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BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2020Jim FlaneryJaylyn AgnewChicago, Illinois St. John's - 70, Creighton - 54 JIM FLANERY: Well, I think you have to admire what St. John's did tonight, to fall behind 20-5 to start the game and to fight like they did, and flip the game obviously in the second quarter and then continue in the second half, I thought they defended us really well. I thought Alston set a tone and KB on the glass, and then obviously Correa was their go-to. She had a big second quarter, and I told the staff at half, we needed to -- with Hoppie in foul trouble, we needed to do a better job on her. But they obviously have a lot of weapons, so you just can't say, well, it's just her. But I thought they defended us really well. We really struggled to score, and I thought as we got tired, we obviously were a lot easier to guard. So from my standpoint, I thought I regret probably not using our bench a little bit more and not -- I thought we clearly got tired, but their defense had a lot to do with what we looked like on offense. You know, every game you play them it could be somebody else. Last time it was Hoppie first half, Alston second half. That's what makes them good and dangerous. But really proud of this young woman to my right. She's -- I love her to death. She's been a dream to coach, and she was tonight, too. I told our younger players, just not that she's a great player but how she carries herself and how she tries to lift her teammates was fully evident tonight, and so hopefully she gets a chance to play in the tournament that we want to play in because I think she deserves that, and our team, too. St. John's was clearly the better team tonight, but I think if we get a chance, we can play a little better than that. But they deserved to win. I thought they really fought and really guarded us well. Q. That award presented to you before the game, your teammates were all riled up for you. What does that feel like? What was that moment like for you? JAYLYN AGNEW: Yeah, it was pretty cool. I feel like I much rather would have won the game today than received that, honestly, but yeah, it was cool. Their love for me is just -- I feel it every single day, so it's awesome to play with people who support you no matter what. Yeah, it was fun to be with them and share that moment with them. Q. That was a really physical game. I wonder if you could describe what it was like out there. JAYLYN AGNEW: Yeah, like you said, it was physical. They pressured us. Like Flan said, they played good defense. We knew the first two games they were physical, as well, so we knew it was going to be a physical game, but we kind of let that get to us. There's some tough plays that we could have made better offensively and defensively. So yeah, we just have to -- looking forward, have to try to match physicality or just to make tougher plays. Q. We've heard about you and your career. Marissa Janning was watching the game tonight and messaging us and she talked a little bit about the guy to your left. Can you reflect on what he's meant to you? JAYLYN AGNEW: Yeah, I might get emotional, but yeah, he's -- see? I'm very emotional, so this is not surprising to me at all. I think the best thing about Flan is that he cares for you as a person overall. He could give two craps about basketball in the long run. So I think that's what really attracts people to go to Creighton, especially I'll see him walking in the mall, and he'll be like, hey, what did you learn today in class? Like simple stuff like that. I don't know, I feel like not a lot of coaches would be the type to do that, and he just -- he just cares for us so much. It's just been so fun to play for him, and I've learned so much from him. I actually was telling someone this over this last year and this year, I feel like I start to think like him now. JIM FLANERY: Is that a good thing? JAYLYN AGNEW: Like I said, I've learned so much from him on and off the floor, and so I'm just really grateful to have been coached by him. Q. When you think about the pedigree of this league and what you've done in it, what would you say about the NCAA Tournament case you have now? JIM FLANERY: Yeah, I mean, we've won -- I think we've won nine top-100 games and we haven't lost a game outside the top 100. Unfortunately in my next life I'll probably be an SID because I'm a numbers guy, and as much as I tell myself not to look at the RPI and not to look at the nitty-gritty, Kathy is nodding her head because she was on the committee, it's just addictive. It's like caffeine in the morning, you get in and you're like, don't look, don't look, don't look, and then you look, and you see where you are and you see where St. John's is and you see where -- and so I just know -- I mean, again, this is not to discredit St. John's because I thought they played great, but I hope we get another chance because I think we're better than we played. Again, not to make excuses, but Tatum missed a lot of times and Jaylyn missed four games, and we haven't probably improved as much the last two months, I know I've talked to you about that, as I would have hoped just because we haven't had