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NCAA WOMEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: BATON ROUGEMarch 24, 2008Van ChancellorSylvia FowlesErica WhiteBATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA THE MODERATOR: We'll have a brief opening comment from Coach Chancellor. Coach, your opening comments. COACH CHANCELLOR: First of all, I want to give our opponents a lot of credit. I thought Marist, they were so well-coached, so disciplined and did so many great things. Maybe they didn't have someone 6'6" and a guard that played out of her mind today like we did. I was just amazed at how hard they play, how much heart they have. And no wonder they went to the Sweet-16 last year and come within a hair of going today to a Sweet-16. They come into our building and played great. That should be hats off to that group of kids and their coaching staff. They had a great plan and followed it. We just probably had a little bit too much height at the end for them and our point guard play. I'll say this, our point guard tonight, when she got her second foul, I don't want to say all the thoughts that were going through my head at that time. But when she came out, she was well-rested for the second half, played like she did, I just thought that was your best performance since you've been at lust. Agree or disagree? ERICA WHITE: Agree. COACH CHANCELLOR: Sylvia, you were just Sylvia. You're a great player. Sylvia Fowles just became the all-time rebounder in the history of the SEC. All-time rebounder. Did you know that? SYLVIA FOWLES: Brian told me in the locker room (laughter). COACH CHANCELLOR: I told y'all yesterday about who was smarter than me (laughter). THE MODERATOR: Questions, please. Q. Sylvia or Erica, a game like this is a game that a lot of teams need the extra push heading into the Sweet-16. Is this the game you needed tonight to let you know nothing comes for free when it's tournament time? SYLVIA FOWLES: Yeah, I agree. During this time, when you go up against opponents, it's a win or lose and they gonna give they all no matter what name you got written across your chest. Marist came out tonight and proved they wanted it, but we wanted it even more. ERICA WHITE: I think Marist was a great opponent for us, because they're so disciplined, they play so smart and they never quit. To have to fight as hard as we did to win, you need that in a tournament. Even if we're the No. 2 seed playing at home, you're gonna get a game, so it was great for us. Q. Erica, I gather you weren't too happy about having to sit on the bench in the first half. You played like you were on a mission in the second half. What went through your head, even though the coach doesn't want to say? Sylvia, is LSU two teams, one team wither her and one without her? SYLVIA FOWLES: I won't say we're two different teams, but our momentum changes when she's off the floor. Like I say, Erica gets everything going. She the head of the snake, and without her we're kind of lost. ERICA WHITE: When I got my two fouls, those were some tough calls. That was tough going out of the game so early. But I just tried to stay focused, just stay in the game mentally and come back in the second half and play well. Q. Erica, can you talk a little bit, in the second half it looked like you had a certain fire and intensity in your eyes. You were not going to be denied. Can you describe what was going through your mind midway through the second half. ERICA WHITE: You know, the style of Marist, the style of defense they were going to play was Pacman defense. They were basically going to sit four people on Sylvia and dare us to shoot. So basically all night I was just dreaming about knocking down open shots. And so, you know, I didn't get a chance to do that in the first half. So I just tried to stay focused. You know, my teammates and I received a handout before the game where some Marist players thought that our defense was questionable. That definitely fed into my intensity and made me want to play even harder. So I was happy I could compete, you know, in the second half. Q. Coach, Erica did everything but dust off her shoulders in the middle of the game. Was it hard controlling her? Or do you let a player like that go when they're feeling it like they are? COACH CHANCELLOR: About three times on the bench tonight, our staff was saying, No, no, no. Then she would make play after play. We were saying, Man, I taught her to make that play. I thought that was a great shot (laughter). I thought one of the differences for us tonight, in the first half, we were going to put Sylvia on 14 and put Ashley on 12 because we thought 12 -- we're trying to keep Sylvia out of foul trouble. So when we switched that in the second half, we were able to put Sylvia on 12 because she didn't have but one foul. I thought that turned us around. Then we stopped those guards from penetrating. But we were trying to get to halftime for her with one foul. Sylvia's defensive player of the year, but I think Erica White is the best defensive point guard on the ball in the country. Q. For all three of you, talk about Marist's defense, especially