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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 2, 2018

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Kansas State - 72, Kansas - 63

THE MODERATOR: Coach, your thoughts about tonight's game?

JEFF MITTIE: I want to congratulate Kansas. They had their team ready to play tonight, it's a credit to them, you come in here and you come in struggling and I thought Brandon and his coaches really had his team ready to play tonight. They were feisty, moving the ball, making the right plays and we were on our heels most of the night, early in particular.

We seemed at that point to be very much into your own game a little bit in terms of our struggles. Then I was proud of our group for regrouping in the second quarter, getting that thing back to I think one point at halftime. But to Kansas' credit they had their group ready to come out after half and play well and they did. They did.

I thought in the fourth we took the timeout. We were down eight with 8-something to go. I really thought you don't know what's going to happen at that point, but I did like the look in our players' eyes. I felt like it was the group leaving the timeout knowing that they had to dig deep here and I think you saw the result of that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for our student-athletes?

Q. Coach, 26-12, fourth quarter, biggest difference there?
JEFF MITTIE: Well, Kaylee Page was huge in the fourth. I thought our decision-making process was much better. I think we had turnovers going into half and only ended up with 12 for the game. Our decision-making was better. Peyton got more involved and I thought K.G. made good decisions down the stretch with the ball, getting to the free throw line, all the above.

So our -- yeah, Kaylee Page is the one that got us going. She got the two threes that got us going and you could see it lifted our energy.

Q. Kaylee, 5 for 8 from the 3-point line. Did the basket seem big to you? Because this is a new arena for you, maybe you were here last year, but did it feel like a peach basket out there?
KAYLEE PAGE: In the first half, not at all, I felt like I couldn't hit a basket to save my life; and then seeing the first one go in in the second half just felt good and I let 'em keep flyin'.

Q. Kayla, three in a row against KU this year, biggest rival you have. How much does it mean to sweep them?
KAYLA GOTH: Yeah, it's big, playing any team in the Big 12 three times and beating them three times is tough to do, and in my eyes we stole two out of the three of them. I don't know if you follow us but we beat them in overtime in the Fieldhouse and it's definitely big for us, big for our confidence.

Q. Peyton, big chore tomorrow. I don't know how you guys did against them during the season, but why do you think Kansas State has a chance to beat them?
PEYTON WILLIAMS: Like was exemplified in this game we don't give up, not easily, and I know our fight is going to help us play against one of the best teams in the country tomorrow. I think we play together as a team really well, that's when we play our best and if we play together as a team we're going to have a shot.

Q. Kaylee, is there a sense on this team that you don't want the season to end so it doesn't matter who you play you're going to give it everything you've got?
KAYLEE PAGE: Yeah, and that's just how our team is. That's our make-up. We're going to play hard no matter who you put in front of us, whether it's the practice guys or the top team in the country we're going to execute the game plan to our ability.

Q. Kayla, does your team rely on the 3 as much as you did today, especially with 5 for Kaylee, but is it a 3-point shooting team when you get going?
KAYLA GOTH: We're going to shoot 'em if we're making 'em. I would say a lot of times we try to drill the ball inside and that will get open shots for our 3-point shooters, Kaylee and Rachel, mainly, but when we get that inside out game going it's good for our shooters to get their feet set and get the ball flying the way they want it to be.

Q. Peyton, 26-12 fourth quarter when everybody seems to be rolling, especially the last four minutes you went on a 10-2 run to end it. Talk about how that felt?
PEYTON WILLIAMS: We got in the timeout at the I think it was the eight-minute mark and we said we're not losing this game. We looked at each other and we said that's it. They're done getting runs. They've had enough and we're going to have ours now. And when it started rolling it felt natural. We all knew we had decided as a team we are not losing this game. So when we were all making it the energy came because K.P. was killing it. We just kept rolling and it felt like it was supposed to happen.

Q. Kaylee, does the game mean more just because of who you were playing?
KAYLEE PAGE: A little, yeah. Felt really good, yeah.

