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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2020Dawn StaleyLeLe GrissettAliyah BostonGreenville, South Carolina South Carolina 89, Georgia 56 THE MODERATOR: We are joined by South Carolina. We will start with questions for the student-athletes. Q. Aliyah, you played in a lot of big games this year. Talk about how it feels now to get your first postseason game. ALIYAH BOSTON: It's exciting. The tournament, there's just so much hype about it. I was just really excited to see what it's all about. Q. LeLe, 40 points from the bench this afternoon. What was working with that unit? What kind of spark did the bench bring today? LELE GRISSETT: Energy. We brought a lot of energy off the bench. We knew as soon as we got in the game, we got to play together, push the ball, work hard. Every time we sit on the bench, we talk about how we going to impact the game. Q. Aliyah, matchup with Jenna early on, felt like you were trading blows the first quarter. You got the better of that matchup in the paint. What changed? What was it like going up against her? ALIYAH BOSTON: Yeah, she's a very physical post player. She has an outside game. She hit a three on me earlier. I mean, I kind of just continued to attack her and tried to put it in the basket as much as possible. Q. LeLe, what kind of leadership do Ty and Kiki bring to you guys? LELE GRISSETT: They bring great leadership on and off the court. If you need to talk to, like, Ty or Kiki, they always have their door open. They push everybody to the limit. They don't want nothing but greatness from you. THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you for your time today. We'll continue with questions for coach. Q. A little bit of a rough start for the starters, but then the bench comes in. Anything to be concerned about there? Is that just showing off how deep this team can be? DAWN STALEY: I mean, I thought we were a little rattled early on. Maybe it was just the rust of not playing on a Thursday. But I think our bench has shown up all season long to give us a boost. They gave us the boost that we needed early in this basketball game. I was happy to see them impact in this way. Q. Talk about your seniors, they've been through this before, won the whole thing. What do they mean to this team? DAWN STALEY: I mean, when you have seniors who have been around your program for four years and who have been at this tournament for four years, that's who you want to lean on the most because they have the experience. They have the experience of winning it. They have the experience of exiting it early. So they have both spectrums in their experience. But this year I think they are leading our basketball team to wanting to win it. Hopefully we can continue to play well as a unit, and they continue to lead our basketball team into the semifinals. Q. LeLe played really well. Saxton played well. Is there maybe a thought going forward to try to get them on the floor along with Boston heavier than you normally would? DAWN STALEY: I mean, we just see how the game goes. Obviously they know when they're coming in the game. Somewhere after the five-minute timeout. It depends on who's in foul trouble. Kiki picked up one early. We try to jockey to make sure that Kiki nor Aliyah have to sit down for extended minutes because of foul trouble. But that second unit is used to playing with each other. They've done it all year long in practices. I actually like seeing them together where they're playing as a unit because they're so familiar with themselves. Q. Joni was in here earlier and said, Let's be real, a lot of your bench players could start somewhere else. Has it been difficult to keep everybody in their roles and happy with their roles? Hard to find time for everybody to get on the court? DAWN STALEY: It really hasn't been difficult this year. I think our bench, really, they understand their importance. When you understand that you are important to our basketball team, you feel a sense of want and need. I think Ty and Kiki, they do a great job in just letting them know how important they are. I think this is an example of when you accept your role, no matter what role it is, unfortunately if we can say that, the bench could start somewhere else. We have to make a decision. We made that decision. They could have bucked, but they didn't. Maybe they did inside their heads, but it never showed out there on the court. Now we're at a place where they come and they get 40 points. They got assists, rebounds, blocked shots. They're making an impact. Hopefully other programs are watching, other players are watching, just how impactful every single player that's on our roster is for our basketball team. That's all because they've embraced their roles. Q. Talk about a game like today with your bench where you got a chance, everybody has tournament experience now, a lot of them got quality minutes, how that is going to help you down the road. DAWN STALEY: I don't know. I think it helps right now to get us through 24 hours of players feeling like they played a role. They got out there, they got their feet wet. Some of them played extended minutes. Some of them didn't play a whole lot of minutes. I think it feels good when you can get in a game, run up and down, shoot the ball, even turn the ball over. You just feel like you've played. I'm happy that we were able to play 11 players today. Q. The pregame intros, probably an honest mistake, they said the No. 7 seed South Carolina. You seemed tickled about that. What were you thinking right then? Do you use that as motivation? DAWN STALEY: I didn't want our fans to hear '7' because they tend to go off the deep end, and they did. I was just trying to quiet them down saying it was probably an honest mistake. I can't see a whole lot without my glasses. Maybe the announcer didn't have her glasses on. 7 looks like 1. I think it's an honest mistake. She's been here for as long as I've been a part of the SEC tournament. I enjoy her voice. I didn't think anything of it. The national anthem singer was awesome, though. Q. The turnovers in the first half were a little uncharacteristic. Is this something you have to address with them or you can shake it off or write it off as first-game jitters and then you look past that? DAWN STALEY: I mean, I was caught off guard by it, especially because it's uncharacteristic of Ty to turn the ball over the way she did. I think it was just that. I think jitters played a role in it. We addressed it at halftime. I believe we had maybe six. Was it six? No, it was five in the last 20 minutes of the game. That's more like our speed. That's not something that we'll harp on. I think we saw it, we adjusted, then we corrected it. Q. A left turn here. There are some players here, Carter specifically, in the next game who will have some early entry decisions to make this year. Is that a positive evolution for college basketball, the WNBA, that that has become a decision? DAWN STALEY: Is that? Q. A positive evolution for the women's game. DAWN STALEY: I'm one that likes options for me personally. I like options. I think most people would like options. There's not one way or the other. You have options, and you have to weigh the options. Is it a positive thing if players graduate? If they are of age to make a decision to go to the league, I think it's an individual and a personal one. Q. Do you think the league's new CBA will make it more of an issue? DAWN STALEY: No, no. Because I don't think the players that are coming out will benefit from being cored in getting the top dollar. There's a rookie salary cap. I don't think it's as lucrative as people think. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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