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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 4, 2007

DULUTH, GEORGIA

THE MODERATOR: Now joined by LSU head coach Pokey Chatman and players Rashonta LeBlanc and Sylvia Fowles.
Coach, if you could make an opening comment.
COACH CHATMAN: I want to start by congratulating Vanderbilt for the conference tournament championship. You know, we knew going into the game we were going to face a very good offensive team with a ton of weapons, but also a team that probably doesn't get the credit they deserve for the match-up zone that they play. We thought we had some things figured out in terms of what we needed to do in order to attack that.
But I didn't think we gave ourselves enough opportunity. We didn't quite have our offensive moxy or mojo. We're were not as poised as we had been throughout the tournament. A lot of credit goes to Vanderbilt for that. We have to take responsibility for it, as well. But we kept relying on the defense to create more opportunities for us to experience success, and we didn't quite capitalize on it.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. The game was slowly paced all through the night with few fastbreaks. Did you consider putting any press to up-tempo it, or was that something that was never part of the thought?
COACH CHATMAN: You know, you could think about several different things. I thought initially we had a good game plan in terms of the number of opportunities we were creating for ourselves, rebound opportunities, opportunities to get back and run. They're a good transition defense team. A lot of those opportunities didn't present itself.
But you don't want to, you know, play six one way, half dozen of another in terms of if you get beat by one and you get it up to three. I wanted to take away opportunities for their shooters. We wanted to stay close to them. The best way to do that was in the halfcourt. We cut this court down.
One for nine in three-point land for that team, holding them to 51 points gives a good chance to win, but you have to marry that with some good offense to give yourself an even better chance.

Q. What does it say about the balance in the SEC in particular and in women's college basketball in general when you have the No. 3 and No. 4 seed in the finals here?
COACH CHATMAN: It says what the coaches and players in the league have been saying for years. It always gets questioned. It was put to the test today. Quality coaches, quality players. It's not just a fly-by-night thing. I think it's been that way for as long as I can remember. That's what makes it fun.

Q. This is three years in a row you have come so close. How difficult is that to go through year in and year out?
SYLVIA FOWLES: It's very difficult knowing you work so hard to get here and to come up short every time. It's definitely difficult. Just knowing that we're better and what we're capable of, to see us come up short every time is just depressing.

Q. Pokey, what did they do to make it difficult to try to get the ball to Sylvia earlier in the shot clock? Seems like they would sag down low, y'all would get 15 seconds, 20 seconds, sag down low, make it difficult to make the pass. Why not the ability to get it into her very quickly?
COACH CHATMAN: I think it's several things. I think it's the concept of team defense. When you think of someone doubling the post, you delegate that just to the post players and not to the perimeter players who are quick enough, big enough, and anticipate well enough to where that happens and maybe Sylvia is open maybe their view is obscured and you can't see that.
I think it's just a total team concept. You do a good job of anticipating, jumping, moving, making you think your guard is in certain areas, those opportunities are not quite as long as most team's. But they do a good job.

Q. Winners bounce back after they're faced with adversity. Does that add fuel to the fire?
COACH CHATMAN: Definitely. These kids are competitors. But they also understand in the grand scheme of things what this tournament is about. Obviously it's an opportunity to gain momentum. It's an opportunity to win a championship.
But because this league is so tough, it's an opportunity to make you realize and understand why you're good, where you need to be better, what you struggle with going into the next season because you don't have that window. You have a true indication of what you need to work on when you go back to practice.

Q. Rashonta, could you talk about your view of this game, the role you tried to play, maybe some of the things coach talked about that didn't work out for you to get the victory?
RASHONTA LeBLANC: Well, my role was just to knock down open shots. We have to take the pressure off of Sylvia, knock down some open shots. I just tried to knock down open shots and play hard on defense against Caroline Williams, who is a great three-point shooter. Just try to hold her down.

Q. If somebody told you before the game you were going to hold Vanderbilt to one three-pointer, would you think you would probably have a pretty good chance to win the game?
COACH CHATMAN: Most definitely. I know what my team is capable of. I know what they bring to the table. Just happens tonight we fell short.

Q. You talked about addressing your strengths and weaknesses heading into the tournament. What are some of those strengths and weaknesses you're going to be addressing this week in practice?
COACH CHATMAN: Score with the basketball and find different ways to do it. Everyone knows about the woman in the middle. They're not quite sure about everyone else. We know what we're capable of doing.
It's not about having a No. 1, 2, 3 scorer. The game will present itself, who that person is going to be. It happened to be Rashonta tonight. The other day it was Allison. The game and their scouting report defense was they take that. But just more an offensive poise, some discipline.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

End of FastScripts

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