tournament. Q. (No microphone.) JOYNER HOLMES: No, like we said, just taking it one game at a time. Like Brooke said, UCA was a tough team and we all played hard and we ended up winning. So taking this one game at a time, doing the scouting and getting ready for the next team we are about to play. Q. Brooke, one of the advantages for the top seeds in the women's tournament is you get to play on your home court. Did it last year. Got it again this year. How big of a difference is that for you also knowing that your opponent tomorrow on the road picked up big wins against with big teams. They're battled tested on the road? BROOKE McCARTY: I think it's another opportunity to play in front of our fans and friends and family. It is just a great atmosphere when you get to play at home. You work all season to play at home. Getting a play here for us is a big thing, just getting the opportunity to get to play in front of our family and friends one more time. NC State has had some significant wins on the road, and I think we have to focus on our game plan and I think that will be good are us going into tomorrow's game. Q. Joyner, in high school you obviously never played past February. Was it a physical challenge to play into March and if so what did you have to do to energize yourself? JOYNER HOLMES: Like you said, I never played past February. It is new to me. I've adjusted pretty well. My teammates have been telling me to take it all in and enjoy the experience, so going in with a different mindset, like I said, a different mindset to practice, a different mindset to the games. It's been tough, but we have been able to do so much recovery as we can. Q. I would like to follow up. Physically how have you held up with the longer season, being able to run up and down court game after game later in the year? JOYNER HOLMES: Our be strength coach is always talking about recovery, eating right, taking care of our bodies and getting rest. We focus on that and being a young player here I didn't focus on that when I was back at home. So making sure I really pay attention and tune into what he's saying and doing the things that he's asking of me. Q. Joyner, what was that first tournament experience like for you going into the first tournament game, after getting that done does it make it easier for tomorrow? JOYNER HOLMES: The first experience? Talking about yesterday? It was great. We had been practicing for quite some time now so it was great to get out there, and like Brooke said, play in front of our fans and on our home court because we have practiced to play here all year. Going into the game yesterday we had a game plan and we executed and we actually pulled out the win. So going into tomorrow's game we have a different game plan, so taking it one game at a time and not trying to look ahead. Q. Joyner, you're going to have a very different physical match-up tomorrow. What challenge does that bring? JOYNER HOLMES: Knowing that majority of the four players that I've been guarding they're versatile. They can pop out and shoot the three now, so making sure I stay sound and stick to the scout and play very well. That's one thing to focus on is playing to my opponent's tendencies. Q. (No microphone.) JOYNER HOLMES: I think right now that is our motto beside hashtags and stuff we have, but I think taking it one game at a time and not looking ahead has been great motto for us because when we take it one game at a time we don't look ahead and we focus on the team we are about to play and execute the game plan and if we win or whatnot we move on from there. Q. Was there any celebration after yesterday's game? JOYNER HOLMES: I think it's a little bit of both. We celebrated a little bit but got straight to doing recovery things and getting our bodies ready for tomorrow. Q. (No microphone.) BROOKE McCARTY: I think it's always good to get all of your players playing time, especially a first round in the NCAA Tournament just so they can get a feel, new players and players who haven't played at this level. I think it was good to get them playing time and it was good for -- not saying that UCA wasn't a good team because they were. We followed the game plan and when you follow the game plan and execute like you're supposed to it opens up for other people to get playing time and I think that was good for our players. Q. Brooke, you played (No microphone.) Does that benefit you at all knowing that you've done this before? BROOKE McCARTY: I think it kind of gives you an idea of what you have to work for and how hard you have to work just to get past any game, first round, second round, whatever. But it also teaches to you stay in the moment. We have to focus on tomorrow's game because we're not to the Sweet 16 yet or anything like that, so we're focused on the game tomorrow. Q. (No microphone.) How did that come about? How do you flip that to, okay we're at home, we own this court? BROOKE McCARTY: I think that we just had a rough patch, and every team in season goes through it. We're past those losses but we know that right now it's win or go home. Just playing on our court and going out there and executing and playing together, we have to focus on that. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, ladies. We will open is up for questions for Texas head coach, Karen Aston. Q. Different physical match-up for your team. Did you have to say to them the rebounds aren't going to come as easy, defenders are going to be faster than we faced in the last game? Talk about that. KAREN ASTON: I don't think you have to explain that to our team. The schedule was -- aside from Big 12 play the schedule was tough enough that they understand the level of play that we're playing at and they understand the moments. There wasn't a lot of conversation about this is going to be tough or it's going to be tough or anything like that. I thought our players did a really good job yesterday, even though there are things we could have done better when you look at some of the scores and you see teams struggle, and half of our team, almost half of our team had never played in the NCAA Tournament game. When I reflected last night when I got home I thought, you know, the freshmen didn't look that bad for it to be their first game. They played in the moment yesterday, and I thought they did a pretty good job of that and they understand what's ahead of them tomorrow. Q. (No microphone.) KAREN ASTON: I think the thing that the schedule did and does for you, including Big 12 play, is that I'm not sure that there will be team that we'll play obviously starting with the team we played yesterday and the one we'll play tomorrow that we haven't seen something that you can compare it to. That's the thing I like about playing a variety of opponents and really tough opponents is that when you run across a team in NCAA Tournament play that maybe you haven't seen that style or whatever. It becomes tough. I'm not sure that there is a style that we haven't seen or a type of team that we haven't seen this year. I think that's a benefit that we can give comparisons for our players. Q. There has been talk about yesterday's dominant performance -- (No microphone.) KAREN ASTON: I think it was probably just more beneficial that everybody got their feet wet, especially considering there were a lot of players on our team that had not played in an NCAA Tournament game. I think that it was positive for them to get minutes and