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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIPMarch 3, 2018Karen AstonBrooke McCartyJatarie WhiteAriel AtkinsOklahoma City, Oklahoma Texas - 81, Iowa State - 69 THE MODERATOR: Coach, your thoughts about the game? KAREN ASTON: Yeah, I think the first game is always a little bit hard to play, just in a sense that you have to get the nerves out and you're playing a team that even though you might think they would have some fatigue it's a little bit easier I think sometimes when they've gotten a game under their belt. Iowa State is a tough team to play. I told the group I'm not sure that -- I've been at Texas awhile and was an assistant here, and I can't remember too many times we beat Iowa State three times in one year, maybe, if ever. I have enormous amount of respect for Bill and how competitive his team was. In particular, Durr and Carleton, they're hard to handle, two competitive players that finished their season on great notes. I thought Texas was competitive today. I did think we had a little bit of a let down after halftime. I thought we played really good the first half, lots of energy and shot the ball really well and then the second half got a little somewhat lackadaisical defensively and obviously as we move along in this tournament that's not going to work. I think our players know that, again, but pretty good effort on the first day. Q. Ariel, it looked like Iowa State had some confidence at the end of the third quarter. They cut it to 9 and then you guys going on an 8-nothing run, you had a three, Brooke had a three the hard way. Talk about that 8-nothing streak at the time to blow it open? ARIEL ATKINS: I think it was important for us to get down and play defense. I think that was the point where they started hitting threes, and Emily Durr went on a 6-0 run by herself. So it was really important for us to focus on against and once we let that break out, we started flowing better on offense, I think. Q. Jatarie, first season at Texas. Do you feel different now than when you started the season? Do you feel more at ease? It looked like this might have been your best game maybe of the whole season. JATARIE WHITE: I think I just get a little more comfortable with my teammates as the games go on. Kind of getting comfortable and trusting the help and that the guards are going to be there on the skips and all that. I think I'm just enjoying playing with my team and enjoying the ride and kinda just giving it my all. Q. Brooke, what are some things you're going to look for for tomorrow's game? I know you don't know who your opponent is, but what are things you would like to see change from the top working its way down? BROOKE McCARTY: I think we need to trust the coaches and get in the rebounding game more. I know tonight we didn't do a really good job of rebounding and then playing defense, too, we need to lock down a little bit better so just focusing on those two things and trying to keep everything rolling on the other end. Q. Being seniors, can you talk about the urgency that you guys feel? You don't want this tournament to end and you don't want the next one to end, the urgency compared to previous years? ARIEL ATKINS: You definitely feel kind of a different urgency as a senior. I don't want to say I didn't have urgency my first three years here because I feel like I came to UT for a purpose. But definitely being a senior I honestly don't want it to end and I know one day it's going to have to, but giving everything I have and enjoying the moments that I have with my team and being able to smile at them and point at them during the game and taking all that in and having fun doing what we do. BROOKE McCARTY: And just to piggyback off what Ariel said, I love this team. So every time on the court no matter what's happening I'm having fun with them and I don't want it to end, either, not saying that there hasn't been any urgency all year. Q. Brooke, can you talk about Jatarie's performance and how important -- a lot of times people have said the guards are the strength of the team, but she kinda carried you at least in the paint tonight. BROOKE McCARTY: I think you're just seeing what Jatarie is capable of. We knew, everybody on our team knows what Jatarie can do and when she is on her game she is really good and really hard to defend. She is a really hard defender, so, no, I think you're just seeing her coming into her role and being comfortable with herself and being comfortable finally out there on the floor. It's just when she has her confidence and she is playing with a high level of intensity she is at her best. THE MODERATOR: Okay, ladies. We're going to let you go. Thank you. We will take questions for Coach. Q. Coach, the other day you were talking about setting the reset button. Jatarie, did she set the reset button early tonight? I think you were talking about the two-week gap after this, but she looked like a the totally different player at times. KAREN ASTON: I definitely think that it helped to have just played Iowa State very recently, because there were some specific match-ups that I thought we could take advantage of and Jatarie was one of those. We did not do a good job and she was a part of that. We watched film together actually on the plane ride home, and she slowed down, kind of read the defense a little bit better, obviously getting off to that good start, hitting those face-up shots helped her confidence. But I definitely think