|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2018Doug BrunoKelly CampbellAshton MillenderChicago, Illinois DePaul - 85, Georgetown - 63. DOUG BRUNO: Our players were really dialled in and focused. It's the time of year for them to be dialled in and focused. I thought we did a really good job on the defensive side of the ball most of the evening. I mean, holding a Georgetown team that scored 86 against us in Chicago 17 days ago to 22 points in the first half was a credit to our players. Then coming back and getting off to the great start in the third quarter was also a credit to our players. I thought they were just really dialled in and really ready to play. Q. Ashton, you really started off from the git-go knocking down three pointers. Was that your mindset to come in and splash a bunch of threes or what was it that you had? ASHTON MILLENDER: Just basically knocking down open shots when I got them. I couldn't have done it without my teammates passing me the ball though, so it came to me just knocking it down. Q. Can you talk about the difference between the 1-point loss the last time you played this team and tonight's game? KELLY CAMPBELL: Yeah, I think in tonight's game we really focused on defense and rebounding much better than we did in the game before. It was a huge mindset coming in. I think we executed well. It was a big team win, I mean, good team offensively, so I think both of those things. Q. You talk about defensive rebounding, offensive rebounding was really the big difference in that first quarter and first five minutes of the second quarter you were outrebounding them 9-1. At one point you're up 29-20. That was really the big difference. What was the mindset and how much did Coach preach that coming into this game? KELLY CAMPBELL: Yeah, I mean, offensive rebounding has been huge for us this year. I don't really know where to go with this. So I think just getting those easy baskets on putbacks just helped us get into a good flow. ASHTON MILLENDER: She got it. Q. Kelly, congratulations on your All Big East Tournament Team selection. KELLY CAMPBELL: Thank you. Q. I wanted to ask you with the performance you put on tonight, double-double, you held Georgetown's two toughest players to really shut down them from the field. How are you and the rest of the team able to just really make that difference tonight? KELLY CAMPBELL: Considering in the last game they both kind of went off on us, it was huge for us to make that a huge point. So I'm glad my teammates did a great job on defense, and everyone helped with help defense and rebounding really got the job done. Q. How much do you look forward to this stage tomorrow night, a championship game against Marquette? KELLY CAMPBELL: Yeah, I'm very excited for this game tomorrow. We did not come here to place second, so really excited to get into the game tomorrow and get the win. ASHTON MILLENDER: Just very excited. I love the atmosphere, so does my team. So like Kelly said, we didn't come here to place second. Just ready. Just ready. Q. Obviously you guys had a really good showing today. But what has the legacy been for this team, especially with players like Brooke Schulte? Does it put you guys in a position to have such a dominating game? ASHTON MILLENDER: Brooke and Jess kind of like carried the team. They were very good players. But I feel like we have a lot more threats on the team. Like everybody's a threat, so everybody has to be guarded. It's harder for like our defense to match up with that. Q. Will your mental preparation be any different going into tomorrow's game based on how you prepared for today's game? ASHTON MILLENDER: Not really, because we basically prepare every game the same. But I guess knowing that it's a championship, it's like more determining. KELLY CAMPBELL: Yeah, I agree. I think we prepare for every game the same way. But tomorrow there is a little extra emphasis because it's the championship and it's Marquette. So there's big rival there. Q. How important was it for the team to see Amarah Coleman sitting so long and then to give you guys that spark? DOUG BRUNO: It's always great when everybody plays well. We have a team here that's very versatile and we've really not hit on all cylinders yet where everybody's playing well every night. So it was great to see Amarah have a really quality ballgame and some of our other players as well. This is how this team has constructed itself. So it's very versatile, and it was great to see Amarah playing well. Q. Coach you mentioned how impressed you were with your team's defensive performance, but you look at the stat sheet, 18 assists to just nine turnovers. What do you think your team did so well offensively to be that effective? DOUG BRUNO: I just think we did a much better job of taking care of the basketball than we did the last time we played them. I just thought Georgetown is a very tenacious defensive team. I thought as quick as we shoot, as fast as we like to play, I think we really do emphasize half court, offensive execution when teams force us to pass the ball. When you don't have a quick, easy one early, you have to have patience. I thought our players showed much more discipline and patience tonight in many possessions. Q. I wanted to know what did you say going into the second half at halftime when you guys were leading. What did you say to the ladies to get them back focused and not just take it to their head of them being ahead, but to make sure they stayed well prepared to take it as it is the first quarter and not the third and fourth quarter? DOUG BRUNO: We try to prepare our team. Kelly just said it, and it sounds like the same, but we try to prepare our team the same way for every game. By that, we really try to keep the players in the present, focused on every possession, and that's what we always do. We try to never play to a score. We always try to play to the possession. Doesn't matter which side of the ball we're on. We want to play to the possession, and that's something we emphasize all year long. That doesn't mean we do it. Think about the last time we played Georgetown, they had 32 points in the fourth quarter, so we were emphasizing the same things going into the second half the first time we played Georgetown and didn't get the job done. So what we talk about and