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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: AUSTINMarch 17, 2018Karen AstonLashann HiggsAriel AtkinsAustin, Texas Texas - 83, Maine - 54 KAREN ASTON: I was really pleased with how we started the game and really how we played the entire first half. I thought that our team was very locked in. Paid attention to detail, shot the ball well, did a lot of things really, really sharp in the first half. Had a conservative lead at halftime and may have let our guard down a little bit. That's just me nitpicking, but I was pleased that we were able to play everyone. I thought that it's good as you go along. You just don't ever know when your number's going to get called in NCAA Tournament play, so I think it was very good for everyone to get some playing time and get their feet wet with the NCAA Tournament. So good win for us. Q. Ariel, did you get a sense that you could come out and overwhelm them in the beginning the way you guys did? ARIEL ATKINS: We definitely knew we needed to be focused. We knew what they were capable of doing, and I think it was important for us in the first five minutes of the game to be really focused. Q. How good is it to get this game out of the way, you advance, everybody's able to play. How much confidence does that give you and the team? ARIEL ATKINS: I think it gives us a good amount of confidence. I think the confidence comes from knowing what we did. We focused on their tendencies and what they did well. And I think we actually used our preparation and listened to our coaches and we stuck with the game plan. I think that's where the confidence comes from. LASHANN HIGGS: Like Ariel said, that's where the confidence comes from. We stressed in practice every day how important tendencies -- respecting their tendencies are, and how we can't let our guard down because you never know what might happen. Q. Ariel, Andrew Jones spoke to you guys at the half, what was that like getting to see him again? ARIEL ATKINS: Oh, he brings good times. Getting to see him and talk to him and just kind of being around him, he's just a good, fun person to be around. His spirit and his joking and he's laughing with us, it just kind of felt like hanging out with him. At halftime he gave us a few words. It was really good to see him. Q. LaShann, do you think this team is playing better at this point right now than you were at this point last year? LASHANN HIGGS: Good question. I would say that we definitely are playing more as a team now, and there's a lot that we've been working on throughout the season. We just try to focus on the things that we can control and not worry about the things that we cannot control. So I would say that it's been a fun year. Q. Did you realize that you didn't even let them have a rebound for the first nearly eight minutes of the game? I mean, what's that speak to you about that you were basically physically able to overwhelm them? LASHANN HIGGS: That was one of the things that we actually had on the board. It was like rebound, with an exclamation mark, so we knew exactly what we tried to do was rebound. But to answer your question, no, I don't think we noticed that. Q. What's it like to go from that transition of having such an easy time on the glass and then go against a team that has 20 offensive rebounds? How do you lock back in when things were so easy tonight? LASHANN HIGGS: I would say that's definitely a mindset that we have to go into the next game because every team that's won we definitly have to respect what they do. So I would say it's a mentality that we have to go into the next game with because they're definitely a physical team. ARIEL ATKINS: I would say they're a physical basketball team, and in order for us to do what we want to do, we're going to have to rebound. Q. Ariel, new T-shirt. Was it somebody's idea, and what is the meaning behind it? ARIEL ATKINS: Well, honestly, I think every team has this shirt. I just think they all have their own slogan on it, or our mantra for the year, and ours is "family." The source is to focus in on picking each other up and focusing on one day at a time. I think that's what a family consists of. Just making sure everybody's at their best. When somebody's not at their best, be there to pick them up, and that helps us a lot throughout the year. Q. This will be one of your last games as a Longhorn. Has that hit you yet? ARIEL ATKINS: Well, you just said that, but, yeah, I have not thought about that. Wow. I don't know what to say. Q. Any thoughts on your time here in front of the fans specifically? ARIEL ATKINS: They have been the best fans I've been around. They support us through absolutely everything. And to be able to play in front of them for the last time, I can't put that in words. I'm just so thankful for this program and everything it's done for me. Our fans, I can't put that into words. Q. What do you feel the team did well offensively? You both had double digit points tonight. LASHANN HIGGS: I would say that we definitely executed better this game, and we went through with the game plan and we tried to be as patient as possible. There were times that we got a little sloppy and let our guard down, but we discussed it in the timeouts that we need to pick it back up and continue to do what we were doing that worked. ARIEL ATKINS: She hit it on the nose. Q. You said you were pleased to see your team locked in. It would have been easy today to come out and kick the ball around a little bit. What's that say to you in terms of the team's mindset coming into this tournament with a couple of seniors gunning for more? KAREN ASTON: Well, I think you hit it on the head in the sense of senior leadership. I really didn't think that we would not be focused, but because I based everything on practice, and I thought yesterday's preparation was really, really good. So you always feel good as a coach. I mean, sometimes it doesn't work out the way you want it to. But if you feel like you're prepared, then that's about all you can do but throw the ball up and see what happens. I thought our team was pretty locked in yesterday in practice, and they really have been since we've returned from the little break we took. Didn't surprise me that we were ready to play, but I did think we were pretty sharp the first half. Q. Andrew told me you asked him to speak on the team. What put that on your heart to do that? KAREN ASTON: Well, I happened to be walking down here and the men's team had just arrived back from Nashville. Rob hollered at me and said did you know Andrew was back in the locker room? He was with the men. So I walked back that way, and ran into Shaka, and I said, "Can I say hello?" And Shaka took me back in the locker room with the guys, and I just walked back there and he said I want to come to the game. I said if you're going to come to the game, why don't you say hi to the girls. Didn't catch him before the game. I was really hoping he