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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2020Mike NeighborsChelsea DungeeAlexis TolefreeNashville, Tennessee Arkansas 90, Auburn 68 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Arkansas. We're going to take an opening statement from coach, then direct questions for the student-athletes, then finish up with coach. MIKE NEIGHBORS: After watching Auburn play yesterday live, I was really scared about how well they had been playing down the stretch. They had Mississippi State in overtime, a win over LSU, played Tennessee till the last buzzer, then they played great yesterday. They had our attention. We knew in the first part of the game it would be to their advantage having played yesterday. That obviously was the case. But I was really proud of the way our kids stuck together. There was no panic through the first substitution and media timeout. We got it back together. I thought from that first six minutes on was our most complete game of the year against a quality team. THE MODERATOR: Questions now please for the student-athletes. Q. Alexis, you had 20 points in the first half, you end with 30. When we talked yesterday you talked about this pace, liking the matchup with Auburn. What were you able to see that got you so open? ALEXIS TOLEFREE: Well, I just ran what he told us to run. I was in the middle. He told me to cut out. My teammates really found me open most of the time. They found me when I was hot, and they just kept coming to me. Q. Chelsea, how important was it for this team to get this first win, get the pressure off your backs a little bit and advance? CHELSEA DUNGEE: It's a big win. I don't know, like it's big when you have to win to even advance in the tournament. We just take it game by game. Q. Alexis, can you tell us a little bit about what happened in the timeout, what switched after that? ALEXIS TOLEFREE: Just the first timeout he told us to come out and play loose and have fun with it. I think that's what we did. We just came out and started having fun, not really worried about like the outcome of our shots. Every shot we took are shots we make every day in practice. Coach telling us to go out and play loose, that's what we did. Q. Alexis, what really got you going in the second quarter? ALEXIS TOLEFREE: I mean, I was just taking shots that I normally hit. They weren't falling at first, but they started falling for me, which is something that Coach always has confidence in me to do. I just found the open spaces in their zone, and my teammates found me when I was open. Q. Chelsea, is there something about this building that lets this team catch fire? Is there kind of a sense of heightened expectations based on that run at all? CHELSEA DUNGEE: Tournament time we have a different mentality. We're out to be back in the championship like we were last year. We stick together. We know what it takes. We've been here before. We know what it takes to get there again. MIKE NEIGHBORS: We will be petitioning to move all home games here next year (laughter). THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you very much for joining us. We will continue with questions for Coach Neighbors. Q. The 8-0 that Auburn started, where were you at? Did you feel they were a little distracted? MIKE NEIGHBORS: It happens. We knew it. We actually talked about it last night in between dart games. It happens. It is part of this tournament. When it's the advantage to that first team that has already played the day before. We used it to our advantage last year. So our kids knew it. I hate that we were right about it. I did try to challenge them to not let that happen. I said great teams would not allow it to happen. Good teams it will happen to, but they will get over it quickly. We still got room to grow. We can get over that. But it is a hard thing to do. I tried not to show any emotion. We made a quick substitution. I was dead set on not taking a timeout. Timeouts become a little more precious since we can advance it late in the game, and we only get four. We had the game plan if it happened, we were going to make a quick sub, and we did. It took them to go through it, get it out of their system, too. When we got back to our starters, from that point on we were pretty under control. Knowing it was coming was a huge part of it. I hate that it did happen, but that's credit to Auburn, the way they did play. But it was obvious it was going to happen pretty quick if we didn't get a timeout and make a substitution. Q. Was there something you saw in that other than just needing to settle your team down? MIKE NEIGHBORS: It's uncharacteristic stuff. Mak turns it over, which that's not what Mak does. Lex has a three block. She's not open. If you get a three-point shot, you're not open. We didn't get back in transition. We were out of position defensively. It was a complete lack of everybody's focus, start, whatever you want to write down, you'd be accurate in saying it was a complete failure on all levels. So much time left. Let's not panic, let's not fire anybody. Let's just fix the problem, let's be solutional. That became something we got in the middle of the year. One of the kids said, Give me something solutional. I get a tendency to point out facts and things. They said, Give me something that's solutional. That word stuck with me. I've been using it ever since. We'll give