it may have been an advantage for her to look at what just happened against them and try to make adjustments. I thought we made some good offensive adjustments as opposed to what we did at Iowa State. Q. Coach, your depth, there's really nobody in the conference that can match what you guys are able to do depthwise. Do you feel like that's going to be valuable when you are playing on back-to-back days here? KAREN ASTON: I hope so. We just talked about that in the locker room and it is only valuable if be everybody pays attention to detail. I will say that I threw that one group in there maybe too early together, and the detail wasn't there. But, as opposed to the first half when I subbed a little bit different, so I kinda blame myself for that one. I sort of threw a whole group in there that maybe wasn't ready to go together. But, again, to answer your question, as long as we continue the buy-in as far as what their jobs are when they go in because we're at the point in the season where there are certain people that need to be taking shots, box out, rebound, defend, and as long as they understand what their role is when they go in, I think it can be a huge advantage for us, playing back-to-back as quick as we're going to have to turn around and play tomorrow. Q. Coach, you talked about how tough it is to play someone three times. Is there anything specifically that you all change from game to game against these teams when you play 'em multiple times a year? KAREN ASTON: You obviously look back at the way you defended them. What you didn't do very well, and I thought we were better at some of that tonight. But, again, we went through span of time in the second half where I thought we were lackadaisical defensively. You have a 20-point lead and it's been a bit of a -- I don't want to say problem. I'm nitpicking as a coach, but there are times when we have had big leads where we have messed around so to say and let teams crawl back in it a little bit. I don't like that, but it is the personality of this team a little bit. They just don't have a real killer instinct and I wish we had that but we haven't really found that all year long. But, again, the adjustments I thought were more offensively, really. They play a specific way and they play Texas a specific way because of our personnel. We didn't recognize things in Ames very well and I thought we did a better job of attacking. When we didn't, we weren't successful and I think that's what Brooke meant by listen to the coaches because quick shots, that's not good. You don't get a rebound, and you're kind of playing into their hands if you take the first open shot. So I thought there were times we were really good with that and sometimes we got anxious with it. Q. Pulling from your starters that like you said they were getting lackadaisical, from that you still have two on more days in the tournament. How do you plan to change that so quickly with not a lot of time to recover? KAREN ASTON: Well, first of all, I mean, for example, I started Jordan Hosey, and I have the last two games that we have played really for a couple of reasons. She is an energy provider and it's a little bit of a match-up. I've also played four guards a lot in the last three games or so. I wouldn't think that would be something we would probably do against either one of the teams we might see tomorrow so there could be a change in the lineup, players play tomorrow that as you alluded to about our depth. I think that's the nice thing about our team at times is that we can go small or we can go a little bit bigger. So there are some players that will be ready to play tomorrow that maybe didn't play as many minutes today. Q. Ariel had a season high 25? KAREN ASTON: I wondered if anybody was going to get to Ariel. Q. Other than the urgency factor that she has talked about during the season, is there something more whether it is a confidence buildup or she is playing with more confidence or something that is added to her game that makes her effective on both ends of the court? KAREN ASTON: Well, I think you're seeing first of all the Ariel that we all knew she would become and would have become much sooner had she not been set back with that injury. So Ariel is probably performing exactly like we all expected her to perform. Ariel to me always plays with urgency, so I'm not sure it's a senior urgency or that she is completely healthy, confident, and who she is. And when she is the way she is and the way she is capable of being, she just is such an impact because of her scoring ability in so many different places and just her leadership. She is one of those kids that -- I mean, she has always had those leadership abilities. But when she was injured and trying to get herself back she didn't feel like she could say anything, but she can say whatever she wants to say now and everybody is going to listen because she is full strength and making the way -- I think she is an All-American and she has had that kind of a year and she is playing the way she wants to play. Part of it is, too, we're finding ways to get her shots more than I think we have been able to in the past. She is getting shots in a lot of different places and our coaches are doing a great job of getting her those shots and the players, too. You see Brooke with 7 assists tonight, Ariel was the hot one tonight so we needed to get her shots. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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