would come in before the game. So Chris brought him back at half. Just some things are bigger than basketball. For him to be able to come in and a lot of these girls are really good friends with Andrew and they care deeply about him and his experience that he's having. Sometimes you just have to say whatever. It was a good chance for them to share some moments. I don't know. I kind of went back into the coach's locker room and talked to the coaches and said, hey, you can have them for a few minutes. I could hear a lot of laughing and good times. I think they took a team picture with him. It was good. It was good for the girls, and it was good to have him back around. He looks great. Q. Was that one of the more unique halftimes considering it's an NCAA Tournament? KAREN ASTON: Absolutely, absolutely. I tell you what, it's good to be home. I can tell you that. Because last year I believe Mack Brown came in and gave quite an inspirational speech before we played. I don't remember whether -- I think it may have been the second game. But that's the great thing about being at home is that you get to see people one more time and experience things that you probably wouldn't experience on the road. Q. You said you felt like they were ready to play and you were pleased with how they came out in the first half. Did anything surprise you about how well you handled Maine today? KAREN ASTON: I think I said this in the press conference before the game. It is a little bit refreshing to get away from league play. Three out of the four of our league teams have won their first round games. Our league is tough, and I don't think we give it the credit that it deserves because it is so tough. That double round robin sometimes can just beat you in the head, and I think when you get away from it you are able to take a breath. Our team looked refreshed that they were playing someone that didn't necessarily know every move that they were going to make. So to answer your question, it surprised me a little bit that they didn't execute some things that I had seen them execute against other people. I think Maine is a good team, they're well-coached and they execute really well. The way we played defensively in the first half was very pleasing to all of us. Q. Is the strength of schedule -- you mentioned the Big 12 strength, you played Baylor three times, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, West Virginia, is it safe to say you're not going to be overwhelmed by opposition because you've already season top-level opposition, unlike Maine who had not seen much of this? KAREN ASTON: I think just the level of preparation that it takes, it doesn't seem abnormal to, as I said, to lock in because you have to do that for a lot of games in a row just to be competitive in our league and you have to bring it every night. So I think just the fact that our team has gotten used to that and they're getting better. Every year we've gotten much better at just trying to treat every game the same. I know you get tired of hearing that from our players, but they really have tried to live that this year, and I think it's helped them in the good times and the bad. Q. Brooke had 7 rebounds tonight in 24 minutes. Do you notice a difference with her in that area? If so, what's that like having your point guard rebound for you? KAREN ASTON: I love point guards that rebound. I would have to say that's not what I recruited Brooke to do. But I love point guards that rebound. That's something I actually look at in the recruiting process. But, again, not with Brooke. She's discovered ways to maneuver and pick up the loose ones when people box out. But I do love point guards that rebound, because we like to transition and it obviously starts your transition game if your point guard already has the ball in her hands. Q. One of the players said you or somebody wrote "Rebound" in the locker room or with an exclamation point. Was that a big emphasis going into the game? I'm going to guess they passed that test? KAREN ASTON: I thought they passed it for most of the game. Just because I thought Maine would try to control the tempo, and if we can get stops and get rebounds and get outlets and get out quicker, we can try to get some buckets that are a little bit easier than having to go against their set defense, which is kind of what happened. So that's why. Obviously, rebounding is an emphasis every game, but we wanted to try to get out in transition against them. Q. You got a team that's going to be able to muscle up with you in the second round. What is the message on the white board going to be now? KAREN ASTON: Rebound (laughing). I will say, you always look at something differently when you see them in person, and that was the thing that kind of jumped out at me watching Arizona State right off the bat is that Nebraska didn't seem to be able to get a rebound. That was a big determining factor in that game. I mean, it was close for a long time, and they absolutely controlled the boards from the tip. So, yeah, we have our hands full, no question. Q. As one of the favorites to make a run in this tournament, a 2 seed, did you at all talk about what happened last night in the men's tournament with your girls? KAREN ASTON: No, we talked about what happened in the women's game today. Three mid-majors won. Q. What you say? KAREN ASTON: Before the game we discussed it, and I just said you don't want that to happen in your house. Let's be ready to play. But the game is getting better. I don't think that's a terrible thing. Obviously, it would have been for us tonight, but more parity. I was a mid-major coach. I guess that's what you would have called Charlotte. We laced up our shoes just like everybody else did. So I think you have to be ready to play when it's tournament time. But I will say those games were fun to watch last night. Q. Depends on who you ask. KAREN ASTON: True, true. But my favorite so far has been watching Buffalo play. That town has to be going crazy right now. Their men and women both won. The women had an upset. Q. With this quick turnaround, how do you prepare for a team that, like you said, you're not quite as familiar with because they're not in your conference? KAREN ASTON: Well, I think we've experienced this quite often just because we have these turnarounds in conference play quite a bit. We're fortunate enough to play on ESPN sometimes on Mondays, and we've had some quick turnarounds like this that we always talk about in that moment, which is this is what this is going to feel like in the NCAA Tournament. So I think our team is somewhat used to that. That they've had to one day in between, so I don't think that will be a surprise to them at all. They do have to go back to school on Monday. They did ask me that. I said, yes, you do. But other than that, I think this will be a normal routine for them. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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