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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: AUSTINMarch 18, 2018Karen AstonAriel AtkinsJatarie WhiteAustin, Texas KAREN ASTON: Super excited to be able to play in front of our fans one more time this year. I think that it's been a terrific season for our team and to be able to get on center court one more time will be special for us. I think this is going to be a very challenging match-up for our team. I have a lot, a lot of respect for Charli and the way she coaches. I've known her for a long time. Her teams have some tendencies about them that are always the same. They're extremely competitive, play defense as good as anybody. And this particular team has been very impressive on the board. So I think it's going to be a real challenge for our team, so we're excited to play and looking forward to tomorrow night. Q. Jatarie, can you talk about the match-up you're going to have under the basket? They were very physical against you? JATARIE WHITE: Yeah, we saw them a little bit in the third quarter yesterday. I thought they were very physical offensively in the post and also defensively playing the other team's big girl. I saw them make a lot of turn around jumpshots and mid-rain not shots, also post moves to the basket. So we definitely have to play post defense and respect them inside. Q. Ariel, I know you want to approach every game exactly the same, but is it a different feeling when the Sweet Sixteen is on the line and it's a major conference opponent, versus just opening up a tournament against a smaller school like Maine? ARIEL ATKINS: You've got to be focused. We're really going to have to put our preparation into play and do what our coaches ask us to do. Q. Ariel, I think you were a freshman, went to Cal. Can you describe the difference between the challenge of playing at Cal and the comforts of playing at home the last three years? ARIEL ATKINS: That was definitely a challenge, just as far as time. You don't think that you notice it, but once you get to playing, you know you have to get to sleep and wake up the next day, it's definitely a challenge. It's definitely a blessing to be able to play at home our first round. Q. As one of the bigger guards, how important will rebounding be, not just from the post perspective, but the guard perspective as well? ARIEL ATKINS: It will be extremely important. It's important for our team, period, to help our post rebound more. I think we need to rebound more as a team versus depending on ourselves all the time. Q. The nerves for you guys as a team, there's got to be a certain set of nerves when you're just starting the tournament in that first game versus this game where you feel like there's so much on the line. There is so much to be said about making the second week and making the Sweet Sixteen. What is the difference in starting the tournament and trying to advance as a team? JATARIE WHITE: I think it's kind of the same all the way through. The first game you just kind of for the freshmen, the younger players getting out there and getting their feet wet and stuff like that. But it's survive and advance, so we have to treat every game like it will be our last game. So every game has to be -- we have to come out our hardest and our strongest every day. Q. Yesterday Arizona State didn't shoot very well from three in the first half, I think they shot three for 13. Three pointers can lead to a long rebounds from a guard perspective. Are you going to be looking to get those rebounds and push the ball if they're long rebounds? ARIEL ATKINS: We would like to push the ball, but we have to start off with rebounds. Q. How much more difficult is it to prepare at this point in the season when you're not as familiar with the next team than it was when you were playing Big 12 teams that you're familiar with? ARIEL ATKINS: Definitely have to be more focused. In the film room you have to have a more keen focus on personnel. Because as an older player, when you play the Big 12, we kind of go through the years play against these players and we know the tendencies as a team. So you have to focus in on what the coaches are saying. They're up all night watching film, so it's important that we focus on the personal tendencies. JATARIE WHITE: Yeah, I agree, when Coach gets us out in practice, we have to make sure we know exactly what the team is doing offensively as well as making sure that we understand what they're trying to do to us on the defensive end. Q. Does Arizona State remind you of anybody you may have played in the Big 12, and if so, what areas? JATARIE WHITE: I can't think of anybody right now. This is my first year playing in the Big 12. Q. Ariel, do they remind you of anybody? ARIEL ATKINS: Honestly, I can't think of anybody right now. We haven't gotten film and we haven't gotten to watch them completely through. We've only been able to watch them for the third quarter so far right now, so I'm excited to get in the film room. Q. Ariel, when you look at your career, if you guys win tomorrow, that's four straight years of at least making the Sweet Sixteen. How big is that for you individually, for the program, especially where it was when Coach Aston came in? ARIEL ATKINS: I think it's huge. I think it's a testament to coach, honestly. Every year she's come here we've gotten better and better on the court. I feel like the product we put on the floor has gotten better every year. So I think that's a testament to her, and her diligence, and focus and passion for the program. Q. What's it mean to you to have a run like that individually? Everybody survives and advances. That's what this month is all about, and you've been able to do that so much in your career here. ARIEL ATKINS: It means a lot. I'm thankful to have the teammates I've had throughout the years and the coach that's we've had that have pushed us to not settle for anything, to always push forward and want to do greater, want to do better, want to do bigger things. Q. Arizona State tends to sub a lot especially in short bursts. Does that present any specific challenges or different challenge because they go to their bench quite often? KAREN ASTON: I think it does present a