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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 7, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

THE MODERATOR: We have Head Coach Lisa Bluder, Johanna Solverson and Kristi Smith.
Coach, if you would like to start off with an opening statement.
COACH LISA BLUDER: It wasn't an offensive show for us. Thankfully our defense was there today. We played really good defense and really just took care of the boards. I'm so happy with our rebounding margin. I thought we did a good job of boxing them out. Holding them to one offensive rebound in the first half and five for the game.
Very, very happy with that. Obviously had great balanced scoring today, and that's what our team is all about. We're not a team of super stars; we're a team of everybody doing their job and just having a very, very strong team in every sense of the way.
So I'm happy with our first performance. But it's kind of business as usual. We're moving on to tomorrow.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for the student athletes.

Q. Johanna, what was the outlook for you guys coming in? What was the feeling? You didn't really need to win. Were you afraid of a let-down at all? How did you guys feel coming in?
JOHANNA SOLVERSON: I wouldn't say we didn't need to win. You never want to come into a game not wanting to win. You always want that win. I think we came in prepared for this game. We just recently kind of played them. So we know their mentality and their type of offense and it's a lot of movement. I think that we just watched a lot of film and went over their plays a lot.
They're a great team, but we just came ready to play. Not saying that they didn't. Things just kind of went our way a little bit more, I think. So it was a good game.

Q. Kristi, can you talk about how this game was a reflection of how this team is so much different than last year in terms of you guys put up a lot of points last year, tried to outscore people, and when you weren't scoring you oftentimes would lose them. But today when you guys won it basically defense and rebounding?
KRISTI SMITH: Yeah, we're just -- our maturity is definitely coming through. Last year, you know, we weren't a very good defensive team. This year defense has been a focal point of ours all season.
And it's just working out for us right now.

Q. Either one of you two ladies, any thoughts on playing an Indiana school on an Indiana floor? Because you are either going to play IOU or Purdue in the next round.
KRISTI SMITH: I assume they'll have a good crowd because it's not very far away from their schools. It's a new gym at the arena they don't play here every day just like we don't. It's really all in the air and really just our crowd. I think we have a pretty good crowd after who showed up tonight. I think it's going to be a match on the floor come down to defense and rebounding.

Q. Jo, you've been getting a lot of pick and rolls. Did you see something down in Michigan that you could get down low and get some layups?
JOHANNA SOLVERSON: Every time I got the ball I could hear them say make her go left. Made me want to try to go right even more. They had good defense, but there were times where they forgot to slide over, left us open for wide open layups. Great fakes. We were able to get to the basket really well. When it wasn't there, we were hitting our outside shots, which helped.

Q. Johanna, you guys get blown out at Michigan earlier in the year. What happened in that game compared to what we saw today? What was the biggest difference from that loss to this win?
JOHANNA SOLVERSON: Playing at their place, it wasn't a great game for us. But they did come out ready to play and played really well. They were a lot different from last year. I think maybe some of us were thinking differently when we went in there to play against them.
But I think just, again, to see their style of play, got a new coach, their style of play, the way they move was different than we were used to. When they came down to our place we were ready for it and again here today.

Q. Kristi, what do you think you guys did defensively that made it hard for them to score?
KRISTI SMITH: Well, I don't know. We were just focusing on boxing out and we were switching on both screens. I don't think we did that last game. Switched -- I don't know. We were just intense on defense.

Q. Just put Kristi on the bigs, it works?
KRISTI SMITH: I put some post D there, Johanna, could you speak about how much it means all you've been through, the knee injuries and how it might not have been a sixth year and here you are you in a big game and this is what the players want to play, right, the big games?
JOHANNA SOLVERSON: Like I've been saying, it's a great feeling knowing that I was able to make it through this whole season without any real injuries to set me back, because sitting out for two years is a long time. But this is what we've been working for really hard. This is exactly why I wanted to come. This is my last year. I wanted to leave with everything I have on that floor. Today was the first win and for these guys it's their first Big Ten tournament win.
That was an exciting feeling to accomplish for them and stuff. But really just -- it shows all your hard work is for. So that's what I'm really excited about.

