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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2019Joni TaylorCaliya RobinsonTaja ColeGreenville, South Carolina Arkansas-86, Georgia-76 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Georgia. Coach, if you could make an opening statement, please. JONI TAYLOR: I want to start by giving Arkansas credit. They came out and played really well tonight. We talked about how good they are, what we were worried about happening happened. They made a lot of shots and they were able to score in transition. We chose to make our run really, really late in the game. Let's give them the credit for that. We said all along it's been really tough to beat a team three times in a row. Really unfortunate that our season is ending today. Super proud of our team for what they've done, the resiliency they've had all year long with injury and battling through things like that. So with that we'll open it up for questions for our student-athletes. Q. Caliya, with this possibly your last game at Georgia, what are you feeling right now? CALIYA ROBINSON: The way I'm feeling right now, I give credit to Arkansas, of course. But this ain't the way I want to go out. Just to reflect on the season, as a team we fought every game, every day. We fought. I regret no point in time in the season. Q. Taja, as you look at the season, how it played out, as you look ahead to your next year, what type of memories will you take away from this? How do you think things look in terms of the future? TAJA COLE: I had a really, really fun season. I think we fought a lot of adversity. We had a lot of close losses this year. You look at Maryland, you look at South Carolina, you look at Mississippi State, a couple other games. We fought hard with a young, young team. I just think for the future, we just have to learn how to finish. We can compete with anybody. I've always believed it. But we just got to learn how to finish. I think growth within our younger players, me furthering my knowledge as a point guard, will definitely help that. Once we learn how to finish, we'll be in good shape. Q. Y'all didn't shoot the ball particularly bad tonight. How frustrating was it that every time y'all made a basket, they would respond to it? How challenging is that? TAJA COLE: It was very difficult. I think Arkansas played very, very well tonight. It seemed like everything they took went in. It was just one of those nights. We tried offensively. We still shot about 40% from the field, but they shot 56% from the field. It was just a fight all night. Really good game. Q. Did y'all ever feel like there was a point that y'all could get back into it? CALIYA ROBINSON: I think when you're down, you never give up fighting. At every point in time, we knew we could get back. It was, How do we do that? We didn't take control of the ways we did make our runs. That's something we need to work on. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. We'll continue with questions for coach. Q. Seeing that you have the youngest team in the SEC right now, do you think that's something that maybe makes it harder to climb to the top? JONI TAYLOR: We won't be the youngest team in the league next year. We had a lot of things going on. Youngest team in the league, battled injury all year long. Finally in the month of February we got ourselves back, got Que back, got our rhythm going a little too late. For us to continue to stay in the conversation, we have to do exactly what Taja said, that is to continue to learn, finish games out. That's where our youth showed up this year. We would battle back, be in a game, but wouldn't finish it. The expectation at Georgia basketball is to always compete for championships. That's what we're going to continue to recruit, that's what we're going to continue to coach our young ladies to be prepared for. Q. Will you consider a bid in the WNIT or not? JONI TAYLOR: I knew you were going to ask me that question. We will not. The NIT is a great tournament. There's a lot of great teams that play in it. Again, you look at Georgia basketball, what we've done, what Coach Landers did, former players did, what we want to do. We come to Georgia to play in the NCAA tournament. So we will not take a bid to the NIT if given one. Q. Can you elaborate on the player that Dungee is? JONI TAYLOR: She's an incredible player. Our fear always is how we're going to guard her. We give up size to her. You put a post player on her, she's going to drive by us. When we played at Arkansas, she had a really good night, but we were able to contain their other players. Then she struggled a bit when she came to us at home. Playing her for the third time, we knew she was going to be really good. She put her team on her back, got them going, made shots, got to the free-throw line. What we did not do tonight was contain everyone else. They had five players score in double figures. You cannot allow Chelsea to have 31, then four other players have double-figure scores. Q. What was setting the defense back? And big picture, as you look back on the season, what will be your memories? JONI TAYLOR: To answer your first question, they hammered us in transition. That's what we've worried about. They're so fast. They put four guards on the floor. They made some shots today that they did not make the first few times we played them. You get back and you finally get them stopped in transition, they're shooting the three ball the way they were tonight. They were clicking on all cylinders, came out like they had something to prove. That hurt us defensively. We tried to switch ball screens, hedge over, give them different looks. At that point once you let a team like Arkansas, who once they see the ball go in the hole, they all become really, really, really, really good. They got off to a really good start and they continued to do that for the entire game. Where we had been good this season was we didn't allow them to get off to that good start. To answer your second question, when I think back on the season, the memories I have, this team fights. We have a great group of young ladies that represent Georgia basketball and the University of Georgia the way we want it represented. We challenged them, asked them to do a lot of hard things. We had hard days in practice, rebounding from losses. They've always answered the call and done everything we asked them to do. We have to continue to get better. We're not satisfied with where we are now. It's unacceptable for us to end our season today the way we did. But I'm proud of the team we have, and the ladies that represent us. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. JONI TAYLOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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