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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2008Jolene AndersonJanese BanksLisa StoneINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA THE MODERATOR: We've got Coach Stone, Jolene Anderson and Janese Banks. Coach, would you like to start with an opening statement. COACH LISA STONE: Disappointed. Disappointed in our lack of energy, lack of intensity to start it from the tip. Give Illinois credit, certainly. They came out with a great defensive focus. Really hammered the boards pretty hard. We were down 12-5 at one juncture. But rebound from it. And even though we were lacking energy for whatever reason, we're still within four. We came in the locker room and scored right away. Got the stop. They were on a 25-5 run. Couldn't stop the bleeding. Looking for some answers. Went big. And what it boils down to we didn't shoot the ball really well. 26 percent in the second half is just not going to get it done. And we couldn't take advantage when they took Jenna Smith out of the game. We need to take advantage of the fact that she was on the bench. They tried to rest her, obviously, which was smart. But we didn't take advantage. I thought Jolene had a great performance, did everything she could to win the game for us. But we needed a little bit of help. I thought Alyssa Karel played well for a freshman in her first Big Ten tournament. Danielle Ward, got her loosened up for the post, but it wasn't enough firepower tonight. THE MODERATOR: We'll open it up to questions for the student athletes first. Q. Jolene and Janese, could you kind of sense the lack of energy from the start, or did that surprise you? JOLENE ANDERSON: It definitely wasn't there, the first four minutes of the basketball game. Shot selection, turnovers that we had. And Illinois came out of the gate strong and we have to give them credit. They were ready for this basketball game. I think when it boils down to it, all eight players or nine players that Illinois has, they're all in it together. And I think none of us were in it together as a team, as a whole boat, everybody didn't come ready to play. JANESE BANKS: It definitely surprised me. I guess when we first started I felt like we were going to have energy, I think we were going to battle. But kind of just dwindled down and nobody really showed emotion. Nobody was really together. I don't think anybody wanted to play like that. I think for some reason as a unit we couldn't get together. People themselves had some energy but we couldn't find that cohesiveness. Q. Janese, towards the end of the first half you guys pulled within 3 twice and were down 6, I think, at the half. Did you go into the locker room and think we can get through this? What did you guys talk about coming out after half time? JANESE BANKS: Definitely, we knew we had to crash the boards. That was the thing that would turn it in the first half. I thought we were -- we were right there. And of course we didn't -- we know we weren't shooting the ball particularly well so we knew we wanted to take high percentage shots and just play together. But going in the locker room, everybody was fine. Nobody seemed scared or nervous. So I don't know. It's in the second half. Q. Jolene, how pivotal was the run in the second half? You guys were within six, overcome deficits in the last couple games and they kind of come out with a big charge. JOLENE ANDERSON: You know, they definitely did come out of the locker room strong. I think it comes back to the first half. We had nine straight stops in a row. We didn't capitalize on any of them or at least three of them maybe at max. But I think that's what it boils down to. Once we get stopped in the first half and capitalize, we go into half time in a better position than we did. We have to be ready for Illinois. We knew they were going to come out strong. Like I said, they were ready to play. But our team, I don't know if we have an answer for it. It's just that we have to get better, obviously, and hopefully that's something that we'll work on. Q. Jolene, does the loss take away the excitement of the award today? JOLENE ANDERSON: It does. Definitely does, because I just want my team to win. Any award I get just goes on the back burner. It hurts that our basketball team didn't get the W. But you just gotta move on, really. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies. Q. Lisa, I don't mean to pile on here. But your team, in conference schemes, gave up more points than any other team. You were tenth in field goal defense, tenth in 3-point defense. What do you do between the end of this season and the start of next to fix that? COACH LISA STONE: We talked a little bit about that, too, looking at it. Disappointing for us, to go and give up more than we want to. It's very disappointing for us. What do we do? We scratch what we've been doing. We start over. And we really do. We take a good strong look at our defense. And emulate my friend, that's what they do. They went, talked to some folks. We're scheduled to do that already. We talked about it, Don and Tonya and I have and talk about whether we go to zone principles or a little bit more of an arm's distance. Actually, what's end up happening to us a lot is we're following so much. We're getting up and guarding people. You can't put a team like Illinois on the line 29 times. A lot of the points we're giving up also with many teams, it would be interesting to find out that statistic, how many points we're giving up at the free throw line. Because I think that's certainly coupled with open looks and drives to the basket, et cetera. We need to fix it. There's no question. It needs addressing immediately. And we will. Certainly will. I think we've got a younger, eager team with 11 kids on the team, freshmen, sophomore. They're just, show us where when and how to do it and we'll do it. But we are going to -- we're going to go back to square one with our defense, no question about it. Q. Lisa, what did you talk about at the half or did you want to make any changes in particular going into -- COACH LISA STONE: Half time, you know, first of all, I don't know if it was Gordon or Lacey Simpson that stole the ball. Raided Jo up top. Could have cut it down to 2, now you're down 6. 33 seconds left to go in the half. So we turn it over there. They get a run out. We come down, play to Danielle. Doesn't go in. Get a couple of good looks. As poor as we played in the first half, no energy, I was feeling pretty good at half time. Went in and said, ladies, we're right there as far as how poorly we played. Amp it up. Let's get a defensive stop right away. Start attacking the basket. Get better shots, get better screens. Go inside out. Play together. Stick it out and make some things happen. Defensively we wanted to double Jenna a little bit harder. She got too many easy looks in the first half. What ended up happening, Harris takes off. And here comes Simpson and Gordon and Lori Bjork. I don't know what she ended up with -- well, she didn't score. No, she had five points. And that says a lot about Lori Bjork, if I'm reading that right. She's a good player. If she has to score 20, she will. If she doesn't, she'll assist and do other things. We wanted to be more aggressive defensively. We went with the same starting lineup. Had to start small. Saw Lisa Karel was running 30 minutes out there. Had her and Rae in at the same time. Finding some aggressiveness. I'm trying to find energy. Digging from everywhere. And it just didn't happen. And that's what's disappointing. I don't know how you can come here and not be fired up for this tournament. It's disappointing to me. Q. How surprised are you that Jolene was really the only one that could score given how balanced you guys have been in the last half of the season? COACH LISA STONE: Well, I like the fact that we got Danielle the first half. That was pretty good. Alyssa got to the basket a couple of times. We shot the ball poorly in other areas. The fact that Jolene double-doubled and five assists, three steals, those are miraculous numbers considering the approach. They face guarded her the whole game. It's not easy to score that kind of points with that type of defense on her. But it wasn't enough. We needed scoring from other places and more consistently. And we just didn't get it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. End of FastScripts |
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