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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2019Mike NeighborsChelsea DungeeMalica MonkGreenville, South Carolina Arkansas-86, Georgia-76 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Arkansas. Coach, an opening statement, please. MIKE NEIGHBORS: Really proud of and for our group. We played really good basketball the last month of the season. We couldn't get a win for whatever reason. But these kids kept showing up every single day at practice. I'm not going to tell you it was rainbows, unicorns and roses every single day, because it's not. We live in reality world. They stuck together. For the second year in a row we've played our best basketball game in the first game of the SEC tournament. I think that speaks volumes for your leaders, which two of them are up here with me right now. We're really excited to be able to advance and play again tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Chelsea, you shot the ball so well, the team shot the ball so well. What is that feeling like? CHELSEA DUNGEE: Feels good coming off a couple games, a losing streak. Feels good to see the ball go into the basket, yeah. Q. Chelsea, coming into this game, did you have any extra anger about you with the stuff that happened last week? Did you come in here with extra anger? CHELSEA DUNGEE: Yeah, I had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder. I just wanted to go out and play the best that I could, show everyone what I can do. MIKE NEIGHBORS: I tried to turn the chip into a boulder (laughter). I'll elaborate on that later. Q. Malica, as one of the leaders of this team, everything coach mentioned, the adversity, we can't get a break, how did you and the leaders keep everybody focused and believing? MALICA MONK: We just really had to come together. With everybody, we like to compete with one another. We know that we are above and beyond, we should be up the top with the other teams. We just come out every day tackling every task that we can. We've really proven to everybody that we're still capable of winning games no matter what is being thrown at us. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you. We will continue with questions for coach. Q. Can you elaborate on that boulder? Was that in practice? MIKE NEIGHBORS: It was in the lobby last night. I get it, hey, I'm going to say exactly what I said at my press conference back at home. I ultimately respect how hard it is to make the first team in this league. There's only eight spots for 14 teams, of which there's a lot of great players. I get it. It's really hard to make the first team. But if you look at our team from last year, what we added, a lot of it was Chelsea, okay? Mal played great. Mal is probably the most improved kid I've coached between summers. All the kids got better. We graduated Dev and brought Chelsea in. We went from losing 104-60 to Texas A&M, taking that into the fourth quarter. South Carolina beat us 90-42. This year it was a one-possession game at our place. If you take her off of our team, we're playing yesterday. We're probably going home. I know how hard it is. I know there are a lot of deserving people. I don't know who I would have taken off, I honestly don't. But she had a great season. She had a first team all conference season. I think she backed it up with a first team all conference first round. She's just that type of kid. You have to tell her, Maybe you can't do this, and she can. I built it up. I'm not going to tell you I didn't. I used it to our advantage. I don't wish it. I'm not glad that it happened. I wish we should have been recognized. Here is another reason. Because to be recognized as an honoree here at the SEC, you have to be first team all conference. We don't have very many. Where is Jerry? Are we out? We don't have anybody that's been first team, and she could have been. I know there's a lot of work to do between now and then. I know how hard that kid worked. She sacrificed an awful lot to come play for us. Whatever it took, I was going to take every full advantage. I would have never dreamt she would have gone 10-for-16, 10-for-12, and played great defense for 36 minutes. That's a heck of a performance and a heck of a game. That was a really long answer to a short question. I apologize. Q. Playing Georgia for a third time, how were you able to get over that hump, pull it off? MIKE NEIGHBORS: There's a reason that cliché is out there about it's hard to beat a team three times in a year. They didn't just make that up. It is hard to do that. I know Joni and her staff did everything they could do to try to show them just because you got two wins, it's not going to matter today. I know they did. It's hard. I've been in that situation before. Our job was a lot easier. It was simply do one thing better each quarter. We were mic'd up. That's all we talked about in our pregame, every timeout: Do one more thing we haven't been doing in these other games, that's going to be the difference between the win and the loss. Q. From Georgia's perspective, as you've seen that program over the last couple years, what do you see where it's headed? MIKE NEIGHBORS: The expectations for Georgia, I said this when we played down there, there's not many arenas when you walk in where there's more women's jerseys retired than men's. They have that. Their tradition is so, so rich. The bar is set so high. They have a really good team. It's a tough year in this league where there's a lot of people in the middle to beat each other up. I think it's going to be the first time in SEC history a 9-1 team didn't go to the NCAA tournament. Is that what they're telling us? I'm not in charge of that, but that's what all the experts are saying, is that Georgia is not going to get in with nine SEC wins. I think that will be the first in history for a nine-win team. They are headed to nothing but -- I know who they've recruited. I'm going to send Caliya Robinson a graduation card, make sure her alarm is set, shows up on time to walk and gets out of there. She is phenomenal. I know who they have coming. I know it's a team that for years to come is always going to be one you're going to have to go through to try to advance in this league, try to catch them. See you guys tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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