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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 4, 2018Jim FlanerySydney LambertyJaylyn AgnewChicago, Illinois Creighton - 66, St. John's - 58 JIM FLANERY: Thanks for reminding me that we hadn't beaten St. John's. And we didn't say anything, or I didn't say anything to the team. I don't know if anybody else did, because I just think it's -- every team is different, and some of our younger players, we didn't play them in the conference tournament last year, but we played them three years in row, and then we lost to them in the NCAA Tournament two years before we came into the Big East. We haven't had a lot of postseason success against them. But they're a good team. They really make us work to score the ball, and you know, it's a great win. I just want to say this, too: Nobody in our league is more valuable than Sydney Lamberty to their team, okay, and Sydney didn't make an All-Conference team. She made honorable mention. But I would tell you that nobody has more value to their team than she does, and she's had an unbelievable year, and I told her she's not coming off the floor until we lose or until we win this week. She was outstanding. She hadn't played point guard for us solely her first three years, and yet she's done it this year on a team that really has needed ball handling, and just tremendous. You saw the other player up here, Jaylyn, her improvement from a year ago is drastic, and it's a credit to her work ethic and the things that she experienced last year to have some success. But she's really become an even better player. Really proud of those guys, but proud of the whole team because it's not easy to win in a conference tournament. I thought we were nervous early, but I thought we really bounced out of it quickly, and then when they made the run to start the second half. I felt like we stayed positive, and the bench did, and fought and put ourselves in a position where we finally eventually put a little separation between us and them. Q. Jaylyn, what switched on for you (indiscernible)? JAYLYN AGNEW: I think just my teammates like saying it's okay, you're going to be fine, and then we just came together and we knew we could fight and win this game. So I think just having that mentality. Q. Sydney, what did you see (indiscernible) especially down low? SYDNEY LAMBERTY: Yeah, I mean, we talked about it. We had a meeting this past week before we came here, and we talked about how they're so important to this team, them coming off the bench with energy, and that's exactly what they did, they came off and they were that spark that we needed. Q. For both the players, each of you separately, though, the St. John's thing, obviously Jaylyn, you were not here for any of that; Sydney, you were. How aware were each of you of the situation with St. John's? SYDNEY LAMBERTY: I mean, I was aware that we haven't beaten them, but I just -- we all knew that it was a really important game besides not having beaten them in a while in the postseason. I mean, we just knew that we needed to get this bin regardless. JAYLYN AGNEW: Yeah, we were aware. We've heard stories from older players about it. But we tried to like not keep that in our heads and just play to win. Q. The second half at the start, you kind of got it going, you hit a big shot that kind of gave you the lead for good. What was going on in the third quarter that gave them that momentum? JAYLYN AGNEW: I think just -- I don't know, our offense -- we were getting good looks but some things weren't going in, and then we kind of -- we didn't secure the rebound on some, and we just needed to talk and communicate and secure the rebounds so we could get offense going. Q. Sydney, you heard your coach lavish some praise on you; how do you feel your importance to the team is? How do you kind of look at that? SYDNEY LAMBERTY: I mean, I feel like it's something that I've really worked on this year is my leadership vocally. I have always been leading by example, and that's something that the coaches and my teammates helped me with this year, is just being more of a leader on the team. Q. Obviously Marquette tomorrow, a great team over there. Talk about that matchup. JAYLYN AGNEW: Yeah, it's going to be a fun game. We're excited. You know, the battle back, we split, like you said, so it's going to be a tough one. But we're excited. SYDNEY LAMBERTY: Yeah, they're a great team. We just need to come prepared. Q. Sydney, you guys play one of the slowest tempos in the country -- JIM FLANERY: Villanova plays slower, don't they? So we're second? (Laughter). Q. Do you think there's a correlation between playing slowly and being efficient on offense like you were today? SYDNEY LAMBERTY: Yeah, I mean, that's something they tell us we need to push the ball more and we need to look to fast break more, but I think we do, just because we take our time on offense, we can get those better looks, I think. Q. One thing that really stands out, three of you guys were perfect from the free-throw line, so talk about just the focus coming in here today and the execution. JAYLYN AGNEW: We knew we had to be focused. We had really good practices this week, and we just had to, like you said, keep focused and know that we could win. Q. You mentioned that Audrey and Sydney met with you earlier in the week -- JIM FLANERY: Yeah. Q. About the preparation that went into the final week of the season versus how they wanted to prepare for this week. What did you notice in how they walked that walk in practice this week? Did you notice a different level of