Q. To either of the players, you guys had 17 second-chance points and quite a few offensive rebounds. Is there something about Michigan's boxing out or the rebounding that allows you to get that advantage?
JOHANNA SOLVERSON: Going into any game, rebounding is a huge factor in the whole game as it is as a whole. But we just crashed the boards really well today. I don't know if it so much wasn't that they were boxing out or we were just getting out of their box-outs, but with you knew coming into this game we really would have to rebound.
Getting second-chance points is great. It keeps the clock running for offense. Makes them play defense longer, tires them out more. Really we focused on hitting and getting our box-outs one through five.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.

Q. When you saw it snow, did you have a good feeling?
COACH LISA BLUDER: We actually did comment on that on the way over here. No, storm and Iowa basketball goes hand in hand, so we felt right at home.

Q. Johanna was talking about it before like with the rebounding, but you said going after the Wisconsin game how you made that a primary focus going into that. Was that kind of the main thing again today, just like keeping the rebounding as a focus, especially knowing the problems that Michigan did have?
COACH LISA BLUDER: It was our second key to the game, is that we wanted to be able to dominate the boards both offensively and defensively. We felt Michigan wasn't very strong at it. We are. We can be a good rebounding team. We wanted to take what was a strength for us, make it even better. We definitely did really emphasize this coming into the game.
First key was defense. They moved so well on their offense. They spread the floor. There's so much movement that you sometimes can get lost. You sometimes lose your weak side defense because you start hugging your player, especially when they can extend the floor so much because they are such good 3-point shooters. I know they didn't show it today. I think the defense obviously had a huge benefit they had to play yesterday. Shots they normally hit they weren't able to hit today. Tired legs I'm sure took its toll.
But I do think we came out with an intensity right off the bat. But I think it wore on them after a while.

Q. Lisa, how different is it for you when you're on the sidelines and, like today, you didn't score as much as usual, but when you look out and you see the kind of defense that you're playing and you know you can depend on that, how different does that feel from last year?
COACH LISA BLUDER: It makes you feel so much better. It's easier. It's easier to coach that way. I mean, you're not having to rely on every shot going the right way or every bounce. Believe me, I sleep a lot easier knowing that we have both parts of our game operating now.

Q. How key was it in this game that none of your players played more than 28 minutes as you get ready to play tomorrow?
COACH LISA BLUDER: I'm really glad with that. Abby, I thought, came in, did a really nice job for us. She got valuable minutes, let us rest some of our guard players.
I think any time you're playing in a tournament situation like this, if you can spread out your minutes, it's to your advantage.
So we are a team that has some good I think -- I won't say we're really deep, but we're pretty deep. And so I think that alone helps us. But especially can spread out the minutes, I think that's to your advantage.

Q. What kind of progress do you think Michigan has made this year knowing that for years they've had some of the worst records, worst losing streaks, stuck in the basement of the Big Ten. Seems like they made a pretty decent impact with the kind of season they've had?
COACH LISA BLUDER: I wouldn't even call it a decent impact. I'd call it a great impact. They've done an incredible job. You know, a lot of those kids were young the last couple of years. And so it was taking -- they're pretty talented kids last year.
But obviously mentally they're a lot stronger and they've got a lot more confidence right now than they had. And you know they've bought in.
And that's what it takes for a team to be successful is to buy into your coaching staff and to buy into the system that you're trying to operate under. And they've made great strides.
But, again, they're pretty talented kids. They just weren't putting it all together. They've played a lot of basketball. Jess Minnfield has been playing since a freshman, playing a lot of basketball. Experienced team.

Q. How important was your defense the first eight minutes of the second half when you guys weren't scoring?
COACH LISA BLUDER: We couldn't find a bucket for the last eight minutes. Thankfully our defense was holding for us. We talked about not letting them come back in, maintaining that. Thankfully our defense and rebounding were able to maintain it because we were struggling finding the basket at the beginning of the half.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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