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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2008Ashley HoutsTasha HumphreyAndy LandersNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE THE MODERATOR: Coach, give us an opening comment and then we'll take questions for the players. They can be excused and then we'll go back to you with questions. COACH LANDERS: I thought the first half was very much lack luster on our part. I would have liked for us to have played with more intensity than we did. The turnovers hurt us and the offensive rebounds that they got hurt us, and consequently we were involved in a much closer game, the fact that they shot the ball somewhere in the vicinity of 52, 53 percent according to the official stats here. We had a little bit higher in the first half. But there was just a lot of disappointments in the first half, and most of it from a lack of effort or presence of pride or intensity, passion. We didn't seem to have that. But the second half I thought we played better. We didn't turn it over. We continued to rebound reasonably well, got on the offensive boards a little bit, and just slowly built a lead that maybe they couldn't get back to at around the five-minute mark. Q. For either of you, the lack of passion and intensity, is that more because of going up against the 12th seed, or what do you attribute that to? ASHLEY HOUTS: I think -- you know, I don't know really what we can attribute it to at this point, but I think we each individually need to come every game ready to play and not really take anything for granted at this point. Once you lose, you're done. So I think it's up to us to come together and to get ready for each and every game. Q. Tasha, do you want to answer that, also? TASHA HUMPHREY: I'm not sure what to attribute it to, but I know we can't let it happen again. Like Ashley said, we are in the postseason, we are one and done from this point on. I think tomorrow we've to come out with a better intensity in what we have to do and just a greater accomplishment. Q. Can you talk about the second half and what you were able to do better? ASHLEY HOUTS: Yeah, like coach said we didn't turn it over as much and they didn't get easy points off that. I think we ran some plays, got some people open and a couple people stepped up and we just hit some shots. I think that's really what pulled us away at the end of the game, taking care of the ball, and like he said, just staying consistent on the boards. Q. Ashley, the wear and tear, you obviously came in and you didn't want to play 40 minutes. You went 38, but you wanted to get some more rest on the bench. How do you think that's going to affect you going through? ASHLEY HOUTS: I always think it's in the back of our heads, that's probably one of the main things we think about is we're tired. But at this point you've got to put that away. At some point you've got to say we've got to fight through this and we've got to keep playing. Everybody out here is tired. It's just something mentally that you have to get over. It's just a barrier you have to get over. I think if everybody can have a positive outlook on it, it won't be affected. Q. Tasha or Ashley, the Kentucky game, I guess you guys already had a game against Auburn where you got a little bit of payback if you want to call it that. Are you guys looking at that, that Kentucky was the team that beat you earlier in the year? TASHA HUMPHREY: Just looking back on that game, if that doesn't get us fired up, I don't know what will. I think that's going to get us hyped up because they beat us on our home court in the beginning of the competition. I know it's one of those feelings in your gut that you don't want to have. We're going to get rest and come back prepared to do what we have to do against a good Kentucky basketball team. Q. Tasha, this is your last time around for this SEC championship. Do you feel, not any pressure, but how bad do you want it? TASHA HUMPHREY: I mean, it's kind of an indescribable -- ever since my freshman year we've lost. Every year, well, we have next year, but now I'm running out of time. I can't speak for Megan and I can't speak for Rebecca, but I know for me, coming in collegiate ranked and winning the SEC title is something I've always dreamed of, especially as a little girl. I know tonight we didn't bring that energy and that intensity and that fire we needed to bring that we're here and we're a forced to be reckoned with tomorrow. I think tomorrow we have to bring it or if not we we're going to end up Athens earlier than we expected. Q. You shut them down for 8:33 midway into the second half. Did you start doing anything different defensively at that point? They only scored free throws. COACH LANDERS: No, nothing from -- technically different. I just tried to -- at halftime and each of the timeouts there early in the second half to get our kids juiced up a little bit, to get them to play a little harder, more determined. When you think of some of the things that happened in the first half, and I know that, you know, it depends on which side of the floor you're sitting as to how you interpret those things, but we played defense twice in the first half and they score on the 30-second clock buzzer. We go for three steals in the first half and they score on all three of them. What are we thinking? What are we doing? I know who the shooters were and who the drivers were. To answer your question, all I tried to do at halftime, we didn't talk technical. How we were trying to defend wasn't the issue. The way that we were defending was the issue. I mean, if I tell you for two days that Jenkins is a driver, guard her that way. Q. I know it's been impossible for you to kind of get a read on this team when they were coming out. Did you sense anything like this today? COACH LANDERS: Yes. Q. When did you kind of start to sense that? COACH LANDERS: The last couple days, really. Not a whole lot of enthusiasm. My question at halftime tonight was -- when I walked in was how do y'all feel about the way you played? No answer. Why didn't somebody jump up and say we played great, or why didn't somebody jump up and say, hey, we haven't played very well, and this is not right. No answer. I mean, that's not a trick question. Q. I'm just looking ahead to tomorrow night, what Kentucky has got for you and how the team played today and how you carry that over into tomorrow. COACH LANDERS: Well, if we're still talking about what I just was talking about, I mean, there's got to be a mindful decision as to how you want to be remembered in Nashville this weekend. We give beautiful answers to tough questions when we're talking to you folks, but we don't always give beautiful answers when we walk out on the floor, and that's where the question is going to be answered. We can sit here and talk about it, have theories about it, but when we walk out on that floor tomorrow, either we came to kick somebody's tail or we came to play. You've heard me say it a million times. Everybody loves to play basketball, not everybody loves to compete. Somebody drives it by me one time, that's it, especially if I've already been told they're a driver. Not only do I feel like I failed defensively, I feel dumb, because somebody already told me that. I let somebody shoot a three-point shot and score. I'm upset with me, but then I also feel goofy because you've been telling me this kid can hit threes. It's not going to happen again. But it does. That's what's got to change. THE MODERATOR: Okay, Coach, thank you very much, and we'll see you tomorrow night. End of FastScripts |
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