BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2005

Gary Blair

A'Quonesia Franklin

Erica Roy

COACH BLAIR: I told Sherri Coale before the ballgame, I'm doing one of these commuter marriages. It's very, very hard. I get to go home sometime this weekend. I played Sherri more in the last two years than I've been able to see my wife. That's not good. So hopefully I'm going to be able to get back to Fayetteville, see my family. It's been hard. But Sherri Coale plays in the Big-12 south. There's no way she's the fourth-place team in any type of conference because they're a very good team. That's what we have here, and I guarantee you, when I get to the Big-12 meetings, I will try my best to show what other teams are doing across the country and get out of this divisional format. We're about the only ones that are still doing it on the women's side. Then I think you could have better representatives when you come here to the Final Four. Split it up, play a 14-game schedule. Had nothing to do with the game. Oklahoma just played a smart game in the second half. Look at the shot chart in the second half. The shot chart tells the whole game. They only needed two threes in the second half, and the rest of them were layups, transition layups or their guards going north/south. We'd rotate over, have no rotation down. Just did a good job of what we didn't allow in the first half. We kept them going east/west more. I think a big key for them is what none of y'all are going to ask about, but Brown. Brown had a very good ballgame for them and did a super job of handling the basketball and keeping pressure on our little point guard. This is a kid, we didn't expect her to start. They probably started her because they were worried about our speed. But they were getting back so quick on defense, the referees were passed up a half, couple times. But, I mean, Oklahoma was flying. So our press was ineffective. So we just had to get back and try to stay with their shooters. I thought Erica Roy down there kept us in the ballgame in the first half with her midrange game. I don't think they were expecting it. Second half, we probably didn't go to her enough or they tightened up a little bit more. A'Quonesia Franklin, she had to go 40 minutes. The only backup I had at the point guard position, because my other kid's out with stress fractures, Amy Tennison, she's my assistant coach. She was a pretty doggone good point guard. As Sam Houston said, "That's all I had." If we would have got in foul trouble, I would have to compromise with a referee to see if he'd let her stay on. She did a great job with the freshmen. When five out of your eight kids are freshmen, this is just like a baptism out there. It's hard, hard to play juniors and seniors in this league on a consistent basis with freshmen. It's a learning experience. We've made a lot of mistakes, but we grew up a lot, we're going to get better. We're hoping to go to the WNIT where we can continue to get better. 14-14 should get us there or should get any team in one of the power conferences. We're not finished playing ball. We'll be practicing on Monday and we'll be ready to go again.

A'QUONESIA FRANKLIN: First half, we was just executing, getting the ball inside. We was going north and south instead of east and west, getting the ball to the hole. That was the difference from the first and second half, when we was going east and west.

A'QUONESIA FRANKLIN: It was lack of execution on our part. Dionnah Jackson came out pumped, forced a couple turnovers on our players. But we tried to come back and hold our composure and stay into the game. But they were too far ahead.

ERICA ROY: They usually don't guard me. They usually play me half and half. My teammates did a good job in finding me. I was open. I was able to knock it down.

ERICA ROY: It happened so fast, it was back to back. Like A'Quonesia said, lack of execution. We just wasn't focused. We needed to be focused.

A'QUONESIA FRANKLIN: Well, we wanted to come in and keep up the execution we had in the first half, try to keep up on the defense. But we came in unfocused and not ready to play, not ready to keep up with OU's tempo that they came out with.

ERICA ROY: We should have kept the pressure up. We really just should have kept playing together as a team. That's what had us close in the game before we went into halftime, when we were executing and getting out of the lanes, pressuring the ball.

COACH BLAIR: Well, they put Jackson on our four player, they put her on Morenike. We were trying to isolate a post down low. Both times we broke up to the high post. She either stoled it or she stripped the ball from Katy Pounds once. That's what she's capable of. I mean, it was like looking at a reincarnation of Takara Williams. That's the same type of player we had last year. That's what Jackson is. She's one of the best in the country. Those WNBA scouts, why do you think every team was here? They're looking at that young lady right there. She's a next-level player. Turnovers were costly. I tried to call a couple timeouts. When they hit the easy baskets, momentum going, I probably should have even used another timeout. Our team's psyche is very fragile when things do not go our way. That's where I have to save my timeouts for the second half, to be able to teach, not necessarily motivate.

COACH BLAIR: On certain issues it was. I thought we hit key shots, contested key shots, tough shots, with all three of the outside players. But really we just didn't get the inside games that we want. They got almost every rebound, every loose ball. There was no OU player on the board before an A&M player 90% of the time. That's when you know OU is on the bubble. Sherri will tell you that right now. They played like they had something to prove, and they did. I wanted to get the game into the second half and then try to play five-minute intervals and try to get it into the last. We were playing totally relaxed, as you could see how well we shot. If we could have got it into the last five minutes, that collar gets a little bit tighter. We just didn't get it. The veteran team, Jackson, Higgins, Rush, they just did a super job. That's a good basketball team. Remember last year, they're the only team in the Big-12 that's won this tournament by playing four games. And don't rule it out. You don't have to be the best team; all you have to do is play the best on a given day. And it is always to the advantage of the team that won today versus the team that didn't play today. I look for some upsets tomorrow. I don't know who, but there will be one tomorrow, I promise you.

COACH BLAIR: I wish this would have been Morenike's finest hour. Most of you in this room haven't had a chance to see her play this year. She didn't have a single rebound the whole night. She wants to put on a better performance, just like my other freshmen did tonight. And it was a shame you didn't get to see the best of her. But she'll be back more in the WNIT. And we want to play. I mean, we want to play. If we could go back and play AAU during the summer, we'd play that, too. But they won't let us do that. We want to play. We want to get the individual workouts, we want to teach, teach, teach, because we made a lot of mistakes in the second half that are correctable. We've got to go back and teach before we can coach. You could tell with our freshmen, we're going to make mistakes. So we're going to be all right. Just give us another recruiting class. We'll be okay, and move me out of the Big-12 South.

COACH BLAIR: It started at the Texas Tech game. That's the best game we played in two years. It started in the Texas Tech game, her going against Erin Grant. The respect both of them got from each other. We're up by 5 with 3:18 to go. We don't score the last six possessions. Erin Grant directs a two-minute offense, and A'Quonesia doesn't. That's the learning curve. Since that ballgame, our whole team has played well, maybe not for 40 minutes like we didn't tonight, but each game we have played well since there. A'Quonesia, she's just exciting. I felt for her on that last layup that didn't go. She worked so hard for it. But when you're 5'3", most people 5'3" are sports writers. Folks, I appreciate you. Coverage is good. Stay with us the whole way. Let's get this thing going. Kansas City has done a tremendous job with their hospitality there. I'm going to go find me a steak in this town tonight and enjoy it.