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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 8, 2006Britney BrownSherri CoaleCourtney ParisChelsi WelchDALLAS, TEXAS BO CARTER: We'll have Coach Coale give us a briefing opening statement and then our players are coming right behind. Coach, congratulations. COACH SHERRI COALE: Thank you, Bo, I appreciate that. They are coming, but I lost them in the hallway. Give Iowa State a ton of credit. I thought they were just fantastic, and I thought they played with a great sense of urgency. Made plays when they had to make them. We got up 10 they could have just said, oh, they won the league. They went 16-0, we're done. But they didn't. They kept fighting. We were fortunate, and we were fortunate we did some things down the stretch I think that good teams do. Blocked out, got a very big rebound, executed a set to get Erin the three. Good screens, good spot, good pass. And then Erin had to make that shot. And that's not an easy shot to make. Even if you are a great three-point shooter. So once again I think it's our poise, composure, our confidence together that enabled us to win this one. Hats off to Iowa State. Bill just does an incredible job. BO CARTER: Thanks Coach. First we'll address questions to the players. Raise your hand and we'll bring a microphone to you, please. Thank you. Questions for the players. Q. Courtney, could you talk about their defensive game plan against you. You wanted to get it inside early. Saw a lot of single coverage early it looked like. Is that what you thought kind of helped get you rolling and get the team rolling today? COURTNEY PARIS: I think whenever we -- teams give us single coverage, obviously it's a lot easier for me to score inside. One thing about that is, and somewhere two minutes left in the second half, I was worn out. So I mean, I thought that was a pretty good strategy. And down the end it was harder for me to finish. So I got to work on that. Q. Any of you can talk about this. When you're the favorite, the underdog keeps hanging around and hanging around, you're down two, three, five. How much does that start playing in your head at all, knowing that you guys are the No. 1 seed here? COURTNEY PARIS: Well, we knew they were going to come out and give us our best effort. They played well yesterday and we knew they were going to fight for the entire game today. And they did a good job. I'm just proud of our team for just coming back and making runs and making plays when we needed them. Q. Chelsi, you guys had the 10-point lead, they scored on seven consecutive possessions, after even up to that point they just would not go away. Was frustration setting in at all? Did you ever like just say, this isn't our night, or anything like that? CHELSI WELCH: No, I don't think that ever went through our head. They came back. Every ran we gave them they answered back. And that says a lot for their team and what they have for the future. But at the same time we did the same thing. And ended up doing it for the longer period of time and came out with the win. So that's a credit to our team. Q. Brittany and Chelsi, can you both comment, Courtney's 36 points are the most ever in the tournament. Can you just talk about how she played today and then what you thought of her performance. CHELSI WELCH: Court knee was huge. Every time she got the ball I knew that she was going to go up and score, get fouled, and every time we just tried to get her the ball every time we could because if they're going to single coverage Courtney, we know that she's going to be able to go inside and score. BRITNEY BROWN: I started not even rebounding, and that's a bad thing. So. COACH SHERRI COALE: These girls are way too honest sometimes. Q. Sherri, can you talk about Courtney and coming into this tournament and the pressure there is and how she handled that as far as it being such a young player and being a freshman and coming in here and doing what she did today. COACH SHERRI COALE: Well, the only time, to be quite honest, that I felt like Courtney was a freshman this year was the first week or two of practice. She just has never, when the lights are on and everybody's looking, ever looked like a freshman. I thought before we went to Ohio State there's all this national build-up of supposedly the best center in the country, Jessica Davenport against the freshman phenom from Oklahoma. Every paper is talking about it, ESPN is talking about it. I'm thinking what is she going to do. And she was unbelievable. She was the best player on the floor that game. I don't think anybody would argue that. So there's never really been a situation in which she's looked like a freshman. So I had no reason to think that she would today. She really didn't. Except she kept apologizing to me when she came out and I'm not really sure why. I'm like, "You almost got 40," yeah, okay. You tell me I'm sorry too much. Q. Sherri, was there ever a time in a tournament like this where you were pretty sure you're in the NCAA tournament anyway, is there any way you would have a letdown against a team like this? COACH SHERRI COALE: Well, I hope we're in that tournament. You know, I understand your question and where you're coming from, and I've had national media ask several times in the last week, how do you feel about a conference tournament? And you don't stand to gain anything. Look what happens to records. Look what happened to LSU, etcetera, etcetera. And I don't look at it as anything except post-season conference tournament. At the end of this week they're going to hand a trophy, and anytime they're going to hand a trophy, we're going to go fight like crazy to make sure they hand it to us. That's all it is. Q. Courtney, why were you apologizing to Coach? COURTNEY PARIS: I think I wasn't making lay-ups, you know. I forgot. I say sorry all the time, and the girls hate it. When I mess up, I say sorry. That's how I feel about things. Q. At what point did you realize that it looked like they were going to very rarely double you and that you were going to get the ball every time down court? COURTNEY PARIS: I think right at the beginning of the game, and normally I try to put myself in situations where I can get open easily and have a quick score. But when they single cover, I just took my time and backed down and was able to feel like kind of bully my players into making an easier lay-up. So I would have to be a lot more patient and that's what I like to do. Q. Courtney, could you talk about the match-up with Brittany Wilkins a little bit and what that was like. Stuff like that. COURTNEY PARIS: Well, she is, she didn't, I don't think she guarded me until the end there or anything. But, I don't know, at the end of the game she was tougher. And it was tough guarding her and I'm glad I was able to come up with that stop at the end. She's a tough player. As well as all the other Iowa State girls. And they played us hard today. Q. Sherri, could you talk about Erin's last shot. I think you called that