|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 5, 2020Robin PingetonAijha BlackwellHannah SchuchtsNashville, Tennessee Tennessee 64, Missouri 51 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Missouri. We're going to open with a statement from coach. ROBIN PINGETON: First of all, thank you guys for coming out. I'm really proud of our team. I told them in the locker room nobody really understands what our journey has been like, the challenges that we've had, except those that were in that locker room. I told them, look around, because this is a room full of winners. I know it didn't come out the way we wanted it to on the scoreboard. The way they battled through adversity, their resiliency, their ability to lean in when times were tough, it was uncomfortable, is remarkable. This time of the year is always hard. Obviously with our seniors that have poured so much into this program, it's a special group. We're certainly going to miss them. I think for our freshmen, they got some really great experience. I think for our returning team you have to be able to process this and learn from it and move forward with it. That second half we got in foul trouble early. We didn't shoot the ball very well, sent them to the free-throw line too many times. Made for a really tough third quarter for us. Again, really, really, really proud of my team. No doubt about it, they won in life this year. They're going to be even more successful in the real world because of it. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes. Q. Hannah, you hit those two threes in the second quarter. Stopped their run. How did you feel at halftime? What do you feel changed? HANNAH SCHUCHTS: Yeah, I mean, I felt good. Obviously my shot hasn't been falling for me a lot lately. It felt good to finally see a couple go through the basket. But I'm just proud of our team. Anything I can do to contribute makes me feel good. I was so proud of how hard we fought. We just never gave up, so I'm proud of us. Felt good. Q. Aijha, what was working for you and the rest of the team in that first quarter? AIJHA BLACKWELL: I guess our shot selection, our shots were falling. We were just patient overall on the offensive end. We did well on defense, too, rebounding. Q. Aijha, you just had your first taste of postseason college basketball. What takeaways do you have from that? AIJHA BLACKWELL: Well, just to start with the beginning of the season, personally I couldn't have asked for a better start to my career. This was a tough season, but it has prepared me for the rest of my career mentally. It's going to contribute to the physical part of it, yeah. Q. Hannah, when Coach talks about overcoming adversity, how much of that is due to the support from your teammates? HANNAH SCHUCHTS: Yeah, the support that we get from our coaches and our teammates every day is a huge piece of it. We talked about coming into this that nobody believes in us except for us. That's how it's been from day one, whether we were winning or losing. We still constantly had that support, always believed in each other, believed in what we could accomplish. I think that showed today. In the first half it showed on the scoreboard, but I felt like it showed the whole game, that we believed until the very end. That goes for the whole season. Q. Hannah, you played your final collegiate game. How has your mindset changed from when you were a freshman to now? HANNAH SCHUCHTS: A lot. I think this year I've just been so focused on what I can do for the team. I think my mindset has changed a lot. I think when I first came in, I had more of a selfish mindset; what do I want to do to perform, how can I perform my best. That's totally shifted to how can my team perform at our best, what can I do to contribute to that. It's looked different for me every year. This year I got to see that pay off because I'm so proud of the progress we made from the first day of the season till now. It's unbelievable. I'm just really proud. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you. We'll continue with questions for Coach. Q. They come back in the third quarter, tie it at 34, then you build the lead back up to 40-34. Did you feel you had weathered the storm and things were going to be okay? ROBIN PINGETON: I never thought it was going to be okay. I knew it was going to be a battle. You know it's a game of runs. Tennessee is such a great team. They're not going to back down. But I felt like we survived one of their runs. I knew there would be more. Like I said, that third quarter and fourth quarter, we had a really hard time scoring the ball. We had a hard time stopping them. We sent them to the free-throw line way too much. We talked a lot in those early huddles in that second half about not settling so much for the three-point shot. I think just the emphasis on really attacking the basket, putting them on their heels a little bit. We shot way too many threes, early threes. I don't mind threes. That's part of our offense. We got a couple kids that shoot the ball pretty darn well. To me it's different when you have an inside-out mentality versus just coming down and jacking up shots. I didn't particularly like our shot selection in that second half. The other thing, I felt like we really got passive against their full-court pressure. In the first half we were attacking the score out of it. In the second half we got a little bit more passive with it which took a lot of time off the clock, which resulted in us taking some rushed shots we didn't have to take in the first half. Q. You'll probably see a lot of familiar teams make the NCAA bracket. How has the schedule you played challenged you this season? ROBIN PINGETON: There's been a lot of challenging things about the season, to be honest with you. It's been a really, really difficult season. At the same time I'd say I think this is where you probably grow the most as a team, as a staff. I'm really thankful for the people I'm surrounded by every day, the opportunity I've had to teach life lessons to these players. We had a lot of moving parts. I know I didn't feel like it was going to be so much of a rebuilding year going into the season. I was pretty optimistic about what this might look like. Bottom line is we played a really tough non-conference schedule, and we had a lot of different moving parts within our team, losing a great senior class like we did, that voice, that leadership in Sophie, Lauren, and Sierra, too. We just weren't maybe ready for someone to really step into that role. So much of our offense ran through Sophie for the last four years. With returning players, our freshmen, just getting used to playing together. But the problem is you play one of your toughest non-conference schedules you've ever played thinking it might put us in a position to hosting for postseason, then confidence gets rocked a little bit. Then you got to fight through that a little bit. Then you play in the SEC. Like I said, it's been a really, really hard year on a lot of different levels. At the same time I think there's been a lot of growth and a lot of life lessons. Will stay with all of us for a really long time. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. ROBIN PINGETON: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|