challenge. Just your focus has to come into play, and the fact that we're not as familiar with their personnel and there is no way to be, as you would be in conference play. I mean, every player's going to have a little bit of a different tendency, and the things that they're looking for out of certain players are probably different. The fact that they sub very frequently will be a challenge for us, most definitely. Our coaches will have to help a little bit more than maybe they would have to against some teams because of the frequency of the subbing. Q. You've obviously talked about sleeping in your own bed kind of thing. Is that a carrot in front of the team during the season knowing that no matter what happens, if you're in the top 16, you're going to play at home? I asked Ariel about playing at Cal and it was rough, still won, but it was rough. Here it's different. KAREN ASTON: I think it is a carrot is a good word for it. I definitely think it's a motivation to -- well, there are several things that motivate you for that. One is our administration and the guys, Angelo that does our schedule, and everyone that is a part of our scheduling feels very strongly about playing a great non-conference schedule, and I think that goes into play. If you get down to the difference between you and maybe another team that is going to host and you similarly finish in conference play, then your non-conference schedule and your strength of schedule is going to come into play. So it motivates us to play a tough non-conference schedule. Then I think once you get into conference play, if you happen to have some setbacks like we did this year, it keeps you motivated to not -- I mean, obviously we're motivated to try to win the conference, but I also think it comes into play when you're starting to think do you want to let one loss turn into two, and how do you finish your last ten games? All of those things I think our team and our program understands the importance. Then the last, and I wouldn't say it's last as far as importance, but just for the players to be able to play in front of their family and friends, the potential of two more times, is, I think, very motivating for them. Q. Not that this team you would worry about them overlooking anybody, but could you point to last year's second round game and how much of a sweat it really was? Just a friendly reminder this time of year not to overlook anyone? KAREN ASTON: Yeah, I don't think that they'll do that. I think that most of them would remember last year's game against North Carolina State and then, I mean, we were at home, but obviously that was a very challenging game for us. I also think they're paying attention. As I mentioned last night, there were three or four upsets yesterday. I mean, when I went into the second round, well, now we're in the second round, so I think our players are aware and very honed in on the fact that this is one game, and you're not going anywhere unless you win the game. So I think they'll be very locked in. They know Arizona State's good. We've scrimmaged them the last couple of years, close scrimmages. So we're somewhat familiar with playing them. Q. How much familiarity do you have with them? Because we just kind of talked about the idea in the tournament format you get to play teams that you don't always meet. But here you have a situation where you have matched up personnel, and how do you feel about that match? KAREN ASTON: Well, they're a little different, and they've graduated several people. So they are, I think, fairly young in some positions. I mean, it's the first game of the year. Not really a game. It's a closed scrimmage, so I'm not sure that any of our players actually remember. They might remember their style. I don't think they'll remember the players until they get possibly in the film room. The coaches may have a little more familiarity with personnel. But that first game of the year, I don't think anybody remembers much of anything. They're just trying to see what they have. But you remember their competitiveness. There is no way to get around that. Q. Will you be looking for Brooke to have around seven rebounds like she had yesterday or a little more? KAREN ASTON: I'm going to look for everybody to rebound tomorrow. If they don't, then it's going to be a long night for us. Q. Do you think they can match you on that speed in transition with Brooke and LaShann or is that something you really want to press? KAREN ASTON: It goes back to rebounding, as I said last night. Knowing that Maine was going to try to control the tempo of the game in the same sense, I mean, rebounding plays into transition for us, so I think that's why this is going to be such a challenging game is that they're really good on the boards in a lot of areas. I think the other channeling thing for us is their guards rebound really well. I think Robbi is one of their second or third leading rebounders. So I think when you look at that, that's going to be challenging for us. Q. Ariel said the right things where you have to have the right mindset with every game, but is it a different -- do you sense something different from your players when they're playing a big-game school like Arizona State and a berth in the Sweet Sixteen is on the line? KAREN ASTON: In your facts, maybe so. But I thought we were pretty ready to play last night. I didn't think we looked like we were playing a name or a conference or anything else. I thought we were pretty focused. Again, we may have lost a little bit at halftime, but that was worth it. But I did think that we looked like a team that was pretty serious about playing. I think that we'll be ready to play tomorrow. I don't think there will be any type of different mentality for us. Q. What do you need from Joyner? KAREN ASTON: She's going to have to be very detailed defensively. Their post players are really good, and they challenge you in a different way. I think Rick asked the players, and the players didn't know the answer to this because they haven't seen the bulk of the film, which we'll go into it in a few minutes, but if I had to compare them to someone in our league, it's probably the best team that comes to my mind might be West Virginia. I