focus and preparation for this tournament? JIM FLANERY: Yeah. I mean, I had planned on meeting with those guys this past week, and they actually reached out to me and said that they wanted to meet and talk about just accountability throughout the team, which I thought was great leadership. You know, it started -- their thought process started with preparation, and not that we prepared poorly last week, but they felt like it could be better, and I think that's up and down. You get to this time of year, not everybody is playing. Not everybody is getting -- not everybody has had the kind of individual year that they want to have, and that doesn't mean they're selfish, that doesn't mean that they have checked out, it just means there's maybe a little bit different level of focus throughout the team. You've got somebody like Sydney who's going to play 40 minutes; well, yeah, she's supposed to be great in practice every day. But I felt like that was a good sign, that they wanted to talk about that. We talked about some other things, but I felt like we practiced well. It is about all the way through your roster. You know, especially this time of year, because if you've got somebody pulling a different direction or pushing a different direction, you can't be successful, not as good as this league is, not with the limitations that we have. Not that we're not talented, but we're not mega-talented, and so I think that was huge. I credit our upperclassmen for kind of sensing that, because the difference between winning and losing at this level is so minuscule that if you're not -- if you're preparing at 85 or 90 percent, it makes all the difference. I'm pleased that they did that, and I'm proud of them for showing that kind of leadership. Q. Defensively it looked like you were switching 1 through 5 out there. What did you think about specifically the five players, Ali specifically, being able to keep the dribble in front of her? JIM FLANERY: Yeah, I mean, I think Ali -- Ali moves her feet the best of our three post players, so she was -- and her physicality in terms of rebounding. But that was -- I thought she did a really good job. I mean, she lifted up a couple times and didn't slide her feet, but so did our perimeter players. And they're good enough off the dribble. But I thought for the most part, she really sat down and tried to guard the ball. You know, we gave up -- not gave up, they earned a lot of baskets because of our switches, but we felt like we were okay with her having a decent day in order to -- I haven't looked at the -- yeah, I mean, they only took six threes, and in the first half, nobody besides England, who doesn't shoot very many, had taken a three. You know, there's a trade-off. Any time you want to defend something, you're maybe giving up something else. Our philosophy was not to let them get going from the three-point line, and we got hurt on switches a decent amount but not enough. Q. So more than 40 percent of your shots were from three. Today you were 50 percent from the field. Do you see that as a way (indiscernible)? JIM FLANERY: Yeah, I think we're a little bit dependent on the three than we have been in the past. I mean, part of it is with Jaylyn, Audrey and Sydney, 6'1", 5'11", 5'10", we can score off the cut at the rim better and we can drive it and finish a little bit better than a lot of the teams that we've had, so I think we've -- that's made us a little more balanced team. Even though we had some free throws late when they had to foul, we also got to the free-throw line. Jaylyn did a good job of getting to the free-throw line, and we made our free throws today. Q. The St. John's thing, I know you said you didn't want to mention it, but your players know -- JIM FLANERY: Sure. Q. Was that a conscious decision on your part? And also looking ahead to Marquette, obviously going to be a very different kind of game with them. JIM FLANERY: Yeah, well, I think they knew that. But there's so many things that I don't mention because they're so much more social media savvy than I am that if something has come out, a lot of times I don't address it because they've already -- they're so into that that they haven't -- there's no need to. And I felt like, like you said, with the younger players, it didn't have any resonance. With older players, Sydney and some of our older players, they're smart enough to know that every year is different. But as far as Marquette goes, you know, really, really good and talented team and balanced. I mean, you look at them, yeah, you've got Blockton, but today Wilborn hits four threes, and a lot of other kids that can make shots. I can just tell you that every year when I vote for All-Conference, okay, Blockton is an easy one, but then like all those next kids are like, well, she could be. They're talented. You know, we've won -- we beat them twice, two out of three last year, and we split with them this year. Our kids will know what we need to do, and it'll come down to who plays better. I think we have enough -- we have enough upperclassmen to be able to turn it around. I think in a tournament, to be able to turn it around in 24 hours or less, you've got to be -- to have some experience and be cerebral about your approach because you obviously can't get on the court and do anything physical, so hopefully that's -- but it'll come down to execution and the preparation that we've done all year, not necessarily the preparation that we're going to do in the next 22 hours. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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