what we emphasize doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to happen, and that's the experience of our basketball team. They had a firsthand experience 17 days ago where Dionna White had a career night, and Petke had a great, great second half, so a great game against us. And we lost that game and they didn't have Venson, so, I think it's more about our players. That's what experience does. That's what seasons do, and I think we've learned. We've taken some lumps this year, and that's what hopefully we've learned from those lumps. Q. Kelly Campbell talked about this is a big rivalry for you guys. Second time you're playing them in the championship in two years. Pretty similar styles of basketball. You guys attack just like they do from a lot of different angles. From a defensive perspective, how do you attack them right now, especially with Allazia Blockton playing as well as she is? DOUG BRUNO: What makes Marquette so strong is Allazia is a great player, Player of the Year in the league for justified reasons. Yet, they are multiple dimension also. Hiedeman can go off at any moment. Davenport can have a big game. Wilborn is one of our -- I mean, she's just one of the toughest competitors there is. She was MVP a year ago, and she lit us up in the championship game a year ago. Then Danielle King, everybody knows what Danielle King's done against DePaul, so, I mean, it's multi-dimensional. We just can't focus on Blockton, and that's why Marquette's really good. We have to focus on everybody. Having gotten to play for Ray Meyer, and having played against Al McGwire, and they had the Independent where there were no leagues. It became its own league. Notre Dame twice on DePaul's schedule, Marquette twice, Dayton twice, and yet I just think how cool it would be for Coach Allen and for Coach Ray, to be able to be playing in a Big East Championship game. Those guys would have embraced it and would have been really great at it. It's just how you think back. That's how long I go back to this rivalry. So, believe me, if anybody understands the rivalry between DePaul and Marquette, I certainly really do. We're excited about it. Carolyn's done a great job to put her program back in a place of national prominence, and that's what the Big East is all about. This is a great league. We beat a really good team today. The team we beat today is a really good basketball team. It's not some fluke. Marquette beat a really good Creighton team today. So this is a great league top to bottom, and we're just excited to put ourselves in position to be playing for the Big East championship again. Q. Tell me what you've seen with Marquette that is different in the tournament? What basically -- how are you going to prepare for them? DOUG BRUNO: I am not capable of watching tomorrow's game, so I really haven't studied them -- I mean, I've studied them my whole life. I've studied this thing since I got there. So I know what they do. When it comes this tournament, my mind has to be on Georgetown today. Some coaches are good enough that they can come here and watch the first game. I can't. I've got to sit there and focus on Georgetown, and focus on Georgetown, and replay Georgetown. So we'll walk out of here in a few minutes, and believe me, we know Marquette very, very well. But what they've done here, how they've progressed since we've played them basically four or five weeks ago, that's something that my very, very talented assistant coaches are all over. This was Lisa Ryckbosch's scout tonight, and Jill Pizzotti has the Marquette scout and Creighton scout. So now it's down to the Marquette scout. So they're all over what's going on here. But personally I won't turn my attention to it until I walk across that sky bridge, get up in my hotel room and start hunkering down. But the beauty of this is the beauty of league championships are we all do know each other. Doesn't matter what league it is, we all know each other. Those juniors that are playing together since they're freshmen, so there is not much about them that's really going to be surprising. It's still going to come down to the execution and the competitiveness between their five and our five. Q. Both of your players are very excited for tomorrow's game, but for you as a coach, how do you plan to control their emotions for tomorrow? DOUG BRUNO: I think Kelly said it best. It sounds boring, but we really do try to prepare for every game the same. Now, that doesn't mean, and I'm not for a second trying to suggest that when you play somebody on December 28th it's the same as playing somebody in March Madness, one and out basketball. But at the same time, if you can keep your players in the moment and keep them focused on the moment and not focused on possible results and focus on the results of each possession, that's what she means when she says we prepare the same way for every game. That's what we do at DePaul. So that's what we're going to do for Marquette tomorrow. It still comes down to today. If somebody asked a question about the White and Petke scoring today, well, Chante Stonewall, we went back with our defensive match-ups for our game in D.C. Chante has more length, and so she did a good job, very good job, on White today. Mart'e Grace did a good job on Petke. But still, tomorrow it's going to be Wilborn's going to be against one of our players and so is Blockton and so is Hiedeman, and that's what makes it a great, great ballgame. We can't forget about Danielle King. Because, you know, maybe this year she doesn't average 27 against us, but last year she certainly averaged 27 against us, so that's a very important match-up as well and Davenport as well. They have five players that could have made the Big East All-conference team. So all five of those players are really, really special. They're getting some bench play, and it's a really, really talented basketball team. I'm excited for the Big East. I certainly believe we deserve to have four teams in the NCAA Tournament. Villanova and Creighton having lost one before the championship game should not cost them if the people on the committee are really paying attention to how good this league is. So it's going to be a great ballgame tomorrow night, and I'm looking forward to it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|