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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 1, 2007Jolene AndersonJanese BanksMariah DunhamLisa StoneINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA THE MODERATOR: Coach Lisa Stone with Wisconsin is with us. Coach, if you could give us an opening comment and then we'll go to the student athletes for questions. COACH LISA STONE: Very, very proud of our basketball team, maintaining focus, overcoming some first-half jitters, turning the basketball over the first half. But our defense was much better, forcing 25 percent from the field in the first half. Second half we withstood a Michigan run. Again, I'm proud of our players for that. Their confidence on both ends of the floor started to prevail, and this is a great test for a very, very young team with no seniors. They rode the wave of (Jolene) Anderson and (Janese) Banks. Jolene was as much of an All-American as you've ever seen today. And then Janese, obviously the two of them were prolific when you can put up big numbers over 20. Mariah Dunham made her first career double-double, huge for us. And Danielle Ward was one away from a double-double. That's four people in double figures for our basketball team with an inside-outside attack. Rae Lin D'Alie with ten assists. I love this team. They are down here with a lot on their minds in terms of what we want to get accomplished this season, and we're playing for a lot, and to be able to put ourselves in position to play Purdue again after just playing them too long ago and playing very well. We came to play a lot of basketball teams and we're excited we're still alive and we're excited about our opportunity to play against Purdue and play very well. Q. Was there a point that you thought you knocked Michigan out of the game mentally? JANESE BANKS: I think it's kind of what Coach Stone said in the locker room. You know she wanted us to keep the five, and there was one point they were down by seven, and hit a jump shot and missed and I think we took over from there. First two minutes we just went back and forth trading baskets and me and Jolene just looked at the whole team and said we got to start getting stops. We can't keep trading baskets like this. You know we got to do what we do best. And I think we started getting stops. Plus by the ten-minute mark, and then I think that's when we really felt like, you know, we had the game sewed up. We knew we had to keep playing, because Michigan is a team that can get right back in it, they play great defense, they, you know, pressed really hard, so we knew what our mentality was. Q. You mentioned the last couple times you played Michigan, what was the biggest difference between -- I mean they played you pretty tight the first two meetings. What's the biggest difference between that and a twenty-point loss? JANESE BANKS: I think our mindset right now is I really don't think it matters who we play. We're going to prepare for each team. Whatever they do best we want to stop. Coming to the Michigan game we knew our defense had to be prolific. They've got a very athletic team, they attack the basket hard. I think we maintained that. Tomorrow is the same thing. It's going to be defense. If we can continue to play our defense, what we do best, we're going to be an awesome team. Q. This question is for Jolene. Covering enough of these things, on Thursday I see too many teams know who they might face on Friday looking ahead, the proverbial toe gets stubbed. I'm asking you how important was it going into this strictly thinking about the Wolverines and not sitting there thinking, boy, Purdue is playing the next day? JOLENE ANDERSON: It was very important because if you didn't focus on Michigan -- because Purdue was playing really well on Friday. We focused on Michigan all week, went out there and played our 40 minutes of basketball. I don't think it was our best basketball but we won this basketball game, now we have Purdue tomorrow and all our focus is on Purdue now. Q. Jolene, Coach just said that you guys are playing for something. Can you elaborate on what she's talking about and just the team's mentality coming into this tournament? JOLENE ANDERSON: We came to this tournament to do something we haven't done for a long time, playing in the postseason nobody knows, so we've got to go in there focused, play one game at a time and play 40 minutes. Q. Jolene, some of the coaches said that they thought your focus in practice the last couple days was more intense than they have seen from you. Is that true? And can you just describe your mindset? JOLENE ANDERSON: Sure. I'll just agree with them. It was a little more focused. This is our third season. Obviously the Big Ten is over with, now it's tournament time. There's teams that you just -- one game and you could be done, so you've just got to go out there and play for 40 minutes, like