say that only because of the physicality of their defense and the fact that they have a forward that can shoot threes really well. So I think that's the challenging thing for our forwards in general is that they can stretch the floor, and sometimes that becomes an issue for us. So when you say Joyner, I think that's not just a challenge for Joyner. I think it's going to be a challenge for our forwards and post players is that they can stretch it. Q. Might you play in zone if you can (Indiscernible)? KAREN ASTON: I don't know that we would get too far away from what we've been doing all year long. I mean, I've seen them zoned in conference play a little bit, but I also think they can shoot the ball. The thing about a zone is that that's even harder to rebound in the zone. They crash so well, you better figure out a way to get a body on each one of them. Their guards rebound well. Q. The fact that you're on this run with the last few years and at least making the second weekend, what's allowed this team to be able to do that, this program to be able to do that? What's it mean to you personally to be having so much success in this tournament? KAREN ASTON: I think what's allowed it has been the players' buy-in. They buy in in the recruiting process. So you're looking at some seniors that four years ago bought into the fact that they wanted to come here and make an impression on this campus and an impression on this program, and they absolutely have done that. And that goes back to the first class that we had in here that hung around. Some didn't, some did. But the ones that hung around made an impression on our program. I think it's just the buy-in of our culture. I mean, it's a goal and one that should be a realistic goal for this program every year. I'm not disrespecting our opponent, because it's going to be a very tough game tomorrow night, but that's the goal that should be a realistic one every year for Texas. Q. I think it's been four years now the NCAA went to the top 16 playing host for the first two rounds. Is that good for basketball in that you're going to get fans, or is it unfair in basketball that the other three have to be visitors, true visitors every time? KAREN ASTON: Well, I think it's a reward for, again, the body of work. For people that were willing to schedule tough, non-conference games and then played consistently all year long. Because I think that's the combination of the things that gets you the ability to host. You not only played well in your conference games, but you also probably played somebody in non-conference play and boasted your strength of schedule. We tried it the other way, and I would say that it's been beneficial to have -- I mean, this is about student-athlete experience. It always has been, and it always will be. For the student-athletes I think that they enjoy. I think if you asked most of the players, regardless of whether they're at home or not, they would say that they would rather play in a packed gym. When we tried it the other way, the gyms, unless it was lucky enough to have the city that won the hosting was lucky enough to have someone local, then there were not as many people in the stands, so it didn't make for a great experience for any of the student-athletes. I think this is better. I think everyone would tell you they'd rather play in front of a crowd. My wish is this is a packed gym tomorrow night. I think we're the only show in town Monday night. I hope. Unless there is a band playing somewhere, and they're probably playing the next night too. So I just want to encourage everybody in the city to come out and see a really, really good basketball game. I'm assuming it will be. I know that it will be extremely competitive. And anybody that missed a second round game last year missed the show. So I'm anticipating that same level of competition between the two teams, and I would just encourage anybody that wants to come to the game, I hope that our student body hears about it by the time they get back on campus tomorrow for the first day of classes. It's 8:00 tomorrow night. Everybody has gotten off work. The crowd, the traffic should be died down, and the students should be looking for something to do. Probably don't have a lot of homework after the first day of class. So this is a perfect storm, I guess to say, for us to have an unbelievable crowd, and we should have that. This team deserves that. Q. You talk about Arizona State can rebound and they're physical. Where do you feel like your team has an edge? KAREN ASTON: Well, I think that both teams are going to mirror each other quite a bit defensively. I do think that if we can rebound and we do an admirable job on the boards, I think we can get out in transition and play some early offense. I do think we're very similar. It's hard to say that we have an edge in a lot of positions. I think we're similar teams. We have some bigs that can score. We have some guards that can shoot the ball. So this is going to boil down to some real intangibles. Who does the dirty things? Who gets the loose balls? Who boxes out? Free throws will probably come into play. I would expect this will be a game that the 50-50 stuff comes into play. They remind me a little bit of Oklahoma too, where every time I talk about playing an Oklahoma or West Virginia team like that in our league, it's always about the 50-50 plays. It's rugged, a little bit ugly, but you're going to see some kids flying around tomorrow night. Q. You mentioned the seniors who have bought into the program and the culture, how much have you seen that rub off on the younger players? KAREN ASTON: It can't help but rub off. I mean, you look at just Chasity Patterson this year, and I know she's not gotten the minutes that maybe she wanted or thought she would get here, but it was fun to watch her last night get in her first NCAA Tournament game and actually look like she belonged. Even though the minutes haven't transpired for her, she's really improved a lot, and I would say more than anything her mentality has changed a little bit, and that's because the older players are rubbing off. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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