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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 11, 2019Jim FlaneryJaylyn AgnewChicago, Illinois DePaul - 80, Creighton - 69 JIM FLANERY: Well, I think it was a real similar game to last Sunday. We were right there. Last week we actually pushed it out in the third quarter and had a decent margin, but the thing about DePaul and what makes them really good is they just -- Jaylyn can tell you about every time-out, don't get too high, don't get too low, just keep playing, because it's 40 minutes, you're going to have runs, they're going to have runs, but they just make you uncomfortable or they make us uncomfortable, and obviously the 20 turnovers was the difference in the game. We shot more than well enough. Jaylyn was spectacular. But you know, you can't overcome a 15-turnover differential. Credit to DePaul. They're a really good team. They're fun to watch play. They're just not quite as fun to play. Q. Jaylyn, how would you say that you have grown so much this season, and where do you think it's going to lead you to playing next year? JAYLYN AGNEW: Well, I think we have really competitive practices, and being able to guard and practice against Audrey Faber has really helped me, as you all know. She's a great player, and she's helped me the last four years in being able to go against her every day in practice has helped me improve a lot, so hopefully I can take that into next year and hopefully be like that and help the other younger people improve, too. Q. What kind of mark does this senior class leave? JAYLYN AGNEW: I'm going to get emotional. Like you said, they're a great class. They've all been through so much. Jade's injury, Audrey being one of the greatest players that Creighton has ever had, Brooke transferring, and then Ali and her injuries, they've all shown us how to fight through adversity, and they're just a great group, great leaders on and off the floor, great friends. So yeah, we're going to miss them a lot. But they're great people to be around, and just joke and laugh with them all the time. Like I said, not just on the floor, but great leaders through all aspects of our lives. Q. Coach, what do you think went wrong when DePaul was making their big run to get back on top? JIM FLANERY: Well, turnovers. I mean, we had two different five counts, I think, in bounding the ball. We tried to make that a point of emphasis. We weren't as good as we needed to be there. And then conversion out of the press. I thought we made a couple, probably about three unaggressive plays where we had broken the press, we had three on two, and then I thought we were tentative. Once they got up five or seven, it's easy to get a little panicky. We gave up -- I thought they did a good job of throwing the ball inside, which they did last weekend, and we got caught on -- we had mismatches on Stonewall a couple times there late off switches that we had to defend. But mostly it was turnovers. If we do a little better job taking care of the ball, you know, it's a different game. Then the charges in the half court, they sat down and guarded, and we -- during that stretch, I thought we -- part of it is we stood around and then late shot clock we had to drive it and they were in good position. And then I thought we kind of flipped and got a little more aggressive moving and drew some off-ball fouls. But we didn't do that during that stretch that you're talking about. The charges and the five-second counts were huge. Q. Beating Butler yesterday and playing DePaul really tough tonight, what do you think that does for your program going forward? JIM FLANERY: Well, and I honestly believe this: I think right now we're as good a basketball team as we were a year ago when we went to the NCAA Tournament and went to the second round. We just weren't that team all year. Jaylyn wasn't healthy, we didn't have the health to get better for quite a period of time, and we didn't have a rotation. So I just -- you know, I'm proud of them because I felt like we played our best basketball at the end, which is what you want to do. The problem is we weren't -- there were stretches where we weren't very good. But I told them all year, it's nobody's fault that we had the injuries we had. We just weren't able to improve -- for a long period of time we were not able to improve as a team, and at the end of the year when we got healthier, I thought we really improved. You see how well Jaylyn played tonight and some of our younger players, Rachel and Tatum and younger players who hadn't -- but our practice situation got better. I mean, I'm not yet looking forward to next year, but I think I will be because I think we return a good group. Q. You talked about the problems Mart'e Grays gave you during the season. What specific problems does she pose for you? JIM FLANERY: Well, she's long and she -- they run a lot of down-screen post-ups for her. They shoot it so well, you can't give a lot of help. We talked at halftime about trying to give a little bit more help, and we did a better job on her. She had 16 at the half and finished with 20. So I thought Audrey's one-on-one defense in the second half on her was really good. She got to her left shoulder, blocked her shot a couple times, and I thought she really competed. But part of it is that they have good players around her. I mean, we played Iowa and Megan Gustafson, and Megan deserves every bit of credit because she's a great player, but Iowa shoots the ball really well and they pass the ball really well, and that's DePaul. They shoot it well and they pass it well, and that's in addition to what the good post player can do. That's important. We don't feed the post as well, if you can tell. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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