the best practice situation. But everybody deals with that, I understand. But I do think we're a good basketball team, and because Jaylyn is such a great player, what we have around her and what we have around her is good enough. Yeah, it's a great league. I said -- nothing against the bottom three teams, but I felt like this tournament was -- any of seven teams could have won this tournament. But I knew it was going to be hard because you've got to beat three good teams. But yeah, I mean, I'll put our résumé up against those other teams, and our non-conference scheduling. I think that's one thing that we do, we play -- we go to, we went to Drake, we went to South Dakota, and I know Harry would say, try going to UConn; South Dakota what? But those are really hard places to play and win, and we went to Arizona State and we don't have any bad losses. Not one. I think if you -- So maybe our ceiling isn't what some teams are, but our basement I think is a lot higher than a lot of teams, too. So thanks for that question, too. Q. I know you'll have some time to reflect on Jaylyn's career after this is all said and done, but just your initial thoughts? What has she meant to you? JIM FLANERY: Yeah, well, her freshman year she texted me on Christmas morning, and when you're the head coach, you don't usually get those from players until you text them, and now my assistant coaches probably do because they don't yell at them as much as I do, but I kind of knew at that point that she was pretty special because she doesn't -- nothing you say carries over beyond when you say it, on the practice court or in the game, whatever, no criticism that you have, she lets it go. And she's a tremendous includer. I think one of the great tenets of leadership I think for 20-ish-year-old females is being inclusive, and that's who she is. So I have two kids, I have a 10-year-old boy and a six-year-old daughter. So when my daughter, when they come to practice, everybody goes and talks to Brynn because she's six and she's cute, but she does that and then she goes to my son, who is kind of hanging in the back because he's too awkward, and she goes -- so she moves from my daughter to my son, and to me that's an example of how inclusive she is. She understands that everybody is valuable, and so when you have that -- when you know you have that in the locker room, you know that your freshmen are taken care of because it's not just that Liv, who's her three-year roommate and fellow fifth-year senior is her good friend, but they all are, and I love that she's so inclusive that she brings my kids valentines to take home. So that's special to me. I've coached great kids, but that's special because she just thinks about people differently than a lot of kids her age who think about their phones more than they think about the people around them. I don't think she takes people for granted, and that's what I -- and she's worked really hard to get this good, too. Like I mean, she wasn't -- we redshirted her freshman year because we didn't know -- she wasn't quite good enough, and look at where she is today. So she's worked really hard. Q. I just want to touch on the game today. You knew it was going to be a physical match-up; it was. Take me through how they were able to play against that? JIM FLANERY: Well, Joe does a great job of taking what they can do defensively, and we've had a lot of real -- I felt like it would be closer just because we've had so many close games with them. But I think he and his staff do a great job of getting their team prepared to guard, and they know how to score, too. They take advantage of match-ups, and I think it's his best -- since we've been here, I think it's his best offensive team, too. They're a handful to guard, especially when they go small, and I knew it was going to be one of those -- either we were going to go small and they were going to go small right after it or they were going to go small and we were going to go small. It was a guards game. But I thought they -- their players know our players personnel-wise pretty well, and I thought they were pretty attentive to what they needed to do. And like I said, I thought once we got -- our boom in the first quarter was great, but I thought when we got tired, and that's why I said, my regret is I didn't play our bench more because you kind of go into the game thinking you've got to trust your older players, but you've got to be able to evaluate, and the fact that we got off to such a good start I think probably froze me in terms of -- because I felt like, gosh, these guys are playing so well together, and then I didn't get some of those kids in until the second quarter, and they were probably a little tighter based on that. I think you look at our two freshmen post players who normally get in in the first quarter didn't get in, and now it's probably a little bit tougher for a freshman to be effective when they're sitting longer than they normally are. Anyway, Glenn says I can talk a lot. I left the question somewhere. But I think they do a really good job of knowing what your strengths are. Right? FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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