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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2020Cameron NewbauerLavender BriggsKiara SmithNashville, Tennessee LSU 73, Florida 59 THE MODERATOR: We welcome in Florida. We'll open with a statement from coach, then direct questions to the student-athletes. CAMERON NEWBAUER: Congrats to LSU. Outplayed us, outworked us in every single area. They were playing for something today. They played like it. We couldn't stop them, couldn't guard them. The first quarter is the best quarter we tried to. Then after that 91% in the second quarter, 50% third quarter, and 42 in the fourth. Just played really, really hard. Very disappointed with our competitiveness in the first half. Shocked with our competitiveness in that first half. But it's a combination of us not being ready to play necessarily with our team and then them just being really ready to play and jumping out of the gates. I'm glad we competed in the second half. You can't do that in the SEC against really good teams. You can't take quarters, multiple possessions in a row off. You can't have 20 turnovers. Hats off to LSU. Hopefully we can make the NIT. 15-15. It would be a good step for our program for what's next. But, yeah, tough day for the Gators. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Lavender, not the outcome you wanted, but just talk about the season as a whole, what you saw out of this team. LAVENDER BRIGGS: I thought we started out the season pretty good. We continued to get better. In the end we didn't finish it how we wanted to or how we thought we could. That's just lack of discipline and focus by us. Q. Kiara, Coach talked a little bit about first half, you guys not having the fire that you showed in the second half. What happened at the beginning of the game from your assessment? KIARA SMITH: I think we came out ready to compete, then shots weren't falling for us. The ball wasn't going our way. At that point I feel like we just -- LSU just, I can't think of the right word, but they scored off of what we was lacking of. When we dig ourself in a hole too deep, our energy just wasn't there. We couldn't bring ourselves back. At that time like that, against a really good team, like Coach Cam said, we can't fall too far back. Q. What changed in the second half? KIARA SMITH: Just coming in talking about our energy, talking about how we needed to compete and play hard, how at the end of the day we just wanted to say that we left it all out there on the floor. Second half we tried that, but overall it just wasn't our night. Q. What was the difference between this matchup with LSU and the first back in January? LAVENDER BRIGGS: I thought the first time we played them -- I think we're actually better than the first time we played them. I don't know what happened today. The whole team didn't bring it. They disrespected us. It's not okay. We definitely could have been more disciplined, like I said before, played a whole better game from start to finish, had a better outcome. KIARA SMITH: I agree with Lav. The first time, we got way better since the first time we played them. We just couldn't capitalize tonight. Like Coach Cam said, they was just playing for something. It felt like we weren't. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you for your time. We'll continue with questions for Coach. Q. Hard to think about next season or the future as a whole. How do you feel about the building blocks you do have? CAMERON NEWBAUER: Just hoping we get to keep playing this year to keep working towards that. I agree completely with what Lav said. I think we're a better team than we were today. We had a number of players shellshocked at the start of this game. Very disappointed. I think they're disappointed. It's happened too many times to us to where we don't respond quick enough. Whether that's a young team or not, we've played 30 games. We can't keep having that same excuse. I do think we've grown in a number of areas, but we still are lacking some leadership when people need to step up and tell their teammates they need to go harder, be more focused, box out, whatever it is. It needs to come from each other. That's why it's called peer pressure. It needs to be from your teammate to encourage and challenge whatever it is. It can't always come from us coaches. If we had that, we would have had an even better year. That's the hardest part, I think, to get them to grow in that area and take that accountability and responsibility. Overall we won eight games last year, we won as many conference games this year as we did our first two years. I was really hoping we could get to day three this year. Last year we got to day two with the win. I was hoping we could get to day three this year. But just shows you, we're just not there yet. We're not there yet. Lavender Briggs today, 9 of 16, 3 of 3, 1 of 1. That's a freshman right there who lead the conference in minutes. You heard her say she felt like we were disrespected, this, that, the other. That kid's got fire and passion. I wish we had more that had that fire and passion all the time. Just hope that she continues to keep doing what she does. That's a great building block we have right there. Just got to keep getting better. But I'm proud of where we were, grateful for where we are, and excited about where we're going. I know it doesn't feel that way right now, but I am. It's just that we want more. We want more. Q. You out-rebounded LSU tonight, 13 offensive rebounds, only four second-chance points. How much did that affect the game? What were they doing defensively in the first half specifically? CAMERON NEWBAUER: They were there. They guarded us. We were afraid. With some of those offensive rebounds, we were right there at the rim and just rushed them. That's what I mean by afraid or scared. Just sped up. That was their presence, their size, their defense, their quick hands. You got to stay poised. You can't be shook, you can't flinch. We flinched too many times when we had great opportunities. 13 offensive rebounds, you score on 2 of them? It's not good. But that's their defense, who they were, how aggressive they were playing, speeding us up. Q. You talk about the growth of this team, wanting to play in the WNIT in a couple weeks. What have you seen from this team? You know you've earned it, you deserve that spot for this program to grow and take another step. CAMERON NEWBAUER: You look at a number of our losses and how many top-25 teams it's against. Half of our non-conference losses were against two teams that were in the top 20 all year, with Florida State and Indiana. You play Kentucky twice, you play Arkansas twice, you win at Kentucky, you beat Arkansas at home. You go 15-15. Just right there on two or three other conference games that didn't go our way. I think we're good enough to be in the postseason. I think we're deserving. From a coaching standpoint, I want it so we can keep playing and build for the future. Paige and Zada are seniors, but we still have a ton of players back to build for what's next. I just hope that we can get that bid for it, just keep playing. We got a room full of workers and dreamers. I say that because we got kids that work really hard every single day to get better. They dream. They got big dreams. They're working for those dreams. It makes it a lot of fun to show up every day and work with them. We just got to figure out how in the moments where we get in foul trouble or shots aren't going down, how do we overcome that adversity and keep playing forward. That's still the reason I want to keep working with them. I would like to get that work done hopefully before next year. Q. LSU started four juniors and a senior. Is this what you hope your program emulates? CAMERON NEWBAUER: They're a tough, aggressive team. I don't know what years they are -- thank you for giving me that -- but that's what I want us to emulate. How hard they played nonstop, how aggressive they were on defense, making plays, scrambling, multiple efforts on defense and offense. They played with passion. They played for something greater than themselves. I would definitely emulate that with their program. I hope we get there. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. CAMERON NEWBAUER: Thank you. Go Gators. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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