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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: BATON ROUGEMarch 22, 2008Erica BeverlyLisa EtienneJennifer RizzottiMarylynne SchaeferBATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA THE MODERATOR: We have with us the head coach of the victorious Hartford Hawks and three student athletes, Lisa Etienne, Erica Beverly, and MaryLynne Schaefer. Coach Jennifer Rizzotti? COACH RIZZOTTI: Obviously we're thrilled with the win today. Beating Syracuse is no easy task. I think they are a phenomenal team. They've had a great season, and they made us really work for this one. But I'm just pleased with the way our kids toughed it out, overcame adversity. Nothing really came easy for us tonight. Wouldn't say we shot the ball great, never really got our post-game going, and we didn't get to the free-throw line a lot. But I thought that we toughed it out. We relied on what we have been relying on all year, and that's our defense. Our kids were phenomenal. I told them in the locker room we proved we're more than just a one-man show and we're also more than just a post show because I thought our guards were great on both ends of the floor today. Q. Erica, can you just talk about the rebounding inside and how difficult that was for you to even get rebounds tonight. ERICA BEVERLY: It was very difficult. They're very strong. We knew that they were going to be pushing and hustling to get those rebounds because they have about three players who have, like, 100 rebounds for the year, which is a big deal. I just toughed it out with my teammates, got some battle scars over here a little bit. Tried to get the rebounds. Q. MaryLynne, just take us through that last possession when you hit the shot and what was going through your head going into it. MARYLYNNE SCHAEFER: It was plays we have drawn up in practice a lot, situations. And I was supposed to come off and see the post players. When I came I felt like they were guarded, so I just didn't really think about it and I shot it. I thought I had an open look and the thing went in, so ... (laughter). Q. MaryLynne, the last time when you won a game, what was the last shot like? MARYLYNNE SCHAEFER: I don't think I ever have. Q. High school game or anything? MARYLYNNE SCHAEFER: No, Not in that situation with me getting the shot, I don't recall. Q. You see big shots all the time in the NCAA tournament. Do you think this is something -- it just happened, I know. Could this be something you think of in the future? MARYLYNNE SCHAEFER: I think when you are younger you think about it, a potential game-winner shot. It is just a great feeling. And it comes down to a team effort, like, just battling it out throughout, so ... Q. I guess, MaryLynne, to lose Danielle 6 minutes to go, you must have to, the team, dig deep. MARYLYNNE SCHAEFER: Yeah, we did. It is another thing to -- yeah, we did. It is one thing to overcome adversity when you have one of your top scorers going to the bench, fouling out. We just knew we needed to come together. It is something we've been able to do all season when something like that has happened with one of our players. And it just shows the strength of our team, that we're able to push through and win the game, so ... Q. Erica, you were talking about Syracuse being a physical team. Texas A&M looks even more physical. I know you are just now turning the page. How much are you and the team going to have to turn it up a notch to match the defensive intensity tomorrow? ERICA BEVERLY: I thought we turned it up here. As you can see, we came out with the victory. I don't know. We just have to dig more deeper. I don't know. We are going to stick to our defense like we always have. Offense will come, like Coach said. So, yeah. Q. Lisa, it seemed like a very tough, hard-fought, physical game. How did it rate with the games you have had to play this year? LISA ETIENNE: It is definitely in the top two, three. It was very physical out there. Like Erica said, we came out with a victory, so it was worth it. I think if you are in NCAA and it is not like this, then you are not in a NCAA tournament. So it was good. Q. Lisa, you guys haven't lost since December 12th. Talk about what it's like to be on a team like that. What do you get from getting a winning streak? LISA ETIENNE: We haven't lost since when? You are thinking about Marist. We ended Marist's winning streak on December 12th. THE MODERATOR: I would like to thank the student athletes for their participation in the press conference. Any questions for head coach Jennifer Rizzotti? COACH RIZZOTTI: No? Okay. (Laughter). Q. Coach, you got a lot of experience sitting in that chair. What did you tell the players after the game about coming out and winning the game at a NCAA tournament? COACH RIZZOTTI: I just talked to them about two main things was overcoming adversity, that it was a 40-minute basketball game and I thought they did a great job of keeping their poise in a game where