in the first half. They seemed to triple Sylvia, were running a box-and-one on Quianna, took her out of the game. Talk about the way they played defense the first half or so. COACH CHANCELLOR: You want to answer that? SYLVIA FOWLES: Erica. ERICA WHITE: Well, in the first half, like you said, they had someone trailing Quianna so she couldn't get the ball. They basically had three people on Sylvia daring us to shoot. The difference in the game was in the first half we were not able to knock down open shots. In the second half we knocked down perimeter shots, then they have to come up and guard us. You look up and Sylvia is being guarded by one defender, and no one defender in the country can guard her. I think that was the difference in the game in the second half. We just said, If you're going to dare us to shoot, we're going to knock 'em down. That opened Sylvia up and that opened the game up. COACH CHANCELLOR: Coach Starkey suggested in the second half, we were setting high ball screens, and we decided to set low ball screens. When we did that, make the forward come off of Sylvia, that's how we were able to get her open in the second half a little bit. Our players were really smart and ran it really good. But I thought they had a great defensive plan for our team. Q. Erica, with 13:30 left in the second half, you got a steal. You proceeded to go the length of the floor, get the bucket. That was the ignition point. Is that the kind of performance you'll need not only from yourself but other players as you make your run towards the Final Four and possible national championship? ERICA WHITE: Definitely. Making a play on the defensive end of the floor, that's something we've hung our hat on her at LSU. That's something we're going to have to continue to do. We pride ourselves on our defense and make those plays. Then on the other end, if you have a layup, make the basket. We have threes, let's knock 'em down. As we continue to drive through the tournament, that's gonna be our focus, just to make plays, especially on the defensive end, but on the offensive end, as well. Q. Erica, could you tell us what was going through your mind when Coach Chancellor pulled you out for the last time, and then when you were out there at mid-court after the game, knowing this part of lust is over. ERICA WHITE: I was thinking, this is my last time in this building and these fans are incredible. I just wanted to just go out and touch every single one of them. I knew that that wasn't possible. But I just wanted to wave to as many people as I could and just make eye contact to let them know they do mean a lot to us. Our fans are incredible. They've been incredible for four years. At that moment, I was thinking of them. They were up on their feet, cheering. I was just thinking about all the things I love about LSU, the fans, the band, the cheerleaders, the Tiger Girls, everyone on staff. Every aspect of LSU, everyone that goes into this program, I was just thinking of them. Sad that I have to leave, but just wanted to pay a tribute to them. SYLVIA FOWLES: What was going through my head was that this was my last time on the court. I got a little numb feeling in my stomach, but it was a good feeling just to see our fans up yelling and screaming and knowing we did a great thing and we left on a good note. Q. Sylvia, you got the record on one of the cheapest rebounds ever. Ashley blocked a shot, the ball went right in your hands. But seriously talk about getting the record in this league. You know how many great players there are. How special is the record to you? SYLVIA FOWLES: It's very special. But to be honest, I barely think about it. If I go out there and I do what I have to do on the court, it will pay off. It has showed. But I credit my teammates for that, for getting me in the right position, especially Erica. I know there's a few times she had to tell me to get to the ball, to do this, to do that, help on this. But I'm happy to hold the title. But it's just another thing for me. Not too exciting, I guess. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. We'll excuse the student-athletes now and have a session with Coach Chancellor. Questions for the coach. Q. Coach, particularly the defense, the way you were able to hold Marist to really a few shot clock violations, also make them chew up the shot clock, how important was that? COACH CHANCELLOR: I thought we were able to -- we kept them from just running their offense so fluid like they had in the previous game. So when the shot clock ran down, and I thought in the first half they hurt us with penetration because Sylvia was outside on 14. Then in the second half, that's why I took the 30-second timeout. I usually don't take that. I don't like to take it. But I did because I wanted to change the adjustment. That let our perimeter people know they could pressure more because if their man got by them, two or three times 3 and 22 drove in, but they saw Sylvia out of the corner of their eyes, not how many shots she blocks, but how many shots she changes. Q. Can you talk about that handout that Erica mentioned that said Marist said