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NCAA WOMEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: LEXINGTON

March 24, 2017

Lexington, Kentucky

Stanford 77, Texas 66

THE MODERATOR: Thank you for joining us for the press conference for the Texas women's basketball team. We're joined at the podium by head coach Karen Aston and student-athletes Ariel Atkins and Joyner Holmes.

We'll open it up with an opening statement from the head coach.

KAREN ASTON: First of all, just congratulations to Stanford and to Tara (VanDerveer). I thought that their team showed a lot of resiliency and toughness in the second half. In turn, I thought ours showed a lot in the first half.

We got off to a rough start, and then we regrouped and played really well in the first half. They just executed some things in the third quarter that got us a little off balance, and we just couldn't answer. We didn't answer at times. We didn't answer their quickness to the ball, and at times we didn't answer from an execution standpoint. I thought they executed some things down the stretch really well. And we just didn't.

Some of it, I think, is just the difference in experience. It reminded me a little bit of last year when we played UCLA and we had some older players that had been through some things and really knew how to execute down the stretch and be tough down the stretch in a Sweet 16 game. It looked almost flipped this year where we had young players make mistakes they'll learn from, and we didn't execute as good as we need to. But, again, a lot of credit to Stanford.

THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Ariel, the first few minutes of the third kind of changed things. Can you say specifically what Coach is talking about, the execution part of what Stanford did right that you guys didn't do right that you did in the first half?
ARIEL ATKINS: Kind of like she said, they had experience. They were using their angles well on the court. They were running their plays. They are finding the open man, rebounding.

Q. Ariel, you guys struggled most of the second half with shooting. Was it more that they played great defense or that you just couldn't get shots to fall?
ARIEL ATKINS: I think it was our execution. I think we kind of got antsy, and I think they did a good job of packing the paint on us.

Q. For Joyner, your rebounding has been this team's strength. Had you seen a team that kind of got in the lane like that, like Stanford?
JOYNER HOLMES: Honestly, it kind of reminded me of the beginning of the year against South Carolina. They had some big girls, and they out-rebounded us down the stretch, and I just felt that was the turning point of the game.

I know we got a couple offensive boards, and it changed the momentum of the game. I just feel we could have gotten on the offensive boards a little bit harder.

Q. Both of you are coming back again next year. Can you talk about the team that you'll have and how you can use this experience to hopefully make a deeper run next season in the tournament.
JOYNER HOLMES: I know as we were walking down here Coach was telling Ariel that most of the things I've done this year and the team has done this year we wouldn't be able to do without our older players. I just feel this game here and this feeling here is our motivation for next year. I know we have a lot of players coming back, and we have a transfer. So I think we'll be pretty good next year. We've just got to put the work in over the summer.

ARIEL ATKINS: I think we have a lot of work to do, but we can't go without giving credit to our seniors. They came in with Coach Aston and her staff, and they helped us bring this program back to the national light. I'm really thankful for them. They really helped us become who we are. I'm definitely going to take a lot from them going into the next year.

JOYNER HOLMES: I don't think we could have got as far as we got without them.

Q. Ariel, great season no matter what, but three straight Sweet 16s. What do you think it's going to take to get over that hump?
ARIEL ATKINS: If I knew the answer, I would tell you, but I'm going to figure it out this summer.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athletes?

Q. Joyner, you're only a freshman, but what did you learn this year that you can apply to next year to make the team even better with you being a sophomore?
JOYNER HOLMES: I just feel like just listen to my older players and listen to my coaches. I don't think I've ever played on a team that just has so much -- I think, not just experience-wise, but people that actually motivate you and talk to you and tell you what you're doing wrong and tell you what you're doing right. I feel like, just coming back, I've got to work hard in the offseason. I didn't really participate in the offseason as much as I could last summer because I was injured.

I just think going into that with a good mindset and just remembering this feeling, like I said.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the student-athletes? If not, then they can be dismissed. Thank you.

We'll open it up for questions for the head coach.

Q. Coach, Brooke had a very uncharacteristic game. What did they do to stop her on offense?
KAREN ASTON: I thought that -- I mean, they had some quickness on her that was able to shadow her. I mean, they did a great job of shadowing her most of the game. They beat screens. Did a good job helping when she was screened for.