there was times where it didn't seem like anything was going our way. We found a way to make shots. We found a way to get stops and that was number one. The other thing I said was that we're a balanced team. Talk a lot about our big three, Diana, Erica, and Danielle. And sometimes they forget. I think Lisa, MaryLynne and Jamie are underrated. MaryLynne and Jamie kept Erica Morrow and Chandrea Jones to 8 for 27 from the floor. I would say that's some pretty good defense. I think those two guys were pretty key to our success tonight. Obviously MaryLynne scored a lot of points. I thought it was their focus on defense. So I was proud of how they overcame adversity. When they took away our post game, we found a way to win anyway. Q. Coach, were you surprised at all at the end of the game the way Syracuse went to the goal to try to take the lead back, with Nicole not calling a time-out and just aggressively going for it at the end of the game? COACH RIZZOTTI: Yeah. I think it's such a hard call as a coach, you know. Any of us in that position, you feel like if you had called a time-out, maybe the other team will change their defense. If you don't call a time-out and you don't score, it is like your fault for not setting something up. And it is just tough and you just got to trust in your decision. I think Nicole Michael is their most experienced player. She has been in a Syracuse uniform the longest. I felt like she had success driving to the basket and getting fouled. I thought they were aggressive and got the shot they wanted. We were fortunate they missed and able to pull down the rebound. That was kind of her game plan the whole game, was they weren't out there to shoot a ton of 3s, they were looking to really attack off the dribble. And they stuck to that right to the end. Q. It seemed like if you could have kept them off the free-throw line you would have won this game easily. Did you expect them to get that many points from the free-throw line? Why do you think that was happening? What do you tell your team when you see them making 90%, shot after shot? COACH RIZZOTTI: It is definitely tough to sit back and watch other teams shooting a lot of free throws and your team isn't. And sometimes, you know, you think, well, we're settling. I felt we went inside and trying to be aggressive. They're just really tough to guard off the dribble. You don't face a lot of teams that have, you know, kids like Erica Morrow, Chandrea Jones, and Nicole Michael at the 2, 3, and 4 that can all shoot it well from the three-point line and put it on the floor. And they were killing us on the glass. I don't know that we've ever gotten up by 14 with this group. Usually that's one of our strengths. They just had an attack mentality from the beginning. I thought our kids did a good job of hanging tough and not allowing their made free throws to affect us. We just countered them with made baskets, and that's what we have to do in that situation. There are things you can control and things you can't. You can't control the way they call fouls; you just have to overcome it and not allow it to really deflate you at all. And I thought our kids kept their poise pretty well in that situation. Q. You called a time-out before you got the three-pointer. What do you want to do in that time-out? I'm sure you probably didn't want to lose on any options. So what was coming to you when you saw it going up? COACH RIZZOTTI: The point of the play was actually to run MaryLynne out as not a decoy but to pay attention to her. And when they came out on her from the bottom of the zone, we had Diana and Erica on that same side. And so we said to her if they come out from the bottom, hit Erica in the short corner so we can drive; if they come out from the middle, hit Diana and she can attack to the middle. That was kind of the point of the play, was to get it to our post players. And it was the first time we had run that baseline runner set, and I think it threw them off guard. So they didn't quite shift everybody. Again, you are worrying a lot about Diana and Erica because they are usually our leading scorers. And, you know, Jamie is right there on the wing with MaryLynne. You don't want to leave her. I think MaryLynne made a good decision of shooting that ball. MaryLynne is not afraid of anything. I will take her shooting free throws, making 3s, defending the other team's best player any day, because that kid -- she has a lot of courage and plays with no fear. Q. You guys held Nicole Michael without a field goal. You shut down Chandrea Jones. You had defensive intensity earlier. What was it with those two that you did defensively around them? COACH RIZZOTTI: Well, you know, with Nicole Michael, we put Erica Beverly on her. Like, that's our defensive stopper. Whenever we have a post player, we really want to focus on Erica gets the call. And she did a phenomenal job. She played 32 minutes, which is a lot of minutes for Erica, and I thought she was great defensively. And