play, right? COACH SHERRI COALE: We did. It's a play that we run all year long to get her open, make defenses choose between Courtney and the three-point shooter. And they did a good job because they switched screens and they were so far out on the 3-point line that Higgins was pretty deep. I'll have to go back and look at the film to see exactly how deep she was. But if she crosses half court, that's kind of her range. We're not too worried about it, and I was standing right behind her and I told her afterwards, we were at K State a few weeks ago and she shot one that landed, like, four feet right of the rim, and I was standing right behind her and I thought, I think she's aiming at the McDonald's sign up there, because it's not even close. Standing right behind her tonight, as soon as it left her hand I knew where it was going. It was dead in the middle of the basket. I just felt like we were going to Courtney and everybody knew we were going to Courtney, and, yeah, probably there's not much you can do about it sometimes even when you do know that. But she was getting beat up and they were maybe going to foul and let's just get Higgins a wide open three, and that's why we're 16-0 in the conference, because it's not just about Courtney. And I know you look at the stat sheet and you go, oh, Courtney Paris has 36 and there's only one other player in double figures. No, ask Bill, he'll tell you, that's what, why do you think he guarded us like he did. Because Erin can score, Britney can score, Leah can score and those guys continually all year long when their number has been called they have showed up. Whoever it was; Brittany down the stretch, whoever. Tonight it was Erin. Q. (Inaudible)? COACH SHERRI COALE: Not a bit. I was wishing I called it earlier in the middle of the 10-2 run they made. I was wishing I had called it. I felt like the same thing was happening. It was just a cluster down on the block, so much attention there and it was real physical, and if we could get something out on the perimeter, and I should have called it earlier, and maybe it wouldn't have come to that. Q. Sherri, Iowa State's always been a good tournament team. Is this one of those teams that you don't necessarily want to face in a tournament like this? COACH SHERRI COALE: Absolutely. I would have never told these guys that, but when I saw that potential, I just think Iowa State is two things: No. 1, they're offensively so explosive. That no matter what your lead is, you're never safe. They can come back from a 15-point deficit in no amount of time. The other thing about it is Bill Fennelly is really, really good. And he's going to do something different than what everybody else has done and he's going to break our rhythm or make us change things. I felt like they had a lot of energy coming in. I think with Lyndsey healthy they're just as dangerous as anybody in this league. So, yeah, it wasn't my choice for sure. Q. Courtney, again, on the subject of Brittany Wilkins, she had 28, you had 36, did you, as the game sort of went down to the end, have any sort of feeling that it was you and her sort of battling it out and then you blocked her shot at the very end, and I think that of all the things you did tonight it pleased you the most, and could you talk about that blocked shot and the tie-up. COURTNEY PARIS: She's a great player. No doubt. I remember from the first game seeing her, she's a big girl who can shoot threes, drive, post. And I was like, oh my God, Leah, you guard her. But, no, she's great. The coaches have been giving me trouble about being a defensive player I guess and I've been like, my whole big thing is I'm not that good at defense. So in practice that's what they're all, "Courtney, three steps, three steps." So I'm like you guys, the other coaches think I'm a great defender. So I was happy to get that stop and come over to the bench and tell her, I told you so. SHERRI COALE: Yeah, right. That's exactly what she didn't say. BO CARTER: Ladies, thank you. We'll keep going with Coach now. If you'll raise your hand. Q. I asked the players about this, but one of the things that I talked to Coach Fennelly about this yesterday is one of the things you do as an underdog is just try to stay in the game and hang around to the end and cause frustration. Were you worried about that when you look up at the board and it's getting late? COACH SHERRI COALE: I can't say I ever worried about it. We have been in a bunch of close games this year and our guys have gained a great deal of poise from being in those situations before. I just have almost sometimes maybe too much faith in these guys, in that I don't want to call a time-out and I think they can fix it through their judgment and their decision making down the stretch, and just even though I think it was 2:34 when I looked at the clock and I thought okay, they're going to be in it until the buzzer blows. That's just the way it is. Because up to now you keep thinking, here goes our 8- or 10-point run, and then it's over. 2:34 I looked up there and said, it's going to go to the wire. But I like our odds when it does. We have been there too many times. Q. Courtney talked about being, getting tired there in the last 10 minutes and obviously she never seems to look it, but as you guys look toward the tournament and it is more physical and you know teams are going to be keying on her more, do you worry about her wearing down in that game after game where you're playing so quickly back to back? COACH SHERRI COALE: I really don't and I'll tell you why: Courtney is an exceptional athlete. We have had an opportunity because the people around her are so skilled, and so basketball savvy that we haven't had to play her 35 minutes a game all year. Now at this point last year when I have Dionnah Jackson out there and she's played 39.6 minutes a game, every single game, she's going to get worn down. The thing about Courtney is, she's not been beaten up all year because we have played her, I don't know, what did she play? 28 minutes, something like that a game. We had an opportunity to rest her. Not wear her out on a daily basis. And she has an extraordinary recovery time. She may be tired right now, she will be fine tomorrow. She takes care of her body and I'll promise you the people that try to wear her out get tired, more tired than she did. So she usually wins that head-to-head battle. And she's just a competitor to an extraordinary degree. How do you explain she goes to the line and makes free throws when the game is on the line all the time. I don't imagine that she's going to allow any sort of fatigue, and do I think for at least a high percentage of the time, fatigue is so much mental you can overcome so much of that. Particularly you're talking about what? Three weeks. Three weeks? In what? Six games after this tournament? So, yeah, she, her mind will beat the matter. BO CARTER: Coach, congratulations. See you tomorrow. COACH SHERRI COALE: Thank you.
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