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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 10, 2019Jim FlaneryAli GreeneJaylyn AgnewChicago, Illinois Creighton - 60, Butler - 51 JIM FLANERY: Well, first of all, congrats to Butler on a terrific season. They're not through playing, but we knew how good they were. They were really good the first two times we played them, and we were not. The first game we weren't in the same gym. The second game was a little better, but they really put it on us late. But you know, we also saw a lot of things that we felt like we could do better. You know, I think that the more familiar you are with somebody, the margin kind of shrinks. But our kids were tough tonight. We got off to a great start, which I thought was important, based on how they had handled us the first two games, so even though the second quarter was -- we really muddled through the second quarter and the first part of the third quarter, our start kept us in the game and kept it close. Just a word about Ali, just so happy for her. I did not -- I don't think any of us believed that she would be playing tonight a couple months ago. But I think she's shown tremendous courage and love for her teammates. So it's really neat to have that. And then this one right here was, I thought, really, really, really good defensively. I thought we made some mistakes on Jennings in that second quarter, but the second half I thought we really, really made things hard for her. But anyway, just -- also with regard to the Butler seniors, just really, really great players. Schickel and Jennings and Weaver, those kids have done a lot to lift that program and just really complimentary of how good a players they are and how they represent Butler. But we're excited to move on. We have a tall task, but it beats the alternative. Q. Ali, eight days ago the perception from an outsider looking in was that you were retired from basketball and maybe you'd give it a shot on Senior Day. That turned into what you did on Senior Day and then what happened tonight. Can you take us through what went through your mind after that Senior Day performance that led you to play tonight? ALI GREENE: You know, I was just so -- I didn't really know what to expect from Senior Night. Flan asked me, how much do you want to play. I was like, we'll see how the first two minutes go. I haven't run in about three months so we'll see how it goes. My teammates were just like so encouraging and so positive, so that really helped me through the game. And then after, I was like, I'm going to keep going. Like I'm not ready to be done yet. I think my body is trying to tell me no, but I want to play for my teammates and I want to win this thing, so I want to do whatever it takes to help them. Q. Jaylyn, what has Ali's comeback done for this team? JAYLYN AGNEW: It shows us what having fight can do, and this girl, she's been like my roommate for four years, and she's a rock star. I have no words. She's gone through so much adversity, and her fight and her willingness to go out there and fight for us, even though she's in so much pain, just says so much, and we're so appreciative and so proud of her. Q. Ali, how emotional is a win like this for you? ALI GREENE: It's so exciting. Like I just can't stop smiling. Like I'm just so happy for my team. I can't wait to beat DePaul. Q. The first two games against Butler, it's kind of crazy to think about you were beat by a combined 52 points. What was the difference tonight? JAYLYN AGNEW: Like he said, our toughness. We were just tough the entire game. The second quarter we let up there, but we just had to be tough, and they say it's hard to beat a team three times. So we just had that in the back of our minds and knew if we were the tougher team today that we would get a win. Q. Ali, you spent the last few weeks or months working on a three-point shot? ALI GREENE: I don't know. I don't know what happened. No, I just was wide open, and I just said, here we go. Q. For either of you can you weigh in on Glenn's scooter? JAYLYN AGNEW: We've actually seen that scooter in previous years when Bri Rollerson had it, so we're pretty familiar with it around. But we saw him roll in, and we were like, what's up, dude. Come on, now. We're hoping he gets back off that thing soon. ALI GREENE: I think he needs a little horn or something. JAYLYN AGNEW: Seriously, though, big J sticker. Yeah, just no one else needs to be on it. ALI GREENE: Yeah, true. Q. What will it take for you to beat DePaul tomorrow night? JIM FLANERY: Luck. Just kidding. Toughness and just -- you know, if you watch DePaul enough, they're -- they can look great. They shoot so many threes and they put so much pressure on you that they're just -- they make you uncomfortable. I think when we've talked to our players about how do you play them, well, you might have a quarter where you beat them by 10 or 12 or 15, and the next quarter they're equally capable of beating you by 15 or 18. They're just so good in terms of just kind of staying the course. Both games were really close. They played really well the last probably 13 to 15 minutes in Omaha last week. But they sputtered for a long time. I mean, it was 28-23 at half, and I said, you know, part of our issue was we weren't ahead -- to hold them to 23 at half and only be up five instead of being up 10 or 12 or 15 was big because I thought once they get going, they get in rhythm offensively, and you saw that tonight against Providence. They got off to a great start. But they also are a little like us. They're perimeter enough that they're going to hit a lull here and there, too, which is kind of what we are. But ball security is going to be important and defensive rebounding. We have to be better against their press than we were, especially in the second half last weekend, and then I've always thought they're a really good offensive rebounding team. You look at how they got off to a good start today, it was second-chance points early because they didn't shoot the three very well early, but they got a lot of -- they put themselves in a great position in the first quarter just on the offensive glass. I mean, those things are going to matter. And then I thought they did a good job last weekend of posting Grays in the second half and she had a big half. So we go from guarding Schickel to guarding her. But we'll have to do a little bit better job on her than we did last weekend. You know, we know it's a challenge, especially when you've had a really tough game today, to play against them the way they play for 40 minutes. You know, in terms of using our bench, that will be something that we'll probably have to do a little bit more than we did tonight, just based on the pace of the game and how much they're going to press us and push pace on the other end. Q. I don't know how much -- coaches have different opinions on plus, minus, but the leader was Tatum, seemed like she made big plays, she had like six assists for you as well. What did she do in this game? JIM FLANERY: Yeah, well, her nickname is Tornado, because she makes things happen, and if you see -- she had some turnovers, but she made a lot of big plays, and she -- I thought she really -- the offensive rebound, she had a couple really big plays there at the end, too. She corralled a loose ball and tipped it to Audrey for a lay-up at the end of the shot clock, and I thought she attacked with the cut. But yeah, I'm happy for her. She was our starting point guard for quite a while this year. She hurt her elbow, her shooting elbow and sat four games, and then when she came back, she -- it's tough, I think, for a younger player because we inserted Jade who's a senior, so her minutes were a little more erratic, it took her a while to get her confidence back, but she's played really well since Xavier, so really the last five games I think she's kind of found herself again, and we're going to need her tomorrow against DePaul and their pressure because she's got better quickness than Jade and Olivia, our older players who have injuries that have slowed down. So she's got a little bit more ability to get by somebody or relieve pressure with her quickness. Q. Your players -- and you have mentioned toughness multiple times in this press conference alone. When you look at your team, where do you feel like you are the toughest? JIM FLANERY: Well, what I told them is that this win doesn't happen if we -- if through late January and early February when we really kind of hit rock bottom, we didn't really hit rock bottom, because I felt like we still came to practice every day, and our younger players were eager to get better, and you know how a season can get long, especially for freshmen, and our upperclassmen who were disappointed with probably -- who were probably disappointed that we hadn't had the year we thought we could have, kept coming to practice and working to get better, and they lifted each other up. I think that's been the thing that I'm most proud about this team is that when we lost five in a row, we didn't -- we became a better basketball team because we kept practicing the right way, and so I think that's -- and so you see it out there tonight, but it's really a reflection of the fact that we had a lot of people rowing the boat in the same direction in that stretch where we lost five in a row and we didn't say our season is over or, like I said, our young players didn't give in to the length of the season and our older players didn't give in to the disappointment that we had had through that point in the season. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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