then our goal with Chandrea was to make her shoot it over us. We knew she had a lot of ability with the ball in her hands. We just said if she pulled back and shoots 3s or pull-up jumpers and she makes them, we will have to live with that. Let's try to make her take tough shots so we don't get ourselves out of rebounding position and we kind of force her to not really get any easy looks. And, again, Jamie had a charge on that one. She did a phenomenal job. And I know it expended a lot of energy for her on the offensive end, but it was certainly worth it because that's as good a defense as I have seen anyone play on her. I know she had 12 points and 12 rebounds, but you are right, she did have to work for everything she got. Q. What does it take for a school like Hartford to continue with opponents with resources like a Syracuse? Do you believe that the stability you have brought along to the program, how much does that help you in recruiting and building this program? COACH RIZZOTTI: It helps a lot. Kids want to play in the NCAA tournament. So when you can sell that as a point that you have and other teams don't in your area, it's a pretty big deal. And I think our coaching staff has to work pretty hard to find players that will allow us to keep at this level, but also aren't getting recruited per se by a St. John's or Syracuse. Because a lot of kids want to go to a big main conference. There are a lot of good players out there. We try to work really hard to find the ones. Erica Beverly and Diana Delva, those two kids weren't recruited by a lot of people and they were as good as any post player on the floor today. I think you got to get tough kids. You got to get winners and you got to get them to buy into it. I tell them from day one that I know how to win. I have done it as player and I have done it as a coach. If you do ask, I promise you we will be happy at the end of the year. And these kids never doubt it for a second. They do everything we ask. They play really hard, as you can see, and we don't worry about what resources we have. Fortunately we are at a school that has a lot of great support from the administration. It is not necessarily always about money. Sometimes it is just about having people care about women's basketball and give you what you need to continue to be successful and fly their ADs and presidents and everybody from the school down to support us. That means a lot to us and I know our kids really appreciate that as well. Q. Good first half from some of the freshmen, Silvia and Hollins as well. COACH RIZZOTTI: They've come a long way. I think a couple months ago we couldn't really play our freshmen. We were playing Virginia and some of the bigger-named schools. They really worked hard to find a way to help us and give us minutes. I know Mary only played 2 minutes, but her 3 was pretty big. And just the fact that I had the confidence to put her in the game after the way she's played over the last month and a half and the way she's practiced, I knew I could go to her for a little bit. And then Jonyce was ready. She was ready all week. She was aggressive in practice. She was looking forward to the pressure. Defensively, she's been dynamite in the last couple games we've had. So I have no qualms about putting her in the game. Obviously you worry a little bit about experience. The only way they are going to get experience for the next time is to play them now. And I'm really proud of how they responded. Q. You have won a lot of NCAA tournaments. What does one win mean for your program? Not saying you are not going to win Monday, but just getting this one win, what does it mean? COACH RIZZOTTI: It is a big deal. It is kind of like going to a Final Four at a big school like UConn. It is not winning the national championship, but it's like getting to that next level. And it means a lot to our kids that over the last three years now we've advanced to the second round twice. And knowing that they can do it, knowing that it's not just a fluke, knowing that we are able to compete at this level, it means a lot, it really does. I think building forward, when Danielle and Courtney and Jamie leave, this team is going to have a lot to build on for the future. You know, they were excited. I mean, they were really, really happy. They're happy in the locker room. They were happy at the end of the game. They know they worked hard. The best thing about it, they're excited about Monday. They know Texas A&M is really good, but just having the opportunity to play them for a chance to win the Sweet 16, I mean, you can't ask for anything more when you are a college player. There are very few teams that have the ability to win a national championship, and then there is very few teams that I think will have a chance to make it to the Sweet 16. We are 40 minutes away from that. As hard as it's going to be, still the opportunity is in front of us. End of FastScripts |
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