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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 6, 2008Depree BowdenSha BrooksAmanda ButlerNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE THE MODERATOR: Coach, welcome home. If you could make an opening comment, then we'll take questions for the players. They can take off, and then we'll come back to questions for you. COACH BUTLER: Very pleased with the way that we played the basketball game tonight. I thought almost completely for 40 minutes we executed and followed the game plan and played with the type of passion and energy and confidence that you have to play with at this time of the season to make things happen, and that's what we wanted to do tonight was make things happen, not be reactive, and I thought we did that, especially in the face of a little adversity, Marshae picking up two quick fouls. We had people step up and score in other ways, generated offense from our defense. Depree carried us a lot in the first half, Sha very composed under pressure, but overall a fantastic team effort. Q. Depree, can you talk about your mindset in that first half when you just seemed like you could make everything? DEPREE BOWDEN: Well, I hit my first two and I kind of got confidence from there and just started shooting. They beat me on my senior night, so I knew I wanted to get back at them. Q. Do you realize you outscored them by yourself in the first half, and have you ever been involved in anything like that? DEPREE BOWDEN: No, I didn't realize I outscored them in the first half, and yes, I have been involved in something like that before. Q. Sha, the last two matches with South Carolina have been very close games. What do you think was the difference today? SHA BROOKS: We just had more intensity. They beat us last time so we knew we had to come out and play aggressive in the first half and in the second half, we kind of got in a lull in the second half, but then we had to pick it back up in the end. Q. For both of you, how much different do you feel like you are, I think it's eight days ago, since you played UT, and what needed to happen differently for you guys? SHA BROOKS: I just think that we came out really, really aggressive, and we wanted this thing. We've got to want every single game. We were more prepared than South Carolina. We knew all their players and what we had to do to win. For UT we're just going to have to go out and out-hustle. DEPREE BOWDEN: For UT we have to start out confident and be aggressive and put two halves together. Q. What did Carol Ross's pregame talk mean to you? DEPREE BOWDEN: It meant a lot. She got us motivated and inspired to play, and it was good. It was real good. SHA BROOKS: Same as Pree. Q. How about the hot three-point shooting and the scoring in the first half itself? COACH BUTLER: Well, she was a little humble, but I think especially in an SEC ballgame when you're able to do that, it's a tremendous performance and I think you saw an instance of a senior sensing the moment. All factors considered Marshae was on the bench. Her shots were not just big in terms of momentum and that sort of thing, but it made everybody around her confident. When one of our shooters is hitting, I think it makes all of our team feel like good things are going to happen on both ends of the floor. Q. How much of a birthday present is this for you? COACH BUTLER: It was fantastic. It was all I wanted. I just wanted to win, didn't care by how many, didn't care what it looked like, just wanted to win and advance. Q. Do you think you guys are on that bubble that everybody likes to talk about? COACH BUTLER: I sure hope so. I sure would like to think so. I think we've done some things, and a big one was today. We needed to win this basketball game and do it in a convincing fashion and show that we're a postseason team. I think that's definitely a performance that you saw today. We were an NCAA Tournament team, no question. Q. How much different are you than eight days ago, and what closed the gap from that result against UT last time? COACH BUTLER: Well, I think the offensive confidence that we played with today was crucial, and our preparation as the players mentioned. We had an opportunity, obviously, to play a team we were very familiar with, and now hopefully we'll be more familiar with Tennessee. It always helps to have that first game under your belt and have some actual film of you versus them to look at and see where we fell short and see what we did well, so that's what we'll do now is go back to the drawing board because obviously the game plan we were in in Knoxville didn't turn out so well. Q. How did it feel to have your parents in the stands and see this game? COACH BUTLER: It was nice. I'm a family person. It's great to see so many familiar faces and different people that mean a lot to me. You know, I can't say that I looked up there too often. I did hear my mom whistling every now and then. But it's great to be in Nashville and in the mid-state where basketball is so important and well-supported and in a place where a lot of Gators showed up to cheer for us tonight. Q. Are you going to bring Carol Ross before every game now? COACH BUTLER: Carol Ross has got other duties, and certainly I draw a lot of the things that I do, and probably even things that I say from her. So just her presence before and around the game today certainly made us feel good. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. We'll see you here tomorrow. End of FastScripts |
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