the person due credit later on. Trying to speak in images with them, make a pass, do something else with it. We talked about not letting the ball stick. I think it became a visual for them. When they start making shots, it's get out of their way and make sure they're rested and in the right spots. Q. They tried to half-court trap you a little bit. That seemed to play in your favor. MIKE NEIGHBORS: That's what they've done ever since coach has been there. You know it's coming. You prepare for it. We actually got them into a half-court trap. It's usually the full court. Our kids love to see that because we've got a good plan for it. We have the personnel that can get into seams and spots. They wanted that matchup. This is a matchup they love to play. We called one set play today, and it didn't work. It's overrated. You got to get them in the right spots, then trust them to go play. We've played 30 games now, about, is that right? If you don't trust them by now, we've probably done something wrong in the off-season. Q. Ramirez was 3 for 14 shooting tonight, but active defensively. MIKE NEIGHBORS: She's been the key for us when we have a big player around the basket. She's such a good clogger, not the dancer, but the person that goes down and makes Unique Thompson's life hard. She was in the right spot, tipped a lot of balls. I'll take the exact same 14 shots she got tomorrow. She's going to make seven or eight of them. Got in her own head a little bit. You know that kid well enough to know that she'll shoot the next time she's open. But our defense has been great all year. She's not going to necessarily go steal it from you, she's not going to block shots. She seems to always be in the right spot for us. She's really good at following game plans. She can really take Coach Todd's words, his coaching, go out and help our team. That's what she did today to help our team win, was defend. Q. 17 three-pointers today, which I believe is an SEC tournament record. Gary Blair joked they're going to continue to hit those, we just have to make sure they don't hit as many tomorrow. Talk about Texas A&M, how successful you were behind the three today. MIKE NEIGHBORS: How long did it take him to explain that to you? Was it under, over five minutes? I'm sure there was more to it than that (laughter). Diagrams involved probably. There's no telling. No, I mean, I saw Coach sitting over there. He didn't need to be here. He knows what we're going to do. We talk about it weekly. We talk about it all the time. They will make our life hard. Bob Starkey is back there developing a plan. They will be more guarded tomorrow, I guarantee you. We'll have to score around the basket a little bit. We'll probably have to set some ball screens. It will be a different way to get open. If we end up with 42 threes tomorrow, I'd be shocked. Attempts, I don't care about the makes. He will be upset if that number is probably half of that. We'll have some adjustments for them, too. I know a few of his play calls. We'll try to be ready. They will have a different approach for sure. Our goal is to always be able to make any defense wrong. If we shoot it that well, we made 17, but I wouldn't have been surprised if you told me we made 25. The shots that we got, I would normally expect us to hit around 50 or 60% of those. Q. Last year in this tournament Chelsea had to put on heroic performances every single game. Can you talk on the balance of this team compared to last year. MIKE NEIGHBORS: I'm going to run off of your question a little bit. You saw what she did last year. She's had a better year this year than last year. Nobody that's been around our team would agree with that. They get too buried in the stat sheet. She's had a great year for us. She incorporated having another offensive weapon on the floor like Amber. She incorporated having a true freshman point guard that contributes in Makayla and A'T. The adjustments that she's made in her game, she's been stellar in all of that. Then overall with the team, just that leadership role that we needed filled when we lost Jailyn Mason. Jailyn is on the sideline with us, but she can't play. Chelsea took on some of that, accepted some of that responsibility. I know it was good for us to be able to put other people around her to where she didn't need a heroic effort. She just needed to do what she did today: stand out there, catch it. She went five of eight. That's what she can do. I'm glad she was able to do that in this building. It's been a really special place for her. Q. Alexis, 30 points, 20 of your first half points. Her game today? MIKE NEIGHBORS: I thought she settled us down. Once we saw her make one or two, she got her little celebration going. I'm always worried when I see the top of her head, she's looking down at her shoes. Always good to see her smile. She kept us in it, kept us going. She was the first one out of the locker room passing to Amber. I don't know if anybody else caught that. I don't think she took one shot during warmups. Amber, here we go. She passed to Amber the entire halftime. That's just the kid that she is. But definitely, her play, not just the scoring, she was driving it and kicking it out, doing a lot of things that we needed to have, winning plays. She had a lot of them in that first half. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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