I said, and play as hard as you can, and hopefully we'll get the win. Q. Mariah, the first game -- the one time you played Purdue, what's the thing to comes to your memory bank first and foremost in your meeting in Madison against the Boilermakers? MARIAH DUNHAM: Katie Gearlds. She's just an amazing player. I think we had a great game against them the first time. It was one of our better defensive games minus Katie Gearlds. I think basically just stopping her, and then getting on the boards, just doing all the little things just to help us win. Q. Janese, kind of the same line of questions. You only saw Purdue once just a couple weeks ago. What are your memories of that and what do you have to do tomorrow? JANESE BANKS: I think we've got to eliminate easy baskets. Katie Gearlds is a great player, she's going to score. I think we can eliminate her easy basket. We can eliminate Malone getting easy baskets. I think Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton has great moves inside, so we've got to focus on everybody. She's an all-American. So I don't think it's about stopping one player, but I think it's about -- when you play a team like that that knows how to win and is highly ranked I think it's about stopping their easy baskets, not letting them get second and third chance opportunities because they're going to score, but it's going to eliminate the way we score and if we do what we do best then I think we put ourselves at an advantage. Q. Coach Stone, there was a period of time right after the game, the second half, where Michigan needed a basket and I believe you had them down to four, but really after that they couldn't get any closer because you continued to hit three-point baskets. Was there something about their defense that wasn't enabling them to get any closer? COACH LISA STONE: Actually I didn't want it to get to five, so if it did -- well, hopefully it didn't get to five. Did it cut to five? Any closer than that I was going to call a time-out. I didn't want them to get any closer. If it was that I need to go back and watch the film, and I can't add very well. The bottom line is they didn't get any closer than that because I think we took some pride. I believe it was 11 for 16 possessions. If it was 8 for 10 then it went on to be 11 for 16. It got better for us. We committed ourselves to the boards. You saw Heins out there pretty often and when they brought in Phillips we went back with Danielle and Caitlin and we committed ourselves to the boards, and that was the difference. The rebounding advantage for us allowed us to get transitioned, allowed us to have to put some comfort zone distance for ourselves. Q. What do you think is different about this team this year that when they did get it to five and then you made a three-point shot that you were able to respond and pull away? JANESE BANKS: I think our options. I think they may be different. We have a lot of different options. It's not just one person that's going to do anything, but we've got everybody. We've got inside out. We need -- we know we can go to D or Mariah or Caitlin or anybody. We know we can finish. I think that's the biggest thing. I think our composure. I think everybody is pretty confident what we can do. We've got great believe in our point guards, I think. We have a lot of faith in Rae Lin that she's going to run the show. I think that's the biggest thing is that we don't get wrapped up in fear. I think maybe it was the fear of teams coming back, but I think now it's the options that we have to go through. Q. Coach, if you'd indulge, does the win over Purdue get you back in the NCAA picture or are you already back in the picture? COACH LISA STONE: I'd love to have that conversation with you tomorrow. This team has passed a lot of things. We were chosen low in the Big Ten, so to even be talking the fourth or fifth seed going into Sunday, it's a great breakthrough for our program. And this entire group is back next year so we're elated by that, the fact that we've had 18 wins, now 19, no one can take that away from us. We talk about that and battle for it, and I know my cohorts in the Big Ten won as many games as our team before the tournament. Certainly Purdue is a ranked team, we're playing them on neutral court, but they're a solid team, and I think it's certainly worth consideration. Q. I know obviously there's a great amount of respect that you had for Sharon Versyp. Is it a given in your mind that no matter what, Sharon's team is going to be ready to play tomorrow? That's not even something you think about; that's something that you just say that's a given and move on, let's try and defend Katie Gearlds and so forth? COACH LISA STONE: Without question it's a given. They've been there, done that for four years. I'm not sure the win-loss record of their senior class with Erin Lawless and Katie Gearlds. Janese hit it on the head