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BIG TEN CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2008

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

THE MODERATOR: For Illinois we've got head coach Jolette Law, Rebecca Harris, Jenna Smith and Lori Bjork.
Coach, if you would like to start with an opening statement, then we'll take questions for the student athletes.
COACH LAW: My kids played extremely well the second half. I saw it in their eyes. They believed. Now we only have 2,400 seconds left and our mission will be accomplished.
I'm so proud of these young ladies. They played 40 intense minutes.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student athletes.

Q. Rebecca, a week ago Coach was talking about how you guys needed to be more aggressive at taking the ball to the hole up in East Lansing. How much did that play into this game and so far in this tournament run for you guys? And talk a little bit about the feelings of getting here to the championship game a week after that?
REBECCA HARRIS: I mean, it's been all season long we've been told to attack more and whatnot. But I guess we're just having to do that more. We work on it all the time. And most of us can drive. That's what we do.
So, I mean, just being as close as we are and we can taste it, we're doing what we need to do to get the job done.

Q. LSU's defense was pretty disruptive in that first half. What kind of went through your mind to kind of stay confident? This is for Rebecca. But I know they tried to pressure you and all, but then obviously something changed after that first half. What was it? What did you see?
REBECCA HARRIS: Hmm, I don't really know how to answer that. The first half was, I guess, pretty bad for us. But we never let up. And it was a close game for as bad as we were playing. So we felt that the second half we'd do what we do, get the job done. There's no going home for us. That's not what we came here for.

Q. Jenna, has it hit you yet the magnitude of what you guys are accomplishing here, what you've accomplished and what's ahead of you, has it hit you?
JENNA SMITH: I mean, as a team it hasn't hit us. We know what we've done but we recognize we're all cheering. But we were on the board 40 minutes, 2,400 seconds left. We know we have one more game. We didn't come all this way to lose the championship game. We know we still have one game left.

Q. Lori, can you talk about what it was like coming into this tournament? Everybody said this is a wide-open tournament. Did you guys sense that and know you were able to make a big run here looking at the draw at all?
LORI BJORK: I think definitely, regardless of what the draw was, I think we felt like this is the year that a team could win four games in four days, if necessary. And, I mean, yeah, I think we felt like our goal at the beginning of the season was to make the NCAA tournament. We saw that slipping away. We knew the only chance we'd have to get here is to win these four games.
So we took it as this is fun. This is what we play to do is to play games. That's what we're here for. We're not here to show up at practice three hours every day. That's part of the requirement, but we're here to play. That's what we enjoy. And just take it as a fun thing and enjoy the moment.

Q. Jenna, after three games in three days, how do you feel physically?
JENNA SMITH: I think we're pumped up more than anything. Coach says get untired. We took ice baths last night. Keep motivating each other. I don't think we're thinking about being tired. We're thinking about getting that championship more than anything.

Q. Jenna, can you talk about the defensive job you did on Allyssa DeHaan tonight and what the game plan was coming in? Was it to get her away from the basket again and kind of give a body on her and push her away?
JENNA SMITH: With Allyssa DeHaan we knew we had to get physical with her. If we get her close to the basket, that's basically automatic two points. She can shoot over any of us. We knew which guards were drivers and which could shoot, so if you had a driver near Allyssa, you sagged off, or I just had to push off the block or any posts I was near, you just had to push off the block and help out as much as you can and just box out because she could rebound very well. The key thing is to get her off the block and box her out.

Q. Rebecca, you guys are closing in on a NCAA tournament birth. That's what everyone is talking about here. Do you guys feel like you need to win tomorrow to get it or do you feel like you guys have earned it so far?
REBECCA HARRIS: We feel we need to win tomorrow to make sure we have it. If people are talking about giving it to us, we want to take it for ourselves anyway, make sure we have it.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, ladies.

Q. Jolette, you outrebounded them by eight in the second half. Did you change something at halftime?
COACH LAW: Add some choice words. Talked to my team said, Ladies -- well, we talk about the small things. We've been here before throughout the season. The close games that we've lost, we knew it came down to rebounding, communicating, and taking care of the ball.
And just emphasize, reemphasize things that we needed to do in order to get a win, and so we can give it up in 20 minutes, we must give them one opportunity. We must rebound.
And put four things up on the board for them: It's up to us to go out and control our own destiny. And that's what they did. Coach, we got it. We got 20 minutes. We're not going home. We refuse to lose.

Q. How much did it help to have seen them right at the end of the regular season when they were playing some of their best basketball, for you guys coming into this game to -- in terms of scouting report, in terms of knowing, keeping everything fresh for them?
COACH LAW: It was a big advantage, because we just played them. We knew what we needed to work on. Knew they were going to do the 2-2-1, and the 2-3 that caused problems in East Lansing. We worked on that for the last two weeks. Worked on some things, how we needed to execute.
And it does make a big difference when you've just played an opponent. It's fresh in mind. The kids remember. You don't have to go through as many things and walk-throughs because we only had an hour to prepare.
So it was very -- it was beneficial that we played them as close as we did.

Q. Your team said that they're holding up very well physically and emotionally. How are you holding up in your first Big Ten tournament as a head coach?
COACH LAW: You know, Coach Singer pretty much prepared me for this. I'm used to March Madness. The adrenalin is flowing. Used to getting in a tournament. Just trying to lead this team, lead them to places they haven't gone. And for me it's all about -- there's no rest for the weary. Watching film, getting them prepared. The main thing is to make sure I get them prepared. Keep them motivated, keep them fresh and continue to motivate and prepare them.
So I'm fine. I'm good. I can go as long as we are winning. And we want to win, we want it bad. We set goals early on. I'll sleep in June, July, somewhere back in those months. But right now it's March Madness, trying to lead this team to places they've never gone.

Q. Do you feel there's been times this year where you've used full court pressure to try to get them kick-started? Is that what you did today?
COACH LAW: Right now we've got 20 minutes. We've got to throw every defensive thing at them, 55, go 32. Mixed it up. Went half court. Showed the 3-2. Switched it to a man. The kids are just watching me. We throw up 3. They thought it was zone. Had to trick them a little bit.
My kids were on the same page. As long as we're on the same page, that was all that mattered and it worked out for us those last 20 minutes.

Q. Tonight it looked like your team kicked it into another key in the last few minutes of the game. Can you just talk about the character of your team?
COACH LAW: I have some very, very strong-willed young ladies. And I taxed them early on in the season through things, while you're going through the practices and taking them through a lot of tough drills and conditioning drills, I had an opportunity to see the makeup of my team.
I knew bottom line these young ladies are fighters. I just wanted to make sure that I lead them, continue to push them, prepare them for this moment. And the character of my team, they're winners. They put in the swagger and they, right now, want to go somewhere. They put their mind to it they want to go to the NCAA. They say, Coach, whatever we have to do, lead us, show us what we have to do, and they've done that.

Q. Can you talk a little bit about the job that Brittney Thomas did on Rebecca how much her getting into foul trouble in the second half played in that switch of matchups there with Rebecca and Brittany going over and taking over Lori?
COACH LAW: It was key in the first half, because they pretty much the game plan was we were not going to let Rebecca Harris beat us. We're going to deny the ball pretty much. They did like a an all-out man-to-man, pretty much a box to one. Halftime I told Rebecca, Don't get frustrated, we'll still let plays go to you. Let the offense come to you, don't rush it.
When we saw attack her and get into foul trouble, it was to our advantage to sit her down to free her up. When she went over to Lori, I was pleased because then I knew I could use Lori to attack the other guards.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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