But I also think that that goes back to my statement in the beginning, which was that I just didn't -- I didn't think we executed things at the level that you have to in the Sweet 16. There's a lot that goes into that -- I mean, screening, angles, passing the ball at the right time, setting good screens, you know, people waiting on them. There's just an execution that has to be at a really high level.

I thought that we made some adjustments in the first half to open things up on the inside, and we just -- we got antsy once they made the run, and I thought we didn't wait on things to happen offensively like we did in the second quarter and like you need to at this level.

Again, there's always times when you shut people down and someone else has to answer. We just didn't necessarily have that tonight. I thought we did a great job with them in some areas. They had other players answer the bell. You have to have that happen when people focus on players that have been scoring.

Q. In the last game against NC State, you said in the final four or so minutes, you could just tell in your players' eyes and their communication they were going to win. Did you see that same urgency at the end of the game today?
KAREN ASTON: You know, there's times -- and I felt this in the locker room -- that I have been disappointed in their effort in games. I felt like we didn't have a sense of urgency that you have to have, and there's only been a couple of those this whole entire year. But we did have a few that I was quite disappointed in.

That's not what I would call this game. First of all, I'm really proud of our seniors. I thought they laid it all out there today and gave their best effort, and I'm proud of what they've accomplished here at Texas. And I wouldn't say that our team didn't have urgency. I just think they executed better than we did. And we made some mistakes on defense that they made us pay for, and that's execution.

And they were just better than we were in that area. Some of it was youth, and some of it was we didn't -- we got antsy, and we didn't execute well.

Q. Samuelson took eight threes, and Brooke didn't even take a three until about 1:30. What were they doing right to set her up in situations where she could be effective?
KAREN ASTON: Well, she's a really experienced player, and, again, execution has a lot of pieces to it. It's the passing. It's the people doing the passing. It's the ones doing the screening. And it's the one reading screens.

When she got free a couple of times, quite honestly, we just made mistakes. We made mistakes on defense, and if you look at the first half, we didn't make very many mistakes, and we just made a couple of mistakes, and they made us pay for it. I think that's what gave them the confidence and maybe shattered ours a little bit. It rattled us a little bit.

Q. Going back to Bri and Kelsey, they both have had huge milestones this season, and they're the first group that you recruited and have kind of come full circle. Can you talk about what they've meant overall to the program the last four years.
KAREN ASTON: I told them in the locker room that we're absolutely supposed to win games, and that's what we're all here to do at Texas. But when I look at those two, and when they came to Texas, I mean, we weren't very good, and they bought into a vision, and they trusted the vision throughout their career. I mean, they've been to three Sweet 16s in four years.

More importantly, it's really how much they've developed as people. I mean, when you look at their academic success that they've had, it's pretty amazing. When you look at what kind of leadership skills they've learned, what kind of young women they are now as they begin to think about walking across that stage in the spring. I mean, that's what I'm so proud of as a coach. And, again, I understand what I'm here for, but I also know that -- I guess maybe I'm getting old, but when you get a little bit older, you really begin to appreciate the maturation of a player and what they become as a woman.

I can't say enough about those two and what kind of people they are and what kind of student-athletes they've been at Texas.

Q. Coach, two questions: One, do you label this a successful season? And two, with the players you've got coming back, coupled with the two All-Americans you've got coming as freshmen, do you think the expectations will be even greater next year?
KAREN ASTON: Well, I don't think they can be any greater because we expected to go to a Final Four. I mean, that was our goal. And it was a realistic goal. So I don't know that our expectations will be any different next year. We expect to be challenging for the Big 12 championship. We expect to be a contender. We expect to win 20 games. I think that's always a benchmark of when you asked me if it was a successful season, we won 25 games. Last year we won over 30, and I think when you get to 30, you're really special. I thought last year was a really special year. Any time you start winning 30 games, as Stanford has done this year, you have a really special team.

I definitely think that, when you look at the journey this team had, starting at Stanford, it was quite a journey. And a lot of people really grew up. A lot of young players really grew up this year. I'm tremendously excited about the future, as I have been, not just because of who we have coming in, but just who we have returning.

You're talking about a lot of young players that got a lot of really valuable experience against quality opponents that they'll be ready and they'll learn from it, and they'll be motivated by it.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for the head coach? If not, then the press conference has been concluded. Thank you.

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