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SOUTHEASTERN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 7, 2008Ashley HoutsAndy LandersAngel RobinsonNASHVILLE, TENNESSEE THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening comment. COACH LANDERS: I thought it was a very hard-fought game for the most part. We picked up a couple of quick fouls in the post early in the game, and I elected to go zone, and quite honestly I feel like that I stayed -- I kept us in it too long. They were able to knock down a couple of threes and build a sizable lead at the half. And then we came out the second half, I was really pleased and proud of Angel and our basketball team because they did a nice job, her teammates did a nice job of getting her the basketball in the second half after really being challenged and really kind of playing poorly in the first half, she really established herself there and brought us back and basically got us very, very close again, along with the assistance from her teammates. But we never really did get it over the hump. I thought Elliott hurt us early and then hurt us again late. Q. Ashley, could you kind of talk about the offense and why it never could really get going? Was it more their defense? ASHLEY HOUTS: I think it was a combination of both. We missed some easy shots there towards the middle of the second half and just really couldn't find our groove and get in it good and score. And I think when you miss easy shots and open looks that it definitely affects the way you think on offense, and for the most part play on defense. But I think we had some -- we stepped up in the second half, we just couldn't get over the hump, and I think when you miss some easy shots, you just can't get in your groove. Q. Ashley, I know the seeds say Kentucky was supposed to win this game, but I can tell by the emotion that you have that you guys feel like maybe you're not playing at a level that you can and you're a better team than you showed. Is that pretty much a fair assessment? ASHLEY HOUTS: Yeah. We didn't really look at the seeds coming in. We knew we wanted to come out and make a statement because of what they did to us in Athens. And we didn't do that because we didn't win the game. It's just something we've got to get better at. We've got to go as a team and get better and go to work in practice and just continue to improve. Q. Angel, how important -- it got 39-39 and you guys turned it over. How important would it have been to get over the hump there and why couldn't you push past that point? ANGEL ROBINSON: I believe that point right there should have been handled in the first half. We played poorly in the first half. It shouldn't have been that close. As far as coming out offensively, I don't think we did a good job setting up well, communicating on both sides of the floor. We did need to push it. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. Can you just talk about how Humphrey being ineffective affected the team essentially? COACH MITCHELL: Well, she's someone that offensively we depend on, so it's tough, a little tougher for us when she can't produce. But you know, when you look at the shots that we got and our shooting percentages across the board, you know, it really isn't that impressive. We had pretty good shooters go 3 of 11, 2 of 8, 3 of 12. You know, and we got some pretty good looks at it. I know we threw up probably four trying to beat the shot clock. But you can't -- I just don't feel like we can at all lay it at Tasha's feet. As I said, I thought Angel was less than effective in the first half. I think she could have maybe established something there that might have changed the way that the game would be played. And then in the second half she did that. You know, that was obvious that they were going to do everything that they could do to keep Tasha from scoring, sagging and bringing the double. But they did not treat Angel that way, so Angel had the opportunity to make up for it, and could have, and did in the second half, and I'm proud of that. Q. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you guys had a pretty good feeling coming into the tournament from the standpoint of closing the season strong and giving Tennessee a challenge there. What do you do to regain some confidence in this team, or is that not really a factor? COACH MITCHELL: That's a tough question. You know, without going into any detail, and I won't go into any detail, I've pushed a lot of buttons. I've tried a lot of different things this year. Some I'd probably go back and wish that I hadn't tried, to get this basketball team to respect and appreciate the right to play Georgia basketball. As you recall before the season, we talked about getting a swagger back and embracing a work ethic that I felt like we had gotten away from, and we just haven't gotten that yet. I thought it showed tonight. I thought Kentucky came out and pushed us around. They pushed our post out of the blocks and off the blocks in the first half. And then it's interesting, I said to our post players, we have to do a better job of screening, and they did, they really did. They got together and they really started to screen well. And then son of a gun, Kentucky's defensive people started -- we were making slower cuts than we should have been making and Tennessee's defensive people on the cutter started guarding them, so the shots that we were getting in the first half off of bad screens for our guards, we couldn't get off of good screens in the second half. And again, it's just -- and all that, you can't fix it here. You can't fix it at shoot-around today. Those are big-time investments that players make on a day-to-day basis. I thought in the fall that we were headed in that direction of getting it back, but it slipped off the table. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. End of FastScripts |
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