BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2005

Chelsea Aubry

Kiera Hardy

Connie Yori

COACH YORI: I just thought our players played with very good intelligence. I thought we played Oklahoma State's personnel, like I said, with good intelligence. We played them a different way the first time we played them. We gave I believe 71 points. This time we gave up 45. I thought that was obviously the difference. We played them to pressure them the first time. This time we picked them up in the full court, but I thought we did a good job in our halfcourt defense of understanding what they wanted to do and trying to take advantage of things that we identified that they wanted to do. But I thought our players really followed our game plan really well. Then, you know, as the game got going, you know, obviously our free-throw shooting in the second half was a positive. I thought we got a great game out of Jelena Spiric on the boards and was real aggressive around the basket and played plays for us. Chelsea Aubry made a lot of plays for us, as well, really on both ends.

CHELSEA AUBRY: Yeah, we decided to put it all out there. We really had nothing to lose. We were playing Oklahoma State, who they're a very good team, and they came close last time. We decided to go out and just have fun this time.

KIERA HARDY: It was good being back at home. I can't tell you what I feel right now. I don't think there's a name for it. I felt comfortable shooting the ball. You're just going to have them nights. Got to keep playing.

KIERA HARDY: It's big for us. Just any win is really big. Just coming into this tournament, we have high hopes, going as far as we can, just playing hard. After losing four games, we just wanted to start over and come in with a win.

CHELSEA AUBRY: Well, I think it's really important, I guess just to let her know that we can help her out and just show her, and just keep encouraging her. I wouldn't really call it a slump, because she's still scoring in different ways, it's just not as much I guess as shooting as she's used to. So I think it's real important for everyone to just get involved. It's a big team effort.

COACH YORI: Well, I got to ask the question a lot earlier in the year, Who is going to score for us? We lost a lot of scorers off our team last year. I was confident that Kiera could put up some numbers for us, some big numbers. Coming into the season knowing what she had done late in the season last year, I had hoped that she could carry that over. Now, did I think she could average 20 points a game? No. But we're glad that she does. We think that she's a great scorer and she's a really, really tough cover in this league. The question was asked, Do we need to have other players step up? Absolutely. Kiera sees hard pressure every game. It's hard for her to get catches. They half-double her off of her dribble penetration. She doesn't get clean looks. Whatever you guys want to call it, Kiera is a great player. I don't call it a slump. I call it the fact that Kiera is getting a lot of attention paid to her. So it was time for some of our players to step up. Chelsea did that tonight. You know, we need Kiera to score, absolutely, but we also need some other players to do that for us, too. I'm kind of answering two questions at the same time, but Kiera came to our program and she has lost 30 pounds since she was a high school senior. She has made herself a great player through her efforts and conditioning, and her efforts to be really disciplined in terms of her diet and, like I said, conditioning. I'm just very proud of the fact that she has done that. I think she's one of my favorite players I've coached because she's come so far. I really think that Kiera is going to continue to get better and better. She's got areas where she can improve, but she already is a very good player.

COACH YORI: We played a lot softer this time in the halfcourt. The first time we played them, you know, just looking at -- if you -- just looking at a stat line, period, when you look at Oklahoma's stats, we thought we could really try to pressure them in the halfcourt and turned them over the first time we played them. We didn't do that. They had 13 turnovers, which isn't an enormous number. This time we sagged a lot, we helped a lot, we doubled the post. We did not do that the first time. I just thought our positioning, we played different -- we played a softer, more positioning type of defense. Again, it obviously -- you know, one of the things, you looked at the shot chart from our game the first time, it was ridiculous the shots they got. They got shots right underneath the basket time and time and time again. Last time they only made 3s against us. They made 3-3s against us. And every other made they had was within five to six feet of the basket. We tried to play inside out instead of outside in.

COACH YORI: Well, Chelsea hit some perimeter shots tonight, too. I thought she was really aggressive around the basket, really on both ends. She's capable of scoring inside as well as stepping away and hitting perimeter shots. Like I said, we're going to need other people to score. You go back and look at the last time we played Kansas State, it was a game maybe 12, 13 minutes into the game, Kiera picks up her second foul, and I'm dumb enough to leave her on the bench the rest of the half. The game went the other direction. They took over the game and had a huge run on us. But we have to have other people score besides Kiera. When so much attention is paid to her, it's time for some of our other players to step up and score.

COACH YORI: I feel great about being 8-8 now. I know we lost our last four games of the regular season, but, my gosh, this is a great league. If you can be .500 at this juncture of the development of our program, I feel awfully good about it. I feel like our players have done a great job of maximizing their potential and trying like crazy to do the best they can and to be coachable, just playing as hard as they can. I think, you know, this conference is so difficult and everyone knows how difficult it is to make a jump. Every single administration in this league is 100% committed to women's basketball. For us to finish in the top half of the league in what is my third year, I just feel like we're ahead of the game. We've made strides a little more quickly than I would have thought. I just really feel like, you know, it's just about our players. Our players, you know, we -- our players have just really done what we've asked them to do. It's fun to coach this team.

COACH YORI: We talked about let's just get back to having some fun. Chelsea mentioned it. The expectation became higher in some ways than our talent level. You know, all of a sudden people were saying, "Boy, you guys could finish third or second or fourth." We were picked ninth in the league. The reason that we won games early was because of our chemistry, our work ethic, our players caring about each other, having fun, enjoying the ride. We needed to get back to that. I feel like our players enjoy each other. We have a really good team chemistry. We need to get back to making sure that was a priority. We hope that that can get us another win in this tough conference.

COACH YORI: Absolutely. I think Julie Goodenough is a great coach in this league. I think there's a great coaches in this league and she's one of them. It's ridiculous to think that anyone would think in three years that you can, you know, definitely make an impact. It takes years to recruit kids and to get them experience in this league. I mean, one of the most important classes for us right now is the kids that are juniors in high school. Think about that. They're not going to really make an impact for us for three years. This is just too hard of a league, too tough of a league to step in and be guaranteed that you can, boom, get some wins. I think Julie does a great job with the talent that she has. She deserves to coach in this league. They need to give her some time. They need to give her an opportunity to recruit and get better.

COACH YORI: I don't really think that we were that tight. I do think maybe there was, like I said, a little bit more of an expectation there with people talking, saying, "Boy, you guys could really make something special happen this year." You know, we've played hard. Other than our KU game, I didn't feel like we played hard at KU, but other than KU, we played hard. Tonight as an example, the Iowa State/Colorado game comes down to the wire. We lost to Colorado last week. Colorado played well. I mean, they played really well in that game. We played hard. We had 19 offensive rebounds, we have -- I don't remember what the other stat was. I mean, we made some hustle plays. 19 steals, 19 offensive rebounds. I don't think it's about -- it wasn't the fact we were giving into it. It was more about, you know, maybe people have figured us out a little bit more than what they did earlier in the year. I think the second time through the conference, I think people started to play us a little differently, just like we played Oklahoma State tonight.