even go through kind of the bad moment in the third quarter. But that whole group I was able to reset at the beginning of the fourth quarter and I thought they played some pretty good basketball in the fourth quarter. Just a lot of teaching moments that you always can use as you move forward. I'm not sure rest matters at this point. I think it's overrated. I think teams get on runs and they forget how tired they are, and they don't worry about all that. I don't know that it matters one way or the other. I'm sure we will both be ready to play regardless of minutes tomorrow. Q. You've got a chance -- I noticed you were sitting court side yesterday, that's got to be different than watching film, up-close and personal scouting them, what struck you about North Carolina? KAREN ASTON: Just a really solid basketball team. As you start to get ready for an opponent you try to figure out what are their weaknesses and how can you attack their weaknesses? How can you take way their strengths and those type of things? And the one thing that's striking about NC State is I'm not sure they have a lot of weaknesses. They do things really solidly, really well. The game plan you can tell when you scout them that they have a game plan and they're disciplined enough to follow it. That was what was the most striking thing to me as I watched them in person. Q. (No microphone.) KAREN ASTON: I think we pumped those brakes when we got back from the Big 12 Tournament and they're still "pumped!" They're having an understanding, based on the experiences late in conference play of how good they were when they stayed in the moment during that stretch, and I've said that a few times here in the last week or two. I did think that was when we were at our best, when we just talked about what are we going to do today and who are we going to be today? We really tried to get back to that, including in practice. What can we do today to get better? I thought we've done a pretty good job of that. Q. Coach, I know you mentioned this before, but critics of women's basketball often say it's too predictable at the end. What is your stance on UConn's dominance, whether that's good or bad for the sport? KAREN ASTON: I mean, I don't think exposure is bad, period, whether it's what people perceive as negative or positive that they've won so many games, people are still talking about women's basketball and I promise you people are going to tune in to this tournament and see what happens. So if they're bringing notoriety to our sport you have to appreciate that. I appreciate it as a coach. Q. If they make the Final Four they will play basically four home games. Do you think that women's basketball in the future to grow has got to get away from, at least in the third and fourth rounds, teams not being able to play at home? KAREN ASTON: I think there is some interesting ideas being tossed around, and I would like to talk about that more than I would that we don't need to be playing on home sites right now. We tried a different way, and I mean, I think where we are right now is where we need to be. But I do think there are some interesting ideas about putting all the regionals at one site. There has been some toss around about that, and I think there are some -- you would have to do more research probably to find the ideas, but I do think some of them are worthy of conversation just because everything about I think what we're trying to do is to make sure that there's butts in the seats for the young women that are performing. That's what you want. The student-athletes put a lot of time and effort and commitment into what they're doing, and then they get to this stage and they want to play in front of people. That's the reason why we are where we are, because you don't want an empty gym. I don't want an empty gym tomorrow and we worked really, really hard to get to play at home, and you guys have done a great job of getting it out there at the Statesman and I think we've done a better job this year in marketing and everything that's on our side to get a community to be knowledgeable about what we're doing, yesterday and tomorrow. I was very impressed with the crowds that we had on Friday. It was St. Patrick's Day, the middle of the day, and I thought we had a terrific following yesterday. I'm expecting that tomorrow, and that's it is what this is all about right now is that you want those young kids to play in front of a crowd. If that's what has to happen in Bridgeport, that's where we are right now. Q. Players may not get (No microphone.) KAREN ASTON: It is. It is. Q. For the seniors, talk about finding leaders that steer the ship. What have Ariel and the others done to lead? KAREN ASTON: Bri and Kelsey? Q. Yeah. KAREN ASTON: Honestly, I didn't say anything about it today and I probably won't tomorrow. So I guess they would have to read this to know we're having a conversation, but it's bittersweet for seniors and I think different ones handle it differently. I think this has been a struggle for them to have their last moments at home. So I'm going to stay way from that. I know that our team will enjoy tomorrow. It will be a really fun basketball game and I think our team is excited about playing at home. I know that Bri and Kelsey -- it will be a bittersweet moment for them, but it will be fun. Q. A lot was said earlier in the season about how tough your schedule was. Looking back, do you think all those tough games could be a benefit going forward? KAREN ASTON: I almost think that that stuff is over now. I mean, it's tournament play and everybody in the country that makes the NCAA Tournament pushes that reset button and they try to forget everything that's happened regardless if it was good or bad or hard or easy. There is a reset that happens with this. I think if you ask the players they would tell you that they enjoyed every minute of it, regardless of whether they won or lost because I think they enjoy playing in those venues that we played in. I think they enjoyed playing on national television. I think they enjoy playing against the best teams in the country. This is all about the student-athlete experience or that's what it's supposed to be about. If you ask them, I bet you they would tell you that they enjoyed the journey. Q. (No microphone.) KAREN ASTON: It's been a bit of a chess match and I think that it has been all year long. I wouldn't even say down the stretch. That's where we bogged down. It's been a chess match all year, in the sense of, especially once we got into conference play teams deciding who and what they were going to try to take away. Brooke has obviously been the focus on a lot of people's game plans. I do think, and I think I said this earlier, we made adjustments after the Iowa State game that I thought were really good at K-State. We didn't necessarily make some of the shots, but I thought we made the adjustments that were necessary. I thought we played better and looked more confident. Again, there isn't anything we haven't seen. We have absolutely brilliant coaches in the Big 12 that are going to challenge you every night especially because we play each other twice. So that second time around you better be ready for someone's best shot intellectually, and it's really challenged us to be better. Nothing will surprise this team that we see, regardless of what it is. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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