BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 14, 2021

Mike Carey

West Virginia Mountaineers

Postgame Press Conference

Baylor 76, West Virginia 50

MIKE CAREY: Needless to say we didn't shoot the ball well, but you're not going to shoot the ball well when you don't reverse the ball and move the ball.

We went one on three, one on four, took a lot of bad shots, which got them out on the break. I kept warning them. We ran about four different offenses, a bunch of quick hitters. It doesn't matter what you run if you're not going to move the ball and execute.

When we would drive, there would be three of them to the ball, which means there's people open, and we weren't making the pass. We took a lot of tough shots. Took a lot of tough shots.

I thought we did a decent job keeping them -- I think they had 11 offensive rebounds and we had 10. I thought we did a decent job on that, but we just -- bad shots led to a lot of easy shots on the other end.

Q. Obviously a lot of what Baylor does, defending the paint and then they stick DiDi out on Kysre and obviously that doesn't make things easy for Kysre. Just their overall team defense, what kind of effort would it take to break through against what they do?

MIKE CAREY: Well, you can't. I mean, you're going to get the drives, but there's going to be three of them standing there, so you've got to pass the ball. You just can't go in there and throw it up or you can't just Jack up a three when you're open. I mean, the offense was terrible, just terrible today. It was just terrible.

Like I said, I changed up four different offenses, and we just couldn't get them to move it. We just couldn't get them to move it.

I mean, again, they scored there at the end, but I mean, we held them pretty good, too. It's not like they were just scoring all these points. When our defense was set they didn't score a lot. It was when we took bad shots and they got on the break and got wide-open shots.

Q. Looking at the three-point shooting that you mentioned, 3-for-16, did you feel the majority of those were bad or rushed shots, or was some of that a case of you have to make some of those against their height?

MIKE CAREY: Well, some of them were bad shots, some of them weren't. You're right, you've got to hit some of them.

I mean, but it's real simple. Look how many assists we had. We had four assists. That tells you all you need to know. You're not moving the ball. I told them in there it's amazing, when I drive and their big 5 comes to me that we don't lob or get the ball to our five. That's what they do to us. We don't do a good job of that. We just throw one up.

You know, those are things we've got to do better. Again, very proud of them. They had a great tournament. It was great to be in the championship, but we're better than what we played today.

Give Baylor credit, now. They're really, really good, but we're better than what we played today, so we're going to have to regroup and get ready for the NCAA.

Q. I know it's tough to take that longer view right now, but the refreshment of playing somebody different, are you looking forward to the NCAA? I'm sure that's something you'll emphasize to your players. And then the health, it looked like several of your players got shaken up. How much will that help having some of this time off?

MIKE CAREY: Well, it will. Looks like we'll leave Wednesday, so we'll definitely -- we won't get them -- we'll just treat them Monday and Tuesday and then try to have a practice Wednesday, because we'll know who we're playing after Monday, and then we'll take off.

Then they'll have two days. We have to do two tests. We'll be quarantined, the whole team will, in their rooms when we get to the NCAA. One day they'll be tested and then the next day tested, until the results come back. They'll have another two days once we get there.

We should be okay and healed up pretty well by then.

Q. I was going to ask a similar question, but after not being able to play in the NCAAs last year and having everything canceled, how quickly can you put this loss in the past knowing that you're going to the NCAA tournament for the first time in a while?

MIKE CAREY: Yeah, we need to put it behind us. I mean, we'll pout today, and then tomorrow we need to forget about it. We need to move on. Once we find out who we're playing, then our concentration and everything needs to be on who we're playing, and forget about this game.