JEFF MITTIE: You've got two Kansas girls and one we have adopted into Kansas.

Q. Who is adopted?
JEFF MITTIE: Goth.

Q. Where are you from?
KAYLA GOTH: Wisconsin.

PEYTON WILLIAMS: Wisconsin.

JEFF MITTIE: We didn't say friendly, we just said adopted.

Q. How did you get out of Wisconsin?
KAYLA GOTH: Coach Jeff Mittie called me up and went down for elite camp, and I didn't have intentions of going to Kansas. I had the stereotypical Kansas wheat fields --

Q. Dorothy?
JEFF MITTIE: Yeah, Dorothy. Loved the girls, and Coach Jeff Mittie said I would the want to know if I wanted to play for him when he left there and when he screamed at us at camp I wasn't even playing for him then but I knew.

Q. Glad you guys could answer my questions.
THE MODERATOR: We're going to let you ladies go back to the locker room. Thank you. We will take questions for Coach.

Q. Coach, how are you going to beat Baylor tomorrow?
JEFF MITTIE: That's a good question. You know, I think they're one of the best teams in the country. They've proven that. They've rolled through the Big 12 this year. They've played very well. They've got some of the top players. We'll get back to the hotel, put together a game plan, see what we can do. We have not played them very well. Yeah, we just haven't played 'em very well. Obviously they've done that to a lot of people but in particular they have played us very well.

Q. Has Kaylee had streaks like this before where she had on from the 3-point line?
JEFF MITTIE: She has. Oklahoma State at home was a big game where she hit six 3's. We needed her tonight because Rachel was pressing a little bit. Rachel has been hot lately and KU had a great awareness of her, and we needed every single one of 'em. But she is a little bit of a streaky shooter, so when she gets it going we need to find her quickly and like you saw today, she was 1 of 6 at halftime and after half she catches fire. Her maturity as you would expect a senior not to let the first half bother her is probably why we're playing tomorrow, because she still had a good look to her.

Q. If you don't mind if I ask a question not associated with the game. Uconn is an elite basketball team in women's basketball. Can you name who you consider the other elite teams in college basketball?
JEFF MITTIE: Well, Mississippi State right now has gone on an incredible run. I think you've got to put South Carolina in that, Notre Dame, those teams have -- certainly. I would put Baylor in that category as well because of what they've done. I don't think that you can say -- you still have to put Stanford, that's a team that goes to the Final Four regularly.

So when you go to the Final Four that says that. I think there is another layer of teams out there, certainly Texas is in that category of the next layer of teams that are right there on the cusp of being able to do that. There are some quality basketball teams out there and I'm probably missing somebody but that would be the ones that right off the top of my head.

Q. Why do you like your team?
JEFF MITTIE: You're assuming that I do.

Q. I assume. I can tell by the way you were --
JEFF MITTIE: I like my team. It's a good group, quality group of people.

They work hard. They've had to learn to compete harder. They're almost too nice. You've heard coaches say before they're great to take to dinner but they've got to learn to go to war more be often between the lines. That's where I didn't think we competed as hard -- I thought we were playing hard, but I thought we were foolishly playing hard in the first half. I like my team because of the quality of people they are and the one thing they want to do -- I never doubt their intentions, they want to do right.

They represent Kansas state in a great manner. They're most of the time fun to coach, not all the time. Kayla talked about elite camp and I tell the campers right way I'm going to coach you like we coach our players and she said it, you'll know whether you want to play here or not because I don't want somebody going you were this way when you recruited me and differently after I got there.

Kayla has come so far in the time at Kansas State and Peyton Williams and Kaylee Page, but I'll talk about Kayla Goth and Peyton Williams. Those are two players that averaged 5 points game and 3 points a game last year. They probably have increased their production more than any -- they're right up there with anybody in the country. So I'm really proud of their development and Kaylee Page to see her play like she did tonight and carry us in the fourth quarter was pretty fun to watch. Thanks, guys.

THE MODERATOR: Congratulations.

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