BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 9, 2005

LaToya Bond

Christelle N'Garsanet

Cindy Stein

COACH STEIN: I'd just say that I think you guys all witnessed it. I think Baylor's a handful. I think they're tough to beat. You have to have a perfect execution of your game plan in order to stop them. They're running on all burners today. They were very tough to stop.

LaTOYA BOND: That's kind of how every Big-12 team is. We faced that a lot this year with the pressure on the on ball with the point bringing it up, a lot of denial on the wings, trapping on the post. I mean, it's tough. But we just got to get used to it and work through it.

CHRISTELLE N'GARSANET: We just going to try to work hard during the pre-season, start working hard right now until the next season. I hope everything is going to be okay. We're going to get better and better.

CHRISTELLE N'GARSANET: They're really good post players. Really you have to keep working all the time. You can't take a rest or take a day off. But they're really good post player and very hard to defend. You just have to keep working hard.

LaTOYA BOND: We just came out with a lot of energy. Everybody was crashing the boards. The ball just happened to fall my way and I put it back up and got fouled. That's a great way to start the game, with a 3-point play.

LaTOYA BOND: I think we just weren't executing right on offense, and we weren't pacing it. We were rushing shots. It just didn't seem like nobody wanted the ball, like we were trying to get rid of it too fast. I mean, that causes a lot of problems for us defensively 'cause we have trouble getting back in transition. So, I mean, we just needed to slow the ball up and take better care of the ball.

LaTOYA BOND: I guess we just -- we knew that we weren't like out of the game completely. I mean, we just had to keep fighting and keep chipping away at the lead.

CHRISTELLE N'GARSANET: It was the same thing. Just like we just felt that we can come back and just play hard and it's going to be okay.

LaTOYA BOND: I guess basically just keeping your poise out there on the court when things aren't going right and not getting such bad attitudes, whatever, get frustrated so easily. That was a lot of problems we had this year, was getting frustrated and stuff with a lot of pressure and when things weren't going right. I mean, we just got to learn from that next year that we got to be tough and be mentally and physically stronger than that.

COACH STEIN: Well, you know, Baylor's depth I don't think sometimes gets enough credit. I think they're starting five is extremely good, but then when you have somebody like Emily Neiman coming off the bench, she may not have had an outstanding game today, but at the same time she's a presence out there in doing something. But then you've got LaToya Wyatt coming in and doing some things. Then you've got Scott playing well. You know, it's tough, because you're already worried about the two big kids. But that's why they only have three losses on the year, too. You know, a lot of credit goes to them obviously.

COACH STEIN: Well, we have made a lot of growth. LaToya spoke about that. It's just the fact with such a young team, playing in such a tough conference, sometimes your self-esteem sometimes comes and goes with your shot, and that can't happen. It's teaching them all the other things about defense and rebounding and taking care of the ball. Sometimes that's tough when you're playing against the top teams in the country. But I'm very proud of this team and how they have been able to really focus on just getting better as a team, giving it everything they had. I thought tonight or today that we wanted it almost too bad early. We were overrunning stuff, not just grabbing the loose ball that's right in front of us, and sometimes learning that type of poise just takes a little bit of time. And I think we're getting closer to where we need to be.

COACH STEIN: I think LaToya hit it. We were rushing everything. One, they make you do that. Baylor has very good defensive pressure and they make you rush. We wanted the ball so bad, we were just running 10 feet beyond or screen, getting a little out of sync. That's where we need to be a little bit more patient and confident to set our offense up. You don't want to get in a running game with them.

COACH STEIN: Yeah, you know, when you play Baylor, it's a really physical game, so it's not just the fact that you're having to work hard to get open, it's also the physicalness of getting bumped off your cuts, things like that, bumped around a screen. You know, just the poise that it takes -- you know, sometimes your athleticism can help get you open, about you've still got to be strong enough to handle the bumps and staying on balance. Sometimes it just starts mounting up over time. Sometimes you can hang with them. But because of their depth, sometimes it's hard to do that when you don't have the depth to compete like that.

COACH STEIN: We did feel like we had a chance. That's kind of what we were focused on, just kind of going in five-point bursts, trying to get five points back here, back to five, just kind of breaking it down by our timeouts. But, you know, it's tough against them. I mean, they stepped it up another level. We almost relaxed too much. We got there. And that's one of the problems we've had, is sometimes our kids relax instead of still taking their next step up, because good teams are going to take it to the next level. Like I said, Baylor does that.

COACH STEIN: Sure. You know, sometimes when we get in situations like that, what you'll see from our team is we go for the quick hit. We want to get it right now. That's something, our patience kind of goes along with our confidence, just kids being in that kind of pressure situation and knowing how to handle the pressure. But we're going for that quick kill, and you've got to have a little bit more patience and work them a little bit more.

COACH STEIN: I would say that you know about Wyatt, but she's not your focus. I tell you really at this point the only thing you're not going to know going into a game is what the other coach is going to wear, especially Kim (laughter).

COACH STEIN: Well, we were down by 14. We're a much better team with LaToya out there. LaToya provides a lot of spark and everything. She does from a defensive standpoint to an offensive standpoint. She was kind of the one finding the wiggle room offensively. I didn't want to hit a dry spell. And Blair has been doing a good job coming in, but at the same time she hasn't been doing anything offensively. As we've always mentioned, against a team like Baylor, you've got to be able to score with them because they're going to put up a lot of numbers. You've got to be able to score.

COACH STEIN: I think Baylor has a great chance of being in the Final Four. I know I've watched North Carolina play Duke. I think Baylor is right up there. Everyone keeps talking about North Carolina being able to possibly get to the Final Four. You know, I don't want to jinx them because I think they have incredible talent and I think they have the depth. They've got the great inside-outside combination. Obviously, you know, we're going to be cheering anybody from the Big-12 on to get to that Final Four.

COACH STEIN: Thank you.