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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2019Yolett McPhee-McCuinCrystal AllenNashville, Tennessee Florida-64, Ole Miss-57 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Ole Miss. Coach, any thoughts, please. YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Obviously disappointing loss. No one wants to go home on the first day. I'm well aware that someone has to. It just happened to be us. Just had an opportunity to spend time with the players in the locker room. When I got this gig, I had two players that were healthy. That was it. I hired a staff and put a team together, and we got our last play in September. They picked us last, and we didn't finish last, we knocked off a ranked team, did some incredible things. The future is bright. I think our kids gave all they had. The staff definitely did. I'm looking forward to the future. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Crystal Allen. Q. Coach Newbauer was in here moments ago saying you were a nightmare to prepare for, one of the players in the SEC that no one wanted to play. Your first year in the SEC, what has that whole experience been like for you? CRYSTAL ALLEN: It's actually been great. I was coming from the Sunbelt Conference. For this to be my first year, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity I had. I got an opportunity to play in one of the best conferences in the land. We played some of the top teams, Kentucky. We ended up beating them on their home floor. A lot of accomplishments we had this season. I know it didn't end out the way I wanted it to end, the way we wanted it to end. It is what it is. I just thank God for this opportunity I've been given. I tried to take advantage of it as much and as best as I could. Q. About the future being bright, from the players' perspective, why do you also agree with her statement about the bright future? CRYSTAL ALLEN: I agree big-time because I feel like the freshmen, I tried to set a standard for them. Outside of practice, I've always tried to take my time, take advantage of the time that I had, getting in the gym, putting in a lot of exercise. The fact I did that, to see the young freshmen get in the gym, they started to get in the gym more than I did. It made me happy. For them to take advantage of the time now, they go out there and fight, I just feel like that's a start for them. They're just freshmen, so they got a lot of time to grow. They can grow together. From them being freshmen right now, if they stick together this year, next year, years to come, I feel like the future is very bright for them and they will have a lot of success in the future. Q. In the first half, obviously trying to get into a flow offensively, what are some of the things you go back and talk about in the bench, trying to stay on top? CRYSTAL ALLEN: A lot of times I just felt like we needed to focus more on defense. Sometimes we might make mistakes on offense, might turn the ball over. That's just the game of basketball. One thing we can control is our defense. Flying around, things like that, doing what we have to do, knowing personnel, where the shooters are, knowing who the driver is, being disciplined on defense. I felt like going into the huddle, we needed to focus on things like that, getting stops. The more we got stops, I felt like we can open up more in transition, open up more as far as getting buckets. That's just the main thing that coach hangs her hat on, too. I felt we needed to focus more on that. I felt like we lost focus on that, let No. 3 get off. They'll do better next year, but that's what we focused on. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Crystal. Questions for head coach. Q. Coach, in the third quarter, it was a close game up until halfway through, what did you see in that quarter that allowed Florida to get out on a run? YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Just what I've been seeing all year, just a lack of focus on player personnel. In this conference, you have to know who the best players are and where they are on the floor all the time. Thought we lost sight of Funda. She made us pay. When she hit a couple of shots, it gave the rest of their team an incredible amount of confidence. They just came off of a win, so where she didn't score, then when they started scoring, they turned it around. It was like a breath of fresh air when she started to hit those threes. I thought they ran with it. A couple miscues. The margin of error was super small in this game. When we allowed them to make at least two of them, it was enough to separate. When we played them the first time, we had built a little lead. We didn't make those shots that we made in Oxford, those layups, we missed those today. We weren't able to have a cushion. They were able to pull away because of it. Q. Almost impossible situation you were handed coming into this job. To see what you accomplished this year, have you taken a minute to reflect on it? YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: Not yet. I know I'm grateful. When I walked into the arena, saw SEC Tournament, it was almost surreal. Two years ago I was watching it in Jacksonville as the head coach at JU. I remember saying to my staff, I'll be there one day. Fast forward two years, I wasn't expecting it to be this quick. In our profession, it doesn't really happen like this. Usually you have to take about three more steps, then you can get an opportunity like this. I'm grateful. I had an incredible experience. A lot of times you get into a program your first year, coaches never talk about it, but it's usually a nightmare. You got kids, the job is open for a reason, there are culture issues. I had none of that. I really enjoyed this team. I thought they represented the university at a high level. I gave them all that I had, and so did my staff. Just excited about the future. Q. Shandricka was one of the only ones to return this year. Now that the season is ended, what did she mean for you this year in building a culture? YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: She was an incredible ambassador for the university. I think they used Shandricka every opportunity they had. When I first came, it was like no one else existed. She's just a great person. She was great for me to coach. I enjoyed her. I remember one day she told me I needed to be a little hard on her. She's such a nice person, it's hard to be hard on a kid that's so nice. Doesn't give you any problems, is respectful. If anything, hopefully our girls learned that. Just trying to build a tradition, I did some things with the seniors to keep them around in the future. She'll be able to share some experiences and insights for the next crop that comes in. Q. When you look at Crystal Allen, some of the players that transferred with you, what they did, have you taken a minute to talk with them? YOLETT McPHEE-McCUIN: I just thanked them. All year I've been trying to give life lessons. I'm just a firm believer in the process. I don't believe in skipping steps. To be honest with you, although this loss sucks, it ended as it probably should. A team that got put together with two seconds left on the shot clock, through it we spoiled some people's agendas and won some games. I think they won one game last year in the regular season. I mean, we had a lot of good times. One thing I told the young ladies, especially Shandricka and Cece, I felt loyal to them because they stuck around. I had nine people leave, and they stuck around, wanted to have a great experience. By the sound of it in the locker room, they did that, mission accomplished. For the other young ladies that came, they really took advantage of their opportunities. It wasn't like they were at this Power 5 school when they came. They were at a lower level and moved up and took advantage of it. That's an example in itself for people, when you get an opportunity, you need to take advantage of it. I'm going to do the same. Like I said, not much to reflect on. I'm really focused on the future. I'll be out recruiting tomorrow, so... Excited about where we're going. I can promise you it won't be a first-game-out for a longer period of time. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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