y'all didn't play defense or something. COACH CHANCELLOR: Bob Starkey gives out handouts and motivational tapes and everything. We just talked about the things that they did. See, when you have a turnaround of only one day, we always call what I call bullet points that I try to emphasize. I think you can emphasize too much. You got to pick out one or two things you're gonna try to take away, and that's what we did. Q. Coach, this team was almost a tale of two halves. Two-point lead at halftime. Second half was pretty much a runaway. When you look at this, is this team going to need to have two solid halves as the competition gets better throughout the tournament? COACH CHANCELLOR: Here's what happened to us. I've said it all along. I didn't want to say it in front of Erica too much 'cause I didn't want to give her the big head. Any time we've lost her, she is kind of the head of our defensive operation. Tay-Tay gets a lot of credit, Sylvia does. But when we lost her, we lost our little offensive sync, and we were trying to hang on till halftime. At halftime, we knew we were going to switch Sylvia, then we were going to turn Erica lose because we thought she would be fresh. We wasn't trying to do anything in the first half but hold on. Q. Coming off the court at halftime, you seemed a little bit frustrated maybe about LSU's last attempt to get a shot. Didn't go well with Ashley Thomas. A failed layup there. What was the mood like at halftime and what did you say to the team in the locker room? COACH CHANCELLOR: At halftime, our mood was one that we didn't think we were playing that well. So my mood was to take the first part of the half and correct some things that we were going to do. But at that time we began to talk about positive things. We were playing at home. Our crowd would make a difference. Let's execute. We're going to wear them down sooner or later. Then I cautioned Q. Sometimes when you're having a little box-and-one run on you, they're manning you, zoning the rest of them, you're used to shooting a lot, you get frustrated. We talked to her about that. We talked about just getting the ball to Sylvia. We told them at halftime if they put seven around her, bring two off the bench, get her the ball. We were saying, they had three around her. I think they had everybody on the team around her. None of them can stop her. Q. You had a lot of missed shots from outside, Allison and RaShonta. But they kept shooting it. Did you continue to give them the green light? COACH CHANCELLOR: Perhaps in my mind, that's the most difficult decision in coaching. You're there, they're just packing your post player, they're manning your best outside shooter. You can't get any shots. They're just getting other people wide open. If you stop 'em, that hurts their confidence, then you can't get the ball inside. So I first of all tried to say, Just shoot it. Then I stopped them and said, Let's don't shoot it till the last 12 seconds of the half. And then I called them over, the two that were struggling, I bragged on them, told them little funny stories, different things. Obviously did none of that help (laughter). I tried every psychological ploy I knew. So I finally stopped all of that and called another timeout and told them to pass the ball inside. If that hurts you're feelings, I'm sorry, but enough is enough. I have great faith in my shooters. I can't get them to have as much faith in them as I have in them. Q. Do you remember a game with that many shot clock violations? COACH CHANCELLOR: It's amazing. Our team -- that's because a lot of teams play us. I'm going to say this. We have them come in here all the time, on the road, everywhere else. I read in the paper the next day, they say we just didn't shoot well. But we have the most suffocating defense I've ever been around. And I'm bragging here about our team. And usually we do cause a lot of shot clock violations. We play kind of an inside-out type of defense. Q. Talk about the crowd. COACH CHANCELLOR: When we went up six, I thought our crowd made a major difference in our defense today. When we started, it really ignited Erica. Q. When you look at the way the game went tonight, home crowd played a huge part in the game. Is that something you're looking forward to when you go down to New Orleans? The second half, it sounded like an LSU/UConn or Tennessee game. Is that something you're going to be counting and relying on? COACH CHANCELLOR: I think this: crowds don't win games, but they can help you emotionally. I thought tonight they just helped us so much. When we were struggling a little bit offensively, we had to win the game defensively, and I thought they generated a lot of enthusiasm and got us pumped up. That's where our crowd helps us you more defensively than it does offensively. And I hope we'll carry a great crowd to New Orleans. I thank you for your support of this tournament and women's basketball. I hope you have a great day. I'm going to have a tremendous night. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. Good luck in New Orleans. End of FastScripts |
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