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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 9, 2019

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Kansas State 72, West Virginia 59

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by the West Virginia Mountaineers, head coach, Mike Carey, his two student athletes, Naomi Davenport and Katrina Pardee. Coach, your thoughts about today's game?

MIKE CAREY: You just look at the hustle plays. They outhustled us. Points off turnovers, 18-3, second chance points, 18-7, fast break points, 8-0. That says all you need to know on that. We cut it to 1 or 2 and then come down and turned it over three times and took some bad shots and didn't defend on the other end. They just kept -- they outworked us, they played harder than we did.

Q. You guys did an amazing job toward the end, getting back in the swing of things. What happened in the beginning? It was a slow start to try to get the ball movement going.
NAOMI DAVENPORT: In the beginning we were just slow, like you said. We were slow and getting outhustled. We finally picked it up and then down the stretch we made dumb decisions, turnovers. We got steals, but then when we got in transition we turned the ball over. We didn't get out on the shooters when they got offensive rebounds and that was the game.

KATRINA PARDEE: I think it came down to the little things, not having the discipline toward the end when we needed it the most and focusing, and I think we were more concerned about offense and getting the score closer. By doing that we had to score obviously, but we were primarily focused on that and not on getting stops to where they didn't score so we could get the lead.

Q. Naomi, I know every time your team needed a big play you stepped up. What was your mentality coming into today's game knowing that it could be your last?
NAOMI DAVENPORT: I didn't think about it being my last. It was just another game. I don't know. That's a hard question. I don't know. I just looked for my teammates. Somebody helps over, help it down, square up to the basket, skip out to KP open on the wing. Tynice open on the wing. Playing what the defense give us you.

Q. Katrina, we're practically neighbors. I live in Northwest Austin, I know where you're from. Can you talk about the journey to go so far from home and now you're going to graduate from college and what it was like and your thoughts about going to the University of West Virginia?
KATRINA PARDEE: Yeah, going way from home I feel like I wasn't necessarily sad at first because I was looking forward to something new, and playing in the Big 12 a lot of the games are in Texas and my family is able to see me play a lot. They traveled to any game they could to watch me play so having their support made it easier knowing that I'm out living my dreams and that's all they want me to do and they support me 100% in whatever I do. So I think that made the transition a lot easier.

Q. What has been the biggest lesson you guys have learned about yourself as a basketball player, as a woman playing at WV?
KATRINA PARDEE: Personally, I think I've grown up a lot here. Like he said, being away from home it kinda made me mature faster, and being able to play as a freshman gave me a lot of experience, I think, and I think over the years I've become mentally stronger because of Coach Carey. So I think that's the biggest thing for me.

NAOMI DAVENPORT: For me, I would say I matured very quickly in my two years here. As a person, Coach Carey always says never get too high, never get too low, and that's my favorite quote by him. Always stay in the middle, just never try to get too high, never get to low, be there for your teammates, listen to your teammates, listen to your coaches and it will all be good in the end.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you very much. Questions for Coach?

Q. Coach, I know you split the season series with K-State. What was your game plan coming into today's match-up?
MIKE CAREY: We wanted to get the ball on the baseline, but we couldn't make the pass to the baseline. We turned it over. It's unbelievable. Put the ball above our heads, didn't get in the gaps, didn't get the ball where we wanted the ball. They were extended. Especially when Kari was in there. We could have went high-low, but I think she played two minutes the first half. When you're extended, it's one on one in the paint. All we had to do was get it high-low, and turned the ball over way too much, because we had nobody that could attack the gap. If you don't attack the gap they're long, and they were getting in the passing lanes and getting steals.

Q. Mike, Jeff was here a minute ago and said it's a no-brainer that West Virginia should be in the tournament next week. He also said that he doesn't understand why the Big 12 is so underrated, because some of the brackets only have three teams. Your thoughts on your own team and his thoughts about Big 12 being underrated?
MIKE CAREY: Let me put it this way. If a team on the men's side in the Big 12 won 11 games and didn't get in the NCAA, you would all picket. There would be a picket. Basketball would be shutdown. Only on the women's side could something like that happen. It's amazing how this goes on on the women's side, it really is, because if it happened on a Big 12 men's team, it would be all over. There would be changes. You win 11 games and finish fourth in the league and you're the third rated RPI league in the country you should be in the NCAA tournament, and if we're not there is a big problem with the selection. Now, we didn't play well today and all that. But we won 11 games in the Big 12. I had a winning season in the Big 12, you should be in the NCAA. I go back and you watch, on the men's side, there will be men's teams in the Big 12 with losing records during the season gets in the NCAA, and how they do it and we can't get it done, I have no idea.

Q. Coach, can you speak on the impact that Katrina and Naomi have had on the program since they arrived?
MIKE CAREY: Yeah, I mean, Katrina, like she said, she came down his or her as a freshman, got better every year, continued to work, game a team captain, tremendous job.

Naomi, only the second player in the history at West Virginia, junior college player to score a thousand points. They both did a tremendous job for us since they were at West Virginia.

THE MODERATOR: Further questions? Okay, Coach, thanks. Good luck.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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