when she talked about their entire team. They've got a freshman point guard, and that's fun. Everybody who saw our team last time -- some of our best basketball was played against Purdue. We came up short but we played very, very well at our place. The fact that they're big and they're long and they can do a lot of things, they have a tradition of success, and that's the part that our team right now has in our mind hopefully broken through. Our expectation is very high. I go into this game knowing full well that Purdue is going to play tomorrow, but we're not going to have an excuse. We're going to really feel good about what we did today because I thought we had some great things happen around the court. They're young and energetic and bouncing off the walls. Eight of them have never done this before, so to put a team on with No. 2 on it, they're young women, and some are taking exams tomorrow. Life goes on, yes. The fact that when the ball goes up at noon against Purdue, this team will be very, very ready, very, very focused knowing that we have a wonderful opportunity, and the results will be as they are and our team will play as well as we can. Q. How important is an NCAA bid for this program, and how do you look at a win against Purdue as a must-win in solidifying that? COACH LISA STONE: Actually I have not even talked about that with our team. I asked our team, I said we're not stopping here when it comes to doing what we need to do. The goal is to win a Big Ten Championship. That secures our berth in the NCAA tournament. That's a given. We've done a lot of great things throughout the season. I'm not going to put that type of pressure on this young team. I'm not going to say we have to win this game to get in the tournament. I'm going to say we have to win this game to win this tournament. Why come if you don't plan on winning? So that's our focus, and that's truly going to be my effort. As we go back to work, and we're playing a team again that we just saw however many days ago, we'll go with confidence and composure and we'll lay it on -- we'll play hard, I guarantee that. Q. Two things. One, this morning when we talked you said that you had hoped that you could get Jo some time and Janese some time on the bench so they didn't have to come back 20 hours later. That happened. Also, Rae Lin had ten assists. COACH LISA STONE: Back to Janese's comment about Rae D'Alie. We have a lot of confidence in our 5'3" kid from Waterford. She's been vocal. She's our automatic press breaker. I can't say enough about her and her ability to allow Janese and Jolene to play their positions. Janese and Jolene don't get 22 and 23 points without her. The fact that we're getting scoring from our post helps a ton. Jo is like okay, okay, I want to keep playing. We need to rest you for tomorrow. The bottom line is I think our team is pretty fresh. They're in there with the trainer and we'll get fluids in us and a nice meal and we'll be ready to go tomorrow. Q. Obviously Jolene is the leader for you all the time, but have you seen her have a look of determination like she had the last couple days before? COACH LISA STONE: Well, probably -- she wants this tournament. She really, really wants it. She texted me about five times asking if she can bring another bag because she's got so many clothes, and I love seeing my bag this full, and can we wash our practice gear, all these questions as she's getting ready. I've never had that from her before. The fact that you pack a big bag and you can hopefully stay a long time and wear everything in the bag, the better. The more dirty clothes, the better. Q. Is there a danger tomorrow with your players focusing too much on Katie Gearlds based on what she did the last time? COACH LISA STONE: The very first thing I said to them, too, is there's more than Katie Gearlds. Katie is going to come with some confidence. She's a very good player. She's very, very special. They know that they have a lot of other options. I think Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton is very special; I think Erin Lawless is an X factor. I think Malone certainly makes them go. They have a lot more weapons than just Katie. We can't focus just on Katie Gearlds, we can't. Can we do things to make thing more challenging so she doesn't get 41, yes. But we can't put all of our energies on one player. Q. (Inaudible.) COACH LISA STONE: Well, transition baskets. Rebounding led to transitions. We got on the glass and got off of transition. We also found the hot hands. Jo and Janese fought hot in the second half, Mariah drained a couple threes. Scoring went up. Scoring hasn't been an issue for us. It's usually the other way around, that we're giving up too many. I'm proud of our kids. They're a wonderful team, and we are look forward to staying here a long time. End of FastScripts |
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