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BIG 12 CONFERENCE WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT


March 11, 2008


Sherri Coale

Courtney Paris

Ashley Paris


KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI

COACH COALE: Give credit to Missouri, I thought they played hard with a great deal of confidence and a spring in their step, and had a lot of guys wanting to score the basketball and they did so, obviously.
End of regulation, huge, but a lot of good plays along the way. Give them credit; I thought they fought and they were a team that got better over the course of the year and played very well this afternoon.
We did not shoot the ball well. I don't know that I've ever seen a box score where you had more rebounds than points. I don't know if I've ever seen that. Name of the game is making baskets, and we had a hard time doing that today.
THE MODERATOR: Comments about your players you have with you.
COACH COALE: I think everybody knows them.
THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student athletes?

Q. Ashley, you got 23 rebounds and 20 shots off, but it looked like there was a lid on the basket. Can you talk about how many close shots didn't go in?
ASHLEY PARIS: Our guards did an awesome job of getting us the ball. They were single coverage most of the night, and I missed 15-foot shots, and I think that has a lot to do with why we lost.

Q. Courtney, where does this team go from here?
COURTNEY PARIS: You've just got to keep working and getting better. Not even just for the NCAA tournament, our future as a program. Got to keep working.

Q. Courtney, talking about the bigger picture, is there a common thread with the Texas game and the A&M game and this game today?
COURTNEY PARIS: Yeah, we lost 'em. I don't know. Like I said, we didn't make shots, didn't get it done. I think that goes to me more than anything.

Q. Courtney, anything that you can put a finger on as far as what has to change, what you guys have to fix before the tournament?
COURTNEY PARIS: I think just finishing and decision-making and staying after it. I think we're a little bit -- in the first half we finally started going hard, as far as effort, jumped out-of-bounds and saved the ball, and I think that makes us stay focused. We can be the team we want to be and we have to figure out how to do that and figure out how to do it soon.

Q. Ashley, talk about this team's confidence or lack of right now.
ASHLEY PARIS: Obviously our last few games have been frustrating and we know we have the potential and all the pieces necessary, and that we're capable of being as good as any team in America. It's just frustrating trying to put it all together. We're still confident we can figure it out and we're going to try to.
THE MODERATOR: Coach will remain for questions.

Q. Can you address where this team goes from here and what you need to do to correct this thing?
COACH COALE: Fortunately, we still get to play; we'll be in the NCAA tournament and that's a good thing. Obviously we've got plenty of time between now and our next game to try to take it apart and put it back together. I think confidence is huge.
I don't think we looked like a confident team throughout. I don't think we shot like a confident team. We've got to figure that out first, figure out where that germinates and try and get it moving in the right direction. We get to play again, that's great.

Q. Would you have thought with Courtney and Ashley having double-doubles you would have lost this game?
COACH COALE: I think it was more than that. They almost had more rebounds between the two of them than the entire Missouri team, but we took 88 shots and made 29 of them. We go 3 of 11 from the free-throw line. I mean, you -- it's our lowest turnover game of the season, we only had 12. You have to make baskets to win this game, you have to make layups, you have to make -- on our shot chart we missed 24 layups.

Q. Sherri, you called time out and didn't get near the basket the last play.
COACH COALE: We had a set play called, and for some reason we threw it back to Ashley. And that's inexperience at the guard spot, just not knowing the urgency of the moment, not having been there before, and that's probably my fault for not drilling enough on that situation.
However, you take this sea of issues and you try to be good at the things that happen the most first. That was a little down my laundry list, the play of the game, but you can trace it back to inexperience, too. And at the end of regulation, if you just run out to the 3 and make her shoot a layup, it's over, so haven't been in that situation before.

Q. Sherri, do you feel that you may have placed yourself out of the Ford Center Regional, or do you fear you might get sent to Oklahoma City?
COACH COALE: I have no idea.

Q. How important is that? Or is that another thing that is down your laundry list?
COACH COALE: To get to the Ford Center, you would have to win two, so that's a little bit down the laundry list, too.

Q. Sherri, I know you tried some things to get this team going. Do you do something drastically different in the next eight days, or do you have to try different things? I don't know.
COACH COALE: I have a long trip home to think about it.

Q. Sherri, are Big 12 teams figuring out how to defend this team now? You guys were so strong there in the middle of the season when you had that seven-game winning streak going on. Are they figuring out how to do it where Courtney and Ashley can still get their numbers and you guys come out on the short end?
COACH COALE: I think coaches in the Big 12 are very, very talented, and I do think they've adjusted and they've seen what one team does that's effective, but at the end of the day, 3 of 12 -- somebody has to make a shot. Amanda Thompson plays 30 minutes and makes 1 of 8, somebody has to make a shot. It's the name of the game!
I don't know -- I don't know. To answer your question, we have to make baskets. You can't shoot 18% from the field and 22% from the 3 and 20% from the line and expect to beat anybody, regardless of what their game plan is.

Q. Outside of Courtney, do you have people that can make shots or do you just sort of have what you have?
COACH COALE: I think we're a lot better shooters than what you've seen lately, than what any of us have seen lately, and I think it speaks to how important the mind is, your sense of focus is, and where your mental toughness lies, and this team has struggled with mental toughness all season. That's not been a secret, I've talked about it openly. We're not the best perimeter shooters in America, but we're not this bad, either.

Q. Coach, do you feel like there was a hangover from the struggle at the end of the season and coming in here today, was there disappointment with playing in the first round?
COACH COALE: I think our guys tried to regroup and look at it as a breath of fresh air, and they're just a bunch that needs something good to happen for 'em, and very easily the wind -- the wind is taken out of our sails easily. And when you continue to miss shots, it takes it out of you.
If you know, you know the adrenaline rush you get when you make 'em and how depleted you feel when you don't. That was a bit of it. I think they tried to prepare and have the right mindset coming in, and I felt like we were ready before tip-off.
THE MODERATOR: Coach, best of luck to you in the NCAA tournament.

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