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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2008Amber JacksonFelisha Legette-JackWhitney ThompsonINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA THE MODERATOR: Welcome Indiana's head coach, Felisha Legette-Jack, and players Amber Jackson and Whitney Thomas. If you would like to make a comment. COACH LEGETTE-JACK: It was good to see our team in my opinion peaking at the right time. We got rid of those nagging injuries and we finally learned how to play the game inside out, and I'm really excited about what the future holds for our program. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Amber, talk about the opportunity now to get to play Purdue and how excited you are especially when you are playing very well? AMBER JACKSON: We'll take it one game at a time. Purdue is our in-state rival. I'm excited to get out and play hard, do what we can to win. Q. Amber, talk at the very beginning of the game. Personal 11-0 run there. A chance you get those passes, but still gotta feel good to put those points on the board. AMBER JACKSON: Felt good. My teammates found me when I was open. And it was about them seeing me and making the easy layups. It was all about my teammates finding me. Q. Going along with that, first action in the Big Ten tournament here, how did it feel for your confidence to get off to a quick start? AMBER JACKSON: Actually, I was a little bit nervous before the game. It's like a new season, where now we're 1-0, but going in here 0-0. And it feels good to be playing. It feels good to be playing and hopefully we can do really well and make some noise. Q. Whitney or Amber, overall the team's success as far as getting some points in the paint today. Can you both just talk about being able to have a strong day in the paint? WHITNEY THOMAS: I feel like it was a team effort. We were finding everybody and finding the open person and we were making a lot of extra passes and we were being a team today and that's what got a lot of points for us. Q. Whitney, let me ask you the same question that Amber just answered about tomorrow's game and the opportunity to play Purdue. You split with them this year, so your thoughts going into tomorrow? WHITNEY THOMAS: As Amber said, in-state rivalry. Coach Jack told us it's not about them, it's about us. We came here for us to do what we needed to do, and that's what we're going to do. Q. Just following up on that. Is there an advantage, do you think, that you guys got to play today and maybe kind of work the bugs out a little bit and do you think that might help a little bit going into tomorrow? WHITNEY THOMAS: It definitely does because we have a lot of freshmen that have never been here, played here. For that matter we have the upper classmen that hasn't got here and they've gotten to know the court and the atmosphere, and that really helped us. Q. Whitney, talk about stat line today. It's a pleasure to look I guess 12 points, 10 boards, three assists, two blocks, four steals, as part of the 14 team steals. Talk about you were everywhere, like a woman on a mission, I guess? WHITNEY THOMAS: It's my role for this team and I step up when I need to and do what I'm supposed to do on this team. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. We'll take questions for Coach Legette-Jack. Q. Coach, looking at this potentially a four-game week, how important was it to distribute the minutes as you did and get these girls out as early as you could? COACH LEGETTE-JACK: The only thing about it, I think adults get tired more so than kids. Kids can play forever. I remember playing basketball eight, nine hours a day and my mom coming and saying come in. I was so angry with her, how could you stop me from playing. So we don't look it as -- however long it takes is how long it takes. Our kids are ready to go. We have a great trainer. Robert Black has gotten our kids in tip-top shape. We have a great strength and conditioning guy. I'm just the one that tells them the plays to run. Those guys are the reason our kids are in great shape. It's good to distribute minutes, but they've got to go 40-40-40-40, let it happen. But right now we'll stand in the moment and enjoy this Northwestern win. Q. Talk about Jamie for a minute. Obviously not a game for her zero points. Still five assists and three steals so just talk about her contributing. COACH LEGETTE-JACK: Jamie was a major factor in our success today. Her role, I just think she's stretching, yeah, we know she can score. Now we know she can distribute the ball. We know she can push the ball a little bit. How many deflects she had today? Probably four, five, six deflects. She's doing some other things on the court that doesn't get as recognized as the scoring in the rebounding. But Jamie Braun is the reason why we go. Q. Coach, getting back to the start of the game again. I know you wanted to see your team come out well. How big was it to see Amber go out on that run in the beginning of the game. COACH LEGETTE-JACK: She's been working hard to have a moment like this. We always say it's really not about you; it's about the team. But she's been watching film, in the gym working hard in the weight room. From what I'm hearing she's with her teammates, they watch a movie. During commercials she'll get down do push-ups and sit-ups. She's doing all she can to be the best she can be. For her to have an outing like this was really a tribute to what she's done in the past. Q. If you could talk about your defensive effort, 14 steals and forcing 19 turnovers? COACH LEGETTE-JACK: I'm one of those old-time coaches, even though I'm so young in this business. Don't tell me I look old either. I'm not going to have that. (Smiling) I've only been coaching as a head coach for six years. I believe defense creates your offense. I believe you win championships when you play defense. So how exciting it was to see these points get on board. I really was perturbed by some of our defensive lapses. We had 14 steals. I thought we could have had a lot more. I think we lost our focus a little bit in this game and we're going to find out the weaknesses in this game, learn from them and then move on. Q. Let me ask you the same question as with Whitney earlier, your thoughts about tomorrow and what do you think it might give you a little bit a jump of Purdue having played today? COACH LEGETTE-JACK: I'm not looking for that jump. I want our kids to play great. I think it's wonderful to have in-state rivalry. I certainly didn't understand how big this rivalry was when I first got here. I learned from my players the importance of it. So I'm excited about being able to have an opportunity to own your state. I think we got a lot of kids that can play in our state, and I think that when you go out there and compete and you are successful in-state it gives you an opportunity to keep your kids on your side of the turf, if you will. And so it's good for that. But when the ball goes up in the air, it's just about us doing what we do and what we stand for. It's not about really anything about Purdue. It's about Indiana and our growth and what we're trying to accomplish and something they've already done already. We're trying to get to where they are at. Q. Coach, you said all season you're never satisfied. But today's game overall, the closest satisfactory effort? COACH LEGETTE-JACK: No, we're never satisfied. Happy. Everybody wants to win. If you're a coach you want to win. I was hired by a great guy who understands we've got to win around here. But at the end of the day you have to stand for something. It has to be bigger than just a win. We're trying to create a championship program here. We're trying, at the end of it all, create a dynasty. In order to do that you have to win a certain way. At the end of the day we want to tell a story. We have a story that's really important to us that we want to share but we don't want to share on this level. We want to get to another level. In order to do that, we have to keep competing. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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